Discourage a bad behaviour

[JYraya]

Can you guys help me with this one?

How i can discourage a bad behaviour? My Anastácia started to nip with all hers strenght today and all i did was putting her back on the cage, like i did read here on forum... It didn't works very well. How can I proceed?

[Michael]

A) Ignore unwanted behavior
B) Making going back to the cage more reinforcing.
C) ]Don't clip the wings

[GreenWing]

I'm an inexperienced parrot owner as the new owner of a baby Senegal, however I did visit with an avian veterinarian today for my bird's check up, and she told me that when the bird bites, to say "No" firmly and put the bird back in the cage.

I've also been told to ignore the nips.

At the bird shop, the experienced bird owners told me that putting the bird in the cage and turning your back on the bird for a moment will help discourage behavior.

[marie83]

Putting the bird back in the cage to stop biting may work in some cases but I don't think it helps in most cases for 2 reasons.

If the bird is biting because it wants to be left alone then it is getting what it wants and the behaviour is then rewarded.
If that isn't what the bird wants it turns the cage into a negative thing, then you will get even more problems trying to put the bird away.

I don't believe one solution fits every bite, owners need to take their time to learn their birds body language and prevent the bite from happening in the first place. If you are bitten then what action needs to be taken varies because you need to figure out the reason for the bite so you are not accidently rewarding it but you can only really do that if you play close attention to body language.

Ollie used to bite because he wanted attention, so completely ignoring it or putting him down elsewhere was the best solution in that case. Putting him the cage may defintely have helped the biting problem because he only wants to be with people but it would have created problems getting him in the cage at other times. He knows he can use his wings to avoid a situation so eventually it would have turned out into a game of chase whenever we tried to put him away. Don't risk replacing one problem with another.

He used to bite if he didn't want to go back in his cage (he didn't but im using it as an example) so you need to make going back into the cage positive. Coincide feed times or new toy/favorite toy time with going back in. Practice at various times when you are not going to shut him away for hours, give him a treat for going in then let him straight back out. Don't reward bites by letting the bird stay out longer if it bites otherwise you will get the same reaction every time it doesn't want to go in.
There are many other examples but theres a couple.

[Cassandrum]

Micheal I've read your blog about keeping the cage a safe and happy place for the bird to be, so I don't use it for punishment much. I say much because I swear Taz (Senegal) has super mood swings. Random times during the day, and during the week, he'll get super loud and screamy so I leave him in his cage and cover him up. That was a bit of a ramble, moving on...

Lately when we play together, he's been biting my hands really hard to the point of taking chunks of skin off. Seriously, it doesn't hurt THAT bad, more of a surprise than anything, but I guess I just want to make sure I am not reinforcing that really hard nipping by ignoring it? I know that seems the consensus here, but I feel like the bites are are becoming more frequent and harder. Any other suggestions? He has tons of chew toys and foraging toys, just sometimes he seems more inclined to bite my hand than the toy/perch/stick that I'm playing with or training him with.

Ooh, speaking of training, one more quick question: I just inherited Taz a couple months ago, and have been clicker training him for a couple weeks consistantly. Is it normal to have an ADD bird, so to speak? He doesn't seem to want to be trained for more than 10 minutes. After that, he flies back to his cage repeatedly if I try to do step ups or target training with him. And his training perches are in places with little distraction, he just flies away when HE'S done, not when I'M done.

This got a little bit of topic, but I feel like making another thread would have been silly

[pennyandrocky]

i am training mya to wear a flight harness and she only tolerates about 10 minutes, if i'm lucky, i have to respect that as much as i would love to just put the harness on and take her out i have to take my time and be patient.it's better to allow her to decide when she's done than to ruin any trust i've built for almost a year.the best and worst part of parrots is their inteligance good because they learn alot bad because they get bored easier. what is the body language before the bite happens? i've rarely had a bite without warning.the best way is to avoid the bite your bird might just be getting over excited by play and doesn't know he's hurting you.mya over preens so when she tries to preen me it hurts so i don't let her unless i'm wearing long sleeves so she's learning when i have a t shirt on she can't preen me.

[Cassandrum]

i am training mya to wear a flight harness and she only tolerates about 10 minutes, if i'm lucky, i have to respect that as much as i would love to just put the harness on and take her out i have to take my time and be patient.it's better to allow her to decide when she's done than to ruin any trust i've built for almost a year.the best and worst part of parrots is their inteligance good because they learn alot bad because they get bored easier. what is the body language before the bite happens? i've rarely had a bite without warning.the best way is to avoid the bite your bird might just be getting over excited by play and doesn't know he's hurting you.mya over preens so when she tries to preen me it hurts so i don't let her unless i'm wearing long sleeves so she's learning when i have a t shirt on she can't preen me.

Good to know that the run-away after 10 minutes doesn't just happen to me Sounds like sound advice, to just let him tell me when he's done for the day.

Taz's body language is always playful when he bites. I really don't think he means to bite so hard, which is why I'm leaning towards ignoring it. Its just they have been getting harder and harder bites since I've had him, he never used to bite me this hard. Its strange, seems like the more he trusts me the harder he bites because he knows I won't hurt him

[Michael]

I say much because I swear Taz (Senegal) has super mood swings. Random times during the day, and during the week, he'll get super loud and screamy so I leave him in his cage and cover him up. That was a bit of a ramble, moving on...

It could be age specific or hormonal. The best we can do is try to even it out a bit by not making them over excited at times and neglected at others. I try to use a more balanced approach to spending time with them and other things like diet.

Lately when we play together, he's been biting my hands really hard to the point of taking chunks of skin off.

If this is happening in play it could be over excitement. Senegal Parrots especially, when they become too excited start to bite. It's like they just can't contain it. When you see eyes pinning, pouncing around, head bobbing, kind of super excited action, keep your hands away cause they just bite. This isn't even aggressive but just out of excitement. It's like the center for aggression and excitement comes from one place and over-excitement triggers the same response as aggression (including eye pinning, etc) even though it's from a "happy event."

Seriously, it doesn't hurt THAT bad, more of a surprise than anything, but I guess I just want to make sure I am not reinforcing that really hard nipping by ignoring it?

That is the point of ignoring. You CANNOT reinforce biting by ignoring it completely. The only reinforcing thing could be the chewiness of your skin if its done as a playful feeling of the skin like they would on a toy. But you know this is different than biting. This is more of the chewing on the finger nails, ripping pieces of loose skin off, etc and not snap biting. By saying "no" or giving other forms of attention (including putting away into cage), you are giving attention in some form without truly averse consequence and it could well be reinforcing. Other consequences are too severe and hurt your relationship. This is why rewarding good stuff and using training and ignoring bad stuff is the best long term approach.

I know that seems the consensus here, but I feel like the bites are are becoming more frequent and harder.

Think this over very very carefully and realize what you just said. This is the definition of positive reinforcement. Whatever you were doing in relation to the biting was positively reinforcing so he does it more now. It like when I get Kili to wave her foot more cause she gets treats for it, you taught your parrot to bite more cause it gets what it wants for it. I don't know what you're giving it (leaving it alone, talking, giving attention, putting it back into cage to eat/relax, whatever it is) but the parrot likes getting that and will push your "on button" by biting you to make you do it. THIS is why I tell people to ignore instead of doing anything so that they couldn't make this mistake.

Any other suggestions? He has tons of chew toys and foraging toys, just sometimes he seems more inclined to bite my hand than the toy/perch/stick that I'm playing with or training him with.

Ignore bite, positively reinforce desired behavior directly and indirectly, don't clip wings. Seriously, this is 95% of the solution.

Ooh, speaking of training, one more quick question: I just inherited Taz a couple months ago, and have been clicker training him for a couple weeks consistantly. Is it normal to have an ADD bird, so to speak? He doesn't seem to want to be trained for more than 10 minutes. After that, he flies back to his cage repeatedly if I try to do step ups or target training with him. And his training perches are in places with little distraction, he just flies away when HE'S done, not when I'M done.

No, that's totally normal. Most of em (especially the young ones) have a short attention span. Only after many months/years of training does their endurance increase and even then it's limited. Motivation is affected by hunger to an extent, but beyond that point it's just on how much they can handle. Keeping sessions short and frequent early on is most effective. 2-3 times a day for 10 minutes is fine.

[nightowlcb]

Just wondering how old your Senegal is? I've been experiencing the same kind of thing with my about 6 month old Myer's Parrot recently. He was always really beaky and I tried to ignore it so as not to reinforce biting with attention as people always say, however it's been getting worse and worse over the past few weeks and he has left my hands in a dismal state. Most of the time the really hard bites have seemed to be in situations where it could have been an "accident", for example the other day I was feeding him some broccoli and after he dropped it all we both were reaching to pick some up and he bit my finger so hard my whole hand went numb, but it didn't seem to be aggressive or competitive or anything, his attitude was almost like he was just chomping into a piece of broccoli, which happened to be my hand. But it seems like he should be able to make the distinction... Just now he was standing on something that was making him slip around a bit and I tried to pick him up to help him out and he took a chunk out of my hand--it was a situation where I could imagine he would grab painfully hard to try to steady himself/lift himself onto my hand from the slippery surface, but it was more like he stood there and just chomped my hand to punish me for him standing on something slippery, without actually taking advantage of the "escape route".

Anyway, most of the instances have been kind of like that, not necessarily (but possibly) aggressive behavior that left me with huge wounds, but yesterday I got a call and while I was talking on the phone he flew to my shoulder and started lunging at the phone hissing and biting at it. When I pulled the phone away from him he lunged and hissed and bit my face really hard, which really freaked me out as you can imagine. He has "threatened" the phone before (as well as other objects that I'm interacting with, even if he has to come from across the room to do it), so I'm wondering if this could possibly be possibly be hormonal/possessive behavior? Would this be the age for that already? And is there anything I can do to counteract it?

He really likes both my boyfriend and me, but I'm starting to feel like he's bonding too strongly to me specifically, judging from the amount of "happy/loving" behavior he displays when I'm around (including making regurgitation motions which he never does for my bf), but it also seems like I'm suffering more of the bad stuff too, which makes me think it may be possessiveness-related.

[nightowlcb]

He just flew over and attacked AGAIN when I had the phone. Only this time he went directly for my hand holding the phone and made it bleed He was perfectly fine and sweet all day before that...