How to keep my lovebird from chewing out my keyboard?

[Eric&Rebecca]

They will do that. We got bitten very hard lots of times retraining them but it's just something you take in the line of duty LOL. Edmund drew blood a few times when we removed him. They other option is preventing them before they do it so put your hand up as a barrier. Sooner or later they will learn though you will get bitten and clawed and hissed at in the process.

[hlasdf]

They will do that. We got bitten very hard lots of times retraining them but it's just something you take in the line of duty LOL. Edmund drew blood a few times when we removed him. They other option is preventing them before they do it so put your hand up as a barrier. Sooner or later they will learn though you will get bitten and clawed and hissed at in the process.

Yeah, I suppose so. I've been trying the barrier thing this whole time and it seems like she knows exactly what I'm trying to do! So when she sees my arm coming down to block her, her goal changes from getting to the keyboard to gnawing up my hand as much as possible until I move outta the way! I haven't tried simply removing her as much as the barrier thing, but I'll do it more often and see how that turns out.

Oh, and I forgot to reply to that thing you said about chewing pencils. They were mechanical plastic ones and she didn't chew too deep into them - just enough for bite marks to be seen!

[Eric&Rebecca]

That's exactly what Eddie did. It's just a case of not reacting and getting her into the 'correct place' when Eddie nibbled we'd ignore it get him up on the finger and place him on the shoulder or top the cage or the table perch. Places he can get to easily so he wouldn't just bite when he wanted to go there like the inside the cage.

[liz]

Rambo and Myrtle, my Amazons, are both free range in the house.

Things on the floor get under attack from Rambo. He is really rough on base boards. I gave him a set of card board boxes set up on inside the other.That has kept him busy making mulch out of them. I think he is teaching Myrtle how to do it because I have found her in the box with him.

Myrtle is another matter. She is a thief and steal and destroys from my desk. I tacked a sheet to the wall above my desk to drape over and cover all of it. Sometimes I have to work under the sheet because she won't leave me alone. She was perching and pooping on the lamp shade in the living room. I bought a new one and we kept it covered unless it was on. Then we just kept chasing her off. She was afraid of my mom's birthday balloons so I tied one to the lamp and solved that problem. She would also perch on the living room curtains. It cost me $65 to get them dry cleaned. I found that two pieces of laminant flooring balanced on the curtain rod stopped that. I put a piece of cardboard on the top of the refridgerator and she does not go their anymore. My kitchen cabinets do not go all the way to the ceiling. My only solution to that is to staple news paper up there to prevent a poop pile up.

You can't teach them everything. Just like with kids you make adjustments to your house and choose your battles with what is left.

[hlasdf]

Rambo and Myrtle, my Amazons, are both free range in the house.

Things on the floor get under attack from Rambo. He is really rough on base boards. I gave him a set of card board boxes set up on inside the other.That has kept him busy making mulch out of them. I think he is teaching Myrtle how to do it because I have found her in the box with him.

Myrtle is another matter. She is a thief and steal and destroys from my desk. I tacked a sheet to the wall above my desk to drape over and cover all of it. Sometimes I have to work under the sheet because she won't leave me alone. She was perching and pooping on the lamp shade in the living room. I bought a new one and we kept it covered unless it was on. Then we just kept chasing her off. She was afraid of my mom's birthday balloons so I tied one to the lamp and solved that problem. She would also perch on the living room curtains. It cost me $65 to get them dry cleaned. I found that two pieces of laminant flooring balanced on the curtain rod stopped that. I put a piece of cardboard on the top of the refridgerator and she does not go their anymore. My kitchen cabinets do not go all the way to the ceiling. My only solution to that is to staple news paper up there to prevent a poop pile up.

You can't teach them everything. Just like with kids you make adjustments to your house and choose your battles with what is left.

WOW. You are probably the most patient bird owner ever! You have my respect!
So what you're basically saying is, I should do something about my laptop to keep her from being able to get there in the first place? There isn't anything I can do to teach her not to go there?

[janetafloat]

The honest answer to that is no, imo. My Sennie is straight on my laptop, and my cell phone, like a flash if they're available. They're shiny, they light up, there's a reaction every time he gets his beak into one of them, and I'm always playing with them. That's an unbeatable combination in a young parrot's mind. It's not worth the battle. If I lose keys on my Macbook he's going to be a deceased parrot and I love him too much for it to come to that
Ergo parrot out = put the laptop/phone away pronto!

[hlasdf]

I just came upon this post on Reddit where another user was asking the same question:

"In general, corrections don't work with animals. This is because they tend to associate the corrections with YOU and get scared/angry with you rather than the situation you're trying to make them avoid.
I would recommend teaching an alternate behaviour.
Step 1. Management. We're going to be doing some heavy duty training ahead, so it's super important to eliminate all chances of the bird self-reinforcing for the thing we don't want to make it go faster. This means get some sort of heavy duty plastic or glass case to cover up the keyboard when it's not in use, so the bird can't get to it. When keyboard is in use, bird must be in a different room behind a door or in a cage.
Step 2. Set up the environment. Because to the bird's perspective the keyboard is the best toy that you have which YOU are always hogging to yourself (you criminal scum ), you need some sort of play stand with awesome amazing toys in the same room. Make sure that your bird has options to do something fun other than breaking keys.
Step 3. Time to teach the bird a new game. The idea of this game is that "whenever the keyboard is uncovered, the best place for me to be is on the play stand because GOODIES". If you have a clicker, this is the time to use it, and of course get your bird's fave treats ready (make sure they're as small as possible, we'll be using a lot). The very first version looks like this: place bird on stand, then in rapid succession uncover keyboard - instantly click, give the bird a treat AT THE STAND, quickly cover keyboard. Repeat when bird has finished eating and looks intrigued at this new game. Aim to do this as many times as possible a day, in 3-5 minute sessions. Don't go longer than that, you'll run into attention span and hunger satiation issues.
Step 4. Making the game harder. There are three aspects you can improve on here: DISTANCE, DISTRACTION, DURATION. Remember that it's of utmost importance to make the game as EASY as possible for the bird to succeed, so if you're working on one of the three D's, the other two have to be taken down to the easiest version. Only increase difficulty of one at a time.
DISTANCE - starting level has the training stand at a distance from the keyboard that you can just barely get to in 1 second with your treat. Progressively move the stand closer to the keyboard 10cm at a time. Ensure you are getting a >90% success ratio at one distance before moving it closer. If the bird attempts to get to keyboard more than 20% of the time, you made it too hard too fast, move the stand back a bit. Once you're confident in this and the other two Ds, you can start having the bird in other locations, such as on your shoulders.
DISTRACTION - starting level is lifting of cover only. Next step is to touch a key, click treat for staying on stand. Then touch two keys. Touch with whole hand. Press one key just enough to make a clicky sound. Then two keys together. Then two keys one after the other. Then repeat from scratch, but this time you sit down before touching the keyboard. You get the idea, progressively increase the amount of tempting sounds and body movement your bird is willing to sit through. The same 90% success ratio applies for these steps.
DURATION - starting level is to click treat immediately as the cover is lifted. Next, wait 0.5 seconds before clicking. Then 1. Then 2. Then 2.5, 3, 4, 5 etc. Once you have a couple of seconds on there, start watching your bird carefully and also click for anything the bird does (you can leave the keyboard uncovered this whole time, no need to replace the cover). Shifts his weight? Click. Stretches wing? Click. Beaks a toy? Click. Poops? Click. We're basically playing the "101 things to do with a box game", where the only thing we're NOT rewarding is trying to touch the keyboard. Once the bird is comfortably walking around the play stand and interacting with it, slowly reduce the rate at which you click - you were probably clicking for behaviors every 3 seconds or so, so now click every 4ish, then 5ish seconds, etc.
For the duration of all this training, if the bird tries to reach the keyboard, quickly cover it, and then calmly walk out of the room for 2 minutes. Don't say anything, no anger, no frustration! Your thought process should be "oh, I guess you don't want to play, we'll try again later." You basically want to act like nothing happened, this prevents you from inadvertently reinforcing.
Yes, it will be a long and involved process. Remember that your bird has already formed a habit of enjoying the keyboard - it will take just as long to extinguish the habit, and then the same amount of time again to form the new one you want. Expect it, accept it and celebrate each small milestone."
Anyone think this is worth trying?

[janetafloat]

Sure, sounds like a good approach, give it a go and report back!

[hlasdf]

Sure, sounds like a good approach, give it a go and report back!

Will do!