Jumping in with both feet

[greedyfly]

I will soon be a joint owner of a 10 year old Senegal Parrot named Hal. My fiance has had him since he was a baby and now he will be coming to live with me next month after the wedding. She will be coming too of course, but the difference is she will be happy to do so at least for the first month while the other little guy might feel out of his element. I know I will be when it comes to him. I am an animal lover in general but dogs, cats, and fish are the extent of my first hand knowledge. Hal's flock will start out being 3 outdoor cats, an indoor/outdoor 6 year old labrador and us two.

He has come over and stayed at the house for a week without her being there. I tried to do what I was told by Diane and keep a decent routine for him. I would go in his room and open the curtains when I got up in the morning then I would open his cage door and let him do what he wanted while I went to start my coffee. Then I would come back and get his food and water bowls and carry them to the kitchen along with the bird who I would get out of his cage by holding a stick in front of him and having him "step up". We would go to the kitchen and I would clean his bowls and give him his breakfast, return him to the cage and let him eat for awhile. After he got done eating and if I was in the house, I had a flower pot with a stick in it that he could use as a perch and I would use a stick to transport him from the cage to the perch so he could be in whatever room I was working in. I would feed him his dinner at the normal time and let him wander inside and outside of his cage for awhile then as the sun went down I would close him in his cage and close the curtains to say goodnight.

The first few times I tried to get him to step up on my finger, he would bite me. Since I don't know birds that well, I treated him like I would a dog. I wouldn't move my finger away and let him win. Well not sure who one that as I ended up with a pretty chewed up finger, but he would move away instead of or after biting me. When he moved away I didn't pursue him, but I was just letting him know or at least trying to, that he didn't own the airspace where my finger was.

After two or three days of no Diane, he bit less and would come out on my finger most of the time. Then he would sit on my chest and one day even started trying to pick my nose for me I tried to not move suddenly because I didn't want to startle him and in some way it felt like bonding behavior. He was quite the persistent nose picker!

By the end of the week we were doing pretty well together, but then he went back home and thats been over a month ago. In late Nov/Early Dec after we return from the honeymoon though he will return permanently but so will Diane. So he might ease back into trusting me or if he knows Diane is around maybe not.

Anyway I decided to start reading up on parrots and trying to see how to handle a bird like a bird. I found you tube videos on clicker and target training and that seemed like a good place to start. Wasn't real clear on when you could quit the constant reinforcing and go with occasional but that shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I imagine I will mostly lurk and ask questions as I get more familiar with the bird. He gets along with the dog quite nicely and they have played together (not going to try that with the cats).

Thats all for now!

scoyne

[sidech]

You seem very well prepared, so I'm sure this will give you a nice edge. Although the little one might have quite a different behavior when your fiance is around. You'll have to take it slowly, and I'm sure you'll make progress.

Parrots are nothing like dogs and cats. I'm a dog person myself, and this is my second parrot, I've had cockatiels also, and I'm often wondering how I should react, and wanting to go to my " dog knowledge ". Well, not a good idea in most cases.

Come here and ask questions, you'll get treat answers !

Good luck with your new friend, and happy life with your wife !

[Kathleen]

Saliva from you and your other pets and the bacteria in your nose are both potentially toxic for birds, and there are plenty of other risks and reasons why non-avian and avian pets should avoid contact with each other.

If you want to learn about how birds are motivated, about clicker training and target training, and other training techniques, I'll direct you to this section of the forum, which contains articles about training, as well questions and answers to similar aggression problems with parrots from other people on the forum: http://www.theparrotforum.com/viewforum.php?f=11

Since this bird is not "bonded" to you (that is, it doesn't consider you it's mate) you will have to rely on positive reinforcement training. This means giving the bird choices and allowing it as well as teaching it to feel desire to be with you based on what the bird is motivated by. Clicker/target training are based on setting up situations where the bird desires to be with you based on what it's motivated by (food, petting, toys, attention etc).

I don't know the extent of how much this bird has been trained. It would probably be useful to both you and your future wife to train the bird behaviors with positive reinforcement training techniques so that the bird's behavior is more manageable. The bird can still do whatever it wants, but you try to increase desired behaviors and you can shape the bird's behavior. This type of training requires that you change your own behavior and change the bird's environment. Start by learning the techniques and learning how to read bird body language. The bird will learn and change it's own behavior to get what it wants following those changes.

Since you're dealing with "someone else's" bird, you will probably gain a lot of useful knowledge and advice from the article I wrote about "someone else's" bird that continues to show territorial aggression toward me to this day, but the amount of aggression and biting in general has been greatly reduced because of the techniques that I used. That specific article is here: http://www.theparrotforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1528

Feel free to ask any more questions you may have. There are many people on this forum who have experienced biting and aggression issues, are learning how to overcome these issues, or have overcome these issues. Enjoy the forum and happy training.

[greedyfly]

Well the wedding is over, we are back from the honeymoon, made it through the holidays and today is the day Hal moves in. I will be at work when his cage arrives. So I will see him when I get home.

Our first order of business is deciding how hot and cold to program our thermostat to save money without endangering the bird.

Sure we will begin posting more often now!

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Looking forward to hearing how it goes!

[patdbunny]

Hi Scoyne!

Welcome to the unique experience of the bird world.

What I've seen helps is for the favorite person to hand off the bird to the unfavorite/new person. It's almost like the bird trusts its person, so if its person "says" it's ok then the bird seems more confident about the new person. Doing this a few times may help the bird to realize that you're ok. Basically, it's like the mob - your new husband is vouching for you. "She's a friend of ours."

As for temperature ranges - they can handle a lot. Just don't put the cage right in front of a window that gets full sun, not in front of the heater or a/c. Some of my birds are outside year round and the temps can dip on winter nights down to 40, and high summer days over 100.

Roz.