My little Senegal Came Home Last Night

[Eurycerus]

I will work on no reaction. I'm definitely going to have to train myself and her. I think by saying no I have reinforced her biting. especially because she tends to bite super hard and then step up. It escalated from a gentle nip to breaking the flesh pretty fast... Well I will report my progress

[terri]

Ok with all the parrot rules maybe I did this wrong [but this works for me] When Jennifer used to nip me [my rose breasted] I would say[GENTLE] put her back in her cage,then put my hand right up to her beak [and say go ahead ].showing I wasnt afraid.This worked with my birds that did this.Try putting her out on a play stand when she firsts come out [their like little kids they want to play they have been in a cage]then see if she will come to you.

[Michael]

CRITICAL STUFF:

Reasons Why Punishment Should Be Avoided With Parrots
Making Parrots Go Back Into Cage Willingly
Basics of Taming & Training
How I Untrained Flying Away From Being Grabbed (Counter Conditioning)
How to Hold a Parrot - Step Up and Grab Methods

Essentially you can only teach a parrot what to do and now what not to do. By teaching all the things to do, they should in time replace the things not to do. This is why training (as a long term approach) is so important. In the short term, avoid bites, avoid things that cause bites, use protection, be cautious, be slow and predictable, yet be firm and don't back down either. Don't show fear or let fear drive your decisions but also avoid making the parrot fearful either. Lots more, start with the articles for now.

[Eurycerus]

I read through your articles and really took to heart the one about punishment. I had analyzed the situations that occurred and resulted in her biting me and it was fear and then I accidentally reinforced the biting by exclaiming no or ouch and would put her back in get cage. Last night and this evening I was successful in having her step up as well as target training as long as treats were involved. She is fairly tame I just think I made a few mistakes and i'm sure I will again. She's happy to come and go out of her cage. She's a rather sweet creatureI just think I an ignorant to her cues. I am curious how long it takes to not need treats to have her step up happily?

[Michael]

The key to going from parrot stepping up strictly for treats to stepping up just because is variable ratio reinforcement, conditioned reinforcement, and habit. I should probably write an article about this but this is really more the why than the how. If you follow the steps I outline, you should eventually achieve this. Recap of the how:

1) Targeting on perch
2) Targeting on hand
3) Step up onto hand first to do trick (even target) for treat
4) Step up for various opportunities (sometimes trick, sometimes treat, sometimes go places)
5) Step up out of habit

Ideally you should never be giving treats specifically for stepping up. Ideally you give treats for doing "good things" like tricks and treat step up as a means of performing them. This makes the bird learn to step up for other good stuff to happen rather than exclusively for the lure. Since step up is very easy, the bird needs little reward to maintain it in the long run so eventually you dilute how often a specific reward is given. Come up with alternative rewards (such as a head scratch but ONLY if the bird actually enjoys it or to go in cage for meal) for stepping up. And I'd say after 3+ months of doing this, the bird will pretty much just step up always just because and not because you are dangling a treat in front of its beak. It will just be used to good things typically happening in your presence and after stepping up.

A VERY VERY VERY important thing is NOT to EVER use step up for something bad. For example, asking the bird to step up to be "punished with a cage time out" is moronic. It's as ridiculous as saying to someone "come here so I could slap you." You may get away with it a few times but eventually it will teach the bird to fly away (as was the case with Kili) or to bite if it can't. There is no reason for it to want to step onto your hand to be punished. This is why the cage must always be good or at least neutral.

You cannot believe how many times people tell me their parrot bites when they want it to step up to which I ask, "what do you do with the bird after it steps up" to which they reply "put it away in the cage." People are treating these astronomically intelligent animals like luggage. They need to be given a good reason to step up and not just because you paid money for them. The reason we need to use targeting and treats at first is because they don't know that what we'll do with them next will be worth their while. So we "train" them using targeting and treats so that we could earn their trust and the opportunity to show them how good it can be in other ways. Examples will include scratches, talking to them, taking them interesting places, handing a toy, giving a meal, etc. And this won't even have to happen every time. But as long as it is always good or nothing at all but NEVER BAD, the parrot has little reason to not step up for you. Compared to the boredom of being in the cage it's almost always worth it. Think back to being a kid and enjoying watching other kids play almost as much as doing it yourself. I think it becomes like that for the parrot. But until that can be developed, use training as a means of getting the parrot's attention and trust in the quickest, simplest, most reliable way but always think why the parrot should chose to cooperate with you and it'll work out.

[Eurycerus]

I am being careful to have her step up to go to all sorts of other places now ever since I read that part of your article. I don't think I ever thought about it as potentially punishment to have her step up and go into her cage. I know that she can step up without a treat because she did when I first got her but I am in the process of making the step up positive instead of fear ridden which seems to be what I accidentally did. I will try incorporate step up as part if a trick such as target training.

[Cockatielsongs]

I know I should post this else where but I'm getting confused, many people say that it's best to clip a birds wings so its more dependent on its owner and here people say its bad to clip a birds wings...which is right?

[marie83]

I know I should post this else where but I'm getting confused, many people say that it's best to clip a birds wings so its more dependent on its owner and here people say its bad to clip a birds wings...which is right?

In theory my opinion is that ALL birds should be fully flighted but I do think there are rare circumstances that clipping is the only option but thats very rare and should be avoided if there is another way round it. Michael has an excellent article on clipping on his blog which you should read. Clipping birds does increase the dependancy but you are much more likely to end up with a nervous bite that turns to biting behavious so your just replacing one problem whith a whole host of other problems. Flighted birds can be both dependant and independant with training but I'm afraid clipping will not get you out of training your bird or keep your bird any safer.

[laducockatiel]

Ok with all the parrot rules maybe I did this wrong [but this works for me] When Jennifer used to nip me [my rose breasted] I would say[GENTLE] put her back in her cage,then put my hand right up to her beak [and say go ahead ].showing I wasnt afraid.This worked with my birds that did this.Try putting her out on a play stand when she firsts come out [their like little kids they want to play they have been in a cage]then see if she will come to you.

Never use the cage as a punishment, otherwise your parrot will hate going in the cage.

[Cockatielsongs]

If a bird is clipped (mine unfortunately is) will he/she ever be able to fly again?