Mona wrote:Hi Cozy:
I don't know if flight has anything to do with aggressiveness. Personally, I believe that different species of parrots have behaviorial tendencies that are hardwired and that help them survive in their ecological niche. I also believe that all animals need exercise and NOTHING substitutes for flight.
I think senegals have heightened "fight or flight" tendencies that are hardwired. Personally, I would rather my bird flies than fights. I do believe that flight can help a bird work off a lot of energy that could become dysfunctional for them if they could not fly - especially in a home environment. The birds could become more nesty, more defensive of territory, and more rigid if they cannot fly. Flight is an expression. I like to say that Babylon "wears her heart on her wing". I always know what mood she is in because you can see it in how she flies.
Flight is also great for communication. An "aversive" is something that an animal wants to avoid. A flighted bird can and will avoid "aversives". A clipped bird often cannot and that can lead to a bite, frustration and aggression.
I have another male Senegal that bites. He was caged and clipped for probably eight years of his life and he can't help himself. He is like a hyper active dog. If something makes him nervous he chomps down and "asks questions later". After he chomps down, he reaches his foot up and asks me to scratch his head so I know he really can't help himself. He isn't mean. I think he was conditioned to bite like this because he was caged and clipped. Of course, who knows for sure?....maybe he would have been a biter no matter what.....but I do think I could have modified this tendency in him a lot easier if I had him when he was a lot younger. How many of us know dogs that were kept in small areas or leashed and have just become aggressive? Same thing can happen with birds.
Any way, Jack's previous owner let his wings grow and he flies in my house now. He's not really very aggressive when he's out of his cage and flying. He is one of my easiest birds to manage because he targets easy and other than skritches through his cage bar, I don't handle him....I target fly him. He is really cute and I enjoy him immensely. I just avoid holding him because I can't always predict when something makes him nervous and he bites down hard.
For all my birds, I am careful not to reinforce any sort of flight that looks like it could be aggressive. In other words, if I see one of my birds dive bomb a person or an object (or even a bird) I remove that person, object...or bird so this tendency is not inadvertantly reinforced. I think "dive bombing" is a "species tendency" but that doesn't mean it has to be aggressive. Babylon often flies with other birds and dips down and joins them in flight without aggression.....she's just flying and having a good time.
So...my bias is to say that I do not believe that flight increases the aggressive tendencies. I actually think it lessens them....but I can't prove it and it might just be the way I choose to see my birds. I do think that Senegals can have these little "terrier dog' tendencies that would be there clipped or not. I think it's better to keep them flighted and modify the tendencies so that you don't increase or cultivate aggression than it is to clip them. I don't think clipping helps aggression. I think it makes it worse. All it does is limit what the bird can do....which means that you take away the ability to modify and train some behaviors that make the bird a better companion.
Clipping does make it easier to control the birds; but I don't think that control modifies aggression...Sometimes control can make aggession worse. I'd rather live with my birds as birds....as they evolved to be.
Just my two cents....if it's even worth two cents.
Thanks!
Cool, Thank alot very informative
