Olive doesn't like millet?

[Monica]

It may help you to know why she does the behavior that she does, however, in the scheme of things, when it comes to positive reinforcement training, it doesn't matter "why" she bites, only knowing how to avoid getting bitten while being able to establish a form of communication.


I know this may sound odd, even contradictory to what I previously said, but it's the actual truth. Knowing why is more so for the human than the bird. A lot of people say that their birds hate them and that the birds are aggressive, but when questioned, these people realize that the birds are actually fearful, not aggressive or hateful. This helps to change the human's mindset about the situation, which results in them taking things slower and being able to better understand the bird. This also results in the human being able to form a closer bond with the bird faster than they expected to when before they were making no progress at all.


However, a behaviorist/trainer that uses Positive Reinforcement Training, Applied Behavior Analysis and the ABC's (Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence) of Behavior, it matters not. The reason why is because these people will avoid pushing a bird to the point of biting, or they will be able to avoid getting bitten. They are able to read when a bird is going to bite and will either back off then or not get within range of being bitten. So for them, it doesn't matter so much as to *why* the bird is biting as much as it does in being able to read and understand the bird's body language and being able to react accordingly.

They aren't ignoring the bite because they are avoiding getting bitten. "Punishment" would be removing oneself from the bird and/or the treat for a second or two. Then the request is performed again. If the bird refuses, then a short break (as in 3-5 minutes) may be required before asking again.



I hope I explained that well enough!


As far as fresh foods, you may try experimenting with them! Such as chopping the foods fine and mixing them together, placing pieces of food into toys, hanging food like toys, etc.

 

[Happynme]

Just curious how you n olive are ?

 

[Kellie728]

Hi-
Thank you for asking Olive and i are doing well, but she is still biting, and it seems to be getting harder. However, i have discovered a few things that she really likes to chew on so i have those handy when i am holding her. She does alot better with those distractions, but does still bite. I am trying to take her out more frequently for shorter periods of time to avoid her getting too excited or tired. Also trying to give her more sleep time.

I'm so afraid of doing something wrong that is going to make her biting worse or untrainable. I just can't figure out why she has started biting, (and it probably wouldn't make a difference anyway) because the people at the humane society never mentioned biting except for when we picked her up, they mentioned she was starting to nip just a bit when they tried to take her out of her cage the last couple of days she was there, and she had been there over two weeks. It seems to have gotten progressively worse and i feel like i am the reason why.

She does seem to be getting more comfortable though. Instead off sticking to me like velcro she will hop onto the couch or fly off a short ways and then come back to me. She may never be the type who likes to cuddle or get skritches but that's ok. I enjoy her very much!

 

[Monica]

May help to catch a video of when she bites.

 

[Happynme]

Hi-
Thank you for asking Olive and i are doing well, but she is still biting, and it seems to be getting harder. However, i have discovered a few things that she really likes to chew on so i have those handy when i am holding her. She does alot better with those distractions, but does still bite. I am trying to take her out more frequently for shorter periods of time to avoid her getting too excited or tired. Also trying to give her more sleep time.

I'm so afraid of doing something wrong that is going to make her biting worse or untrainable. I just can't figure out why she has started biting, (and it probably wouldn't make a difference anyway) because the people at the humane society never mentioned biting except for when we picked her up, they mentioned she was starting to nip just a bit when they tried to take her out of her cage the last couple of days she was there, and she had been there over two weeks. It seems to have gotten progressively worse and i feel like i am the reason why.

She does seem to be getting more comfortable though. Instead off sticking to me like velcro she will hop onto the couch or fly off a short ways and then come back to me. She may never be the type who likes to cuddle or get skritches but that's ok. I enjoy her very much!

Im glad you are doing well. Some birds are more bitey than others. I could be wrong but if you arent attempting to touch her and she is lunging at you, could it be i want attention so i bite. Not.that you arent giving her attention, just that she sees your eyes not looking or even just a well im going to check if moms making me center of her affections, lol
Perhaps she just is confused at how to gain the attebtion she wants without nipping. Im new at this too and like you was petrified i would teach my bird wrong and shed stay a.t rex. But eventually i learned to relax and trust she would teach me. And she.did. it will take trial and error, dont be too hard on yourself.

 

[Crazy4parrots]

Hii i have two lovies!
Kiwi


And Baylee

Baylee she gets nippy too sometimes!
When she does that i just go away for like 40 min and then come back. That way i let her know she wont gain anything with behaving like that. For me it works. It does takes time, it took 1 year and a half for Baylee to be cuddle with despite of rescuing her as a baby.

 

[Kellie728]

it will take trial and error, dont be too hard on yourself
Thanks, i try not to. Things seem to be going much better the last week. She is still nippy, but much less so and i can find ways to distract her most of the time. I think mostly it is due to fear, which is the complete opposite of what i had originally thought. Also got her to eat some lettuce, which doesn't have much nutritional value but it's something other than seed and a step in the right direction. She is actually starting to warm up to my husband more than me. But that's ok, I'm just glad she's happy.