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Needing Advice

miima

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Hi all,

I have an 8 month old male ekky who is amazing, he loves kisses and cuddles and has just started talking.

1.5 months ago my then partner adopted a 1.5 year old female ekky and at first she loved me and only wanted me. To everyone else she would bite and it would be hard, until blood was dripping.

My partner started working with her and she started to distance herself from me. I continued to handle and train her until randomly one day she bit me. I still tried to handle her, but she continued to bite and act aggressively.

My partner was working with her still and she was friendly towards him. We have separated and I am wanting to try again with her as I would hate for her to become a caged bird.

What can I do? I tried to start all over and use perches to start getting her to step up but she just attacks them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 

Monica

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Barbara Heidenreich, Lara Joseph, Susan Friedman, Melinda Johnson, Karen Pryor..... these are some great people to look into!


It sounds like you are trying to force or flood her into doing something she doesn't want to do, so she's biting you to let you know she's not happy with the way you are trying to interact with her. You may need to back off and learn to pay attention to her. Learn to understand her body language. Set up a system of if she does something good, she gets rewarded for it. Break training into steps. Here's one method to teach her to step up!


  1. Reward bird for looking at you.
  2. Reward your bird for moving his head towards you.
  3. Reward your bird for taking a step towards you.
  4. Reward your bird for taking another step towards you.
  5. If he doesn't run away, keep rewarding him for remaining where he's at. (if he runs/backs off, you may need to start over again)
  6. Reward your bird for taking a couple more steps closer.
  7. Encourage him to come closer yet again and reward him.
  8. Reward your bird for touching you with his toe(s).
  9. Reward your bird for putting a foot on you.
  10. *JACKPOT REWARD* Give your bird lots of goodies for putting both feet on you!


Baby steps.... really little... rather than jumping steps 1-9 and pushing for 10! Does that make sense?
 

JLcribber

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You have to do the same thing your partner did. You have to work with her and "earn" that relationship back. Starting at square one like the first day you met.

Your partner is not part of the equation anymore so now when you work with her, that will be different too.
 
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dolldid

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ID SAY STOP BEING THE BOSS IN STEAD OF TRYING GIVE HER HER SPACE GIVE HER CHOICES RESPECT HER WISHES YOU NEED TO BOND FIRST AND FORMOST TILL YOU DO YOUR GOING TO GET BIT YOUR HOME IS YOURS YOU DONT WANT SOME ONE COME AND MAKE YOU MOVE FROM A CHAIR TO ABENCH WELL HER CAGE IS HER HOME RESPECT IT GIVE HER TIME TO GET TO KNOW YOU STOP TRYING TO TAKE HER OUT TALK TO HER SIT BESIDE HER WATCH TV LET HER GET TO TRUST YOU EVEN THEN ASK HER TO COME IF SHE DOSENT LEAVE HER BE AND ASK AGAIN IT WILL HAPPEN IF YOUR WILLING TO STAND BACK FOR 1 OR 2 MONTHS TAKE THINGS SLOW WHO WANTS A 2BY 4 THROWEN AT THEM CAUSE IN MY EYES THATS WHAT YOUR DOING
ROME WASNT BUILT IN A DAY STOP BEING PUSHIE YOU WILL NEVER WIN HER OVER DEMANDING WHAT YOU WANT IT HAS TO BE WHAT SHE WANTS AND SHE IS TELLING YOU THIS
IT TOOK MONTHS FOR MANGO TO WANT ME BUT WHEN IT HAPPENED IT WAS NOW YOUR STUCK WITH ME MOM ITS A HARD THING TO DO BUT THE REWARDS ARE GREAT IT ONLY TAKES TIME AND YOU HAVE A LIFE TIME TO MAKE IT HAPPEN LET HER BE

GOOD LUCK
 

miima

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Thank you. I really appreciate the responses.

Silly question but How do I get myself past the fear of being bitten?
 

Monica

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Actually, it's better to not get bitten! I'm not going to tell you to just stick your hand out there and wait to be bitten because that's not very smart! Instead, you need to try and learn to understand your birds body language and learn to back up before she bites. Try to learn how to communicate with her using Positive Reinforcement Training, Clicker Training, Applied Behavior Analysis, Force Free Animal Training and The ABC's of Behavior (Antecedent - Behavior - Consequence).

Avoid the bites by reading her body language, and as long as you know how to understand them, you can avoid many bites! So you don't necessarily have to 'get over' the fear of being bitten as long as you are otherwise comfortable hadnling the bird.
 

JLcribber

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Until you have had the time to learn and understand your bird as mentioned by Monica, you avoid the bites in the way you handle them. A bird can only bite you if you provide the opportunity. Having the fear of being bitten is going to compound the problem. All big parrots should be conditioned somewhat to use a T stick (or a straight stick but its not as effective as a T stick if the bird bites).

Using the stick serves more than one purpose. You avoid the bites because the stick gives you much more control over the bird, your flesh is out of range and you can handle them with more confidence (at least less fear).
 

dolldid

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stick tyaining is good but don't you think you ned to build trust on both sides if you must or need to get your bird out of cage stsnd bsck a ft or 2 and ask with your arn streached out a bit ( do you want to come whatch what movement your bird is doing , I understand being afraid of getting bit oh yes I do but remember if a dog nowa your afraid he will get you and so will a bird
please stop every thing leave this bird alone , spend time with it let it get to know you and most of all you now the bird
all the advice here is great but one thing is missing and that is the bird is telling you something go away we all want our birds to do as we want but where does the bird have a choice
Its great you want to train it bur befor you start BOND you are both strangers to each other this is the problem what was is gone this is now oh if it works bribe the bird but some cant be bribed I now case I have one you cant bribe I praise and he loves it , it takes time to bond having controle over a bird is not bonding its bullying I my self would never be proud to be called a bullyuse clicker stick what ever but please not with out first bonding and bonding means hands off
I am not one that how can I say it with out every one jumping down on me cause im not downing any one that does but im not one for so called training I don't need that but mango knows when to come most times when I call him from one room to a nother but I didn't spend time training him its just something I have done with out knowing it respect the cage her area that you gave to this bird its not yours any more

ok im sure I have caused many to be upset with me but im also sure you all agree with out bonding you get no where so lets start from day one hands off and you wont get bit soft voice smooth talking quiet times togather bring cage in to your main room let this bird see you all day doing things and most of all don't ever do any thing to your bird you wouldn't want done to you try thinking like a bird is that so hard heck I do it all the time when im not sure of something it has tought me a lot and remember every bird is difrent like humans like dogs cats to rays to
ok think I have made many upset with me so ill get out of here
but one thing for sure im thinking of you both what ever way you go I wish you good luck cause the next few months will mean every thing to you both

:hug8: :hug8:
 

miima

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So I spent some time with her, not long maybe 10 minutes, just talking. She hated it at first and I couldn't stand close to her, maybe a metre away but as soon as I entered the room she really tensed up.
She looks more angry then scared.
But I know they probably go hand in hand.

After 10 minutes I got enough courage to offer her a treat. She would only let me offer her a big treat, half an almond length wise. Any smaller and she would try to bite me. That's a good start I think but how many almonds can I offer her before its too much? Having such a big treat doesn't give me much time with her.

Percy, my male ekky,got a bit jealous but he was fine once I started offering him treats too.
 

miima

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I made a rookie mistake and left her out whilst I ran to the toilet. She opened the door and snuck all the way to the other end of the house to my 12 month old's room and bit him. In the space of 20 seconds, I didn't even get to the bathroom before I heard tears that were different to "I am awake" tears

Looks worse in person :(

He has some little nips in between his fingers. He likes to sleep with his arm dangling out of the cot, I'm guessing that's how she got him because she was hiding under the cot when I went in.
 

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JLcribber

@cockatoojohn
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I made a rookie mistake and left her out whilst I ran to the toilet. She opened the door and snuck all the way to the other end of the house to my 12 month old's room and bit him. In the space of 20 seconds, I didn't even get to the bathroom before I heard tears that were different to "I am awake" tears

Looks worse in person :(

He has some little nips in between his fingers. He likes to sleep with his arm dangling out of the cot, I'm guessing that's how she got him because she was hiding under the cot when I went in.


You've got your work cut out for you. :cool:
 

Verivus

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Aw, poor baby. I have to make sure all doors are closed before my Eclectus can come out or else she immediately heads for a bedroom because that's where the "best" nesting sites are. :rolleyes:
 
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