Jewel likes biting fingers A LOT! Maybe she's teething, I don't know if baby birds do that. But how do I stop the habit before it becomes a big problem, also every time I let her out of her cage to interact with us, she flies straight to Dante, and as some of you might know, Dante is scared of Jewel so he would bite her if she gets too close. Any tips on how to fix this?
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Jewel's Biting
- Thread starter Hana Baig
- Start date
BITING IS NOT A NATURAL CONFLICTS RESOLUTIONS OR COMMUNICATIONS IN BIRDS. Instead they are handled with body language and vocalizations. They convey their feelings beforehand or will fly off to avoid physical contact. If needed, the beak is protection against predators such as snakes and raptors or if it feels cornered and frighten then the need to bite will be from the natural instinct of self -preservation. But not against others in their own flock. In their natural environments, competition and/ or conflict between parrots rarely escalates to physical violence. Instead, they vocalize (scream) and/or use body language by strutting, posturing, and fluffing feathers to make themselves look bigger. Beaks are used for climbing, eating, playing (wrestling) and preening... not for biting another flock member.
I was told many years ago not to use the earthquake method. (Shake your hand when the bird goes to bite). When your bird is on your hand don't shake your hands to unbalance the bird has this will cause trust issues between your hand and the bird. This person told me the idea is to make your hands a safe and trusted place for your birds and if you shake your hand to unbalance the bird then the bird will come to see your hand as unsafe and will learn to distrust your hands. If your bird views your hand has unsafe and distrusts your hand, it will more likely bite the hand, then fly away. The use of gloves can also cause problems further down the line. It would probably be better to find out what is triggering the bite and there are many different types of triggers. Watch the eyes. If they pin, pull your hand away.
Just keep in mind that patience is key. Never mistreatment a bird who bites. Birds remember mistreatment, and they hold grudges. Any interaction you have with your bird should be bonding and trust-building. Parrots and other animals learn best when wanted behaviour is rewarded right as it occurs and BAD behaviour is not. (It’s that simple).
I tolerate the bite, which can be really hard at times. Under NO circumstances should you yell while been bitten. Instead say No biting or naughty bird in a firm, displeased voice and give the bird a very dirty look. Show the bird your displeasure by giving it a REALLY DIRTY LOOK ("The Evil Eye"). Serious -- you have to look at it as if it were the lowest of the low, or pond scum, or something you might find stuck to the bottom of your shoe. Parrots are extremely empathetic creatures who watch our facial expressions closely. He will understand your displeasure if you give him a tremendously dirty look. The bird will understand that you are unhappy and will try very hard not to do it again. I don’t put my birds back in the cage has I feel this makes for resentment. Instead I put the bird back on its stand and scold it.
For the record, in the two and half years that we had Marlin, our Alexandrine Parakeet I was bitten hard once. I put him on the stand and scolded him and after that he never bit anyone else. This happened when he was around 7 months old. Henry our male Eclectus did the same and I also put him on the bird stand and scolded him and he hasn’t bitten my wife or me since. But he still gives strangers a nip if they FORCE themselves onto him. I tell people to give him a sunflower seed and let him come to you.
But if you make a show out of being bitten, then the bird can find it quite entertaining and can be encouraged to bite. This is called learnt bad behaviour.
So the parrot will nip again, because the human inadvertently rewarded it for nipping, by yelling. Sooner or later, the experimental nips will actually cause damage to the human (emotionally as well as physically), and the human's response becomes yelling, something to the effect of "YOU BAD BIRD, YOUR MOMMY (or DADDY) LOVES YOU, HOW COULD YOU BITE YOUR MOMMY (or DADDY)??!??!! The bird doesn't understand what's happening here, of course..... It thinks this is a wonderful new game. You know, bite a finger and your person makes lots of LOUD and WONDERFUL noises.... Bite hard enough and your person will also jump around... Bonus points…… This becomes learnt bad behaviour and they will actively hunt out skin to play this wonderful game of entertainment.
Do not leave the room. The bird may have bitten you to go away. So you leaving the room is what the bird wants. Therefore, you are teaching the bird that by biting, you will leave. This is learnt bad behaviour
You can use a Toy/treat as a distraction, But it's just that 'a distraction'. It's not really teaching the bird acceptable behaviours. What you're really teaching the bird, is that by biting, it gets a toy/treat. Again, learnt bad behaviour.
Contrary to human beliefs, parrots think yelling is a fantastic and fun response and it will actually reinforce a behaviour. Parrots really enjoy it when humans yell at them. Parrots often scream simply for the fun of it so it is a fallacy to think they perceive that yelling is a reprimand. On the contrary, they generally interpret yelling as positive feed-back. This is what called The Drama Reward.
Birds use their beaks like a third hand and they will use this "third hand to help them onto your hand when you are start the training of step up. This is because the bird is unsure how stable your hand is so they test your hands stability with their third hand before stepping up.
This scenario happens when an inexperienced owner is not clear in their signals to the parrot. For example, when offering a hand for the bird to step up, an inexperienced owner often isn't quite sure of him/herself... so their hand motion is uncertain. The bird may wish very much to climb on, but is unsure of the stability of the hand will reaches with its beak (The beak functions as a third hand) to steady the human hand. The human, afraid of that beak, pulls their hand away. Now the bird is confused!
Now each time the human's hand is offered, and the bird attempts to grab the hand with its beak to hold it steady so it can climb on. The human jerks their hand away. The bird has no idea what has happened but if the scene is repeated (as it usually is), the bird will learn that it's beak will make the hand go away. The bird doesn't really want the hand to go away, but it is fun to control one's human's hand so the behaviour will happen again and a-gain. Once again, the parrot has no idea it has done anything wrong.
If you can't handle the bird with bare hands at this time, use a T perch to move the bird around.
I was told many years ago not to use the earthquake method. (Shake your hand when the bird goes to bite). When your bird is on your hand don't shake your hands to unbalance the bird has this will cause trust issues between your hand and the bird. This person told me the idea is to make your hands a safe and trusted place for your birds and if you shake your hand to unbalance the bird then the bird will come to see your hand as unsafe and will learn to distrust your hands. If your bird views your hand has unsafe and distrusts your hand, it will more likely bite the hand, then fly away. The use of gloves can also cause problems further down the line. It would probably be better to find out what is triggering the bite and there are many different types of triggers. Watch the eyes. If they pin, pull your hand away.
Just keep in mind that patience is key. Never mistreatment a bird who bites. Birds remember mistreatment, and they hold grudges. Any interaction you have with your bird should be bonding and trust-building. Parrots and other animals learn best when wanted behaviour is rewarded right as it occurs and BAD behaviour is not. (It’s that simple).
I tolerate the bite, which can be really hard at times. Under NO circumstances should you yell while been bitten. Instead say No biting or naughty bird in a firm, displeased voice and give the bird a very dirty look. Show the bird your displeasure by giving it a REALLY DIRTY LOOK ("The Evil Eye"). Serious -- you have to look at it as if it were the lowest of the low, or pond scum, or something you might find stuck to the bottom of your shoe. Parrots are extremely empathetic creatures who watch our facial expressions closely. He will understand your displeasure if you give him a tremendously dirty look. The bird will understand that you are unhappy and will try very hard not to do it again. I don’t put my birds back in the cage has I feel this makes for resentment. Instead I put the bird back on its stand and scold it.
For the record, in the two and half years that we had Marlin, our Alexandrine Parakeet I was bitten hard once. I put him on the stand and scolded him and after that he never bit anyone else. This happened when he was around 7 months old. Henry our male Eclectus did the same and I also put him on the bird stand and scolded him and he hasn’t bitten my wife or me since. But he still gives strangers a nip if they FORCE themselves onto him. I tell people to give him a sunflower seed and let him come to you.
But if you make a show out of being bitten, then the bird can find it quite entertaining and can be encouraged to bite. This is called learnt bad behaviour.
So the parrot will nip again, because the human inadvertently rewarded it for nipping, by yelling. Sooner or later, the experimental nips will actually cause damage to the human (emotionally as well as physically), and the human's response becomes yelling, something to the effect of "YOU BAD BIRD, YOUR MOMMY (or DADDY) LOVES YOU, HOW COULD YOU BITE YOUR MOMMY (or DADDY)??!??!! The bird doesn't understand what's happening here, of course..... It thinks this is a wonderful new game. You know, bite a finger and your person makes lots of LOUD and WONDERFUL noises.... Bite hard enough and your person will also jump around... Bonus points…… This becomes learnt bad behaviour and they will actively hunt out skin to play this wonderful game of entertainment.
Do not leave the room. The bird may have bitten you to go away. So you leaving the room is what the bird wants. Therefore, you are teaching the bird that by biting, you will leave. This is learnt bad behaviour
You can use a Toy/treat as a distraction, But it's just that 'a distraction'. It's not really teaching the bird acceptable behaviours. What you're really teaching the bird, is that by biting, it gets a toy/treat. Again, learnt bad behaviour.
Contrary to human beliefs, parrots think yelling is a fantastic and fun response and it will actually reinforce a behaviour. Parrots really enjoy it when humans yell at them. Parrots often scream simply for the fun of it so it is a fallacy to think they perceive that yelling is a reprimand. On the contrary, they generally interpret yelling as positive feed-back. This is what called The Drama Reward.
Birds use their beaks like a third hand and they will use this "third hand to help them onto your hand when you are start the training of step up. This is because the bird is unsure how stable your hand is so they test your hands stability with their third hand before stepping up.
This scenario happens when an inexperienced owner is not clear in their signals to the parrot. For example, when offering a hand for the bird to step up, an inexperienced owner often isn't quite sure of him/herself... so their hand motion is uncertain. The bird may wish very much to climb on, but is unsure of the stability of the hand will reaches with its beak (The beak functions as a third hand) to steady the human hand. The human, afraid of that beak, pulls their hand away. Now the bird is confused!
Now each time the human's hand is offered, and the bird attempts to grab the hand with its beak to hold it steady so it can climb on. The human jerks their hand away. The bird has no idea what has happened but if the scene is repeated (as it usually is), the bird will learn that it's beak will make the hand go away. The bird doesn't really want the hand to go away, but it is fun to control one's human's hand so the behaviour will happen again and a-gain. Once again, the parrot has no idea it has done anything wrong.
If you can't handle the bird with bare hands at this time, use a T perch to move the bird around.
Well It's better to train the birds separately. you don't train two or more animals at the same time or in the same room, with different behaviours occurring and expect good results.
Clickers are the best for training.
It is scientifically proven that in order for the animal to connect their behavior with the reward, the trainer must deliver the reward within 0.8 of a second. that is impossibly fast in most cases. Then as soon as you move to give the reward to the animal, your animal will most likely refocus on you, which will delay or even completely jeopardize the training, because now the animal is being rewarded for focusing on you and not for the original behavior that you were intending to reward.
But….
It is the clicker (or marker) that allows us to “mark” a specific behavior with the animal, and for our animal to take a “snapshot” of what they is doing in that moment. Once the sound of the clicker is emitted, the animal is allowed to break the position and access the reward (or the reward is delivered to him while still performing) It is a straight-forward message to the animal of what he is getting rewarded for.
The clicker is the bridge between you and your bird and you use that bridge to highlight the bird’s desired behaviour to your bird. Training treats are not the bridge, they are the reward at the end of the bridge and patience is the time taken to go over the bridge.
Clicks won't confuse the bird. Where has words can. Without realising, words can be changed. It doesn't seem much, but it is to a bird. Has an example you might be saying "good boy". Then you say, "that's a good boy" or you’re a good bird.
Second by putting five different foods on a plate and watch which one the bird eats first, You can work out what the bird's favourite food is. You can use sunflower seeds, corn kernels, pine nuts, grapes and balls of millet. This will became the Bird's training treat. Whatever your bird picks, it must not be part of the bird’s diet otherwise it defeats the purpose of being a training treat. I used this method of finding the birds training treats for all my birds.
The clicker and training treats helps you to interact with your bird to build trust/bonding. Once you have established a bond of trust with your bird you can decide wether to train basic tricks. Then advance to more tricks if you desire.
The advice I can give is
1 move slowly around the bird
2 let the bird come to you.
3 Don't force the bird to do anything that it doesn't want to do.
4 make the trust building and bonding sessions (training) fun
5 end all training sessions on a positive.
6 patience.
7 Spend time with the bird
Remember food is a great motivator.
Monica
Cruising the avenue
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Monkey see, monkey do... it's possible to get some birds to interact with you more if they watch you interacting with another bird.
on more than one occasion, I have personally tried to train two birds simultaneously and found that it just didn't work. Because clicker training relies on a "marker" which is the click or a word (preferred by some people). If only one bird preforms a specific behavior and you “mark” that specific behavior with a click or word and then reward that bird for it. The other bird becomes confused because it heard the marker and never received a reward.
The birds distracted each other with different behaviours or attempt to take a training treat that's not meant for them. I have tried to use separate stands but they refused to stay. I found that trying to train two birds simultaneously was not a training method I would use. I felt that it was detrimental to my training routine. I now prefer to train my birds on a one on one basics.
However we did interact with my birds simultaneously, I would have them sit on my shoulders whilst watching TV, other times they would just crawl over me exploring. Play peek a boo, just give them scratch or rub their cheeks until they dozed off. Angel the female Eclectus we had did watch us interact with Henry and she did realise that sitting on me, crawling over me, playing peek a boo having her head scratched and her cheeks rubbed was an enjoyable experience.
The birds distracted each other with different behaviours or attempt to take a training treat that's not meant for them. I have tried to use separate stands but they refused to stay. I found that trying to train two birds simultaneously was not a training method I would use. I felt that it was detrimental to my training routine. I now prefer to train my birds on a one on one basics.
However we did interact with my birds simultaneously, I would have them sit on my shoulders whilst watching TV, other times they would just crawl over me exploring. Play peek a boo, just give them scratch or rub their cheeks until they dozed off. Angel the female Eclectus we had did watch us interact with Henry and she did realise that sitting on me, crawling over me, playing peek a boo having her head scratched and her cheeks rubbed was an enjoyable experience.
She's been getting a bit comfortable with me, but she will only let me pet her back for a certain amount of time, then she tries to bite me
Monica
Cruising the avenue
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Touching her back is telling her that you want to make babies with her... so you really don't want to be doing that.
Sex and the Psittacine from Ballance Behavior.com | Feathered Angels
Sex and the Psittacine from Ballance Behavior.com | Feathered Angels
ok... so no petting her back. But how do I get her to trust me enough to let be scratch her head
Monica
Cruising the avenue
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You can actually teach her to lower her head and, through a series of approximations, teach her to accept your hand closer and closer to her head until she allows you to touch her head, and eventually, petting her head.
Here's a couple of videos from Barbara Heidenreich's GoodBirdInc channel
Here's a couple of videos from Barbara Heidenreich's GoodBirdInc channel
You can actually teach her to lower her head and, through a series of approximations, teach her to accept your hand closer and closer to her head until she allows you to touch her head, and eventually, petting her head.
Here's a couple of videos from Barbara Heidenreich's GoodBirdInc channel
My baby just started to accept head scritches (just day 3 of owning them) however still wants to bite my hand upon attempting to get them to step up... or stares at my hand with evil in there eyes as my finger rests just above there feet...
hmm
Monica
Cruising the avenue
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Give your new baby time and learn to read body language. Was there myself with Jayde....
Jayde Update | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
