Help! (don't know what to call this problem let alone fix it)!

[RN48]

Hey,

So in the evening when I get home from work I give my parrots time to fly out and do there own thing outside of there cage, but my female IRN, does this thing where she'll come freely and land on my head (not the issue here) and then will bob her head down and bite my eyebrows or the tops of my ears, so how can I stop her doing this in a way that she won't then be scared of me?

Obviously I don't want her to fear me, since having them both I'd like to think we have bonded well, and almost every video I've seen says look at what your (the owner) is doing and change my own behaviour, but in all honesty I'm literally just sat there talking to them - please help if you can there still young but if I can stop this early enough then it hopefully won't continue

 

[Pixiebeak]

mmmm...tricky

I'm not sure of this advice..but I'll throw it out there.

When my gcc was young she would get on my head or hide in the middle if my back and I couldn't get her off or step down. I didn't want to make her afraid of hands, and I happened to have a tiny hand
held American flag . I started calling it my naughty flag...

 

[Pixiebeak]

ran out of time ooops.. darn we really need more editing time
So I would ask her to come down. When she didn't I picked up the flag and she would move away from it. As soon as she came down to opposite arm I praised dropped flag and gave treat.

Something like that might work for you. When she does this ask her to be nice or be careful. Then repeat as you pick up an unusual object, hold out away from you. This distraction should have her stop and then drop it and praises. You dont want to spook or have her fly away, just something that makes her pause her behavior. And you want to always reward when she does.

Also preventing is best. If she is over excited when first getting out and seeing you and that leads to head lands and chewing. Then spend time at cage when you first get her out, chat, have her do simple tricks, or a fun quick forage fir a treat. Something to burn off that excitement before you hang out.

 

[RN48]

ran out of time ooops.. darn we really need more editing time
So I would ask her to come down. When she didn't I picked up the flag and she would move away from it. As soon as she came down to opposite arm I praised dropped flag and gave treat.

Something like that might work for you. When she does this ask her to be nice or be careful. Then repeat as you pick up an unusual object, hold out away from you. This distraction should have her stop and then drop it and praises. You dont want to spook or have her fly away, just something that makes her pause her behavior. And you want to always reward when she does.

Also preventing is best. If she is over excited when first getting out and seeing you and that leads to head lands and chewing. Then spend time at cage when you first get her out, chat, have her do simple tricks, or a fun quick forage fir a treat. Something to burn off that excitement before you hang out.

Thank you so much! I'll try it and see how it goes and I agree with you I don't want to spook her or make her fearful that's truely the last thing I want, just need her to stop biting my eyebrows , and I'll continue with the "no's" and "that's not very nice". I'm not sure she knows what I mean, but the voice change and the lack of treat, when she does that will hopefully start working, I'm quick to treat when she steps on or flys to me, it's just this one thing that I was worried about how to correct, as I've read so much about it being very easy to lose a birds trust and honestly I really don't want that

 

[TisonA]

mmmm...tricky

I'm not sure of this advice..but I'll throw it out there.

When my gcc was young she would get on my head or hide in the middle if my back and I couldn't get her off or step down. I didn't want to make her afraid of hands, and I happened to have a tiny hand
held American flag . I started calling it my naughty flag...

Touch train with chop stick while on cage, she gently taps stick, then you give her a small treat, then say want a treat. She will start to understand she gets a treat when she gently Taps the stick. She will get a lot less interested in your head. Do not reward for bad behavior!

 

[RN48]

Touch train with chop stick while on cage, she gently taps stick, then you give her a small treat, then say want a treat. She will start to understand she gets a treat when she gently Taps the stick. She will get a lot less interested in your head. Do not reward for bad behavior!

Thank you! Never thought of touch training as so far all training has been done vocally with rewards when task is completed and definitely never reward for bad behaviour (they've learnt so far what the word no means by this)