How I Trained my Bird to Bite Me

[Sarasota]

Burt is a 30+ year old wild caught TAG. He’s a very inquisitive, intelligent little guy. His one request of me is that I don’t touch him, and I’m cool with it. Even with that requirement, he’s a very interactive bird.

 

Burt’s favorite training toy is the colored ring game. He will come down from his perch, on to my desk and wait for me to hand him colored rings to put on the posts. He’s a very motivated bird and willingly trains infinitely, or until I get too tired to keep up with him.

 

One day I was working at my computer when I felt a little nudge on my arm…from the bird who shuns all physical contact. I was so taken aback – and excited – I quickly rewarded him with a sunflower seed and played the ring game with him. (The long time parrot owners are chuckling as they read this…with a knowing smile). The second nudge was more insistent, the subsequent nudges more bold - until, finally exasperated with me, Burt give me a little nip on the arm. “Come on, Mom! I want to play!!!”

 

I tell this story because it’s an example of how simple it is to “train” a bird to bite us. Burt progressed from a nudge to a nip very quickly. One nudge got him a treat and attention….surely a bigger nudge would get the same reward? And when trying to extinguish the behavior, a bird can get very frustrated and make the behavior more exaggerated in order to get the same payoff. That cuddly creature with the exploratory beak is going to grow up one day and experience hormones. If he’s already been rewarded for beaking your hand, it’s going to be a hard habit to break – and that young beak gets A LOT stronger.

 

Every bird is a unique individual. Most cockatoos LOVE loud vocalizations. Yelling at them when they scream – that’s a party, man! Whooooo! Everyone is vocalizing!! Spending time interacting with your bird will tell you what motivates it, what works and what doesn’t work.

 

With Burt, I realized my mistake fairly quickly in time to redirect him to another behavior. The cuddly creature that turned hormonal and bites hands? That’s my other bird, Sondheim. And it’s my daily struggle to reduce the behavior. For me, what’s important is to take responsibility in creating the behavior and do my best to find a solution.

 

I sincerely hope this post made you smile…or gave you pause to think about interactions with your own bird!! If you’re like me, your bird(s) take up a big part of your life…and your heart.

[katana600]

The very fact that Burt has accepted you to the point of seeking out your attention has me cheering wildly from a great distance. LOL. Way to go Burt! The encouragement that gives me is profound. As you work with him you are showing him what is acceptable behavior and toning down the nips but still keeping him wanting more contact, even if it is not hands on. Or "beaks on" in his case. What an insight for those of us with rehomed parrots or babies. Thanks so much for sharing this.

[birdhouse]

We want their acceptance so much! We want that bond. But it's so easy to reinforce bad behavior sometimes. Often hard to recognize it even after the fact. Looks like you're doing a greyt job w/Burt overall, though. Thanks for sharing.

[zooman]

thanks for sharing, just like children we all have our ups and downs with them and work through those as a family. Im going through something similar with mine sexuallly maturing and becoming a bit of a nest (cage) protector in the mornings, your right, overnight almost he went from pinned eyes and me walking away to now swooping over me in less than a month, i figured out what i did wrong and now working through it. I let too many people give me poor advice when i knew what to do in my gut, last few weeks settled down. so keep at it.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

zooman... let us know what that bad advice was. It would be important for others to learn. Nancy