How do You explain to guest not to touch?

[frwheel16]

What I mean is, friends come over and want to instantly pet my Oscar. He doent know these new faces or has limited contact with them and they approch him with there big hand over him and he gets nervouse. Which I totaly understand, but my guests thinks its odd. I explain to the that how would you feel if everytime you were aproched with a huge hand over your head? It took him at least a month before he trusted me... i think i need to let guests know to only chat with him no petting???

[judygram]

The moment they hit the door lay down the house rules, as much as they want to pet Oscar, they risk a bad bite if they persist and he is not receptive of any touching, no excuses.

[nims]

Lol I dont have this problem. Indy seems to lunge at anyone who is not me or my husban, which is not ideal if we ever want to go on holiday. :unsure:

 

I think you just need to be honest and say to your guest they can chat but no petting.

[Suzzique]

I am VERY blunt about my birds. I don't care if it hurts other peoples feelings. You DON'T touch my birds. If you touch while I'm not looking and get bit your problem not mine.

 

I have one of my daughters friends and her little sister (who is 5) come over in the morning. I take them to school then pick them up after school. When they first started coming over the little one kept messing with Alex. I finally had to say something to the mom about it. She is pretty small and Alex has bitten my son hard enough in the same spot that he left a scar. I have to use plyers to fix some of his toys. I can just see him taking her finger off.

[tibanks]

Im pretty up front with my guest too. But I find that people are more scared of them and dont mind viewing from a distance..they find the beak intimadating. Both my bestfriends are scared of them. Now my mom on the other hand wants to be up in their face, wasen't to long ago she got a lip bitten, and now she keeps her distance.

 

Tina in OR.

[judygram]

Poor mom had to learn the hard way to keep her distance until she can get on better terms with your grey, nothing like a good hard bite to bring that point across, hopefully one day she will be able to interact with him if that is what she wants to do.

[Mistyparrot]

I explain to any new visitor that I will introduce them to Misty. We go to Misty's room and I say for example "Misty this is John". Then they are to say to me "Hello Steve" then "Hello Misty" And I say "Hello John", "hello Misty". This way Misty will learn that persons name and if they become a frequent visitor he will often remember them by name. Either way he accepts that the visitor is to be tolerated.

Of course I also tell them not to try to touch Misty or make sudden movements toward him. I explain that if he is offended or spooked he can give a severe bite.

People forget that we must seem a bit like King Cong to a parrot. Most people get the message or they never get the chance to meet him. Luckily Misty is generally

tolerant of new people although not all Greys are.

 

Steve n Misty

[SweetFX]

It amazes me when humans dont understand the word "no" but all my animals do. :huh:

[Nychsa]

I too tell people right from the jump not to approach the birds - in fact I make sure they don't go towards the bird cages as both Jiggy and Bella are very protective of their cages. I do leave the cage doors open when people come over so the birds come out on their own.

 

We had a house party, and I decided to let the birds stay in the great room rather than hide them away. As my guests interacted with me, the birds became curious and came out of their cages to sit on their cage doors.

 

They both love being the center of attention, so, Jiggy started doing his "Jiggy Dance" which of course thrilled people.

 

So, they started talking to him, and bob up and down with him.

 

Bella couldn't stand that he was getting all the attention so she started chatting and the people were thrilled by her christal clear voice and vocabulary and started talking back to her.

 

That of course infuriated Jiggy, so at this point he picked a guest to investigate a bit further (usually a woman - never seen him go to a man!) and he landed on her shoulder and tried to find her bra strap :blink:

 

:laugh: Eventually I had to lock Jiggy into his cage because he just wouldn't give it a rest. Bella stayed out and of course as people were talking she was constantly jabbering in the background and always had someone standing about two feet from her cage chatting with her. She's such a ham! :laugh: :laugh:

 

So, that's what I do - I don't even let people crowd the cages - Bella in particular will growl fiercely if a stranger crowds her cage!

 

I know mine will also defend the house if I'm not there introducing them to people. The owner of our doggy day care volunteered to take care of Bella and Jiggy for me once, and had only met the birds once very briefly. During her attempt to sit with them, she opened the cages and went back to the fridge and started making their food. Jiggy came charging out and started to dive bomb her, bitting and attacking her!! :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

Bella flew off her cage and started to chase her around the center island attacking her feet :woohoo:

 

Ultimately she had to call one of her employees who had extensive bird experience to come rescue her! :ohmy:

 

My greyhounds will let anyone in, but beware of the parrots!!!!

[LindaMary]

I'm glad this thread got started, because I have really realized within the last few months that we companion bird folks do need to be actively clear with others about The Bird Rules. Maxi is a pretty mellow little girl, and when people see her hanging out on my shoulder, and happily hopping up on my 13-year-old's hand and getting cuddled, they don't see any clues warning them that the 13-year-old is the ONLY one whom Max allows to cuddle her (not even me), or that the fact that Max is so "tame" with us does NOT mean she's going to be tame with everyone. It's a natural mistake for them to make, and that means it's up to us to protect them (both parrots and people) from that mistake.

 

Of course, there is also an amazing number of people out there to whom it has never occurred that they shouldn't stick their fingers right in a caged animal's cage to "say hello". Why do you suppose this is such a knee-jerk reaction among so many people?

 

I really like your method, Steve, of formally introducing people to Misty. I have done something like that on occasion, too, but not consistently, and I think I will start making it a rigorous habit. Thanks for putting it out there!

[casper]

When we have any visitors, I always get them to give the birds a treat, they dont always take it but I try to show the birds that new people are no threat to them.

People are really curious with the birds though, we had a friend round one night who was scared of the birds but when she had a couple of glasses of dutch courage she decided to lift Charlies cover up when he was asleep! he was frantic and flapping round his cage! I had told her earlier in the night not to disturb them!

I always lay down the rules now and try to explain to people how the grey can be nervous, and they dont welcome strangers so readily. Im very protective of them and to be honest dont have people round as much as I used to.

My choice but I just find this easier than upsetting them.

[Tycos_mom]

With My birds I find that most children when they come over are just curious I try to satisfy the couriousity right away by picking up one of my birds and allowing the children to pet them.My conures and cockatiels love kids so alot of the time they will sit on a childs hand this usually does the trick the kids get bored of the birds and move on to something else. Grown ups on the other hand i seem no matter what you say to them they don't get it. I don't know how many times I told men that come to my house to stay away from Fergie she hates men all men and she will bite. she won't bite woman but she has had a bad experiance with a man and she hates them and I don't know how many men I've heard say to me she won't bite me like there somthing different about them and sure enough they get a real good bite everytime. I just laugh I warn they don't listen they deserve what they get.

[Laurie]

My son is 11 and has various friends his age visiting from time to time.

When they say, "Ooooh, look at your bird!" I say, "He bites." To which the kid's eyes will get a little wide and he will take the wide route around the cage.

Nuff said!

[shelly_quin]

You are saying the right thing with the big hand in the cage... I would just say that ots nice that they want to stroke him, but he gets nervous as he is unsure of other people, and maybe after seeing him regular and chatting away to him, he might decide to come sit beside you and be sociable... Also explain that a parrot bite isn't nice lol :P