IcyWolf
New member
- Jul 5, 2011
- 1,542
- 3
- Parrots
- ~Alexandrine Parakeet~2 Red Lored Amazons~Blue Fronted Amazon~Black capped conure~4 Green Cheeks~4 Parrotlets~2 lineolated parakeets~9 American budgies~9 English budgies~ And lots of babies :)
While reading the thread about the screaming IRN, I thought about this.
When I had my goffin she was a bit of a screamer. She came to me that way, my grandma had her, she didn't have many toys and when she would yell, my grandma would angrily yell back, hence the beginning of the cycle... While it was pretty adorable to see a little old lady and a bossy little cockatoo argue with each other, it taught her a very bad habit.
When she came to live with me I had a few room mates. I explained to all of them that yelling back at her was only going to reinforce the behavior and for the most part, they were pretty good about ignoring her when she would throw her little fits.
On to the point.... We also had three cats and we bought a laser pointer for them. It was only a matter of time before we inadvertently realized that if she was screaming and saw the laser dot, it would distract her and she would stop screaming. Once we realized this, we just kept the laser pointer on the coffee table, if she would start screaming and not stop after a minute or so, shining the dot on the wall, ceiling or floor where she could see it would distract her, she would stop screaming and it was almost like she would completely forget she was screaming in the first place. It worked really well but I was never sure if this was an ok thing or not? She wasn't afraid of the dot and we never shined it directly on her or anywhere close enough that it could possibly make contact with her eyes or anything. She also never seemed to realize that the dot was coming from us so it wasn't giving her that reinforcement that yelling or whistling would. It was kind of like *SCREAM *SCREAM *SCREAM *holy crap where did that red dot come from?! *stops screaming *where did the dot go?! *go back to doing something else.
Thoughts? It's not scaring or hurting the bird, it's not reinforcing the screaming behavior by giving them attention for the unwanted behavior, and it successfully distracts the bird from doing the unwanted behavior. I still somehow feel like it's a weird way to get a bird to be quiet. I'm not sure if it would even have the same affect on another bird, I've never tried it and fortunately none of our current birds are really screamers aside from their couple daily blasts.
I've never recommended anyone to try this either, that's kind of why I'm asking, if anyone can come up with a reason that this would be harmful in anyway, please tell me. If not, maybe it can help someone out.
When I had my goffin she was a bit of a screamer. She came to me that way, my grandma had her, she didn't have many toys and when she would yell, my grandma would angrily yell back, hence the beginning of the cycle... While it was pretty adorable to see a little old lady and a bossy little cockatoo argue with each other, it taught her a very bad habit.
When she came to live with me I had a few room mates. I explained to all of them that yelling back at her was only going to reinforce the behavior and for the most part, they were pretty good about ignoring her when she would throw her little fits.
On to the point.... We also had three cats and we bought a laser pointer for them. It was only a matter of time before we inadvertently realized that if she was screaming and saw the laser dot, it would distract her and she would stop screaming. Once we realized this, we just kept the laser pointer on the coffee table, if she would start screaming and not stop after a minute or so, shining the dot on the wall, ceiling or floor where she could see it would distract her, she would stop screaming and it was almost like she would completely forget she was screaming in the first place. It worked really well but I was never sure if this was an ok thing or not? She wasn't afraid of the dot and we never shined it directly on her or anywhere close enough that it could possibly make contact with her eyes or anything. She also never seemed to realize that the dot was coming from us so it wasn't giving her that reinforcement that yelling or whistling would. It was kind of like *SCREAM *SCREAM *SCREAM *holy crap where did that red dot come from?! *stops screaming *where did the dot go?! *go back to doing something else.
Thoughts? It's not scaring or hurting the bird, it's not reinforcing the screaming behavior by giving them attention for the unwanted behavior, and it successfully distracts the bird from doing the unwanted behavior. I still somehow feel like it's a weird way to get a bird to be quiet. I'm not sure if it would even have the same affect on another bird, I've never tried it and fortunately none of our current birds are really screamers aside from their couple daily blasts.
I've never recommended anyone to try this either, that's kind of why I'm asking, if anyone can come up with a reason that this would be harmful in anyway, please tell me. If not, maybe it can help someone out.
