Hello everybody! Intro + advice needed :)

[JerryNewt]

Hi everyobdy,

First of all it is very nice to see how this forum's "veteran" interact with newcomers and the good community vibes.

I'm a proud new owner of a Pyrrhura Lepida which is now 5 months old. He has been hand tamed, steps up and is socialized correctly by his previous owners, but he was a somewhat more bold and assertive birb.

It's now our 4th day with our new buddy and as I think that a first good step is the best way, I'd like to some advice.

Currently Djae (name) is adepting to his new environment, unfortunately somewhat more "confined" as his previous living space. He was used to a big flock and the owners had their entire first floor as a bird room. I work 32 hours and get home at five. I spend half an hour in the morning and 2 hours one to one in the evening and keep him close when possible (encaged) for the rest of his day. Weekends and free days give more time of course.

So far Djae is doing good, he is very curious and very quick in learning. He has been out of his cage on the 3th day. Flew around a bit and landed on my arm. Upon landing he nipped my arm on some places, but on one spot found he could get quite some skin and nibbed thus hard that it scraped the surface of my skin (reached a pain threshold for me).

I did not react with any noises, earthquake tactics or windblowing, but used my other hand as a ball to stop him from continuing to nib/bite the same spot by pushing it to his beak slowly. It worked, but he looked for new spots to nib, which was basically my entire being that was soft enough to latch on to. Thus I put him back in his cage after I spent a minute with him on a stick as to not let him directly associate (hopefully) nipping/biting with going to the cage.

he reacts to stick step ups, but wants to quickly go on my hand and procceed to discover nippable areas, but with quite some force as mentioned before.

So my question; how can I go about to reduce this behaviour? Am I too fast to get him out of his cage? He is not scared, moreso, he really wants to get out due to his previous lifestyle.

What I'm doing:

I'm using a clicker and target practice to teach him to go to spots I point at in his cage. This as a effort to increase our bond.
I'm giving him toys with increasingly more "difficult" levels to get rewards.
He gets about 10-12 hours sleep starting from 8/9 PM to 7/8 AM.

His current behaviour:
He has some wood elements in his cage, he breaks the edges of the wood and likes to bite stuff in general.
Screams are intermittent, mostly soft, sometimes loud.
Very, very active inside his cage.

Thank you for reading my post, and in advance thank you for any advice given on my topic. I'll hope that some of you can give me pointers in my scenario so I can further increase my bond.

Kind regards,

Newt

 

[AzurZafir]

Hello
Welcome to the forum !
I have two green cheek conures and they were really really biting me, but now they rarely bite.

What I did first was I did't let them onto my hand. If they did come I grabbed a stick and got them to step up and rewarded them. If they bit me before I could do that, I would say a firm No bite (sometimes several times). If they still wouldn't release my skin I'd lower my hand. This way they would lose balance a little bit and stop. I then would offer the stick again.

This is only as far as you get to know him. You can still let him on your arm though.

When you see the biting lessen, you can introduce your hand slowly. By this i mean let him step onto your hand for a treat and put him back. Then increase the amount of time he's on your hand, giving treats through. Then you can get him to step up for one treat for a bigger amount of time. Well this was pretty ununderstandable. :02:

When I first introduced my hands like this they always bit me. A lot. My hand was covered in scars. Iused a treat that they absolutely love so that they feel tempted to get it. When they bit me I still said no bite but let my hand stay there for some seconds. If he didn't bite me, I would take my hand away but give a little reward for not biting. If he even stepped up, I gave a big treat and of course lots of praising.

I don't know how hot it is where you live but I always wore long armed shirts or hoodies. This way biting wouldn't hurt as much and I could react accordingly, not sreaming from pain.

I don't know if this helped, this was my method of getting rid of biting. Oh and also, timeouts from biting. This was pretty hard for me because they are both flighted and a sI see yours is too. So I couldn't just put him on the floor because he can fly away. What I did was bring him into another room and put him down somewhere, and leave the room. No looking at him, as if he wasn't there. He would fly back to me though and if he bit again, I'd do the same and if not, then give a reward.

So the summary is No bite, a little timeout, and introducing hand Slowly.

Training is definitely good and i think you're doing everything upright. Good luck!

Julianna

Ps.:Also if someone else on the forum thinks i was doing something the bad way, they can tell me because I'm not sure but it worked

 

[Flboy]

Welcome to you! At 5 months the biting is more exploration vs meanness! He is a toddler, tasting his world! He needs to learn pressure training, and there are excellent posts to be read in here! One thing you said is perfect! You didn’t want to associate cage with bite! Yes!!
Once minimized, the nibbling really never stops, but it is more of a way of communication! I don’t think your situation fully fits this thread, but there is a wealth of wisdom in it!
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html

It changed my relationship with birds, actually, all animals, from a point of using dominance as training, to more of a mutual respect!

 

[MonicaMc]

As mentioned, Djae is in a curious phase. It's best to avoid, distract and replace. You are doing great in the training!

When he's with you, you can do some station training and teach him to play with foraging toys or foot toys, or simply keep training new behaviors! In other words, keep him busy before he learns to be busy himself!

If he bites, simply get him off of you! No earthquake, blowing, punishing in any form. Just get him off and think of how you can avoid that situation in the future.

Some birds may use biting as a form of communication to go back to the cage. It can also be their way to say they are bored, uncomfortable, something startled them, or otherwise. Again, you just have a baby so he's more than likely just being curious.



Perhaps you could do more training away from the cage since he's getting it down at the cage?

 

[Scott]

Welcome to the forums, Newt and Djae! Unfamiliar with Pyrrhura Lepida, so for others similarly curious: https://www.parrots.org/encyclopedia/pearly-conure

You are on the correct track, considering he is young and less than one week has elapsed. A strong bond is precursor to any training, this thread may assist: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

Bite-Pressure Training may bridge the transition to fewer beak interactions: http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

This thread may appear alien in context, but a superb treatise of how/why birds use beaks: http://www.parrotforums.com/macaws/56384-big-beak-o-phobes-guide-understanding-macaw-beaks.html

 

[wrench13]

Time out for biting for sure. Given he is flighted, the suggestion about using another room as the time out place is good, but it must be immediate, so he associates the time out with biting. Otherwise it might be seen as just a game humans play. We use a chair back but flighted birds will just fly back right away.

 

[JerryNewt]

Hello everybody,

Thank you all for your advice! I'm happy to see such detailed responses. I'll definetly read up on the bite pressure training & bonding tips. I've had a succesful day of training him to fly towards a step up stick from a 1 meter distance with relative succes. A few times he would fly without command. After a while he got full of the treats and decided to focus on other parts in the room.

He does go to spots I point at in the cage now when inside it, which is nice considering it's been 1 day training it.

I'm not yet letting him on my hand yet before I somewhat understand his tendancies.

I've been thinking about expanding my forage toys collection, do you guys have any recommended toys or DIY toys? I mostly build his wooden toys from outside materials that are safe to use.

Kind regards and many thanks,

Newt

 

[GaleriaGila]

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