My Caique won’t stay off my head!

[Dogmom1958]

Is that a sign of dominance? I keep saying no and pull him off. I was saying other things like, “stop!” and “quit it!” now it’s just “no!” I realize for it to be affective I need to stick with that one word.
Does anyone else deal with this? I could really use some pointers on how to get him to stop completely. It really bothers me. I have fibro. and everything hurts, including my scalp. :28:

 

[wrench13]

Dont let him start is the best way. Caiques are stubborn with a capital S.
Sorry no other comment to offer - Salty is never allowed on anyones head.

 

[Dogmom1958]

The day we picked him up from the breeder he flew on my head and my sisters.

 

[Sandy19]

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this with their bird, but Peanut seems to take pride in being a good bird. By that I mean whenever she does an unwanted behavior like refusing to step off from my shoulder for example I will firmly say no and then talk to her in a nice voice. I tell her in a baby voice that "Peanut is a good bird" and then she stops whatever she's doing immediately. I don't know what it is, but something about reminding her what a good bird she is makes her stop the unwanted behavior.

This technique would never work on my dogs.

 

[MooshieBird]

@ Dogmom1958
wrench13 has it right, it's easier to stop a bad habit before it begins. Unfortunately it sounds like it has already begun. With the birds I have owned I have never seen any evidence of height dominance. Mushka loves to get on my head because she likes to be as high as she can, it makes her feel safe. And she loves to play with hair. But she is NOT allowed on my head. Too much risk to her and my face.

Getting on my head gets the same response as biting too hard. She immediately gets set down away from toys and ignored for a minute or two after a firm "No". That works most of the time, sometimes she will get scared and climb from my shoulder to my head. I immediately take her off but I don't put her in time out under this circumstance.

 

[Dogmom1958]

Thanks to everyone for such great advise. I appreciate it. And what is time out mooshiebird. I just wanted to know if it was the cage. That’s where I put Ozzie to calm down. It works most of the time. I have to keep reminding myself she’s still a baby too.
It’s funny because they say you should be experienced with these parrots. My experience is raising 2 boys, one being hyper. Lol!

 

[MooshieBird]

Thanks to everyone for such great advise. I appreciate it. And what is time out mooshiebird. I just wanted to know if it was the cage. That’s where I put Ozzie to calm down. It works most of the time. I have to keep reminding myself she’s still a baby too.
It’s funny because they say you should be experienced with these parrots. My experience is raising 2 boys, one being hyper. Lol!

Tine out is when Moosh gets set down somewhere not fun and ignored for about a minute. It's the only thing I do that could be considered a punishment. Not the cage because the cage has toys, many people set their bird on the floor but Moosh likes the floor so I usually set her on a wooden stool that she has trouble climbing down. It doesn't always work but it does help a lot. I don't go more than 2 minutes because after that I don't think she is able to connect the mistake with timeout.

On my Mushka T.V. thread the last video in the third page actually shows Moosh repetitively getting on my head. There were 2 time outs, I edited them out but you can see the edits, and finally when she still continued to try (and succeed) to get to my head we had to stop the play session and she went to her perch for 15-20 minutes. After that she had gotten over it and we had a good cuddle session.

One other thing, Moosh only gets on my shoulder when she wants to be with me but just wants to sit. She may get a quick treat or head scritch but if she wants to play or cuddle or any real interaction I have her on my knee, arm, or next to me on a piece of furniture. That way I have more control and if she gets too amped up playing (she slips and falls all the time) I don't have to worry about my face getting bit if she tries to catch herself.

 

[KozmoKramer]

How old is your caique who likes to be on your head? When I first got mine, they were about 6 months old. One of them loved to be on my head and "surf" like a crazy caique! I think she grew out of it, cuz I don't remember the last time she was on my head (they're 4 years old now and fairly well behaved....for caiques!!).