my Sennie tears me to shreds

[Smurfery]

I have a ~5 yr old Senegal that had a previous owner. Have had him for a few years now. He is the sweetest bird unless I am trying to stop him from doing something I don't want him to do, or if I put him back in his cage before he is ready to go back. He does this thing where he will bite and bite and bite. And these are deep bites, he really cuts my skin open.

What should I do to stop him from biting or to redirect? I have tried putting him on the floor, but when I go to pick him up again he starts biting again. Its like once he starts biting, he's in a zone where he is just stays in a bad mood.

 

[Spiritbird]

The first thing is hard but you must do it. Do not react to the bite at all. Just leave the room right away and let him think about why you are leaving. After a short while you can return. Second of all what is it that you do not want him to do? Parrots need to be allowed to make decisions by themselves as long as the bird is safe. You are his guardian not his boss. Why are you putting him back in the cage if he is not ready to go back? It sounds to me like he is testing you. How old is he? Was he abused? Have you taken him to an avian vet for a check up? This is a complex problem for which there is no easy answer.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Your bird is a quick learner - that is a good thing. Now you just need to control the contingencies for his behavior.

First a comparison to the most often heard problem in house training a dog: "we take him outside for a long time but he wont go, as soon as we get in he pees on the floor." Of course, the dog has learned that peeing is the end of all the fun - he goes outside, sniffs, explores, plays, then if/when he goes in a good spot he is brought inside and the owner goes to work. Instead the dog should be taken out of their crate in the morning, brought outside on leash strait to a tree or other good spot, given a moment or two to go, and if they don't they should be brought swiftly strait back into the crate for a minute. This can repeat over and over (and over and over) until the dog goes outside THEN he can hang out outside, play, sniff, explore, roll in dirt, etc. All the fun comes AFTER he does the desired behavior - don't make the desired behavior the end of the fun. That idea right there solves 99% of all 'severe' potty training problem within a couple of days. And a similar problem is at the core of many pet behavioral 'problems'. It's not a problem for the pet, they have learned the contingencies quite well - rather it's a problem for the owner as they must realizes they are in fact rewarding bad behavior and punishing good; until that changes the pets behavior wont change.

My suggestion is to build a pattern and procedure for cage re-entry. For example whenever I need to leave I rinse and refill Auggie's water dish right before I leave. I refill the water, he goes in the cage, then he gets a special treat that he ONLY gets for going in his cage (dried blueberries in Auggie's case). Now when I refill his water he is running to get into his cage and onto the perch where I hand the blueberry through the cage - if I'm too slow with delivering the blueberry he'll pace back and forth on that perch until he gets it.

Your senegal needs to learn that he'll get more good stuff for going in the cage when asked than he'll loose by going in. The important elements are a discriminative stimulus: water dish changing for Auggie, or a command such as 'go to your house', etc - it's just a bit of historical accident that the water dish changing is a more salient signal to Auggie than is the command, though he responds to the command fairly well now too. Next is the behavior of going to a particular spot in the cage to collect a reinforcer - I'll get to how to train this behavior in a moment. Last is the reinforcer/reward - this needs to be a really good reward, and ideally will be specific for going back in his cage; this could be his favorite food for example, but with it he should get plenty of praise and attention through the cage for a bit.

Now, certainly it's easy enough to reward a behavior once it happens, but how do you GET him to go in the cage the first time so it can be rewarded? It is possible to just grab him and PUT him in there, but this is not preferable for many reasons, it is available as a last resort or as a stepping stone to the better method. The better method is to lure him: find that treat that really motivates him and keep it just out of reach leading him into the cage, lead him to a particular spot then give him the treat. Do this many times and transition to pulling it away at the last moment and handing it to him THROUGH the cage (he's inside, you're out) while you close the cage door. For training he should go in the cage, get the reward, then be let out right away again. He needs to learn that when he goes in the cage (when asked) he gets something good and looses nothing.

Right now when he goes in the cage he gets nothing (or very little) and looses a lot. There should be no surprise that he will not do this willingly.

No living being does anything without reason - expecting our pets to do what we want is crazy, they will do what THEY want. It is our job to control their environment such that our goals/desires converge: You want him to go in the cage on command, make it so that HE wants to go in the cage on command.

 

[antoinette]

Hi Smurfery
Eina, shame man that must be sore.
Luckily, thank goodness I have not had a bird that bites to that extent
Have read through posts about biting etc....
Spiritbird and Auggie's Dad have basically covered it all "great advise"
Good luck
Let us know what happens !!!
Take care

 

[Tumbala's Girl]

I read that while the bird is biting you that you should move your hand back and forth a little to cause a kind of earthquake. It throws them off balance just enough to distract them from the biting. It does work when I remember to do it (not that he attacks me too often anymore). Hopefully this will help save your hand while your working on the things that AD told you about.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Tumbala is right, however I don't often recommend this strategy. It does 'work' in the sense that it interrupts their current biting and can function as an aversive punishment, but in the long run it can have unintended consequences. A lot, if not a majority, of bites are caused by the birds not trusting the perch (hand) they are on. If they have had much experience with that hand being unsteady it will be even harder for them to trust it.

So while that punishment works be conservative in its use and use other means to avoid the situation in the first place. I suppose you can compare it to a good spanking for a kid - yes it can be an appropriate punishment, but you don't want them to get so used to it that they expect it / fear you.

 

[Tumbala's Girl]

I don't know why but I had a feeling that AD was going to have something to say about the earthquake method. I considered not posting it at all...guess I should have paid attention to that feeling. But...like I said...it was something I read in one of the 2 bird books that I checked out at the library...one of which was reccomended by my Vet.

Anyway, I didn't use it very often cuz it wasn't the first thing that I thought of when he started attacking my arm/hand but when I did, it helped and it was better then the angry reaction that I was finding more and more difficult to hide. It just got to be so severe and was happening so much (several times in a few hours) that I was finding it hard to deal with and the earthquake helped. Fortunately we are basically over that problem now and so on the rare occasion that it does happen I'm able to control my anger and just put him in his cage.

I just thought maybe it would help a little while they were working on AD's suggestions. I was trying to help.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Oh no, it is good you mentioned it. And it is good advice and a good tool to have in ones toolbox of dealing with biting. I just wanted to highlight the point that it should not be the only tool and should not be overused. Sorry if I implied otherwise.

 

[Tumbala's Girl]

No big deal AD. I'm kinda having a bad day (darn kids!) and so I might have taken it a little too personal. I do that sometimes. Sorry. No worries...I will post again! I do defer to you and many of the other members because I am a newbie when it comes to birds. But sometimes I remember a tidbit that I read or something that I have learned from my experience so far that no one else has posted so I throw it out there incase it will help. I'll try to be a little less sensative in the future.