Jottlebot
Member
- Aug 29, 2012
- 507
- 14
- Parrots
- Orange-winged Amazon - RIP Charlie,
Spock - Common Mynah,
McCoy - Alexandrine
Hello,
My lovely Alex. McCoy will have been at home 1 year at the beginning of March next year. I think he was hatched in November 2016 (ring isn't easy to interpret) so he's just over a year old. He really is lovely and will sit and chirp and bob his head at me when I'm next to his cage working, he eats when I eat and likes to be near me/on me when he's out. He does tricks (spin, wave, bow, puts his wings up, flies or jumps to me when I call him) and is target trained. I know we have the start of a good bond. However....
I've managed to get in the habit of covering my arms and hands when I handle him (e.g. with a long sleeve). It started when he went through a bit of a grump a few months ago. He was lunging and was biting and it seemed like a good idea at the time. The trouble is, now, whenever he sees skin on my arms or hands he bites it, or at least lunges and stabs it with his beak or drags his beak across it and scratches! Ultimately I want him to step up onto my hand because it makes life so much easier.
He was flying to my bare arm - before I turned into a wimp, but would bite my fingers if he got close to them, he didn't seem to look for them like he does now though. He's never given me a bad bite, but has broken the skin to I can see blood, but it hasn't bled. He's done that through fabric though too.
I think I'm pretty good with the basics of training, but I've never had to "untrain" unwanted behaviour and I don't know where to start. He was parent reared and so isn't used to human skin like a hand-reared bird would be. When he's in his cage he will climb the bars so I can trim and file his nails (not consistently yet) and I can hold his toes with a couple of fingers while I do this.
It feels like a very specific problem of my own making!
Any help graetfully recieved.
My lovely Alex. McCoy will have been at home 1 year at the beginning of March next year. I think he was hatched in November 2016 (ring isn't easy to interpret) so he's just over a year old. He really is lovely and will sit and chirp and bob his head at me when I'm next to his cage working, he eats when I eat and likes to be near me/on me when he's out. He does tricks (spin, wave, bow, puts his wings up, flies or jumps to me when I call him) and is target trained. I know we have the start of a good bond. However....
I've managed to get in the habit of covering my arms and hands when I handle him (e.g. with a long sleeve). It started when he went through a bit of a grump a few months ago. He was lunging and was biting and it seemed like a good idea at the time. The trouble is, now, whenever he sees skin on my arms or hands he bites it, or at least lunges and stabs it with his beak or drags his beak across it and scratches! Ultimately I want him to step up onto my hand because it makes life so much easier.
He was flying to my bare arm - before I turned into a wimp, but would bite my fingers if he got close to them, he didn't seem to look for them like he does now though. He's never given me a bad bite, but has broken the skin to I can see blood, but it hasn't bled. He's done that through fabric though too.
I think I'm pretty good with the basics of training, but I've never had to "untrain" unwanted behaviour and I don't know where to start. He was parent reared and so isn't used to human skin like a hand-reared bird would be. When he's in his cage he will climb the bars so I can trim and file his nails (not consistently yet) and I can hold his toes with a couple of fingers while I do this.
It feels like a very specific problem of my own making!
Any help graetfully recieved.