Terrible twos

[joudb]

So my macaw was never good with her beak to begin with, but as of lately it seems to be getting worse..

First problem is when she steps up she likes to playfully bite my fingers\arms\collarbones or whatever she can grab which hurts, I respond by jerking my arm down and putting her back in her cage

Also when she is taking food from me she sometimes goes for my fingers instead and I respond by dropping the food and walking away

another weird behavior that i am trying to correct is when I am hanging toys in her aviary-style cage (with a ladder) she would attack my face and pull my hair out. on the other hand, if I am just walking in casually she comes for a scratch and doesn't really pick on me as much

Now I am calling the bites playful cause I know whenever I reach too fast or accidentally scare her the bites are much more painful and short whereas her playful bites involve a lot of chewing

I've seen videos where they suggest you ignore the biting but I CAN'T ignore the biting at all and putting her down\taking away treats doesn't seem to be helping :17:

So any advice from anyone's experience would be greatly appreciated

 

[GaleriaGila]

Hello!

I recommend taking your time with the Macaw Forum (which you've already discovered). The stickies are great, and Birdman666 is one of our resident macaw-whisperers!

Meanwhile, i'll offer some personal advice.

I suspect that if you're going to contain some of those behaviors, you'll have to clip wings (did I miss anything about whether he's clipped or not?), and I don't want to do that, so I put up with the consequences of flighted-and-fearless! It's a very personal decision...

I have reduced biting to almost zero over the decades... not because I've changed the bird, but I have changed me. And a lot of that has involved giving up on a lot of my desires/expectations. After years of battle, I "compromised". I don't do stuff that gets me bitten. I NEVER do stuff that makes him mad... I don't touch others when he's out; I rarely try to get him to step up onto my hand first. Hand-held perch first, then hand. In some ways, I swallow my disappointment at having such a little monster for a pet, but he is what he is. I ALWAYS wear my hair down when he's on my shoulder, so all he can bite is hair. Really, I don't involve hands much... he doesn't like them. He seems to think the real ME is my head, perched on a weird moveable tree with questionable appendages.

Since he's fully flighted, the ONLY way I get him into the cage is to toss a chile pepper in and he flaps in after it. So food reward is a necessity for me. Time-out doesn't exist in the Rb's kingdom.

I have had some success with using the "earthquake" technique for biting. When he bites, give your hand a swift shake... it should make him let go. The idea... every time he bites, a mysterious earthquake shakes him up. Some people feel this is mean and/or engenders lack of trust. The same can work for clothes biting... give your shoulder a shake, or jump! For me, it has helped.

I guess my point is... there's no perfect situation, and no absolute standard. It's all whatever you and your bird work out, in my humble opinion.

Good for you for reaching out.

 

[ChristaNL]

lol, she sounds a lot like mine (including the hairpulling - that is SO annoying / no solution for that, yet anyway ).

=
Step-up: only accept the step-up if she raises a foot first and does NOT use the beak at all!
They all can do it, but it is your responsability to makes those succesfull: so -no dropping of the arm on those, be rocksteady!

Mine used the step-ups to 'lunge and plunge' - so I got fed up with those till I found out birds really do not need to secure themselves with their beaks, or 'test the perch' as long as you can trust each other ...


Sunny sometimes still lunges when asked to step-up- if she does, I just walk away (and she *hates* that)
so : parrot 0 : human 1

=
Read the pressurbite-thread. http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html
You don't have to suffer in silence at all.
LOL I never did anyway, but it turned out: use the "autch TOO hard" as a learning tool for her.
She will have to learn what is acceptable and what is not.


I've been at it for 7 months now- and it is slowly sinking in.
(I am not the best teacher around, better get wrench, sailboat or one of the others )

but... everytime play gets enthousiastic -> it gets rough and she slips / backslides a bit.
So it is an ongoing process.

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html
Helps if you are about to give up.
Sometimes just go back to something very basic to give yourself a break.:44:
(works for me)


=
fingerfood...


yup..know what you mean...
Sunny will even go as far as take a few bites of whatever I am holding for her (she is a parrot who does not want to get her feet mushy/sticky etc.) and when she has enough or is no longer interested she wil lunge at my fingers (I am not waiting around for the bite -> she uses the bars to amplify her bite-down-power, been there, done that, dont want to play that game anymore ).
Oh of course when she is not interested at all -> she will lunge!
(not always because well, where is the challenge?)


No solution to that one- exept to "disappear" the moment she misbehaves and keep your eyes open to prevent painfull accidents.
She will figure it out... but they are also pranksters, so it is hard (for me anyway) to distinguish between "I dont know nothing, do not understand" and pure "lets see if the human falls for it" (again).

 

[Laurasea]

I'm ready a book on bird behavior. What you are describing is a bird that doesn't fully trust you yet. Or whom has lost trust of you for some reason. I would start over earning trust and bonding. I don't believe in hand shaking for bites as leads to not trusting hands. I think setting them on the floor works better, I only leave them on the floor for a few seconds, the second bite goes back to the cage. My rescue was talking food from me and throwing away even if it was her favorite, or trying to bite, so I got this book. First thing it mentions right off is those two things, meaning the bird doesn't trust you fully yet. For me and my bird she requires me to go much slower, talking to her first telling her how wonderful she is, then offering treat. For some reason her trust is less, maybe because of the quaking hand in response to bites, equalling less trust in hands. Bites are hard to deal with but worth exploring what you are doing wrong, yes I subscribe to the bites are all the persons fault. I myself have been at fault many times, some for rushing, some for jelleousy ect.

 

[noodles123]

When you drop the food, is the bird able to get it anyway?

If so, it could be biting to eat on its own terms lol (at least in that case)...

 

[ChristaNL]

Sunny never retrieves food from the floor (or the bottom of the cage, though it mostly falls on the floor outside the cage) -> we have the greys for that
so in my case... not her objective.

 

[noodles123]

I just wondered because I have seen Macaws do it and my cockatoo will as well, especially if I am gone (I video-tape her sometimes lol).

 

[joudb]

I drop the food and shake my arm out of panic\pain rather than to "train her" and no she doesn't get it, if it's on the floor it's not edible anymore for some reason

ChristaNL My bird would bite me as soon as she's full too!

Laurasea that honestly made my heart drop and is very plausible