Is this normal?

[penn141991]

I know ive already posted but i still am wondering. The constant biting and aggression my ringneck has towards me, is this the 'bluffing' stage that ive been reading about where i am supposed to ignore the biting, or is my bird just a biter and i should stop ignoring the bites?

[ellieelectrons]

Hi penn

or is my bird just a biter and i should stop ignoring the bites

Your comment here reminds me of a barbara heidenreich video case study I saw on her parrot training DVD (Parrot Behavior and Training #1). A guy had a bird that was a bird that the owner had written off as "a biter" and within a few training sessions, she was able to work with the owner to stop the biting behaviour. The transformation was quite remarkable. I would recommend you take a look at this video.

There are a lot of people in the school of thought that you should ignore biting. I'm not one of them. I don't believe in making a fuss about it or trying to punish your bird though. What I believe is that you leave the bird alone and see the bite as your bird trying to communicate something. Try to figure out why the bite occurred and try to avoid that situation again by altering your behaviour. I got my two to a stage where they were hardly biting at all when a couple of weeks ago Janey gave me a couple of bad bites in one day. With help from people in the forum I figured out why she was biting - she was trying to nest and she knew I was trying to take her away from the clothes dryer which is where she wanted to nest. I developed an action plan of about 4 or 5 things - put it in place and things are back to normal again.

I read an article from Barbara Heidenreich on biting a while ago and I posted a summary of it somewhere else in the forum. Here it is again:
If you are looking for ideas on what to do when your bird bites, I suggest you have a look at these techniques suggested by my fav bird training expert Barbara Heidenreich:
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com.au/2009 ... bites.html

Tips include:
- using a fist to get them to step up
- make them reach down for the treat.

I got a subscription to her site for Christmas and there is an article in there with more information. The article is titled "respecting the bite" and she talks about the techniques she uses when working with lions and how she applies those similar approaches with parrots. When she trains lions she trains through barriers and offers reinforces via utensils and tries to avoid the aggressive behaviour. Some points she raises in this article are listed below.

1. PREVENTING THE BITE
- being considerate of what the animal is telling her with its body language. If her being close to the animal provokes a fear or aggression response she sees and acts on it. She does whatever she can to put the animal at-ease. It may include backing away. In the long term, she has found that adopting this approach successfully addresses biting behaviour.
- next she tries to associate a positive reinforcer with her presence so she may offer food treats from her hand, a spoon or a bowl. Depending on the bird, it may also involve offering toys or enrichment, head scratches or praise - whatever the bird shows a preference for. This then starts to create the anticipation of more "good stuff" from your presence. The bird is more engaged and you can feel more trusting of the bird.

2. WHEN THEY BITE
- getting a bite usually means you misread the bird's body language or you asked for a little too much or you just don't know what happened... but regardless, you got bitten.
- she suggests you detach the bird from the person first. If the bird is holding on, a thumb and forefinger can be placed on the top part of the beak to pry the parrot off wahtever is in their mouth. Other strategies include redirecting the parrots attention and putting the bird down in the nearest available safe location.
- pause and think about what you could have done differently to avoid the situation. She also notes that if you want to focus on building trust with your parrot, you do not want to react in a way that the bird would find unpleasant. So she doesn't try to punish the parrot by shaking or dropping her hand, yelling no, flicking its beak, etc. as they may damage efforts to build a successful relationship.

I have copy two paragraphs from her article verbatim below:
"A bite can be very painful and by all means I do not recommend holding steady while a bird chomps away. This is the erroneous idea that by taking the bite the caregiver will teach the bird that biting has no effect. In truth there can be other reinforcers that maintain that behavior over which we have no control. For example grinding away on flesh may provide a stimulating tactile sensation to the bird. The only way to remove that reinforcer is for the bird to not have human flesh in its beak.

Another question often presented to me is “How do you let the parrot know what he did was wrong?” I must admit this question makes me cringe a bit. This is because I see it as a request for approval to use aversives to punish a bird for biting. In reality in most cases aversive punishment would not be the strategy of choice to address biting. The primary goal would have been to avoid creating the situation in which the parrot would be inclined to bite in the first place. This may mean teaching the bird what to do instead of what not to do. It may also mean making antecedent changes to facilitate success for the parrot. There are many pathways that can lead to a non biting outcome had they been considered. All of which do not involve an unpleasant experience to teach the bird to do something other than bite."



Any way, that's another perspective on biting that differs from the "just grin and bear it" strategy. I thought it was worth presenting. I try to live up to these ideals but don't always succeed!

I hope it helps others.

I like Barbara's stuff, I have seen her in action at a training workshop and I own three of her DVDs which are fantastic. To me, she is the real deal. She gets asked to train parrots and other animals by zoos, she has a zoology qualification, she is asked to run parrot workshops all around the world and this is backed up by loads and loads of experience. I am yet to meet someone in the Industry that doesn't speak highly of her techniques.... and on top of all that, she is a really nice person



I hope that helps. Best wishes!

Ellie.

[mattcoffs]

Ellie pretty much always hits the nail on the head!

I agree with Ellie's approach, but personally i like my bird to know that i don't appreciate bites rather than just adjust my behaviour (within reason) I have had some significant success with the "time out" or "silent treatment"

What i will say with this (which co-incides on what Ellie said) is you have to learn what is a "bite" and what is communication/general parrot behaviour. I.e they will nibble/rub their beak on you as a sign of effection - and also when stepping up they will often grab with their beak first because in the wild this is how they would test whether a branch is stable enough to stand on!

Anyway - that aside. You can try this;
When you get a bite out of malice, or misbehaviour. Simply give a command such as "No," maybe a little sternly but definitely don't ever shout at your parrot - if this doesn't stop the behaviour calmly take your bird to its cage and give it the silent treatment for 10-15 minutes ONLY. Any longer and they will forget why they're there and the discipline is void. Make sure during their time out you refrain from looking at them or speaking with them.

They're extremely smart animals, and they know they're in trouble! This got my bird out of blood bites within a week...

Also regularly daily training and tricks will help reduce biting as their mind and body are active and they're associating you with yummy treats.

Mine's currently 5 months old but i've only been experiencing mild bluffing. Sometimes it will get you down if it's a few grumpy days in a row, but then when your parrot snuggles up for a pat it's all worth it

Hope that helps!