by fuzzy on Tue Aug 31, 2010 6:31 pm
I would agree with Craftsmaster and Bluesbird. What is the reason that your bird bites? What action on your part comes immediately before the behaviour (ie the bite)? Punishment such as grabbing the bird's beak, spraying in the face with water or hand wobbling only serves to make a bird mistrustful, fearful or downright phobic. There are a lot of undesirable consequences of punishment... much better to work on positive reinforcement instead and build a healthy relationship. If you are trying to get the bird to step up, then make it an enjoyable experience for him. Offer him a treat as a reward... it could be edible or it could be something else. When I ask Kobe, my Blue-headed Pionus to step up I always make sure there is a reward of sorts... I ask him to step up, then take him to the window to look at the wild birds with me before I put him into his cage. The reward for going into his cage is a head scratch or breakfast. Everything is geared around making it a good experience for him. Gone are the days of biting in his first year when I knew nothing about positive reinforcement.
If your Amazon does bite, then remove yourself from the room for 30 seconds. It has to be done swiftly and immediately after the bite. Any longer than 30 seconds or a minute, and he will have forgotten what you went out of the room for. Then come back in as though nothing had happened. If you punish a parrot by putting him in his cage for a bite, then he will learn that to get you to put him in his cage, all he has to do is to bite!
Fuzzy
Kobe - Blue-headed Pionus
Ollie - Orange-winged Amazon
BooBoo - English Budgie
