strange behaviour

[lee ireland]

makes much more sense and i have been working on this as i thought id try it out before writing back and even just 10 minutes made the difference, i can now walk up to the cage and not receive that dance lol,

thank you

[Wolf]

Anything that we can do to help. Thank you.

[lee ireland]

thank you

when a parrot bites should i stay there and not make a fuss or should i move my hand away? i hear both sides to the story with this

thank you

[Wolf]

As a veteran of many bites, I am not keeping my hand still waiting on the next bite. I am not going to make a big fuss about it but I am not going to encourage it either.

[Pajarita]

The trick is to avoid getting bit. I know it sounds stupid but, in reality, it's perfectly doable once you know them and their body language. But, when I get bit, I exclaim out loud (you know, like OUCH or OWWWW) and tell them "Bad bird! No bite!", walk away and stay away for 5 minutes (by the clock). I think the very common and often repeated mantra of no reaction is the stupidest thing ever! It's not natural not to react so it's not as if we are 'communicating' on a bird's level by doing this because birds in the wild do react to a bite (they squawk and either fly away or retaliate). And whoever came up with the idea that it provides 'drama' that birds enjoy either thought that birds were stupid enough to confuse an exclamation of pain for an exclamation of fun (which they are not!, quite the contrary, they are excellent body and tone of voice readers) or that they are sadists which enjoy causing pain (which, again, they are not!, quite the contrary they are extremely empathetic).

[lee ireland]

yes makes a lot of sense, tbh thats what i thought, seems strange that anyone would allow the bird to do that without letting the bird know its done wrong,

rocco had been snatching from my hand, i told him not to earlier and had seemed to sink in

iv now been hand feeding on the chair, he perches next to me and i offer treats for being good around me from time to time, talking to him but not overly doing it, i get on with work on the laptop... talk to family and talk and give treats to him,

he has nipped me a few times wanting a treat, i ignore and then offer a treat when he is good as i know this should sink in not to be so demanding lol

[lee ireland]

1 more question should nibbling be allowed or not? I know they explore with beaks and he nibbles a lot, I think it's cute but I wonder if this can result in encouraging bites

Thank you

[Wolf]

I don't think that this contributes to biting in any way. Kiki, is always nibbling on me, she has been known to bite although she rarely bites anymore. She was a real terror with her biting when she first came here.

[Pajarita]

No, it doesn't. In reality, this 'nibbling' is a form of preening which is only done out of affection. Granted that, sometimes, they 'nibble' hard on our clothes and end up making holes in them but it goes with the territory of living with a parrot.

[lee ireland]

well thank you both for clearing everything up

i must say now my relationship with rocco has boomed, he now comes to my chair and has claimed the top right corner of it, i know also know what territorial behavior looks like lol, its very cute i must say lol

he gets very protective of his corner of the chair

but yes he now explores more and is not afraid to chill with me with no distractions of whats going on around him, so its going well so far, he still nibbles too

he now also flies around the room and skims my head when he goes passed, unsure what this means maybe he's trying to land on me or a form of playing

his out more now, i can even get him in the cage at will by luring him with a treat, i also say cage and he jumps back to his cage but then i have to lure him in,

he seems far more happy now, i know the signs of when he wants attention, when he wants to come out ect, i did a head bob today and he copied me

iv upped the treats and he now comes to me when i call even when i have no signs of treats, not all the time but still its something, iv stopped the training now however i have tried to get him to step up onto my finger once today, he placed 1 foot on my finger for a second so looking good il try again in a few days