Gerry biting hard

GerryFero

Regular Member
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Hi all,

I am back to this wonderful forum for some more advice :D

Just a quick recap on my situation: we have an 8 years old OWA parrot, Gerry. He was parent reared and not socialised with human until we got him at 6 month of age. When we got him he was pretty feral: would growl, bite drawing blood and by no means we could get any close to him.

We worked on it, over the years and in the last few months, I finally managed to stroke him: he generally comes on my lap or my legs, I wiggle my finger and he sort of bends his head a little signaling that he is happy to be scratched. I will scratch him for a few seconds, one minute if I am lucky, but then he is still nervous and goes to bite me. He generally bites gently, but at times he bites hard. I try saying the word "gently" but he has no clue of what I mean; I try squealing the way he would when he is hurt but again, no luck; I try tapping his beak but nothing. He still bites hard. I read somewhere that people hold the bird's beak between their fingers when stroking, but my parrot is not that tame, so holding his beak would not be possible.

How do I get him to be gentle and how do I get him more relaxed? He still seems pretty scared and wary.

:flying:
 
I wouldn’t do anything to evoke the bite whether it is gentle or not as you are just teaching him to bite more/harder. Maybe this is what has happened or maybe he really isn’t happy getting a head scratch yet being that he is still wary.

Maybe stop doing this for a while and see what happens, ie if he asks for a head scratch himself without your cue. Or maybe if you know he’s likely to bite after, say 3 seconds, stop at 2 seconds leaving him wanting more. Then very gradually over days or weeks build up the head scratching time, always stopping long before his body language changes/he is expected to bite. Or you could teach him to accept being scratched with a familiar foot toy and then gradually replace it with your finger (which is what I did with my then untame Orange-wing Ollie). Let Gerry lead you on this through his body language.

There is no point using punishment such as tapping the beak or holding the beak or saying no as these don’t address the reason he bites, plus punishment is an eroder of trust as he begins to associate you with the aversives. Punishment may work in the short term but not in the long term (unless the punishment is OTT aversive which is definitely not recommended!)
 
I wouldn’t do anything to evoke the bite whether it is gentle or not as you are just teaching him to bite more/harder. Maybe this is what has happened or maybe he really isn’t happy getting a head scratch yet being that he is still wary.

Maybe stop doing this for a while and see what happens, ie if he asks for a head scratch himself without your cue. Or maybe if you know he’s likely to bite after, say 3 seconds, stop at 2 seconds leaving him wanting more. Then very gradually over days or weeks build up the head scratching time, always stopping long before his body language changes/he is expected to bite. Or you could teach him to accept being scratched with a familiar foot toy and then gradually replace it with your finger (which is what I did with my then untame Orange-wing Ollie). Let Gerry lead you on this through his body language.

There is no point using punishment such as tapping the beak or holding the beak or saying no as these don’t address the reason he bites, plus punishment is an eroder of trust as he begins to associate you with the aversives. Punishment may work in the short term but not in the long term (unless the punishment is OTT aversive which is definitely not recommended!)

Thanks for your reply.
I have the following doubts. I hope you can help: 1) he already asks for scratches, by coming on me, bowing is head and sometimes fluffing when i show him my finger, so what else should I expect? He's not tame so it's not like he's going to come cuddle to me.
2) his body language does doesn't have any greys: he's enjoying the scratches (eyes closed, all blissfull) and then one second later he tries to bite. I'm confused
3) there's nothing I could use, as he would attack everything (he'sscared), so he cannot be touched with a replacement for my fingers. I see him doing this even with his cage toys: he'll cuddle to one for a few seconds and then he'll turn to bite it. Again, confusing...
4) what is OTT?
 
Are you able to stop scratching his head before he is likely to bite? That’s what I’d aim for. If he is likely to bite after 3 seconds, stop at 1 or 2 seconds. You might even give him a treat at that point to further pair the head scratch with something good.

With Chico (Panama Amazon who was extremely aggressive on arrival and could not be touched) I did this. Then I gradually built up the time. Even now I am constantly monitoring his body language. If I give him a head scratch, which he solicits by putting his head down, I’m actually watching his closed eye… any change/flicker of muscles in his eyelid I stop scratching. Better safe than sorry! I always stop before he’s had enough. I used to give him a treat (after working on him for quite a while so that he would take it without trying to remove my finger too!) at the beginning but now it’s not necessary.

OTT means over the top. 😊
 
Are you able to stop scratching his head before he is likely to bite? That’s what I’d aim for. If he is likely to bite after 3 seconds, stop at 1 or 2 seconds. You might even give him a treat at that point to further pair the head scratch with something good.

With Chico (Panama Amazon who was extremely aggressive on arrival and could not be touched) I did this. Then I gradually built up the time. Even now I am constantly monitoring his body language. If I give him a head scratch, which he solicits by putting his head down, I’m actually watching his closed eye… any change/flicker of muscles in his eyelid I stop scratching. Better safe than sorry! I always stop before he’s had enough. I used to give him a treat (after working on him for quite a while so that he would take it without trying to remove my finger too!) at the beginning but now it’s not necessary.

OTT means over the top. 😊

Thank you sooooo much for all your advice. I'll practice doing what you explained :)
 
Great! Let us know how it goes, and remember, leave him wanting more for each session, however short that session is.

I also use other reinforcers to end the session depending on the bird, like laughing or using kind words or gently teasing just to kind of say, “yes it’s the end, but what fun, you did so well!” so that it ends on a happy note.
 
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