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Post by pidgesmum on Mar 11, 2017 18:36:36 GMT -5
Pidge is a lively chewer. That is it. OK he likes a rough game I play where I lie down and he sits on one shoulder. As he runs to other shoulder I catch him and tickle. Much squarks and laughter. Not sure it was a good idea to teach him this.
He chews all day. Destroys everything in sight as well as fingers. He is determined to remove my toenails and fingernails. I am going to keep him in his cage longer and vary his toys. He kisses me if I'm ready to pull away quickly. He shakes hands and gets so excited when he gets it right he flies to my shoulder squeaking and laughing. He worries my clothes like a puppy, growls and all.
The last few days he is determined to steal our food. I used to have a little Pidge meal but now he snatches large pieces of food from our plates and flies away. Sometimes if I give him food or a toy he acts as if I'm the enemy, he threatens me then snatches it and flies away. From today he will have to be caged while we prepare and eat.
He is not a gentle bird and at least once a week I think I'll have to sell him. I am replacing the nose guards on my glasses for the 4th time. I do hide them but there is just that moment when he catches me out.
My world is full of no's and naughty boy. I do reward him for good behaviour.
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Post by biteybird on Mar 11, 2017 23:16:34 GMT -5
Sounds like he's settled in.  Bonnie doesn't do the chewing, but she is extremely defensive of her cage and food dishes and can inflict bad nips/bites if we ignore her warning signals. I agree that keeping Pidge in his cage while you are preparing/eating is a good idea - maybe time to remind him to respect your property. Perhaps when he's out it could be in a controlled area, like a special room where you have things you don't mind getting chewed to pieces. I know they are demanding little creatures, but I'm sure you love him dearly. |
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Post by pidgesmum on Mar 12, 2017 22:47:27 GMT -5
Sounds like he's settled in. Bonnie doesn't do the chewing, but she is extremely defensive of her cage and food dishes and can inflict bad nips/bites if we ignore her warning signals. I agree that keeping Pidge in his cage while you are preparing/eating is a good idea - maybe time to remind him to respect your property. Perhaps when he's out it could be in a controlled area, like a special room where you have things you don't mind getting chewed to pieces. I know they are demanding little creatures, but I'm sure you love him dearly. I really wish Pidge was not a chewer. Everything he does involves chewing! |
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Post by biteybird on Mar 13, 2017 3:12:30 GMT -5
Do you have anything you want mulched for your garden?  |
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Post by easttex on Mar 13, 2017 4:32:08 GMT -5
It sounds to me like Pidge could use some target training. It's a great foundation for future training, and it allows you to redirect him when he's misbehaving. Regarding your other post, harness training is probably too ambitious until you can find a motivator for him. I recommend you check out Barbara Heidenreich's training methods. She does workshops all around the world, but she also does webinars and makes the recordings available on DVD. If you're interested, Take a look at #6 on this page: www.goodbirdinc.com/goodbirdinc.com/parrot-store-digital.html |
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Post by julianna on Mar 13, 2017 14:01:37 GMT -5
Oscar is a chewer and he loves it. I have more chewed clothes than you would care for so now when I am home I put on those clothes and let him chew away. He has chewed all my zippers and buttons off my jeans and all kinds of paper etc. I believe it is part of their nature. He has ruined my glasses but only once because I was not going to have that. I have to be careful where I put them so he cannot get at them. He loves to chew my couch but the difference between my bird and yours is that Oscar does not fly therefore, I have much more control over him.
Also... Oscar is much older (8 years old now) and he is slowly learning "NO" but it has taken a long time. You need to be patient and give him time. Also at dinner time, make him his own plate and perhaps he will leave yours alone. Just my two cents...
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Post by beccilouise on Apr 20, 2017 15:36:01 GMT -5
Oh dear! Pidge is a chewer because he's a parrot. They chew! Some more than others and it sounds like Pidge is part of the 'big chewer' group. I agree that target training is a good idea, and I would find him some foods that require his attention. Nutriberries are good, and some of the palm oil biscuits that are quite tough. You can get them from www.northernparrots.co.uk. Target training is also a great idea, any kind of dedicated instructional training will help to focus him. It sounds like wood toys, leather toys and tough birdie treats will be a good way to go. Don't worry! They push boundaries. You've just got to give him plenty of opportunities to chew things that are OK to chew! Get him some foraging toys he can pull to pieces and give him plenty of work to do with his beak to find food. Maya still chews my fingernails if I let her! They are little terrors, but that's what makes them interesting! |
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Post by pidgesmum on Apr 20, 2017 19:45:52 GMT -5
Thank you for all the support. He is now refusing to go back into his cage! I think I allow him too much freedom, maybe. He certainly thinks he is King Pidge!
Today I have banned all food, except treats as reward for good behaviour, outside the cage. I am not letting him spend hrs at a time out of the cage. Maybe this will have reverse effect, I don't know. We are reinforcing step up, come, when I open his wings, and shake hands and I will reward him when I hold him.
Currently he backs up and huffs at me when I go to him because he knows I'll probably put him in his cage.
He is not clipped and although I hate the idea I wonder if it would help. I can't get him down from the top of the kitchen cupboards
Thanks for listening
Pidge's Mum
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Post by aaron on Apr 20, 2017 22:38:51 GMT -5
It took us several years of working with Cupcake as a flighted young bird to get her to at least somewhat respect the rules about where she is and is not supposed to go. Worth noting that we really had no idea what we were doing, but even now, at nearly six years old, she still has many days where she expends a fair amount of energy sneakily attempting to break rules she is very aware of. I think they are very exploration-inclined creatures, so it's a hard tendency to curb. That said, I wouldn't have it any other way, as far as her being flighted goes (although I do recognize that clipping is in some cases the best or most appropriate option). We use a wooden spoon to poke at her (gently) to get her off the top of the cupboards. She doesn't go there too often, and even if she does go she usually doesn't stay because she knows the spoon is coming if she does. Early on, she went up there relentlessly at times. Give him lots of opportunity to observe cause and effect. If you are going to punish him, keep punishment extremely brief (1-2 mins), then return him to a situation where he will be given the opportunity to make a mistake again, and repeat until he changes his behavior... Sometimes if he's relentless, you might decide to give him a longer break in the cage. Combining this with praise/treats when he behaves in a desirable manner should help a lot. This approach definitely works with Cupcake-- it doesn't work miracles, but it definitely works. Behavior change can be really slow and gradual, and progress often fluctuates to some degree. Sometimes it happens quickly. They are complicated Cupcake always gets a treat when she goes in her cage willingly. We've been reinforcing that for a long time, and she basically never refuses to go in her cage unless she is genuinely angry or feels slighted by a situation in some manner. Even in those cases she'll generally go after a bit of hesitation, although she will usually refuse the treat to make a statement Good luck. These little guys can be really frustrating... Patience pays off. It ends up being well worth it |
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Post by beccilouise on Apr 21, 2017 16:32:43 GMT -5
I also give Maya loads of treats and praise when she goes back into her cage. We make a bit of a game of it, and it does help. She likes the praise. I think the problem is, when the parrot goes back in the cage, the door is shut and the people walk away, which the bird doesn't like. I started by putting treats that Maya liked in her foraging bowl, letting her climb in herself, then shutting the door and praising her to the skies. Now, every time I put her on the edge of her cage, she pretty much climbs in and enjoys the praise! Pidge sounds like he could do with some instructional interaction starting right away. If you can get him to target, that will really help you and means you can direct him pretty much wherever you want to go. Maya is also flighted and can be a madam when she wants to be.
I, personally, wouldn't want to clip Maya's wings back again. I appreciate that every circumstance is different, and every individual bird requires different intervention, so I'm not completely anti-clipping, but I would argue that clipping ought to be a last resort. Everyone here takes the issue very seriously, as I'm sure you do as well as you're clearly thinking about it carefully. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the ability to fly vastly improves a bird's psychological and physical health. I would try training first, away from his cage. The back of a chair, or a shoulder height play stand normally works as a training platform. I use crushed nutriberries or sunflower seeds as treats, and I clicker trained her first. You could just use a reinforcement word, instead of a clicker, but a clicker is a very specific sound, the same every time, that the bird only hears during training, so I prefer it. You can get training clickers and treat bags super cheap. Clicker training is really simple and it may take Pidge's mind of the chewing!
Aaron's advice is also really solid. A flighted parrot is definitely more work, no one can dispute that! But like Aaron, I also wouldn't change it. I love having Maya flighted, I find it really rewarding. Pidge just sounds like he has a surplus of energy and curiosity! He is clearly a very intelligent birdie and needs you to be as inventive as you can to help him exhaust himself. Don't worry, he will be fine! Just be creative in how you reward him and train him and entertain him!
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Post by pidgesmum on Jun 17, 2017 20:18:24 GMT -5
I don't think I could get Pidge clipped. He zooms around the house and it is so much who he is. It is going to be a long hard ride I think. He's only 7 months old!!
He tries to preen arm hairs and it hurts, leaving blood spots. He's determined they have to be dug out! I've learnt to keep him moving but visitors don't see it as accidental. I wish I could teach him to be gentle. He means well.
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Post by julianna on Jun 18, 2017 16:12:46 GMT -5
He will settle down... he is just very excited right now. As far as the preening goes... my 8 year old Oscar still preens me and yes... sometimes it bleeds... but it isn't painful. Anything that sticks out of my skin has to be removed... lol.
Just keep asking him to be gentle... and move him from the spot where he is causing pain. These little guys can be trained quite well. It takes a lot of patience and repeating.... they can calm down... I have noticed a difference for sure.
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Post by aaron on Jun 19, 2017 22:26:17 GMT -5
Cupcake will get obsessed about certain spots too... sometimes she will be so sneaky that she'll keep a small cut open for weeks, even if we are making an active effort to prevent it. But, she is generally pretty good about this, at this point... It's unavoidable that she'll have times that she gets this way, I think... but it's fairly minimal. It hasn't always been that way, and she used to go for moles, which she seems to have learned not to do. They do learn. It will take time, but the better relationship with him you have, the faster change will happen, I think. In recent years, it is very clear that Cupcake genuinely wants to be a good bird. She doesn't always acheive that, but it is clear that it is important to her on some level. There were years in the beginning when this was not clear at all. We'd be chasing after her all day. There will always be challenges, but in general, her behavior consistently gets better over time. Leaving Cupcake flighted has been very worth it to us in the long run. It does make things harder, but it's really worth it. |
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Post by biteybird on Jun 20, 2017 2:36:06 GMT -5
Regarding over-zealous preening we have been lucky with Bonnie. All she does is nibble my hair or fingertips. A couple of weeks back I had to get a skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma) cut out of my face, from between my nose and upper lip. The wound is over an inch long - for a pinhead-sized white bump! 4mm margin required all round - but luckily Bonnie didn't show any interest in the stitches or anything. She looked intently at it once or twice and I said "no", then she just ignored it. Thank goodness. I agree with the others that these birds can and do learn very well! It just requires some consistency and effort - small amounts, frequently, is best. Pidge will learn. As Beccilouise said, he's just being a parrot! |
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Post by aaron on Jun 21, 2017 23:08:03 GMT -5
Wow, sorry to hear about the skin cancer, but I'm glad to hear it's being taken care of! And glad to hear that Bonnie cooperated-- what a good girl!
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