So...we've gone and got ourselves in a bit of a pickle...

Hello,

My lovely Alex. McCoy will have been at home 1 year at the beginning of March next year. I think he was hatched in November 2016 (ring isn't easy to interpret) so he's just over a year old. He really is lovely and will sit and chirp and bob his head at me when I'm next to his cage working, he eats when I eat and likes to be near me/on me when he's out. He does tricks (spin, wave, bow, puts his wings up, flies or jumps to me when I call him) and is target trained. I know we have the start of a good bond. However....

I've managed to get in the habit of covering my arms and hands when I handle him (e.g. with a long sleeve). It started when he went through a bit of a grump a few months ago. He was lunging and was biting and it seemed like a good idea at the time. The trouble is, now, whenever he sees skin on my arms or hands he bites it, or at least lunges and stabs it with his beak or drags his beak across it and scratches! Ultimately I want him to step up onto my hand because it makes life so much easier.

He was flying to my bare arm - before I turned into a wimp, but would bite my fingers if he got close to them, he didn't seem to look for them like he does now though. He's never given me a bad bite, but has broken the skin to I can see blood, but it hasn't bled. He's done that through fabric though too.

I think I'm pretty good with the basics of training, but I've never had to "untrain" unwanted behaviour and I don't know where to start. He was parent reared and so isn't used to human skin like a hand-reared bird would be. When he's in his cage he will climb the bars so I can trim and file his nails (not consistently yet) and I can hold his toes with a couple of fingers while I do this.

It feels like a very specific problem of my own making!

Any help graetfully recieved.

I see you've learned on your own one reason why I never recommend using gloves or anything to protect your skin!


Can you... feed by hand?

Can you... teach him to target towards your hand?

You could try laying your hand down flat on a surface (cage top? table top?) and teaching him to walk towards your hand for a reward.

Hi MonicaMC, thank you for your reply. Yes a lesson well learnt! I thought it solved a problem, but unfortunately it did not.

Yes I can feed him by hand no problem. I'll try targeting him towards my hand and onto and over it for a treat.

Could you hazard a guess at why skin is so tempting? I'm trying to work out what's motivating him.

I'll let you know how it goes, if the stumps I have left for fingers allow me to type that is!

Hi following on from MonicaMc's advice - there is some fascination with skin from parrots and they want to explore it until it becomes 'boring' again. You inadvertently have changed that point of view in his eyes.

Try and let him explore your hand flat. If he is being too much move him away, only let him stay if he is good. He will get the message, presuming that you have step up exercises under your belt.
Let us know how it goes.

Thank you I will let you know. Thanks for explaining.

I've never done step up but he will jump or fly to my wrist if I ask him so we're not far off. I started with "none contact" training and then the stropping (and hiding skin) started so I didn't look at step up because I want him to step onto my hand.

Being able to have him on skin will make a big difference!

Hello, just a quick update. Thank you for your help.

I started by feeding treats from my flat hand, which I realised I haven't done before. He was a bit unsure at first, but fine with it now. About 3 days ago I started to offer my flat hand to him as a platform to tread on to get to a treat. Before this I just held the 'platform' under the treat so he was near it. I tried to target him towards my hand with clicker and target, but found this difficult to manage one-handed so I'm just using treats.

He will step onto my hand now to get the treat. He's very wary and prefers to side-step up to my wrist if possible, but will stay on my skin. I hadn't realised how frightened he was before I started this, but he is clearly unsure rather than being stroppy - which is what I thought before. He hasn't bitten me yet, he has just touched my skin once with his beak when I did it from his cage rather than my knee.

I'm going to work on this for the next few weeks, just a few times a day to build his confidence and mine.

He also stood on my husband's hand, he hasn't been on my husband at all in nearly 12 months he's been here!

Sounds like progress is being made!





Jim

My macaw is the same but the opposite: likes bare skin but not sleeves. I started sometimes wearing sleeves during her times out on her perch. I usually switch every few hours because I wanted to be rid of the problem, and get her used to seeing me a stepping up both ways. She seems to be more adjusted now and doesn't move away when I have long sleeves on.

Good for you, for reaching out, and listening, and being so open, and trying so hard.