Fear or Control??

NicoleN

New member
Jan 15, 2007
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Michigan
Parrots
Sisqo & GiGi-DYH & BF Amazons





Snow & Blue-Budgies
Alright, so I recently discovered an article by a behaviorist that deals with birds and biting. It points out that mainly birds bite because of different reasons and you need to find out the reason first before reprimanding them or trying to fix it.

Two of the reasons listed were Fear and Control. I'd really like to try these techniques with Gigi, but I'm not sure if she is a fear or a control biter. Man it sucks not knowing her history :(

I'm leaning more towards control biting when there is no towel in sight. But as soon as a towel (or any piece of cloth) is in sight, I think she becomes more fearful. The vet gave me some pointers to get her used to the towel, but man oh man..I just don't know.

He said that I should always leave it out, so she grows accustomed to it, then I should bring it nearer and nearer to her. Like have it on my hand, etc. when I'm changing water and food. So she gets used to it moving. Then eventually I should let her bite it. This is the part that kind of confuses me. Would me letting her bite the towel lead to her biting it more in the future when I try to towel her, or would it lead to her not fearing the towel?

So I guess the first step would be to get her used to the towel, that way when I want to train her not to bite I can at least move her to another room and establish neutral territory (as suggested by the article for the control biting).

Oh and yeah...change all the she's to he's and the her's to his....I keep forgetting. Sorry if this post is off the wall, but I've been working 16 hour days so I'm a little frazzled at the moment.
 

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