agressive parrot

hello,

Iv got a sengal parrot... I had some problems in the past getting him tame because of wrong things I did. Now he is reasonably tame. He isn't aggressive towards me at all, except when i close his cage. If he is sitting on the perch where the door is and i close the cage he aggessivly tries to attck me. Any ideas why? anything i can do?

Thanks,

Andrew

finding out why starts with needing some more information. Why would he be associating the closing of the cage with fear or something bad?
Biting ALWAYS has some kind of fear attached to it ....

You may need to back track and think of what may have led to the biting in the first place.....then steps can be taken to gain the bird's trust in this situation. you said you did some wrong training things in the past...it is good to recognize that, so congrats.... did you do anything that you can think of to lead to this particular problem or something like it?
or...there may be some territorial issues going on and he feels he needs to protect his home from you .... When you first began training him, did you ever happen to chase him with your hands throughout his cage...making him flutter around in there?....anything else like that???

How much out of cage time does your bird get? What is the bird doing when you say he tries to attack you? Could be a case of cage possessiveness. Try moving the perch by the cage door to a different location and see if it makes a difference. Remember our birds can read our minds. If you are wanting a "tame bird" what are your expectations?
Parrots retain their wildness even if they were hand raised. That is one of the great things about having a companion bird. We are their guardian not their boss.

Moving the perch may be a good idea - or if you have another perch somewhere else get him to go there when you close the cage door.

Auggie likes to snap at fingers when his cage is closed too - but he never gets the chance anymore. I've taught him a command to go into his cage. He goes in the cage, climbs over to a perch away from the door, and I hand him a treat through the cage after I shut the door. Whatever nutty motivation had him wanting to bite the motivation for the treat is bigger.

How do you teach this? Actually its fairly easy, just establish a pattern. Start them out from the same spot every time - I have Auggie stand on the top of his open cage-door. Then I lure him in with his favorite treat and lead him over the perch and give the treat. Do this over and over (a few times a day for several days) all while leaving the cage open so he can get the reward and still come right back out again.

Once this is going smoothly, switch to pulling the treat away and handing it to him through the cage. Again repeat several times. Finally you can do all this and finish by closing the door as you hand him the treat. Still let him out again right afterwords.

When he is doing all of this smoothly you can make a command for it (ie "go to you house"). But birds are so good with patterns that commands for such things can be fairly redundant. Every morning right after I wash and refill Auggie's main water dish he knows its time to go into his cage. He'll climb in, go over to the perch where he gets his treat, and stand there waiting for me to catch up.

Natalie: I don't ever recall doing anything that would make him agressive when i close the cage door. I never chased him around the cage, i just help my finger out and waited for him to step up.

SpiritBird: Id say my bird wonders around on top of the cage a 4-5 hours a day. i dont usually pick him up that often becuase im studying, but most times he doesnt mind stepping up onto my finger. (probably coz he knows he is going to get a treat)

I have a cage with a perch on the cage door, so when i put him away he is usually on that perch. So are you saying that i should get him to move to another perch before i close the door. Isnt that like avoiding the issue? or is that what is needed in this situation?

terminal3k said:

I have a cage with a perch on the cage door, so when i put him away he is usually on that perch. So are you saying that i should get him to move to another perch before i close the door. Isnt that like avoiding the issue? or is that what is needed in this situation?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't call it avoiding the issue, but I suppose it is a fair description. I could try to train an alligator to hold its mouth open while I put my head inside... but I think it'd be better just to avoid that issue as well.

Yes, I am being a bit facetious (just a bit). People like to think they should be able to do anything to their pets and their pets should be willing to take it. Within reason I'd agree. If your bird bites you for no (good) reason then perhaps they need some training, but they are their own individuals - if they bite for good reason we should learn to respect some boundaries.

I don't think it is unreasonable for a bird to be protective of their cage. We should respect their space. We should also insist on having means to put them in, take them out, and clean as needed, but they are allowed to have input in the negotiations on how this will go.



Okay ... on a less philosophical level: I would not really call it avoiding, I would call it differential reinforcement of another behavior. Currently he tries to bite you when you close the cage door. There are really only two contingencies you can place on this behavior: punish the behavior, or reward him for NOT biting. It is very hard to punish a parrot (in fact most forms of punishment cause more problems than they solve with all pets). It is also technically impossible to reward him for "not biting." You can't reward a non-behavior. You can however reward a behavior that is incompatible with biting, such as going somewhere else in the cage.

So, you can either try to beat him into submission so that he never bites ... which would lead undoubtedly to many more bites and a dead parrot; or you can teach him not to bite.




A man sees a therapist and asks why his wife slaps him. The therapist asks for more information and learns that the wife slaps him every time he flirts with another woman. The therapist tells him to stop flirting with other women. The man asks in response - but isn't that just avoiding the issue?

Sometimes we have very odd expectations of our pets. The first step in training is understanding.

hehe, i had a good laugh at your post

Thanks for your ideas AD, i will give it a try becuase i dont want a dead parrot

LOL! AG, I really love reading your posts.

I understand that you need to study. I do suggest some one on one time with your bird. Even if it is just 10 min. You have had some wonderful suggestions and humor. Hope your issue is solved. When you put him in the cage you can always stick a treat in the beak for distraction.