Treat Aggression

This has been a constant issue with Shiko for the past 6 or so months, and I think I know what caused it. But I have no idea how to prevent it. He is honestly the sweetest little IRN I've had the chance to meet, he's hand shy but he's not afraid of me, my boyfriend, or his family. I can pick him up, flip him over, and basically do whatever I want to him without him ever biting me. He's well trained, with a level temperament, and he's a very happy bird.

But lately... he's just been an absolute monster when it comes to treats. I have to give them in such a way that he has no opportunity to lunge or attack me. I have tried offering them with an open palm, from far away, by withholding them when he acts up (which I feel makes it even worse), everything I can think of. But it seems he doesn't trust that I'll give him a treat or he has extreme territoriality in regard to receiving treats.

It first started with flight recall, where he'd "attack" me when he landed on me. Then it progressed to receiving treats. I'll repeat, he is NOT afraid of hands. It's not my hands he's attacking, it's the fear I won't give him a treat that seems to be causing it (from what I've deduced). It's also defensive behaviour over food because he especially acts up if I'm about to give Avery anything.

Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? It seems to be such a unique problem that I can hardly find anything on it, and everything I've found tends to revolve fear of hands.

Where do I even go from here to prevent such a negative behaviour? Just five minutes ago I was trying to get Avery down from a boing and was going to reward her with a treat, and he flew to my hand and "attacked" it. I use quotation marks because he never actually breaks the skin, tries to do damage, or tear into me. He beaks me, lightly pinches, and angrily squawks. I'm very fortunate in that regard... he seems to be maintaining his bite pressure training for the most part.

It's a good thing he's so cute...

Hmm that is interesting. I know for certain you can't reinforce him biting. So first thought to me is, when he flies to you and bites you...he doesn't get a treat.

The first time he remains calm, doesn't bite etc...you give him treats.

Perhaps staying firm to this would yields results.

He flies to you and bites demanding a treat? You firmly say NO...and he goes to timeout, or away from you/you put him down and ignore. No treat.

If he ever flies to you and does not bite, and is calm, that is when you should treat.

Just my thoughts!

That's the thing, he'll take treats nicely for awhile, and then as I remove my hand he'll "attack". There's almost no way around it that I can see because he'll do it while I'm giving a treat or after I've given one. I did withhold treats from him previously when he did this, but it appears to have made it worse.

The only way I've been able to prevent the initial "attack" is by hiding the treating behind my finger, then pushing it into his beak so he has no leverage to pull back and bite. I've even recorded his behaviour in slow-mo video, and he shows no signs of aggression prior to biting. He always pins his eyes while receiving a treat because he's focused on it, so I can't read anything. He doesn't back his head up, widen his stance, or open his beak prior to lunging. He just does it. It's a big mystery to me.

I'm going to have to try ignoring him every time he does it and set him down in the ground, since he's a very attention orientated bird. Thank you for the advice! Any other advice is always appreciated

So, just a pretty neat update in case anyone ever has to also google this problem and stumbles across this thread -

I e-mailed Barbara Heidenreich the problem I was having with Shiko, and literally 20 minutes later she gave me her perspective and encouraged me to look at a particular way to solve it.

Here's her response:

"Hi Chantal,

I am sorry to hear about the problem. I would recommend reframing your thinking Instead of looking for a recipe for the solution to this particular behavior problem (which isn’t out there to be honest) You need to look at this in the way you would solve any behavior problem.

Describe what the bird is doing that is the problem...which you have done quite well to be honest. Then the easiest solution is to look for ways to avoid putting the bird in the situation in which it would exhibit that behavior. For example what are other ways you could deliver reinforcers other than from your fingertips....there are many ways. Get creative and brainstorm some options that work for you and your bird.

Yes you could work on teaching your bird to be comfortable taking treats from your hand if that is a more important goal for you. But it sounds like that will be a more difficult challenge than starting out with a different way to deliver treats. And yes under those circumstances he is afraid of your hands. He may not be under others, but for whatever reason he is for taking treats. We don’t have an explanation why, but we don’t always get to have that information. But what information you do have is that he is exhibiting behavior that indicates he is afraid under those circumstances. So that is your starting point.

Eventually after you work out another way to deliver treats that he is comfortable with you may be able to use that to train him to accept treats from your hands, but I would work on that later. I would treat that as a behavior to train.

All the best!

Barbara

Barbara Heidenreich
Good Bird Inc"

(e-mail and address excluded from message due to forum policy)

So I guess for anyone looking for a solution in the future regarding this issue, try to look for a way to reward without using your hands. Personally tonight I'll be starting to do that using a cup, bowl, spoon, etc. so that he isn't dealing with my hands and we'll see how it goes!

I'll keep that in mind - bound to cross something similar here at some point! It's great you've got some direction

Thanks, itchyfeet! And that's the best part about a forum... you have a wealth of information to help prepare you in case anything similar does happen

Update: Treat cup idea = 100% successful! No aggressive behaviour or lunging at any point during the 5 mini training sessions today. Hooooray! Hopefully that works for the next 25+ years!