Advice for training a 4 year old GCC?

Hi all!
I have a 4 year old GCC that I've had since he was a baby. We are extremely bonded.
However, he is admittedly a bad bird. I got him when I was 20 and I didn't train him properly. The two biggest problems that I have with him are that 1) he is a brat about staying in the cage while i'm home and 2) he will take food out of your hands/plate/even try to take it out of your mouth while you are eating!!


For the first issue - I typically love to have him out as long as I am home so that the can spend time with me out of the cage, but of course there are times where he needs to be in the cage because I am busy or have people over or whatever the case may be.

He will scream and throw a fit until you let him out, though. Any advice on this?
The second problem speaks for itself - how do I prevent him from thinking that all food is rightfully his food?

Lastly, if anyone has advice on excessive chewing of doors and panels that would be great. However I have come to accept that the chewing is just something that all birds will do regardless of how well trained they are. Is that true? Can you ever get a bird to listen to the word "no"?

Sorry if this is a loaded post, and thank you in advance!
I love him and just want him to be the best bird he can be. I am aware that I definitely facilitated these habits of him, now I just want to try and reverse them.

Hello and welcome!

For your first problem, the best thing you can do is two fold: make a cage environment the bird is happy to be in (plethora of toys and foraging opportunities), and ignoring pleas to come out (don’t come running for screaming, don’t respond at all).

Second issue: this falls under the banner of “you know your bird will do this, so why set them up to do it in the first place?” Put them on a play stand, teach station training so they don’t not fly to chew on wood panels and door jambs. Just avoid it altogether.

I would agree with the above. My GCC has learned the word no. It stops him in his tracks at least to let me then distract him onto something else. As far as the screaming is concerned. It's like a child that calls for a drink, another kiss, a story, cold, hot, dark, light when it's bedtime. There comes a point when you know they are fine and you have to ride it out. There will be tantrums galore. I recently suddenly found that Syd was doing this. It took me a few days to realise that he had me running.

We looked at each other and for 3 days I studiously ignored him. He could see me I was right there in the room, but I only interacted with him when he was quiet. It didn't take long for him to realise what was needed.

If a bird can't be trusted don't let it near you, especially your face. You will feel cruel but Syd bit my face twice and I had to do something fast. We had a conversation and then he wasn't allowed on my shoulder for a long time. He looked hurt and confused but didn't show those sentiments when my face was bleeding so I was determined not to give in. Now we are going through a similar process to stop him climbing in my clothes. It's patience, staying one step ahead and having a vision of how you want to live with your bird. Good luck!

He has you trained! He yells, you let him out!

Thank you everyone for your responses!


Flboy, that definitely gave me a chuckle because you are too right. I struggle with the idea of not letting him out when he screeches because I just got a new roommate in the beginning of the month and I don't want him (my roommate) to lose his mind over a bird who will not give it a rest for hours on end. I would like to use the advice to ignore Pico (my GCC) when I am the only one home, but then I know that the inconsistency will just muddy up the process.

I will figure it out, though. Thank you Chris-Md for the tips! More toys is always a good idea. Also, would you mind elaborating on how to station train? Should I look into a clicker?

T00tsyd, thank you for your reply. I'm convinced he knows what I mean when I say "no", he just doesn't care. We are very bonded and he's extremely sweet to me but he just does not listen. He will just stare at me for a second and continue doing what I don't want him to do. I'm constantly correcting what he does - tearing off paint, biting panels, knocking things off of surfaces, stealing human snacks, screeching to no end. "no" or "stop" only works for half a second before he's back at it.



Something that I've considered and something that I feel like would help is clipping his flight feathers and training him while his wrecking-havoc habits are limited. I know this is an endless debate - whether clipping is right or wrong. I would feel terrible because he loves to fly and it would be drastically cutting out his exercise, but at the same time I think it would provide opportunity to get him under control and break bad habits that are mostly possible through flight.

Opinions on this?

Yes, most parrot training is best accomplished with clicker training. Stationing is the parrot version of “stay!” For dogs. You should be able to find many YouTube videos on how to accomplish the training.