IRN Bluffing or Little So-and-so behaviour

[GadgetGirl]

I admit, this belongs a bit in all of the behaviour/training/IRN threads but I need suggestions so I'm trying training.

I have a 3 month old Indian Ring Neck who I have had for 3 weeks and in the past week has overnight lost her cute baby characteristics and is lunging and biting me at every opportunity.

From what I've read this is a trait of Bluffing so I've put it down to that but I need re-affirmation.

Twice in the last 2 days she's days she's drawn blood from nips at my fingers when I'm getting her to step up onto my hand from her cage. When she's away from her cage she's perfectly calm as long as she is sitting on a window ledge and will let me do almost anything.

I've tried almost every day to get her out of sight of her cage to get some basic bonding but she knows the way back and will do anything to either go back to her cage or get back to the window. I've tried rewards and she isn't comfortable away from either the cage or the window.

I have a 25 year old Galah who will do anything for me. She lives in the country now with my parents but when she lived with me she would come to bed with me at night and wake me with gentle nibbles on my lips. If she ever bit (without reason) she would go back to a locked cage for quiet time. From what I've read, I can't do that with a IRN if they are Bluffing.

Has anyone else gone through Bluffing with an IRN? Any suggestions of what I can do to get through it? Do I need to remain patient and ignore every nip or should I draw some boundaries?

 

[MonicaMc]

My experiences with Psittacula is limited....

Can you work with her when she's near her cage so that she has the comfort of her cage in sight? Or does she always try to get back to it?

If you want to move her around the house, can you move her cage with her?


What rewards have you tried? Millet? Sunflower seeds? Pumpkin seeds? Safflower seeds? Dried fruit? Nuts? (insert other foods here)

If she's not eating pellets, what's the first few things she eats out of her dish?

 

[Karigan]

It sounds like she is testing you for dominance.

 

[Birdlover11]

It's bluffing, you can't really cure it it's just hormonal. Just ignore and if she bites you stay away for a few minutes. If you want her in the cage you could use a perch ? And don't react to bites .

 

[MonicaMc]

Dominance doesn't exist in parrots...

http://www.naturalencounters.com/images/Publications&Presentations/Height_Dominance-Steve_Martin.pdf
http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_abo...tal_enrichment/The Struggle for Dominance.pdf
Height dominance is a myth - ParrotChronicles Why Does My Bird Do That? Q&A
dominance
Establishing Dominance Over Your Parrot? « Best in Flock – Parrot Blog
RP - Biting


When it comes to parrots, the very thought of "dominance" should be wiped from the memory! It's an excuse to not learn what our parrots are trying to tell us and instead forcing them to do something they don't want to do because they aren't in the mood for it or because they don't understand what you are asking/demanding them to do.

Positive reinforcement/clicker training is about learning to communicate with our birds in a positive manner! It's about teaching them things to do that we find acceptable over what we deem as bad behaviors.


Dominance is a one way thinking/thought process.

Positive reinforcement is two ways.

 

[Pedro]

I agree i absolutely hate the word "Dominance" However just finished hand rearing 5 IRN babies & yes they are little terrors at this age. I think it has a lot to do with how we handle them they learn really early how to let us know they don't like what we are doing. The reason she is lunging & biting is because she doesn't want to do what you want her to do. Her cage is her safety, so she has become a little cage aggressive. I believe she is reacting because she is scared. Parrots bite for 2 reasons, control & fear.

Your job is to make her feel comfortable. A little trick i learnt to do with a biter is bolt one of those small calcium perches to the inside of the cage door, target your baby to the perch, once on the perch open the door & she should step up when asked. Works wonders & saves a lot of stress between yourself & bird. Once they learn that it's safe you can carry on with training. But don't be in a rush take it slow.

 

[Birdlover11]

I agree with Pedro and Monica, dominance doesn't exist in parrots .

 

[Karigan]

Sorry, wrong word. Its still a test of sorts from what I can tell.

 

[Pedro]

Sorry, wrong word. Its still a test of sorts from what I can tell.

I don't believe they are testing us either i think we are misreading their body language. I handle heaps of baby parrots everyday & very rarely get bitten if i do then i have done something wrong. Once I correct the problem all is well again.

 

[MonicaMc]

Parrots explore with their beaks a lot... but you can usually tell when a bird is being curious... then there's the scared bite, shocked bite, overstimulated bite, aggressive bite and so forth..

Young birds are often nippy/inquisitive and need to be redirected to appropriate things to chew on besides human flesh.



What I'm reading is that this chick doesn't like to be taken out of its comfort zone, and maybe she has finally got the courage to say "No" she's not comfortable/happy with whats being asked of her. Could be wrong, but if she were with me, I'd allow her to settle in more and set things at her pace. If she's not ready to move around, then she may still be settling in.

 

[GadgetGirl]

What I'm reading is that this chick doesn't like to be taken out of its comfort zone, and maybe she has finally got the courage to say "No" she's not comfortable/happy with whats being asked of her.

There are a lot of occasions where I would agree with you except she had a radical overnight change in her behaviour which leads to Bluffing.

However just finished hand rearing 5 IRN babies & yes they are little terrors at this age. I think it has a lot to do with how we handle them they learn really early how to let us know they don't like what we are doing. The reason she is lunging & biting is because she doesn't want to do what you want her to do. Her cage is her safety, so she has become a little cage aggressive. I believe she is reacting because she is scared.

Her lunging is always at a time when she is happy sitting on her leafy branch on top of the cage and absolutely does not want to move i.e. when I have to go out or to work and its time to go in. She has definately become a bit cage aggressive and I need to stop her from that now rather than later.

I'm happy to be patient and wait through the nips, with Gadget as my 6th parrot, I'm not afraid of a beak

We just spent the last hour happily on the ground reading the paper and talking to the lorikeets outside without a problem (except that I may have over compensated with the treats hehe)

 

[Pedro]

Just work on gaining her trust. You'll nail it.

 

[MonicaMc]

You obviously know your bird better than anyone else! We can all interpret behavior differently!

I assume you are aware of the "honeymoon" period then, and after x-amount of days/weeks of bringing a bird home and their behavior changes.


Wonder if it might be easier to get her back inside the cage if she's not immediately hungry, and you don't feed her until right before you leave for work, if you leave in the mornings?

Or only feeding her fresh foods and pellets prior to leaving for work, then switching it out for some seeds/sprouted seeds/fave foods?

 

[sarahmcrawford]

I am by no means a parrot expert as I've only had my Pionus for a month but I made him a floor stand perch from a large piece of wood covered with carpet for the bottom then a 1" x 2" support with a great long branch screwed in the top as the horizontal perch. He is hand shy so that is what we're working on right now. He also doesnt' come out of the cage. For the last 3 weeks I've been leaving the cage door open when I'm home and sliding the perch halfway under the cage so that half of the perch he would stand on is in the cage and the other half sticks out. The part in the cage is right next to the food bowl. Today is the first time he used the perch while he ate (it has to feel better than standing on the edge of the bowl) and he came out of the cage on it a few steps. My plan is to let him become comfortable with that standing perch and then start moving it farther away (he can fly so will be able to get there). This way eventually we will have that perch in the living room and he will have a comfy spot there that I don't mind him pooping on. Maybe your parrot would benefit from something like that, a place that she feels safe that you can slowly move to the spot you want her to be. Like I said I'm an amateur with parrots but am hoping my plan works.

 

[GadgetGirl]

I thought I would give an update, for the past 3 days Gadget has happily returned to her pre-bluffing state. She is wonderfully placid and exploring like she used to.

It's nice to see her start to have a curiosity about her surroundings again rather than just wanting to attack everything and hide in/on her cage.

It was hard to believe but I have to admit it... Bluffing is real.

Thanks everyone for your words of wisdom :10: