Is it Ok to reprimand my Macaw

[Eppie]

When my Macaw bites a little too hard, instead of jerking away I hold onto his beak with my thumb and give his head a gentle back and forth motion and tell him no. He does not like to be made to stand still . I am still working on getting him to step up. I don't want to have him afraid of me. Is this a bad choice of correction?

 

[Gristleboy]

You are right not to jerk away. You can NEVER let these little buggers think they have the upper hand ! I would also suggest reinforcing the shake with a stern "No", it's definitely a word they need to know & understand, although 99% of the time, being macaws, they will just do what they want anyway.:20:

 

[Auggie's Dad]

YES, this is a very bad idea for many reasons.

I am just stopping in for a moment but I will come back to this to elaborate later.

 

[Darius]

A better Idea would be to set him down at the same time saying no bite time out and turning your back and ignoring him for 1 minute if he does it again say time out no bite and increase the time out by 30 seconds birds crave attention from their owners and to turn your back and completly ignore them is something they will respond to very quickley parrots do not understand phycical punishment to them it still attention and thats what they want more than anything so shaking his beak will actually make him bite more because it gets him the arrention he wants.