Is it extreme bluffing??

Grumpy Ringneck · Post by **Grumpy Ringneck** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:53 pm

my parrot's behaviour sounds like the bluffing stage described in the article on the main site. but he is always drawing blood and would not let go. got him about a month ago and he used to bite but not nearly as severe. the last two days his bites have gotten more vicious and can't be ignored. can't get him distracted anymore. Is it bluffing or something else?

floridamedgirl · Post by **floridamedgirl** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:24 pm

can you give us some more information? ;like, how old is he, how long have you had him? is it a boy or girl? what is your daily routine as far as spending time with him? does he have enough toys and stimulation? was he nice and just recently started biting like this?

its hard to evaluate his/her behavior without a littlle more info. They will test you as much as they can and try to push the envelope to find your breaking point. If you get past this, most people are verrrry happy with the relationship they have created with thier IRN.

Good luck
Jess
(and Wally too!)

Grumpy Ringneck · Post by **Grumpy Ringneck** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:24 pm

floridamedgirl wrote:can you give us some more information? ;like, how old is he, how long have you had him? is it a boy or girl? what is your daily routine as far as spending time with him? does he have enough toys and stimulation? was he nice and just recently started biting like this?

its hard to evaluate his/her behavior without a littlle more info. They will test you as much as they can and try to push the envelope to find your breaking point. If you get past this, most people are verrrry happy with the relationship they have created with thier IRN.

Good luck
Jess
(and Wally too!)

- 4 months old boy
- had him for a month
- he spends 2 hours outside the cage daily. some days more.

he was nice and still is whenever he's calm. i never know when he'll attack. can't always tell from his eyes when he might bite. he also pins his eyes while relaxing. he started biting about two weeks ago. worried that i might have encouraged him to continue biting by moving him away and giving him something else to chew on. this week he's biting to draw blood. he'll calmly come to me just to bite. sometimes it seems that he can't decide if he wants to stay with me or sit on his play area.

he doesn't bite my friend like this. bird will open his beak wide but doesn't bite hard or just slightly nips him. my friend is the one who got him from the breeder. do parrots act differently around other people? does he like my friend better?

my hands and arms are sore, bruised and bloody. is my parrot bluffing or is he testing his boundaries like you said?

floridamedgirl · Post by **floridamedgirl** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:46 pm

sounds like maybe bluffing... maybe testing boundaries. Either way, because he just started doing it, I would say its temporary. He is just getting comfortable in his new home with you, and has started to show you who is boss (YES he is the boss!).

Keep taking him out. Ignore his bites. Keep his cage packed with things to tear apart, eat, and destroy. If he is keeping busy, he wont look to bite you as much. Use treats to get him to come to you. They learn very quickly. If he lunges at you to bite, dont give him the treat.

Are you acting scared of the bird? Maybe your friend feels more confident handling the bird and the bird senses that. If the bird thinks he can take advantage of you, he WILL. This should pass.

Remember that IRNs are not like cats or dogs. They do things on thier own terms.
Keep trying! He is only 4 months old.. he has alot to learn from you~
Jessica .....and Wally(almost 6 months old!)

leo · Post by **leo** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:16 pm

i think he is too early to be bluffing
i think you remove him and give him toy encaurage him to bite. it is telling him,okay, i ve lost and heres your toy

he is defenately pushing his boundry
i usually solve this staring in to his eyes and say a stern NO, folowed by a little with shake of hand(if he pearch on your hand). he will have to let go and gain balance. after he let go, prise him for letting go and pretend nothing happen

soon he will learn that he have to let go as soon as u say no, and the next time, he will learn that bite is a no, what does the sound of no mean(earth quake coming), and who is the boss

this is anyway, a negative reinforcement and some people do not like the idea. but it work really well for me when handling growing up bird so far

courtney · Post by **courtney** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:26 am

I know a conure is not an IRN but it works just the same. I got severely abused and neglected conure who bit so hard I would bleed like crazy. He was terrified of humans because of all the abuse so I worked with him.

When he went down to bite me I gently blew on him. He suddenly stopped. I just kept repeating this process and he have NEVER bitten me since.

Your IRN is still new and still adjusting even after a month. Keep working with him. I know it hurts but you can get him threw it. He is testing to see what he can get away with.

Grumpy Ringneck · Post by **Grumpy Ringneck** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 5:26 pm

everyone thinks that the biting in temporary? any ideas on when it might stop?

how do i get him to step off of my hands? he's biting more when i try to put him down on any other surface or return him to his play area.

dogsandparrots · Post by **dogsandparrots** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 7:17 pm

hello....if his bitting when you are trying to get him off you hand (remember they use their beak as a third limb) the best thing to do, instead of placing him down what you want to do is make him step up. Go ahead and place a prech (pencil or longer stick works good) at his chest level and he will naturally try to get to a higher place and will step up... remember that ringnecks can be very good pets but are not birds for fist time bird owners... so be patient, relax and have fun...

Thanks,

Grumpy Ringneck · Post by **Grumpy Ringneck** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 8:19 pm

dogsandparrots wrote:hello....if his bitting when you are trying to get him off you hand (remember they use their beak as a third limb) the best thing to do, instead of placing him down what you want to do is make him step up. Go ahead and place a prech (pencil or longer stick works good) at his chest level and he will naturally try to get to a higher place and will step up... remember that ringnecks can be very good pets but are not birds for fist time bird owners... so be patient, relax and have fun...

Thanks,

That doesn't work. He'll just turn and run up my arm or continue to bite me drawing blood.

don't think that biting to draw blood is a normal thing for a parrot to do. what do you mean by first time bird owners? how many parrots should i have taken care of before. a person needs special skills to take care of a ringneck?

how can i relax when i don't know when he'll bite.

julie · Post by **julie** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 8:29 pm

was he hand raised hand tame when you got him?

You may need to go back to the beginning with him and treat him as if he has only just come to you.

dogsandparrots · Post by **dogsandparrots** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:00 pm

The reson why he runs up is because parrots feel safer on higher places... if u can't relax having a parrot on your hand well then you need to place him in a perch and work from there... just trying to help...

julie · Post by **julie** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:16 pm

dogsandparrots wrote:The reson why he runs up is because parrots feel safer on higher places... if u can't relax having a parrot on your hand well then you need to place him in a perch and work from there... just trying to help...

It would be hard to relax and drop your guard when you have something biting you.
It will be more helpful to learn some ways to deal with the problems and minimize the biting.

dogsandparrots · Post by **dogsandparrots** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:37 pm

leo wrote:i think he is too early to be bluffing
i think you remove him and give him toy encaurage him to bite. it is telling him,okay, i ve lost and heres your toy

he is defenately pushing his boundry
i usually solve this staring in to his eyes and say a stern NO, folowed by a little with shake of hand(if he pearch on your hand). he will have to let go and gain balance. after he let go, prise him for letting go and pretend nothing happen

soon he will learn that he have to let go as soon as u say no, and the next time, he will learn that bite is a no, what does the sound of no mean(earth quake coming), and who is the boss

this is anyway, a negative reinforcement and some people do not like the idea. but it work really well for me when handling growing up bird so far

In this case the "earth quake" will be punishement not negative reinforcement... bird does wrong=earth quake (correction = punishsment) ... in the other hand negative reinforcement is by definition to take away something that the animal dislikes (removal of an aversive stimulus) in order to repeat a wanted behavior.

I will not like to use punishment when training an animal, at least not at the begining (not saying that it doesn't work, there are 1000 ways to train an animal) but I like to stick to possitive-negative reinforcement, instead of punishment, because you inprint a stronger and more reliable foundation. When an animal is under stress (physical or mental) they go back to their foundation. Just like a person (muscle memory). So if the foundation is laid on possitive reinforcement the animal goes back to that. If foundation is based on fear of punishment then the animal will go back to that... Let me add that possitive reinforcement or motivatinal training takes longer to finish but I think that in the long way is worth the work... we are training these animals to do non-parrot like behaviors, so the better foundation the best... like I said before there are 1000 ways to train animals, ppl will not agree with me but I like this methods...

Thanks

dogsandparrots · Post by **dogsandparrots** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:42 pm

julie wrote:
dogsandparrots wrote:The reson why he runs up is because parrots feel safer on higher places... if u can't relax having a parrot on your hand well then you need to place him in a perch and work from there... just trying to help...
It would be hard to relax and drop your guard when you have something biting you.
It will be more helpful to learn some ways to deal with the problems and minimize the biting.

That s why I said that in order to relax it will be better to place the parrot on a perch like a T stand and work from there... I guess I didn't explain myself correclty...

julie · Post by **julie** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:48 pm

dogsandparrots you come across as not having much patience with people who don't know as much about training as you.
things like this "well then you need to" could be said a different way IE maybe try putting him on a perch and working without him on you.

courtney · Post by **courtney** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:06 am

Did you try blowing on him when he bites? It worked with Boomer. Boomer drew blood as well and it killed. I didn't know what to do to stop it. This was a month ago and it took three days to stop when I started blowing on him.

When you see him go down for that bite instantly blow on him. You will soon learn his behavior and learn when he is going to bite.

IRN’s are very hard to work with. They are VERY stubborn and strong willed independent birds. Keep at it, don’t give up and it will all work out with some help.

dogsandparrots · Post by **dogsandparrots** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:57 am

julie wrote:dogsandparrots you come across as not having much patience with people who don't know as much about training as you.
things like this "well then you need to" could be said a different way IE maybe try putting him on a perch and working without him on you.

julie--- sorry I gave u that impresion... let me tell you that I enjoy helping ppl with their training needs... the last thing I wanted was to give that impresion. I guess I'll have to work more on how I writte my point of view...

Grumpy Ringneck · Post by **Grumpy Ringneck** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:16 am

courtney wrote:Did you try blowing on him when he bites? It worked with Boomer. Boomer drew blood as well and it killed. I didn't know what to do to stop it. This was a month ago and it took three days to stop when I started blowing on him.

When you see him go down for that bite instantly blow on him. You will soon learn his behavior and learn when he is going to bite.

IRN’s are very hard to work with. They are VERY stubborn and strong willed independent birds. Keep at it, don’t give up and it will all work out with some help.

tried today but blowing on him doesn't work.

he's hand raised and already knew how to set up. still acting normally before he bites or lunges.