Basic Training for Parrots
Dorene Olson, BA, CPDT, APDT #761, NADOI #1001C
TARA Training and Behavior, LLC
Teaching Animals with Respect and Affection
WyndSong Border Collies and Canada Goose Management
314-956-1310
Parrots are not domesticated and are naturally willful animals, and therefore are usually not particularly interested in pleasing their human guardians. In this they are like cats. It is important for shelter staff and volunteers to know that birds may not always want to come out of their cages or socialize when it is playtime .
Parrots, however, are also extremely intelligent and social animals, and therefore do respond to training and positive reinforcement. It is, therefore, possible to teach parrots to respond to basic commands like step up or stay.e
Learning to Read and Communicate with a Parrot
Because they are social creatures, birds will make to communicate with their human guardians whether by learning to speak in our language or by using their natural behaviors.
To effectively communicate and understand a particular bird, it is very important to learn the postures, vocalizations and actions made by the bird, which can be called behavioral signals. The best way to do this is through careful observation and consistent interaction.
Learning the postures or gestures and vocalizations of a particular bird can help to avoid potentially hazardous situations, like getting bit, and can increase trust between bird and human guardian. For example, birds have contact calls that they use in the wild to communicate and locate their mate or family. Some birds may use contact calls to call to their human guardians if they cannot see them or want attention. Often, all that the bird requires is a response, Its ok, (birds name). Im right here. This response will let the bird know they are not alone and calm them.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to provide a chart or list of what behaviors to look for as they vary with species and individual bird. In a shelter setting, it is probably most important to anticipate situations where staff, volunteers and visitors may get bit and to minimize the risk. The most obvious and almost universal signals or warnings that a bird may bite are:
Beaking - hitting something with a closed beak
Nipping - biting (hard or soft) without drawing blood
Flared wings - shoulders flared or wings outspread
Fluffed head feathers - in combination with one of these other
Raised crest and head bob - (for Cockatoos only) crest raised and head bobbing in an aggressive manner
Eye pinning - (Amazons and Macaws only) may be a warning sign or can mean positive excitement
Training and Behavior Modification
In a shelter setting, probably the most important behavior modification is to reduce or eliminate aggressive behaviors, including the most common aggressive behavior - biting. For this reason, the examples in this section will deal with modifying aggressive biting (biting that purposefully draws blood) behavior in parrots. (It is important to remember that not all biting is aggressive. Birds use their beaks to test the steadiness of a perch, including hands, and to give warnings. This behavior is a natural part of a birds behavior repertoire and modification of these behaviors is unnecessary.)
The techniques of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) described in this section, however, can be applied to other behavior training and modification as well.
The most important elements to training a bird or modifying undesirable or destructive behaviors is to USE POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT, OR A REWARD SYSTEM, AND TO BE CONSISTENT. By using positive reinforcement, you provide the bird with INCENTIVE to perform the desired behavior, for example stepping up from inside the cage. Punishing or yelling at a bird does not work. While some birds will learn not to bite with a simple, No Biting, command, the techniques described below provide a more methodological approach that can help even the most problematic bird.
Please note that it may be necessary for the human caregivers to modify their own behavior and actions in order to help the bird stop the undesirable behavior.
Step 1: Identify the behavior to be changed
For the purposes of this section, the behavior to be modified is aggressive biting when a bird is asked to step up.e
Step 2: Describe birds behavior objectively
You need to know when a bird bites, where the bird is when biting occurs (Does the bird only bite when s/he is in her/his cage?), what postures the birds exhibits immediately before he bites (raised or lowered feathers, flared wings, warning call), and what happens immediately after the biting.
Step 3: Understanding why the bird repeats undesirable behavior
Please note that the word understand is not being used as a synonym for empathize. Indeed, ABA theory notes that we, as humans, cannot ever know the emotional state or motivators of a bird. Instead, think of what we can know through observation.
All behaviors have consequences for the bird. When a bird bites usually one of several things happens: the human leaves the bird alone and the bird does not have to step up (likely what the bird wanted) or the human becomes agitated or insistent and possibly towels the bird (this is a good example of negative reinforcement and as anyone who has repeatedly had to towel a bird can attest, birds do not learn not to bite because the consequence is that they may get toweled. This is why ABA encourages using only Positive Reinforement.).
Step 4: Identify a positive reinforcer or reward
A reward must be something that the bird already likes and wants. To identify what will work as a potential reward for a given bird, it is important to get to know what the bird likes by observing his/her behavior and response to different stimuli. Rewards can be verbal praise, a head scratch, a food treat, or a favorite toy.
Do not make the mistake of using something you think the bird will like or using something that has worked in the past. Peanuts may work for one bird, but not another.
During behavior modification, the positive reinforcer or reward should only be used for training purposes. Thus, if the reward is peanuts, the bird should not be given peanuts as a regular treat.
Step 5: Initiate behavior modification using positive reinforcement
Old Behavior:
A. Guardian opens cage door, puts hand in the cage, says Step upe
B. The bird holds feathers down tightly and flares wings (aggressive postures), leans forward and bites the guardians hand.
C. Guardian withdraws bitten hand.
New Behavior:
A. Guardian opens cage door and talks in a soft tone of voice to the bird, waiting to see that he does not display aggressive postures (if the bird does show tense behaviors, it may be necessary to use positive reinforcement until the bird associates you opening the cage and not tensing up with receiving a reward before moving on to trying to get the bird to step up. )
B. If the bird does not show aggressive postures, the guardian offers a hand using a new command like, On here, or Up here.e
C. Bird steps up.
D. Bird is rewarded with positive reinforcement (verbal praise and a peanut).
Repeating this behavior consistently will give the bird incentive to not bite and eventually, the behavior will disappear even without the reward.
If the bird does bite, the guardian should withdraw their hand, close the cage door and walk away, out of sight of the bird. Do not say anything to the bird under these circumstances.
In general, where unwanted behaviors are the problem, it is best to avoid situations where such behaviors are likely to. If a bird has a habit of biting while in a certain place (e.g. when inside their cage), then refrain from interacting with the bird while it is ever in that place (only ask the bird to step up when s/he is out of their cage).
