Why you should “Punish” your bird

I haven’t tried this yet, but I think this is brilliant!

this video is great… and full of information. ive actually been doing this in different ways with my bird bring his confidence levels up.. before he was very cautious about where he would place his foot even on his own cage.. and it would tend to take him alot more effert and foot placements to get to where he wanted to be.. so the past little while ive been makin him do tricks laying in my hand and doing back flips landing on the couch *on his feet* and at first freaked him out, not knowing what was ginna happen.. sometimes sumble n almost no balance but now he loves to do it.. n with me just doing this and couple other small things… his confidence has risen and he will jump and hope all over, and easily climb through his cage like he owns it lol… im ginna try the food thing with the toys and see if i get any other improovement

This is a great idea i have a foster DoubleYellow Head Amazon that is 35-40 and does not know how to play, step-up or any basic thing that a bird would do. i’m putting this on my list of things to do with him (Fred). i’m also using your video’s on training so wish me luck. Thank you for all you do to help us care takers of these wounderfull animals.

Yeah same thing. also whenever i take out my bird and i let go so he can fly around my room, he always bumps into the walls. why?

Dear Chet, I enjoyed this video, but I have several comments.
I would say that the more correct description of this is: Why you should let your bird experience CONSEQUENCES. Your description of your son, gives him instant feedback and consequences for his actions. I see this as providing POSITIVE reinforcement-he makes corrections to his balance and is rewarded by staying on the bike with his feet up. In fact you can do this to a regular bike-take off the pedals-my children (not at age 2 at the time!!) learned to ride their bikes in a couple of days that way.

Anyway, what I want to say, is that punishment is really a form of NEGATIVE reinforcement.
Punishment is the practice of imposing something unpleasant or aversive on a person or animal …usually in response to disobedience, defiance, or behavior deemed morally wrong by individual….
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punish

What the bird (and your son) experience is a positive effect of trying to balance-either through the toys, or on the bike.

Seen in this light, I see no controversy in this method, and I doubt others will either.
Calling it “punishment” ?-well, provocative, yes-accurate? I don’t think so!

I really enjoy your educational stuff, too, Thank You

Having lost one bird who flew off, I decided to clip the wings of our other Fischer Love Bird. I can see how this can create a crisis of confidence. Great advice that I’m going to apply.

the pic of the week is cute but my bird does that all the time shes a spoiled brat

Just like Aiyush,
our Indian Ringneck Parrot (Ringo) fly in to windows walls and lands like George of the jungle. but,his previous owner never let him out.Cliped his wings, and only grab him to get him out of the cage.We are tring to get him to trust us, this might help with his landings.

Thanks for the info, it is however very frustrating to get only a few words before the video upload again. I seem to lost what you try to tell and didn’t watch to full video.

i completely disagree
it is okay to inflict more than a little pain. actually the more pain the merrier

jk

I personally am a amazon parrot person but, it is okay if you like bird brains. If you don’t have an amazon or gray parrot your pet bird is possibly the most unintellectualy gifted life forms on the planned

I however am kidding and any who takes this seriously have some major problems.

I like Quakers cause they be the best

Chet: I have tried your suggestions for problems I had been having with my Sun Conure; and every suggestion you had given me has worked.

Birds are very intellegent.

You are the master!!!

Oh, I especially loved the little ‘bird world’ film you emailed us all.

Thanks a lot for everything.

Very insightful…..this could be useful for one of my birds who is a bit timid. I will give it a go.
Thanks Chet!

Sorry Chet, my Amazon does not stay in the cage during the day; therefore she eats on top and she does not have any toys. She likes to stay out of the cage after the night sleep. I would like her to have toys, but she is scared of anything I may introduce her to, exept going out in the car and all over the place; and also being together with other people which she kisses and even go on top of their sholders …! It may be my fault…because from the begining I never really got her any… She is really a quiet bird, eccept when I am doing something else in an other room…
Sincerely.
Lilla and Ciccia(the bird)

Excellent idea I enjoyed your video
One question I do have however is are you suggesting it’s not a good idea to clip your bird’s wings?
I have always done do in the past, however would like some feedback from you as to the Pros and Cons of doing so.

Chet, what a great idea!!! I just adopted a Grey who is a plucker. She is very nervous and among the other things she and I are trying, I am going to try this with her. I hope she will become more confident with herself and not be so nervous. Thanks again for your great ideas.

I think Paul Jimbo Smith is a masochist if he thinks inflicting more pain the better on a helpless animal is “normal”. Sick, in my opinion.

Chet, I have a Goffin Cockatoo who is over confident. He only comes to me and bites my kids, guess he’s jealous. He’s getting out of hand and screams if he’s not with me. When I got him he was clipped. ive had him 2 yrs and never clipped him. He flies everywhere, when outside he sticks to me but recently flew on the neighbors roof, I wasnt impressed. Right now I’m thinking of getting rid of him. Then I thought of clipping his wings so I could have more control of him. What do you think? Also, how can I get him to stop screaming? He’s fine as long as he’s on my shoulder. I can’t have people over because he’ll scream and if I let him out he wants to inspect the people and ends up biting. I’m getting fed up with Pauley, do you have suggestions. Please help…..Marcella

To Marcella,Obviously you are one that never did your homework and your parrot is going to end up on the that awful merry go round.These are highly intelligent birds and need lots of attention.There are very few people I think that can have one of these and personally should never have been bred for the pet trade.Majority of bird breeders is all about the DOLLAR!!

Hi Chet
The 1 thing that your vids have shown me is.. To be a good birder you nedd to think outside the box..I have an 11yr old CAG male & 2.5 yr Fem Ecki and finally after 1.5 yr I have her figured out. Trust me when I say you are right on with this vid subject. I have both fids clipped by a very patient vet withme there in what is called a show cut this allows them to have limited flight to the floor not falling and they seem to trust in that. They love to jump off their cages and fly to the floor over and over. The one thing I have noticed is my Ecki needs a lot of sleep to keep her loving attitude going.8-10 hrs other wise she gets grumpy and bites, especially in early spring (nesting season)
even though they will never mate they are now starting to play together, and now she is starting to talk (taught by her brother) thanks for all of your help

Griz

Thanks so much, now I know what i wrong with my galah, she will let mw tickle, touch and scratch her but will not step on my hand, I have tried target training but she runs from my hand if I try to get her to step up, and yes when I got her, her wing had been clipped, thanks again I will be trying this from lesley in New Zealand

To Marcella,
I to have a Goffin, he was abused before we got him. The screaming really got to us , and 1 morning by chance I had the squirt bottle that I use for ironing, and gave him a small squirt of water, wow did that change things, he did not like it and, immediately started preening his feathers. Now I use the bottle as punishment,and it works. Just fill the bottle with normal water,nothing else, it has helped with a few other bad habits. At this stage I just have to show him the bottle and he will stop with what he was doing.Good luck.

Chet,
I am totally freaking! My African Grey has started to hang upside in his cage from the ceiling! He dangles there with the tips of his claws! I am so scared he is going to fall and break his neck. It is about a 3 foot drop!
He then grabs the tops of his toys, where the links are attached to the ceiling of his cage, and wrestles with them, shaking them back and forth. A couple of times now he has slipped and fallen. If you would like me to forward you a video of him doing this in order for you to give me some guidance, I will!

i finally got my bird to stop bitting my pastor prayed for him he was a 2 yr old when i got him ive had him around 9 months ive orded and reordered from you i am having no luck with frankie i have him out every day i set down with him to teach him to say new words he will not do it he just repeats everything else he knows my grand daughter is 7 when she comes in he gets so excited you can watch his eyes chang while he is on my hand and fluff then he begines to say hello for no reason what so ever he bites me so bad i love him so much he sleeps with me i can even strok his back with out bitting me he loves his bath dosent scream i can even put my hand in his cage now and give him his feed with out bitting i know there has got to be a fix my sister has a quacker that talks up a storm he is 4 she lives 8 yrs away im getting so broken hearted now that i dont know what to do im about to give up gby deborah

Chet,
Some of these responses are really scary. The guy Paul Jimbo Smith that says inflicting pain is good! I hope you are joking. Also, Petru who wrote squirting his/her bird to stop behavior is horrible advice! Would you do that to your child?

Chet,
Maybe you need to rename the name of this training, I think some wackos may take this to another level and think “punish” is synonomous with “abuse”. Please clear this up.

I have a sweetheart goffin cockatoo that I got for my birthday 1 1/2 yrs ago. I wanted one forever, and I thought she would love me the most because she was my bird, I fed her, played with her most etc. WRONG! She is very smart, but she loves my husband so much she gets jealous if I come near her when he has her. I realized that she gets mad at me because when my husband has had enough of her, he tells me to take her to her cage. She became angry with me for taking her from the thing she loves most, my husband. Recently, we have had him take her to her back to her cage and this has made a huge difference. She doesn’t see me as the one keeping her from the love of her life. When my husband isn’t around she loves me up almost like she does with him.
I have a question about training her to step up. When I open her cage she comes right to me, but she only wants to sit on my shoulder or my head. I want to try training her with the tricks but I am stumped with this. Any suggestions??

I have the same problem with my bird biting my finger when she is getting on it or perhaps out of the blue. I am going to try this and will let you know if I have success! Thanks Chet-you rock!!!!

GRR..
I had my pet cockatiel for about a week now, and she still doesnt like me or anything. I hang around her cage from time to time for her to get used to me, and like my freinds say, put ur hand in the cage for her to get use to it. But all it does is run, hiss and bite, no progress at all. It hasn’t bin hand feed before, so i guess its scared, but am getting more and more disappointed with my bird.
I don’t know what to do.

is spraying ur bird with water as a punishment bad advice ?

would have been better if you showed a set up with a bird actually using this method to get food.Using a bird that usually doesn’t like to be in unusual positions. Not a lorrikeet as they are the acrobats of the bird word naturally.

Hey Chet,

Where were you in the 1980s?! Wow, you certainly know your stuff. Thanks for this helpful video tip. Great idea!

I have a scarlet mecaw and he is very tame and he likes to bite me or anything tha upsets him, and now he started bitting his leg if he gets angry. so how would i punish him if he bites me or somone. and why does he bite his reg?

hi chet.i got a 10months old alexandrine paroot abt 2 weeks ago.the problem is he is infested with lices.which is very disturbing 4 me n for the poor parrot.i tried giving him a nice bath.but i think bath only will not free him from lices.there is no avian vet around my home.please advice me on this.

i have not been able to open this video but it sounds like something I need to know. can anyone give me the 50-words-or-less gist of what Chet is saying????

this is a fantastic video i will try now……..tank you verry much…..louiza and rico

This is a great leaning method for many issues. My newly adopted B&G Macaw from a parrot rescue in Florida, , is very young (1 to maybe 3 years old) and she has balance issues and a weak grip in her feet. She gladly steps up to you with no problem, but if you move too fast, she will nip and flutter from being off balance. I think this training method will do wonders for her to learn proper balance and help her feel more secure. It will also help her develop a better grip in her feet, and allow her to get around her cage better without fear.

I don’t have my bird yet, but will very soon. I hope I don’t have to try this procedure out, but am glad to know about it. I think the idea is absolutely brilliant! I am very impressed with your logic. Thanks for sharing!

One client of his had a bird that bit her every time she tried to get it to step up. He used the concept of putting a barricade of toys that are unbalanced and hold small amounts of food inside to block the bird’s main food source, which should be another toy with the “jackpot” inside. The bird will have to learn to balance himself by maneuvering around the toys to get to his meal. Once he learns these balancing skills on his own he will gain self confidence and not associating his falling or unbalancing with the client’s finger. Now the client’s bird will get on her finger with no problems.
Hope this helps! )

OH my god!!! I adopted a 25 year old “breeder” African Grey and He(Oscar) was caged for the last 9 years with clipped wings. Long story short, He steps up on perches, but not hands…because when he steps up on hands he gets nervous and tryes to fly back to his cage, with winges still clipped and falls to the ground, after several falls, now he wont step onto hands. I can’t wait to try the toy trick!!! THANK YOU so much!

Hi Chet, that was a real informative video. Thank you so much for all the sharing. Now, I would like you to please help me understand how in the world can i get hold on the toys & the bird food, as it doesn’t go out of the US of A, have i got that right? I have a Cocatoo & I am based out of India. I would also love to go in for your videos onhow to stop the bird from screming & teach him tricks & make him have all the fun..! All i need is what’s best for him, though not out in the wild, but just right here, being with me… Please help!

thats awsome I havent tried it yet but i think it would work!! i never would of thought of that ?

You mentioned clipping wings on birds. We have a blue and gold that has had his wings clipped and recently we let them grow and he is now flying some. Our concern is not in the house, but that he likes to go outside as well. We dont want him to get startled and fly off. What is the solution to this dilemma?

Robert,

Your options are to hold your bird’s feet everytime your outside in the hopes that is enough (thought something could go wrong and you could let go at some point) or get your bird a harness for outdoors, or take the Birdtricks.com freeflight course which is a 3 month long course personally coached via phone, email and video footage by Dave Womach. You can email customer service about the course at info@birdtricks.com.

Hi thanks for the mail do keep sending me such wonderful mails.As i love Parrots.

Thanks & Regards,

Rajesh

The pic of the week may be cute but my friend’s bird fell into a glass filled with water and drowned doing this. Always take care that your that your bird is in a completely safe environment while out of the cage! On another note, I enjoyed your video very much. I want to find tips on how to stop my once hand-tamed bird (conure) from biting. I’m wondering if he bites because I stopped handling him as much due to my time-consuming job. I miss petting him and massaging his neck. It’s fun being hooked up with other bird lovers! Thank you!

I have an African Grey parrot who is 9 years old, he has got very aggresive this last year, when I let him out of the cage, he sits on top and plays about, he would do anything for my hubby but now when he handles him he bites really hard, no playing, but I feed him wash his cage, talk to him all the time during the day, when I let him out and he sits on top of his cage I usually go over and just stand which I have been doing for the last 9 years he has attacked me very badly with his feet on my head and this last week he without any warning flew at me before I knew anything he had a hold of my ear and was biting away at me flapping his wings and hold on to my ear, I was totally shocked, I had to pull him off me or I might of been missing one ear, this has been the fourth time he has suddenly attacked me help!!! of he’s for sale

WHY DOESA BIRD BITES WHEN IT HAS NEVER DONE IT BEFORE OR MAKES NOISE ALL THE TIME

This is one of the most verbose videos I have seen. Briefly Introduce the concept ,and include video on the bird actually reaching for food and balancing, so the viewer can see what really happens. My seeing the bird enjoying the trip to his/her food would be the best selling point for your product.

Hi,

My senegal came back from being babysat at our local bird store with one wing clipped…yes that is right..against my permission! I will not ever let them sit with her again!! In the meantime, she has had several incidents with the floor as she thinks she can still fly. Poor thing got so nervous that every time I had her step up, she flapped her wings like crazy and made little whimpering noises. It broke my heart.

So I introduced several new ways for her to balance in her cage. I got a bamboo ladder that was held together by itself, each square was 2 horizontal and 2 vertical pieces of bamboo. There were 6 of these all connected together and boy were they unstable! She wouldn’t use it at all at first, so I took her rope perch out and placed this ladder to her food dish. After about 2 weeks she was climbing all over it like a monkey.

She now steps up well, but every now and then she has what I like to call “flashbacks” where she makes the assumption she is going to fall and the old behavior comes back. It is only maybe once a month or so, but it is still there. (Parrots are quite capable of remembering everything and reactions are no different ) So as I watched her dismantle the ladder over the last month, I guessed she had had enough but I wanted to be sure she was okay with being unbalanced so I kept the rolls from inside toilet paper and strung them along her long rope perch and placed it back in her cage. At first, she hated it. Then I got some treat bars and stuffed them inside at regular intervals. It didn’t take long for her to find out that walking on this weird smooth surface, then destroying certain areas and diving inside, got her a treat! She is now very comfortable hanging upside down by my finger, from toys and stepping up is not a problem, she isn’t all that comfortable with smooth things yet, but the toilet rolls have helped. She has learned that there are things on which she can use her claws to help her and things she cannot. And although the old behavior still comes back every now and then, she is a more settled and happy bird.

Just a ps: when she was suffering from the fear, she was NOT the same loving little parrot I knew from before. She bit, and growled and generally was quite miserable. Now that has all changed. Even though the old behavior still comes back every now and then, she has slowly become the bird she was meant to be and is quite happy with herself. She is better at trying new things, and I hope that with this molt, she will be able to fly again.

The toys I get every month from Chet for her are quite unique and she loves the heck out of them. Actually, she loves them so much that they don’t last out the month. So thanks Chet for helping to make her a happier bird!!

{Senegal Parrot: 2 yrs old: Kokoro}

Hi Chet,
The picture with the bird dipping his head into a glass of milk is cute, but can be extremely dangerous and possibly fatal to the bird. What happens is the bird will slip and fall face first into the glass and drown itself. I have several friends that have lost their parrots due to this type of accident. Do not let your parrots drink out of glasses like this unless you are there to supervise their actions.What a way to die, by drowning in a glass.

Hi Chet,
I just watched your Video of the bird with no self confidence to step up. I have had a 2 year old Mealy Amazon for several months and he is just getting used to having his head scratched.and taking food from your hand and i have taught him to give me a kiss for a piece of food. Problem is he will not step up and never stands on my hand, shoulder,arm etc – it is as if he is frightened which i have put down to a possible bad experience with his only other owner. She was an elderly lady who had two parrots (him and an African Grey). I do not think that she hadled them at all as neither were trained to step up. It has taken such a long time to get him to where he is now so can you advise me how to proceed and get him to stand on my hand etc.
Many thanks
Fred Johnson

i need help with feather plucking

unable to download this vid so unhappy. but will try again. have a green cheek conure he is the love of my life. just bought a quaker last summer. he is still a baby. starting to talk. hoping he is half the bird jojo is. thanks for all your great tips. sue

I have a grey cockatiel. A male. I have had him for 2 months or so. I cant afford your videos but watch the clips you put on here. I have been trying most of them to no avail. He does not want to come out of his cage, and when he does he doesnt want to be bothered. We have tried mullet to coax him onto our finger and he has a few times and we just let him sit there. Then as soon as we move he takes off again. His wings are clipped and I am afraid he will hurt himself. He bites, screeches, and runs from us. He wont come out of his cage so I can clean it so I have to do it with him in it, and he will attack my head. I am at a loss. Does anyone have some really good advice for me? If I cant get him under cintrol soon I will have to get rid of him. He was bought for my 13 yr old daughter and she cant even get near him. HELP!!!!!!! Vickie