too hanging upside down

[leah9798]

Hi Kim. I have had an approx 10 yr old E2 for a little over 4 months now. He does have some problems with biting and lunging at times but he is getting much better. I joined a parrot behavior group and they suggested that when he bites to put him in timeout for no more than aminute. The problem I think is that he knows when he is going to go and will start swinging upside down on my hand, crest up, flapping wings. It is happening more frequently and the other day he was being a good boy but started doing it immediately after stepping up. I'm unsure if mayeb he thought he was going to his cage or not which he absolutely hates. The thing that worries me is that if he is doing this because of the timeouts that the next thing is going to be him biting me. I have also been told that it sounds like play behavior but I'm wondering if this could be more of an avoidance behavior. Any thoughts would eb appreciated. Thank you Leah

[KimBear]

Often the first thing I recommend for a misbehaving parrot is to have him step up a few times, maybe with a dowel if he's being nippy. Asking a parrot to "perform" a task that takes his mind off the naughty behavior may be enough. Sometimes it's not, so you may have to move to a "Time out". But it doesn't have to take place in the cage. A time out is a method of punishment in which you remove a reinforcing condition, which in the case of most parrots, would be attention. If the bird continues to misbehave after a few step up commands, you put him down and turn away for a bit. Only if he continues to act up would you probably want to put him away, and this may be mainly for your benefit, not his.

For best results the withdrawal of attention should be IMMEDIATELY after the offense. Sometimes by the time you walk over to to the cage and put the bird in, he may not realize why he's being put away. Also it's very important that when administring the time out, either right there on the spot or by putting the parrot away, you react as little as possible. You can have a scowl on your face, but other than that, don't make a fuss. Just be as matter-of-fact about it as you can. Remember the idea is to withhold the reinforcing attention. Often for a parrot, angry attention, like what he'd receive from being scolded, is better than no attention.

The problem with getting advice in a format like this is that you can't always use a "one size fits all" approach. Time out is only one tool and it's not going to be the appropriate thing in all situations. If you have a parrot that's unruly a lot of the time, you may need to look at other aspects of his handling, not just the things you do in reaction to his naughtiness. Sometimes parrots that don't have proper boundaries or rules, or are trained inconsistantly from one person to another, will become harder to handle overall.