Questions on Chet Womach

[fqtt]

Last night my mom was ordering a flight suit for on of my 'tiels and after we were done ordering there was a link in a paragraph talking about how to get your birds to stop biting, screaming, etc.

Several of my birds are not hand-tame (working on it!) but only one of them is a downright biter. I was really surprised today when I stuck my hand out for him to step-up and he did quite happily. I let him go soon after, though, because I have had quite a few problems with this bird. One time he even bit the inside of my mouth! I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but he was on my shoulder and I think I just turned my head a little bit and he reached around a bit me. I didn't think it was enough to provoke him, but I don't know. He has drawn blood several times, and is the only bird of mine I've gotten a serious bite from.

My mom said it would be nice to be able to teach him not to bite (I agree with her, of course!) so we check out this guy Chet's pitch and it sounds kind of interesting, but too good to be true. One customer said he got his biting bird to stop biting in 'as little as 15 minutes'. Here's the link to the site (Training Parrots Parrot Training)

The promo video does not explain AT ALL how he gets the birds to be tame, but is just like normal promo videos telling you you should buy his products.

I was just wondering if anyone else had heard of this guy and if you know if his training techniques work or not. My mom wanted me to look into it, so here I am :) Personally, I'm not digging it. Sounds like one of those 'sounds too good to be true so it is' kind of things.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

[magdalena]

I can get a biting bird to stop biting in the 3 seconds in takes me to not give it my finger. :D I don't know anything about the guy but a lot of people on this board don't think favorably of him or his methods or marketing.

[fqtt]

bahahaha in that case I can get the bird never to bite me again ever! Just leave him in the cage all day ;)

Yeah, I was really not into his pitch, I didn't think it sounded reliable at all =/ Was also wondering, though, I've heard that people have gotten their birds to stop biting by wearing gloves to show the bird that the biting doesn't hurt and you don't mean them any harm. Does that work? If so approx. how long does it take...? I was thinking about trying it, but didn't want to use any kind of gloves that had anything on them that the birds might accidentally ingest while biting.

Thanks again :D

[jenseits]

My personal opinion about the biting is that if you show your bird that the bite doesn't hurt, all you're really teaching him is that he's not biting you hard enough. Birds bite for a reason... they are trying to communicate something to you. If you ignore the bite, they'll need to escalate in order to get the message across. Always respect the bite.

You're much better off 1) learning how to avoid the bite, 2) teaching your bird other ways of communicating.

There are plenty of very reputable, well-respected bird trainers that I would recommend for training -- people like Barbara Heidenreich -- who are professional trainers (not marketers first and foremost).

The search function on this bird is good for finding previous discussions about topics such as biting, the Womach brothers, etc. Browse the archives and you'll find plenty of good background.

[fqtt]

ok, I was wondering about the whole biting thing because I thought it was kind of weird that they would not bite if they didn't think it was working haha... I thought they would just bite harder, but I'd heard it worked so :'D

Thanks for the info :D I looked through the search a bit ago and found a thread about Chet that I read through... looked interesting but I think I'm pretty put off about his methods, he really did seem like a marketer more than a bird-lover and I didn't like that.

Thanks again ^_^

[tielfan]

Originally Posted by fqtt

he really did seem like a marketer more than a bird-lover and I didn't like that

Bingo. Some of his training methods are less than ideal too.

[fqtt]

Yeah haha I just told my mom that when she came in a couple minutes ago and she still wants me to research some more...

So I'm off to YouTube to see if I can find some clips from his show, hehe... not expecting much, though!

Working on researching Barbara Heidenreich, she seems a lot more argeeable Her books/videos are wonderfully priced, which to me suggests that she truly wants to help and isn't into marketing :) Gonna see if I can find a book of hers in the library or a half-price book store to try out, then go from there :)

Thanks for all the help!

[magdalena]

She rocks!

[jenseits]

Sometimes you can find used books for sale by various owners on Amazon too. I just saw "Good Bird" for $8.18.

[fqtt]

hehehe thanks for the input, magdalena! XD

yeah, I was hoping to find one in a store nearby to save on shipping... My parents order from Amazon a lot, though, and if we order enough we can get free shipping so that is definitely a possibility :)

I think I'll probably check locally first because then I can have the actual book in my hands and take a flip through it to see what all it offers :D

Thanks for all the help, as usual!