Alexandrine help please

[debbielabella]

Originally Posted by ilikebirds

doesnt picking them up from behind freak them out because they are in essence a prey animal? is it not better from the front so they can see what is coming at them?

My birds all differ on this. In all honesty, I will have my Grey and my Amazon step up from behind if they don't want to so they don't bite. I would not do this to my Alex as she's a little high strung and she would probably bite. If I am having a bird step up and there's a good chance they'll give me a good chomp, I wrap a dishtowel around my arm to cover most of my hand and make a fist.

I think what really worked for me was in the beginning to have her step up when she seemed like she wanted to and then doing something pleasant with her that she enjoyed, such as offering her a treat or some of my food. As soon as she wanted off I let her off. That way it became something she wanted. She is more independent than my other birds that I can train differently. All positive reward. Whenever I made her step up to go back into her cage she became more nervous and unpredictable. Now she steps up most of the time I want her too, but I always try to make it a postive experience for her as often as possible.

[NotEnoughTime]

My view is that if a bird bites (not grabs - but bites) when asked to step up then there is a lot more training and trust to be done/developed before step-up training.

To me approaching from behind and biting implies that there is not a trust-bond between the parrot and person... Is the parrot "backing" away from you to step up?

My experience is that the parrot turns to face the person, so the approach would be the hand behind and the parrot steps-up because it wants to (or has a desire to) move away from the person. I don't feel this leads to a good relationship. The parrot should want to approach the person.

Just my opinion.