Excellent video; thank you! Newt's plumage looks more gorgeous and brilliantly healthy with every new video - thank you for such a great example of bird care!
This video came out at the right time. My budgie has recently started behaving aggressively towards me when we're training and I go to reward her with millet. Whenever I take the millet back, that's when she starts biting the heck out of my fingers.
I would use individual seeds instead of a millet ball! In this scenario it’s most likely happening because the bird is being presented a large sum of millet and believes they’ve earned the entire thing. So when you pull it away they don’t understand what they’ve done to warrant their reward being stolen from them. Using singular seeds sets a clear message for what they’ve earned and how much they’re getting. In this scenario nothing gets taken away, they get the entirety of what they’ve earned.
Thank you for this, i have a bit of a challenge as Sophie (my parrotlet) doesnt get aggressive when I feed her but she goes nuts when i feed the guinea pigs (who also live in my front room). She will fly at me and bite the back of my neck, my face, my hands - it's like a horror movie by Disney. I've tried involving her and giving her a little treat when she is calm as positive reinforcement but she waits until i relax, then attacks me, I've tried distracting her and throwing a bunch of seeds in the opposite direction (which she looks at, memorises their position then attacks me) and I've tried just putting her in her house while i do it, which makes her absolutely furious to the point i worry she might explode. So now i just wear a thick hoodie and cover as much of myself as i can and hold a pillow up like a shield. Yes this is as funny as it sounds because she's the size of a mouse she doesn't really hurt me but i could do without it, so any advice you have would be very much appreciated. Best wishes to you and your flock 😊
I would slow down the entire process of feeding the piggies to see what specific moment seems to trigger her. For a lot of parrotlets the sound of a crinkling bag will start it, for example. Take each element of their feeding and separate it in to individual elements and see if there’s one specific moment that’s triggering the aggressive behaviour, this includes breaking down your movements as well. Once you can isolate that you can apply the same strategies you were doing before, reward the calm behaviour, except now you can do that with the precise element that’s bothering her and adjust its distance and volume from her to be able to work under her aggression threshold. Until then I would keep her in a cage during the feeding not only so she doesn’t harm you but also to ensure she doesn’t practice this behaviour further. Every time she is able to repeat the attacks it’s going to be harder for you to help her unlearn them in the context of feeding the pigs.
Ah thank you, I'll do this. She gets totally hyper as soon as I make a move to get them food, I know it sounds crazy but they all know the difference between when I'm just going to the kitchen to fetch a drink or when it's feeding time - they can't even see the clock but they can tell the time! Thank you for your help. Look forward to your next video 🐦
@@AjDAngeles routines are something most pets pick up on VERY well! another option might be to change the routine up, eg instead of going to get the guinea pig food AT dinner time, get the bag of food ahead of time, like when you go off to get a drink or something. (cover it with a towel or something if the bag causes everyne to get too excited) alternately, i wonder if she's just mad at you paying attention to ANYONE else besides her xD "how dare you! the princess is RIGHT HERE~ (puffs up) leave those peasants alone~" lol
It's a pleasure to receive notification of your video! 💕🤩 I have a question: my quaker is a very good bird but how can I teach him not bite my moles? In the summer it's torture 🤨
"dear bird, please stop being a bird" basically xD moles, freckles, and other skin marks are things birds naturally go after, because they want to help you preen, just as you might help them do with pin feathers and such. you could try the usual dscouragement techniques; like CALMLY saying "ow" and thenmoving away from the bird (or putting the bird down somewhere neutral). i stress calmly, because if you make a -big- reaction out of it, they might be entertained by that, and it could become a self-reinforcing behavior. much like yelling at your bird, making a big noise when it hurts doesn't mean the same thing to them, it's just "ok it's LOUD TIME EVERYONE BE LOUD NOW YAY~", but they DO understand things being painful, like when you try to help preen a pin-feather that isn't ready yet, and is still too sensitive, and they understand "this action leads to results i don't want" (eg, losing time with their 'flock mates' [aka you]), and will adjust their behavior to avoid that.
Thank you for this video. Also how much fruit should I put in my birds chop . I see mostly u using veggies. There tropical shouldn't they get lots of fruit ? I am new just rescued my jenday conure and am learning. Thank you for any help and advice. It's very scared and won't let my pick up so I just leave my hand in cage for awhile through out the day . Is that good ?
Fruit is primarily a treat, in the wild most parrots consume sprouted seeds, leaves, and farmers’ crops. It does vary on the species of course but most have fruit as a pretty small percentage of the diet. The chop should generally be all veggies then you can add one slice of fruit to each serving
If their head is stationary, not stretching upwards or bobbing, then this sounds like panting. That can happen in response to intense heat, stress/fear, and hormones.
Toto didn’t really have this problem, any aggression with treat presentation was more related to his fear of hands so that went away in a few weeks. Newt had deep rooted behavioural problems that lead to overstimulation surrounding treats and took closer to a year to fully resolve that problem, a month or two to make it manageable.
