My Parrot is
Biting Me!
© 2003 Liz Goldstein. All rights reserved
Liz Goldstein
Chances are
you have heard somebody say, “if you have a parrot, you’re going to get bitten
eventually.” And chances are if you have a parrot, you HAVE been bitten before!
Here is the good news – having a parrot does NOT mean that you have to resign
yourself to being bitten. And now for the news that’s a little harder to
swallow – biting can be avoided because it is humans that are responsible.
That’s right, if I get bitten, it’s my fault (or sometimes the fault of the
previous owner in the case of a rescued biter), pure and simple. So don’t be
harsh on the bird, but don’t be too harsh on yourself either. We can learn from
our mistakes.
So
why is it that bites are our fault? Simply put, biting is either a learned
behavior or a fear or territorial response, depending on the situation. A very
fearful bird will certainly bite in order to escape a predator, in this case,
us. These birds must be dealt with very carefully and with a great deal of
respect. We want to earn their trust, not try to dominate them with aggression.
Techniques that force fearful birds to accept humans are called ‘flooding’ and
can be very damaging to the birds. Please see Dr. Susan Friedman’s article Alternatives to Parrot Breaking for
greater detail.
Territorial
bites are characterized by a bird that bites whenever your hand is inside his
cage (territory) but is an angel when he’s out. Changing the environment is a
perfect way to avoid being bitten when the reinforcement he receives from
defending his home is more powerful than the reinforcement you give for
stepping up. Letting the bird come to the doorway on his own and asking him to
step up from there is often all that’s needed to solve this problem.
In
most cases of parrot bites, it is a learned behavior (bites that break the skin
are not seen in wild and captive-held wild parrots unless they are being
attacked). The parrot is pressured one day until he finally bites out of
frustration, and lo and behold, I walk away and leave him alone (to put a
band-aid on!) – what he was trying to accomplish all the while! He has just
learned that to be left alone, he has to bite my finger. What happens if I
ignore a mild bite, as some people suggest? One of two things may occur – he
may give up on that behavior and not bite me again, becoming fearful or shy
because he has lost all control over his environment, or more likely, he will
intensify his bite until the desired result is achieved. That means that he has
learned that to be left alone, he has to bite my finger – REALLY hard. Ignoring
bites can be a dangerous risk to take! Unlike screaming, which can feasibly be
extinguished by being ignored at all times (without reinforcement the parrot
will not be likely to scream), biting cannot. You may lose a finger just trying
to teach the parrot that biting gets him nothing. You will almost certainly
lose his trust. Better to back off, bandage yourself, and take a breather, from
the very first time it happens.
Here’s
where things get better. We can avoid being bitten by learning to read our
parrots’ behavior better, or in the case of a rehomed bird, choosing a signal
to abide by. Almost certainly, before I was bitten, the parrot was displaying
some kind of warning behavior. Perhaps he was pinning his eyes (when the pupils
grow and shrink rapidly), fanning his tail, holding his wings out a bit from
the body, bending over, making a growling noise, stretching his body up tall
and leaning away, etc. These are the behaviors we need to know by heart. The
parrot is saying that he wants you to back off – and you should. If you learn
to respect his cues as he respects yours (i.e. UP), you won’t get bitten.
The
second part of any plan to reduce biting is to increase reinforcement for stepping
up, or sitting on your hand, or whatever situation the parrot has been biting
in. Combining a back-off signal with reinforcement for the desired behavior is
very effective. Bits of a favorite treat can be used to lure the bird onto your
hand at first, or toys can be given to chew on when the bird is sitting on your
arm while you watch TV. Be sure, though, to never give a treat after a bite in
an effort to distract him, as you will be reinforcing the biting behavior!
Why
are we likely to ignore these kinds of cues and get bitten anyway? We are
accustomed to animals that bend to our will. We have bred dogs for thousands of
years to be naturally submissive to us. A dog that bites is not kept long. We
expect our pets to respect our dominance. Why doesn’t this work with parrots?
We are talking about species (except for budgies and cockatiels) that have only
been bred in captivity for a few short generations. These birds are NOT
domesticated; they have NOT been selectively bred for their compatibility with humans.
We have to build a relationship with them that involves both sides. Our dogs
instinctively want to have a leader. Parrots instinctively look for a mate, a
nearly equal partner to spend their lives with. We don’t even give them the
choice of which mate they will have; we pick them out as adorable babies and
they are forced to ‘fall in love’ with us. Despite these hurdles, parrots can
and do make excellent companions when we remember who they are. Realizing the
potential parrots hold and building our relationships with them through trust
and respect can create something truly remarkable.