Do not take vacations during the first year that the bird is with you, leaving it with an unfamiliar caretaker. Teach the bird to perform tricks. Teaching them tricks involves a relationship that promotes trust, elicits words of appreciation and also gets them rewards in the form of treats for obedience and achievement. Let all members of the family interact with the bird in a uniform manner and for sufficient durations. Also, use the same words and phrases. Let the bird not suddenly find itself with an unfamiliar person or in an unfamiliar circumstance. If the bird has had all its other requirements fulfilled and if it is reasonably in health, it will not scream indiscriminately. But as we said at the beginning, it is unreasonable to expect the bird not to scream at all. Ideally you should let them scream for about 20 minutes each day. All About Training To Stop Biting If a Cockatoo bites you, it is not because it dislikes you, but because biting is a way of expressing its frustration or dissatisfaction over something. When bitten, the first thing to do is retrieve your hand or whichever part with as little damage as possible. You can do this by moving the part the bird is holding onto, closer to its body, making it extremely inconvenient for the bird to continue biting and forcing it to let go. Don't ever beat the bird. Because if you do so, you will reach an irredeemable situation. The cause will be as good as lost. Some trainers suggest that you give the bird "Time Out". Give it a stick to bite on or use a towel if required and move the bird to a cage other than its regular cage kept at a different solitary portion of the house and keep it there for about 10 - 15 minutes with nothing or no one to interact with. All About Training Subsequently, look for reasons for the bird's aggressive behavior. It's biting can be because of any number of reasons such as feed, water, air, light, sleep, exercise, cage placement and so on. If your pet is a happy and satisfied bird, then there is no reason for it to bite. Make sure that all these things are in order. Another reason for a bird to bite is due to insufficient or improper basic training. During basic training, the bird will learn that good behavior is rewarded, while bad behavior is not. During this time, the bird also learns to trust and be complacent in human company, which it begins to identify as its flock. If a previously well-behaved bird is beginning to bite, it means that something in its routine has gone awry. Its behavior has to be set right. You may want to put the bird through the paces of the basic commands of "step up" and "step down" and associate these exercises with proper behavior, words of appreciation and rewards. All About Training Try not to give the bird the opportunity to bite you. When you want the bird to step up, make sure your hand approaches it at just the correct height. Bring your hand up from below the bird. Raise it to a height where the bird can easily step onto your hand from the perch. If you anticipate a bite once the bird steps onto your hand, tilt your hand a little to momentarily imbalance the bird. Its focus will then shift from biting you to regaining its balance. |