People with parrots often ask what they can do about a bird that is biting, or screeching, or that won't come out of its cage, or won't go into its cage, or is otherwise being difficult to live with. There isn't a short answer, but I hope this page will get you started in the right direction.
Operant Conditioning
If you want to modify your bird's behavior, I strongly suggest that you learn to look at your bird's behavior from the perspective of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is not a solution to any behavior problem, it is a way of looking at things that will often help you find a solution to a behavior problem.
The key principle of operant conditioning is that birds (indeed, all creatures) will tend to repeat behaviors that are rewarding, and will tend to give up behaviors that not rewarding. Birds typically bite or screech because it is somehow rewarding to them. If you can figure out what it is that the bird finds rewarding, and take away that reward, you're halfway to a well-behaved bird. The other half of the solution is teaching the bird some other behaviors that are rewarding for the bird, and that are pleasing for you as well.
In the early days of the study of animal behavior, people studied classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, the animal is conditioned (is taught) to respond to its environment. Pavlov's dog is a well-known example this: a bell rings, the dog is given food... repeat this a few times... soon the dog salivates when the bell rings. In operant conditioning, the animal is taught to operate on its environment, not just respond to it.
For an example of operant conditioning, let's look at the first "trick" most people teach their birds: targeting. Targeting simply means gently biting the end of a short stick (chopsticks work great for this). If you put something in front of a bird's face, the bird will probably investigate the object by beaking it. When the bird beaks the chopstick, you "click" (or say "good bird") and the bird gets a treat. Repeat this a few times... Eventually, when you hold up a chopstick, the bird will walk across the table to beak it. The bird has learned that beaking the chopstick causes the human to offer a treat. Suddenly humans aren't so scary. Look how easy it is to operate them: all you have to do is beak a chopstick!
Fostering Desired Behavior
Clicker training is a technique for teaching birds to operate human treat dispensers. The "click" of a clicker is a signal to the bird that whatever the bird just did has set the treat dispenser into motion. It's simply a means of communication. Without the clicker, it's not always immediately clear to the bird just what it did that earned the treat. It's possible, it just takes longer. People have been training animals for ages using a simple "good boy!" or "good girl!" but the sharp, distinct, consistent sound of a clicker helps the animal learn more quickly how to operate human treat dispensers.
For many bird owners, clicker training is not really about teaching the bird to do tricks. Instead, the primary purpose of clicker training is to spend time with the bird, and and excuse to give the bird treats. For people with rescued birds, training is a way to show the birds that people are fun to be around. For many of us, the fact that the bird eventually learns some neat tricks is just a nice side-effect.
Extinguishing Undesirable Behaviors
The first thing you should know about extinguishing undesirable behavior is that physical punishment does not work well with birds. There is a very fine line between teaching the bird to fear the consequences of a particular behavior (such as screaming or biting), and teaching the bird to fear you. If you cross that line, you'll likely see even more of the behavior you were hoping to reduce, as the bird tries to defend itself from you - sometimes the best defense is a really strong offense, and beaks make great offensive weapons.
Also consider that in the wild, when a creature attacks a bird, the bird flies away, and stays far away from such creatures. In captivity, that's not an option. Your bird can't leave you - and you probably wouldn't want that anyhow. So a captive bird that gets punished will spend most of its time in abject terror because it can't get away from the attacker. Such birds tend to go insane after a while, pluck their feathers, become terrified of anything at all, attack anything at all, and so on. This is not to say that all plucking or phobic birds were punished by an evil human, just that physical punishment is likely to make the bird end up that way.
Isolation is the closest thing to punishment that you can safely employ. When a bird bites, or screeches, leave it in solitude for a few minutes (perhaps in its cage, perhaps not). Birds are social creatures, so being around their "flock" is rewarding, and being isolated is likely to make the bird unhappy. But you're not attacking - you're not even around - so the bird is less likely to think of you as a threat, and more likely to be happy to see you when you return a few minutes later.
When the bird realizes that biting means being caged for five minutes of solitude, it will bite less. When the bird realizes that screeching means being left alone until it quite screeching for a few minutes, the bird will screech less. Be aware that - especially with screeching - the problem will get worse before it gets better. This is called an "extinction burst." Basically, it tries harder and harder to get whatever reward screeching once produced. When it realizes that the reward isn't going to happen, the screeching will taper off.
In addition, it is often possible - and usually helpful - to reinforce a different behavior to replace the behavior you're trying to extinguish. For example, if your bird scream for attention, then in addition to ignoring screams, lavishly reward a more pleasant noise every chance you get. When the bird realizes that a mild peep or a spoken "come here" is a more effective way to get attention, the screeching will be reduced even further. Your bird will learn that it can get what it wants (attention, treats, head-scratches, etc) by making the noises you want to hear.
Don't expect to extinguish screeching entirely though - morning and/or evening screech-fests are very difficult if not impossible to eliminate in some species. Screeching all day long, however, can probably be solved.
Getting Support
If you want to learn more about clicker training and behavior modification in general, please read the other articles here at FeatherForum, read the journals of people who train their birds, and above all, ask questions in the forum. We're here to help!
© 2003 Nate Waddoups
Operant Conditioning
If you want to modify your bird's behavior, I strongly suggest that you learn to look at your bird's behavior from the perspective of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is not a solution to any behavior problem, it is a way of looking at things that will often help you find a solution to a behavior problem.
The key principle of operant conditioning is that birds (indeed, all creatures) will tend to repeat behaviors that are rewarding, and will tend to give up behaviors that not rewarding. Birds typically bite or screech because it is somehow rewarding to them. If you can figure out what it is that the bird finds rewarding, and take away that reward, you're halfway to a well-behaved bird. The other half of the solution is teaching the bird some other behaviors that are rewarding for the bird, and that are pleasing for you as well.
In the early days of the study of animal behavior, people studied classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, the animal is conditioned (is taught) to respond to its environment. Pavlov's dog is a well-known example this: a bell rings, the dog is given food... repeat this a few times... soon the dog salivates when the bell rings. In operant conditioning, the animal is taught to operate on its environment, not just respond to it.
For an example of operant conditioning, let's look at the first "trick" most people teach their birds: targeting. Targeting simply means gently biting the end of a short stick (chopsticks work great for this). If you put something in front of a bird's face, the bird will probably investigate the object by beaking it. When the bird beaks the chopstick, you "click" (or say "good bird") and the bird gets a treat. Repeat this a few times... Eventually, when you hold up a chopstick, the bird will walk across the table to beak it. The bird has learned that beaking the chopstick causes the human to offer a treat. Suddenly humans aren't so scary. Look how easy it is to operate them: all you have to do is beak a chopstick!
Fostering Desired Behavior
Clicker training is a technique for teaching birds to operate human treat dispensers. The "click" of a clicker is a signal to the bird that whatever the bird just did has set the treat dispenser into motion. It's simply a means of communication. Without the clicker, it's not always immediately clear to the bird just what it did that earned the treat. It's possible, it just takes longer. People have been training animals for ages using a simple "good boy!" or "good girl!" but the sharp, distinct, consistent sound of a clicker helps the animal learn more quickly how to operate human treat dispensers.
For many bird owners, clicker training is not really about teaching the bird to do tricks. Instead, the primary purpose of clicker training is to spend time with the bird, and and excuse to give the bird treats. For people with rescued birds, training is a way to show the birds that people are fun to be around. For many of us, the fact that the bird eventually learns some neat tricks is just a nice side-effect.
Extinguishing Undesirable Behaviors
The first thing you should know about extinguishing undesirable behavior is that physical punishment does not work well with birds. There is a very fine line between teaching the bird to fear the consequences of a particular behavior (such as screaming or biting), and teaching the bird to fear you. If you cross that line, you'll likely see even more of the behavior you were hoping to reduce, as the bird tries to defend itself from you - sometimes the best defense is a really strong offense, and beaks make great offensive weapons.
Also consider that in the wild, when a creature attacks a bird, the bird flies away, and stays far away from such creatures. In captivity, that's not an option. Your bird can't leave you - and you probably wouldn't want that anyhow. So a captive bird that gets punished will spend most of its time in abject terror because it can't get away from the attacker. Such birds tend to go insane after a while, pluck their feathers, become terrified of anything at all, attack anything at all, and so on. This is not to say that all plucking or phobic birds were punished by an evil human, just that physical punishment is likely to make the bird end up that way.
Isolation is the closest thing to punishment that you can safely employ. When a bird bites, or screeches, leave it in solitude for a few minutes (perhaps in its cage, perhaps not). Birds are social creatures, so being around their "flock" is rewarding, and being isolated is likely to make the bird unhappy. But you're not attacking - you're not even around - so the bird is less likely to think of you as a threat, and more likely to be happy to see you when you return a few minutes later.
When the bird realizes that biting means being caged for five minutes of solitude, it will bite less. When the bird realizes that screeching means being left alone until it quite screeching for a few minutes, the bird will screech less. Be aware that - especially with screeching - the problem will get worse before it gets better. This is called an "extinction burst." Basically, it tries harder and harder to get whatever reward screeching once produced. When it realizes that the reward isn't going to happen, the screeching will taper off.
In addition, it is often possible - and usually helpful - to reinforce a different behavior to replace the behavior you're trying to extinguish. For example, if your bird scream for attention, then in addition to ignoring screams, lavishly reward a more pleasant noise every chance you get. When the bird realizes that a mild peep or a spoken "come here" is a more effective way to get attention, the screeching will be reduced even further. Your bird will learn that it can get what it wants (attention, treats, head-scratches, etc) by making the noises you want to hear.
Don't expect to extinguish screeching entirely though - morning and/or evening screech-fests are very difficult if not impossible to eliminate in some species. Screeching all day long, however, can probably be solved.
Getting Support
If you want to learn more about clicker training and behavior modification in general, please read the other articles here at FeatherForum, read the journals of people who train their birds, and above all, ask questions in the forum. We're here to help!
© 2003 Nate Waddoups