How To Stop A Quaker Parrot From Biting You
Most of the aggressive and destructive behavior that your Quaker make exhibit is caused by boredom. Quakers are very social animals, like most birds, and they like to be interacted with on a regular basis. These wonderful creatures are also very smart, and they know what is going on around them. My Quaker only gets upset if she feels threatened or ignored. Otherwise, he is a very loving and calm bird. Sometimes he will get nervous around strangers and can be very erratic and even a tad mean if someone he doesn’t know gets close to me.
If you want to stop your parrot from being aggressive and biting here are some helpful parrot training tips. I would encourage you to check out these videos if you want a more comprehensive review of the process.
The basic strategy of what you will use is called “Target Training”. When you buy your new baby Quaker, its from a hand-feeding breeder. And the little guy stays cute and cuddly for months before he is strong enough to bite you hard. Then the teenage years come. Your Quaker’s hormones are in full effect, and he or she wants a mate. During this time your Quaker will become increasingly territorial and aggressive, unless you do the right things to discourage this behavior. In order to this you’ll need to strengthen the communication you have between you and your bird.
And that’s exactly what “Target Training” does. It develops a level of communication with your bird that both of you can understand.
It works like this: you train your Quaker to understand simple commands from you, or cues. Then you teach your parrot that whenever he or she obeys these cues, he or she gets a really yummy treat! The more commands you teach your Quaker, the better the level of communication and the more your parrot will trust you, and stop biting you.
The first step of parrot training is to teach your Quaker to touch the end of a wooden dowel, or small wooden stick. Every time your Quaker touches the end of this wooden stick, you can reward him with a treat. Even if your Quaker lashes out, its doing so to the dowel.
Over time, your Quaker Parrot will quickly realize that you’re in charge and the boss. That realization will open up a whole new level of communication to him that he never knew was there. Soon he’ll realize that if he follows your cues, and touches the end of the stick like you’ve asked him to you’ll reward him, and reward him well.
A well target trained Quaker can be taught to do whatever it takes to touch the end of that stick, even if it means flying or walking over your entire house, just to follow your cues.
By concentrating on training your Quaker to “Target” or touch the end of a dowel, you’ll open up the stage of communication it takes to get your parrot to realize you really are a good person and that he doesn’t need to bite you to get what he wants after all.
For more information on target training, or other parrot training tips and tricks for teaching your parrot to stop biting check out these videos here.
Easter egg links:
What Does A Quaker Parrot Eat?
Get more parrot training tips here
