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Confidence and Parrots

Probably one of the most difficult things for an inexperienced parrot owner is to maintain a level of confidence when working with their parrot. Most new parrot owners often find their parrot’s beak intimidating and believe they are in for a painful bite. Other owners, who have an aggressive bird, often get bitten so badly it is enough to stop them from handling the bird altogether. This aggressive interaction usually results in less contact between the bird and the owner.

Pulling a hand back quickly when a bird appears to be getting ready to bite, will definitely cause the parrot to strike and bite. Sometimes a parrot may only be using its beak for leverage and when the owner interprets this as a biting behavior and pulls their hand back quickly, it causes the bird to react out of fear. If the owner continues to interpret this behavior incorrectly, then the bird will most likely continue to strike out due to uncertainty. Sometimes this also causes the owner to become unsure of their bird and they in turn stop handling the bird. Many fearful owners will hold the parrot at a distance and recoil when the parrot gets too close. This is a common outcome as no owner wants to receive a painful bite. Remember that the bird is looking for any signs that are not natural and may react out of uncertainty.

Confidence Is Important when working with parrots

To begin with, staying confident is important because parrots can pick up on their owner’s body language. Birds can’t communicate like humans; therefore, they rely on their instincts. This is an inherent design by nature. For example, if a cat crouches as it gets closer to the bird, a parrot will interpret this as aggressive behavior and will react accordingly. The parrot will try to make its escape to safety. Birds can easily spot a nervous person and will take full advantage of it—especially when the bird is out of its natural element.

If the parrot knows it may control its owner through biting, it will do so. These creatures are smart and will control their relationships with their owners if given the chance. For this reason, the owner should have confidence when working with the bird as this helps to set the overall tone.

If the parrot decides to bite the owner this should be ignored completely. The parrot is trying to communicate its feelings and believes biting will do the trick. If a bird is allowed to use biting as a way to communication, it will be very difficult to stop this behavior. For this reason, the owner should never make eye contact, yell at the bird, wobble their hand while holding the bird, or flick the beak to punish the bird for biting.

Though it can be much easier to have confidence when working with smaller birds, larger birds need to be treated in the same way. An owner has to find a way to handle the bigger birds as they can do serious damage. In fact, being bitten by a large parrot (macaw or cockatoo) can be very hard to ignore. For this reason, the owner should use other tactics to show a level of confidence without putting themselves into harm.

Avoid Getting Bitten by your parrot

When dealing with larger birds, it is important the owner respect the bird and maintain a level of confidence. This does not mean the owner should handle an aggressive bird barehanded, rather it means making smart choices in working safely with the bird. The owner should never set up a situation that will lead to a lack of control. For example, placing an aggressive cockatoo on an owner’s shoulder could be a disastrous event as the parrot will most likely retaliate with a facial bite. It would be unwise to force a territorial macaw to step inside its cage, especially when the parrot is hormonal. Examples like this almost always lead to a bite and will defiantly make an owner’s confidence level dwindle.

Preparing to be confident

The owner should spend some time thinking about how to avoid getting bitten and should modify the environment of the bird to avoid a bad situation. For example, a jealous Amazon parrot is best trained alone as the bird is likely to bite the owner out of possessiveness. A scary object in a room could make the parrot hyper aggressive and it is best that this item be removed. Planning ahead makes all the difference when working with any bird. It is important the parrot have a clear state of mind before any training is done. Any distractions inside the training room are counterproductive to the parrot and it clouds the overall goal.

Using other tools to keep the confidence when working with birds

If the bird is tame but bites frequently, the owner should use a towel or a pair of gloves to handle the bird. The owner of a tame conure that bites excessively would best benefit by wearing gloves as this will keep the owner’s confidence level up until the gloves can be phased out. This may require some time; however, it can be done. Gloves can also be used to handle aggressive birds that hate to be handled.

It should be noted that gloves are a man’s best friend when dealing with an aggressive bird. Remember that this will also help to increase confidence levels when dealing with these types of birds as this protection will help to eliminate painful bites. Gloves should only be used for perching. Grabbing the bird without first letting the bird become accustomed to the gloves could cause the parrot to be fearful of this new attire.