Pet birds with behavioural problems usually have social problems too. There would be occasions when behaviour issues with birds may be produced by lack of interaction with owners, conflict with other animals or just as a consequence of illness. It is important to recognize the reasons why birds are showing negative behaviour. By identifying the stressors you may take it out of the birds’ system.
Positive reinforcement is an effective method which can be used to train and tame birds. Positive reinforcement concentrates on what birds want like food, a scratch, verbal praise, comfort and other similar things. Negative reinforcement, obviously, is the opposite of this and is seldom successful in the long term.
Penalization never resolves the birds’ behaviour issues. To cope with negative attitude of birds, here are some simple tips you can keep in mind:
• Show your dissatisfaction with your bird’s behaviour by facial gestures. Frown. Birds can pick up facial expressions and body movements. The best way of showing dissatisfaction towards your pet bird is by your system movements. Maintain eye contact when doing this.
• There are bed owners who also suggest turning your back behind your birds or disregarding them. This would discourage them into doing bad acts.
• Some bird owners say that it is effective to chat with birds with low but not loud voice. Tell them what they did was wrong. But be concise and short as feasible. Too much negative attention might have the down-side on your pet.
• Never hit a bird. Birds have fragile bones, physical force may injure them fatally. Also, bird abuse can likewise result to aggressiveness and viciousness.
• When disciplining your pet, never compromise their health. Examples would be insufficient food and water supply, neglecting the cage and even bathing them. This can result into deep emotional and physical injuries.
• When giving birds food as rewards for their good behaviour, choose some food which they would enjoy but seldom eat. It is in addition good to pet, scratch them as positive reinforcements. But be cautious of offering treats with too much sugar and fat.
There would be instances when severe aggression and viciousness is treated with mood-modifying drugs. When having problems with your birds you can confer with your avian behaviourist or your vet. But any treatment is of no help without addressing [the issues resulting in the bad behaviour.
Actually, it is essential to decide if the bad behaviour is brought about by medical condition. So if you have experienced anything with your bird it would be preferable to bring them first to a vet to ensure that medical issues are rejected.
Attitude cannot change overnight. So do not be disappointed if your birds are not showing improvements immediately after employing the mentioned tips. Identical to when disciplining children, consistency is the key when training your birds. Birds would realize what you wish to happen when you begin being according to your method and ways.
When disciplining your pet birds, it is important to balance things. Of course you wanted to correct bad behaviour, but it is as fundamental to reinforce of indicate the good behaviour also. Birds react to training better when focusing on the good things, not the bad things.
This method may require hard work, patience and love. It may take quite a while, however when you look at your happy pet bird, I think its going to be worthwhile.
