"I don't wanna come down, just try and make me!"

by Bonnie Jay & Anne Eilers
Summer 2003

Height dominance is a theory often advanced to explain parrots’ behavior when they don’t do what their caretakers want them to do. The extent to which establishing any kind of dominance motivates our birds to behave in particular ways has been recently questioned. It may be that this assumption says more about human behavior than parrot behavior

Our companion parrots are kept in an unnatural environment; this causes unnatural reactions, stresses and fears. Many parrots cannot fly away from things that they perceive to be threatening, so they bite, scream, run or hide instead. Parrots are wild animals; even the hand raised baby is not many generations removed from the wild. As such, a person looming over them requesting a “step-up” may bring a fear reaction such that the bird may comply with the caregivers request out of fear or trepidation. This could damage the relationship between bird and caregiver, and could teach the bird to lash out aggressively and bite. Likewise, the person chasing his or her companion parrot around the top of its cage trying to get it to “step-up” so that it can be placed into the cage, will also likely invoke an aggressive reaction.

Many parrots like being on top of their cages, they get a great view, they are away from the “predators” that walk the floor, like Fluffy, Max or even the noisy two legged beings, and they feel safe up there. But, there comes that time in every parrot’s life, when their caregiver has to put them to bed, or has to go out to the store to stock up on yet more parrot delectables. This can pose a problem when the parrot does not want to go in!

Where is the Value?

As we know force is not a particularly effective tool as is can cause secondary problems, and should never be used with parrots or animals in general. So how do you get Miss Beaker into her cage? Make doing so of value to her.

My recently adopted 11 year old Grey, Frankie, is a good example. While she had many issues, some of them are now resolved, and others still need to be dealt with. One of them is her unwillingness to go into her cage at bedtime. Since she was cage bound when we adopted her and it took a lot of work to get her to come out of the cage in the first place, we actually looked on this as a good thing, at first. Then, as she started to get comfortable being out of the cage, she started refusing to go back in at bedtime. Pretty soon it got to the point that she would become overtired, yawning, even napping on her cage door, but try to step her up to go back in to the cage and she would lunge to bite, and run out of reach to the top of the cage. Frankie was feeling good about being out; she didn’t have any reason to go into the cage. Why should she? There was no value for her.

To put this behavior into perspective, we use the ABC’s to see how our request, Frankie’s behavior, and the environment are related.

The letters A B C stand for “three elements of a simplified behavioral “equation”.

A = Antecedents, or the events that occur immediately before the target behavior,

B = Behavior, the target behavior

C = Consequences, the result that follows the behavior

A. It is time for bed; Frankie is happy sitting on her door preening, Anne asks Frankie to step-up.

B. Frankie lunges at Anne and runs out of reach to the top of her cage

C. Anne goes away to devise another plan, and Frankie gets to stay on top of her cage

The Future Probable Behavior (FPB) is that Frankie will continue to lunge and try to bite when asked to step-up to go to bed.

Frankie is receiving reinforcement when Anne goes away and leaves her on top of the cage, which is where she wants to be. She has learned that the threat of a bite will make Anne leave her alone. In this scenario there is no reward or reinforcement for Frankie if she goes into the cage; there is no value.

The New Plan

Now, Anne starts using her head, and all the wonderful lessons that she learned in Dr. Susan Friedman’s on-line course, Living and Learning with Parrots (see www.parrottalk.com/about.html -sign up early, there is a waiting list, but it is well worth the wait). The new plan takes into consideration the fact that Frankie is a little afraid of hands, is still learning to step-up, is aggressive with Bill (the Husband), and that she will do almost anything for a pistachio nut.

Now the bedtime routine goes like this:

It is bedtime, Chico (also a Grey) and Frankie have their “night-night” routine, it is comforting to them, and sets the stage for bedtime. Anne cleans both cages, and prepares their bedtime snack which is offered by hand by their respective Very Favorite Person. Both birds love this quiet time with their special person. Chico goes to bed first and both Bill and Anne tell her what a good girl she is, say “night-night” and cover her cage. Bill then leaves the room.

Frankie is on her cage door. Anne places a pistachio nut in Frankie’s cage, and fetches Frankie’s cage covers. Anne tells Frankie “go in your cage, it’s night-night time”, and shows Frankie that she also has a nut in her hand. Frankie says “night- night” and climbs into her cage and onto her perch. Anne immediately delivers the nut, and gives Frankie loads of praise for being such a good girl.

To simplify the Plan, using the ABC’s:

A. It is bedtime; Frankie is on her cage door. Anne places a nut in the cage (with great drama) and says “go in your cage, its night-night time” and shows Frankie the additional nut in her hand.

B. Frankie says “night-night” and climbs into her cage.

C. Frankie receives the nut and major praise immediately.

Future Probable Behavior, Frankie will continue to go into her cage at bedtime when asked.

In this scenario, Frankie receives positive reinforcement (the nuts and praise) for going into her cage at bedtime when asked. There is value in this scenario for her! As Frankie becomes used to this Anne will be able to dispense with the nut in the cage and only use the nut in her hand, which will be delivered immediately after Frankie goes into her cage.

This plan addresses most, if not all of Frankie’s concerns, including her environmental concerns. Chico is in bed so she is not distracting Anne’s attention from Frankie, Bill has left the room, Frankie has control over her own entry into the cage and is not required to step-up on hands of which she is afraid, and she gets that all important nut. At this time Frankie happily goes into her cage for bed, often she will quickly climb in without being asked when she hears the bag of nuts being opened!

*Anne and Bonnie want to thank Dr. Susan Friedman for her suggestions and help in proofing and editing the content of this article*

*Also note that all nuts mentioned are organic, fresh, and have no added seasonings*