| The Problems With Parrots on Shoulders or The Real Reason Pirates Wear Eye Patches Why not let your parrot ride around on your shoulder? It�s convenient because it frees your hands to do other things. It looks kind of cool to have a big bird perched on your shoulder, don�t you think? And every parrot, even a baby, absolutely LOVES to climb up to sit on a shoulder. It�s their favorite perching spot! Why not let them enjoy it?! Allowing your parrot to ride around perched on your shoulder may not seem to be a problem at first, but there are some important reasons why you should NOT let your parrot get into the shoulder habit. And once your bird is accustomed to being on your shoulder, it won�t be easy to re-train him � he�ll think that shoulder of yours belongs to him by Divine Right! |
| Eye contact with your parrot can be a very effective way to regain its attention if its behavior gets out of control. The only way to make eye contact with a parrot on your shoulder is to turn your face toward the bird, making you very vulnerable to facial injury. Also, when on your shoulder, your parrot�s eye level is at least the same or higher than yours, which to our birds, is very heady stuff indeed. To your bird, this equal or higher eye level stuff means HE is the BOSS of YOU� so you can see why, once your parrot becomes used to wielding such power, he would never willingly give it up! Why be a peon when he could be king? Up on your shoulder, your parrot can find many interesting things to do, most of which will cause you to tell him to STOP THAT! Like the mole on your neck that he wants to remove for you�. Or the arm of your glasses which begs to be chewed up�. Or those new dangly earrings you love, that he just can�t resist yanking (ouch!#%*^#) from your ear� or the collar of your best shirt which has such a nice texture for chewing to pieces� He loves the excitement and drama of having your voice get louder and more exasperated every time you say NO! Sally Blanchard calls this the �drama reward� and parrots quickly learn what behaviors to do to bring forth all this exciting entertainment. Playing these dramatic games quickly gets your parrot wound up into a state of extreme excitement, or overload, and overload behavior includes BITING. And what is right there so close to your overstimulated parrot�s big beak? That�s right, it�s YOUR FACE! You may say, �My parrot loves me, he would never bite me!� But in a state of overload, your bird is not its usual loving self � you could say he�s temporarily out of his mind with excitement! Parrots become more territorial as they get older. A parrot who has always been allowed on its person�s shoulder becomes very possessive of its favorite perching spot and considers that shoulder to be its territory. A bird on your shoulder that feels threatened by an intruder (which can be your spouse, friend, children, or other pets) will defend its territory by acting as threatening as possible. To �protect� you, the parrot is likely to bite at you (your face) to get you to fly away from the danger. This may not make sense to humans, but to parrots, it is pure instinctive behavior. When a parrot bites that way at another parrot, he�s probably going to get nothing but a beakful of feathers, but when he bites at you (your face) � well, you probably get the picture� A bite on the face from a large parrot can cause serious injury, including scarring and even permanent eye damage. An exception? Maybe your parrot has sweetly sat on your shoulder for years, never showing any sign of aggression. Perhaps you really are the exception. But many people think they are the exception until they themselves experience an incident of territorial aggression from the parrot on their shoulder. Retraining your parrot: If your parrot is already used to sitting on your shoulder and you want to retrain it, here is a tip. When you are sitting quietly, reading or watching TV, just place your parrot on your knee. Have some small toys available, or some treats he likes. Make friendly eye contact, and if he tries to run up your arm, just move your other hand down along your arm towards him and calmly tell him to step up. You will have to do this over and over, but be persistent. Eventually your parrot will get the idea he can no longer run up your arm to your shoulder. Parrot behaviorists believe that maintaining hand control is necessary in order to have a well-behaved parrot. They have developed 4 rules to follow for having your parrot your shoulder. 1. The parrot is not allowed on your shoulder unless you put him there. He should not be in control of being there. Instead of letting him run up to your shoulder, place him there with the �step up� command (or whatever words you use). 2. The parrot is not allowed on your shoulder unless he will readily step on to your hand from there with the �step up� command. 3. The parrot is not allowed on your shoulder if he has ever shown aggression while he is there. Watch his body language very carefully when other people or pets are in the room. Some birds are OK on shoulders if their primary person is the only one present. 4. Parrots cannot be turned on and off like a machine. Don�t expect them to behave on your shoulder. Make sure they have something to do (a toy to play with, etc.) while there. Don�t turn shoulder misbehavior into a game by rewarding your bird with drama. |
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