Hahns Macaw, biting

Question
Hello!! My husband an I have a 4 month old Hahn's Macaw, Chloe. She's very cuddly, and is always happy to see us. We're working on some behavior training (with positive reinforcement), and she's about 80% potty trained. I am aware that this species has a reputation for becoming cage possesive, so we decided that we would give Chloe a treat everytime she allowed us to work in her cage. I've read that if she associates the positive (treat) with our arms in the cage, we won't have to worry about getting bitten when we need to reach in there for whatever reason. It seemed to be going well, until just the other day. She was sitting next to her little happy hut (which she loves to death), and it was time for her to come out for dinner. I reached in, and asked her to step up. She bit me; not the 'let me see if your hand is a suitable perch' bite, she meant it. But I have a high tolerance for pain, the bite really wasn't that bad, and I sure wasn't about to let her think that biting would make the hand go away, so I left my hand there. I kept asking her to step up. I kept my tone light. After 3 requests and 3 bites, she stepped up and was completely calm as I removed her from the cage. I gave her lots of P&R and a cedar nut. Is this the right course of action?

One more--i'm having difficulty teaching her to stay where we put her. she's constantly flying off of the playstand, her window perch, wherever. Do you have a recommendation for teaching her that staying is good and flying off the perch at her own whim is bad?

Thanks
Kathleen

Answer
Hi, Kathleen,

You seem to be proceeding down the right path.  However, I might recommend that you allow your bird to come out of her cage on her own before trying to work with her.  Birds don't always want to do things when we want them to do things.  They like routine and have their own times for doing what they do.  For example, most parrots like to nap in the early afternoon.  Respect this and don't ask your bird to "change her schedule" just because you want to play with her.  Wait until her nap time is over, then have play time.  With this bird only being 4 months old, she will "try" you to see what she can get away with with you.  Most parrots are territorial regarding the inside of their cages.  Some/most don't like their humans inside their cages unless the human is delivering food!  Respect the inside of her cage as her personal space, her safety zone, the only place in the world your bird can call her very own.  With the Happy Hut in her cage, she may be more territorial than normal.  Always reward positive behavior like you are doing, and never reward negative behavior.

You may have to clip her flight feathers in order to have her stay within certain boundaries.  Birds love to fly and will do so with every opportunity, particularly when you want to put them inside their cage and they know this, but don't want to go.  With trimmed flight feathers, your bird will not be able to get away from you as easily.  She will have to depend on you for most mobility (until she learns she might be able to climb around on furniture, down her cage, etc., to get where she wants to go).  Clipping flight feathers is also for her safety inside your home.  Clipping flights don't keep a bird from flying, doing so keeps them from being able to gain altitude (if the trim is done properly) when they do fly.  This allows you to retreive your bird easily versus the bird landing on top of drapes or other where you can't reach them.  Birds don't understand glass in windows and can fly directly into a window and injure/kill themselves.  They can also fly outside and be gone forever when someone opens a door/window (some wait for the opportunity and dash out when a door opens).  They don't understand hot stoves, sinks/commodes full of water, ceiling fans, etc.  If you don't want to clip flight feathers, you'll need to retreive your bird from wherever she is perching and return her to the cage, play stand, etc., each and every time she flies off.

My website has lots of general information:  www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html.  Birdchannel.com is also a good website.

Chrys