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Question:

July 10, 2023

Aggresive IRN


Hello, I recently made a question talking about Plucking and going about taming but I have a question, My IRN seems to be really aggressive at times, she has bitten many times every time I try to teach step up and place my finger under her, sometimes I even hold a treat up and then my finger close enough to her so that she can climb my finger to get the treat but instead she will sometimes bite my hand or maybe think its a treat, even at other times if I hand her a treat she will sometimes compeltely avoid the treat and bite my hand. I hope this is not a serious matter and is just a matter of my IRN’s experience, she was raised in a market with no human interaction for about a year and a half until I got her, I just want to know how I should go about this, Thank you.


Answer:

Hi,

It’s very important for you to read all of the information on the links I gave you before. You will understand why she is doing this if you learn about parrot behavior and how to tame a parrot. This is an exotic bird and they are not naturally inclined to be a pet like a cat or dog. On top of that, she was not hand raised or worked with in any way to learn to trust humans. You are skipping a bunch of steps by trying to handle her. She has to trust you first. It could take weeks, months, or years to ever tame her. And she may never be tame. But you won’t know that without trying. You have to be really patient with her and in no hurry to have her take things from your hands. By letting her bite you, you are going backwards with any training. Read the pages, and start off by just sitting near her and talking nicely to her. Every time you get impatient and reach for her or offer a treat from your hand, you are losing her trust. She is a prey animal, so it makes her wary. And if she was mistreated by humans, she needs to learn that she can trust humans. She was probably grabbed a lot to move her to another cage, and this makes her feel like a predator trying to catch and eat her. Be patient, don’t expect results in a short amount of time. Each bit of progress can take weeks or longer, and each time you betray her trust by trying to skip a step, you undo the progress you have made. You have a lot of work and must have a lot of patience.

Thanks for the update,

Brenda

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