My grandma has a parrot, and he is really scared of hands from what I can tell, my cousins provoked him for a while, and ever since then he been reactive to hands in a horrible way. How can I make him calm down and be nice again? We are from Czech and he is a “Královský Papoušek”. Thank you very much!
Hi,
I’m sorry this poor bird was teased. This can leave a permanent effect on a parrot. They are a prey animal in the wild, so they are already sensitive about being grabbed or poked at or reached for. This makes them feel like a predator is trying to catch them. So when he bites, he feels like he is fighting for his life. Your name for the bird translates to King Parrot, several species of parrots from Australia and nearby. These grass parrots have a tendency to be shy of hands to begin with. They prefer not to be handled and instead might choose to sit on your shoulder or on a play stand. You have a lot of work ahead of you, and need to be very patient with him. It can take weeks, months, or much longer for a bird like this to trust again. And he may never like hands. But if you are patient, he may learn to trust you and interact in other ways. I’ll give you the links to our pages on behavior and training.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
