Bird Biting

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Aggression

Social psychologists have defined aggression as being an "intentional behavior aimed at causing either physical or psychological pain." There are two general categories of aggression:

1. Hostile Aggression—which is an act of aggression coming from a feeling of anger or power, aimed at inflicting pain or injury. Dogs, cats and birds that demonstrate dominance aggression are exhibiting Hostile aggression.

2. And, Instrumental Aggression—where there may also be injury but the intention is to achieve some other greater goal rather than merely to cause pain. Dogs, cats and birds that demonstrate fear, food-related, maternal, pain-induced, or sibling aggression, are exhibiting Instrumental aggression.

Their aggressive acts are an instrument to achieve a specific goal apart from inducing injury. The goals instead, are to protect food sources to survive, to protect one's newborn from predators, to keep away that person or bird causing the aggressor to move and experience unabated pain due to disease or old age, and/or to stem off a challenge for prime perching locations in the bird cage.

When people engage in chronically aggressive behavior, they frequently are diagnosed with such psychological disorders as Conduct Disorder (a childhood disorder) or Anti-Social Personality Disorder (an adulthood disorder). Conduct Disorder is defined as: A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or societal norms are violated. This includes: bullying, threatening or intimidating other kids, teachers, or parents. Conduct Disorder is more common in boys than girls. Between 6% and 16% of boys under 18 develop this disorder.

Anti-Social Personality Disorder is defined as: A pervasive pattern of disregarding the rights of others through the use of deceit and manipulation which most commonly manifests as destroying property, stealing, harassing and/or assaulting or killing others. A pervasive lack of empathy for such acts is a main characteristic of Anti-Social Personality Disorder.

When people or birds commit acts of aggression, those acts increase the likelihood of further aggressive displays occurring in the future. It creates a snow-ball effect of less inhibition and an escalation in the frequency and severity of subsequent violent acts. "Domestic violence," therefore, can take many forms: teen-ager to parent, sibling to sibling, husband to wife (every 12 seconds, a man batters his current or former wife or girlfriend), or—as is the focus of this chapter—bird to person.

For both people and birds, there are several possible "causes" of aggression. They include:

Neurological/Chemical Causes—A possible malfunction in the amygdala area in the lower middle part of the brain that is responsible for emotional reactivity and the regulation of violent impulses. Sometimes injury to the forehead area of the brain, known as the "frontal lobe region," can reduce inhibition towards violence.
Testosterone—The male sex hormone has been associated with increased aggression. One of the problems with aggression in birds as opposed—for example—to dogs, is that we can't neuter the bird, thereby hormonally bringing down the concomitant aggressive impulses and territoriality associated with this bodily chemical.
Alcohol/Poor Diet—If the human brain is impaired with alcohol, or the animal brain is impaired due to a lack of nutrition because of a poor diet, then both person and bird may act-out aggressively.
Pain & Discomfort—Experiencing pain or being in a chronic state of discomfort or stress are frequent causes of aggression. As Social Psychologist Elliot Aronson has written, "If an organism experiences pain and cannot flee the scene, it will almost invariably attack; this is true of rats, mice, hamsters, foxes, monkeys, crayfish, snakes, raccoons, alligators, and a host of other animals." This is also true of pet birds as well.
Frustration—For both people and birds one of the most common triggers of aggression is being in a state of sustained frustration due to not being able to fulfill one's emotional, social, or physical needs (e.g., the inability to eliminate a threat, or not being able to play with one's mates or having ample food, water or cage covering to provide adequate shelter and privacy).
Social Learning/Modeling—By witnessing our friends, family, or "flock" members engaging in aggressive acts—especially if there are no negative consequences for the act—both person and bird will imitate that behavior and become more and more aggressive as time goes on. Social psychologists have proven that watching violence does increase the likelihood and frequency of violence in children. By age 12, an average American youngster would have witnessed more than 100,000 acts of violence on television. And if you have a pet bird that can live up to 60 some-odd years of age also watching television, that bird may also begin to speak or behave in an aggressive or antagonistic manner.

Types of Aggression In Birds

As Larry wrote in his first book, Dogs on the Couch, there are several types of aggression that animals can exhibit. With dogs, there are twelve types of aggression. Pet birds share 10 of those 12 categories of aggression. They are:

Dominance aggression: The bird sees itself as equal to or higher than the people in its "flock." Thinking that he/she is the "boss," the bird strikes out to keep lower members of the flock in line—literally enforcing a "pecking order." Frequently, overly enmeshed emotional boundaries between the owner and bird, that are frequently caused by the owner either allowing the bird to stand on top of its cage, on a high perch, or responding to its every demand--thereby communicating to the bird that it's now boss and the human is now an avian doormat-- can lead to a dysfunctional interaction pattern in the family system, which triggers the biting behavior.
Fear aggression: The pet bird behaves aggressively to keep those people, toys, or situations it fears, away from itself. As with dogs and cats, this is usually the result of either not being exposed or socialized to the feared stimuli early on as chicks or having been traumatized in some way by the things they now fear. The same traumatic conditioning experiences involving pain that make a person Ornithophobic (which we wrote about in Chapter 3), can make a bird fear aggressive and bite.
Food-related aggression: As described above with "Clara-Belle" aka, "Manson," the pet bird reacts aggressively when approached while eating or when food drops on the floor of its cage while being hand fed.
Possessive or Object-guarding aggression: A form of dominance aggression in which the pet bird inappropriately guards its toys from its owners.
Territorial aggression: The bird protects an inappropriate location, or protects an appropriate location but in the wrong context or situation. The bird attacks anyone near its perch, water dish or seed toy.
Learned aggression: Through rough play or intentional teasing, the animal learns to be aggressive. Rough housing or teasing a pet bird can bring out aggression by causing frustration. The case of Leslie being teased by her first family's children is a prime example of this.
Inter-bird or Sibling aggression: Birds in the same home fight with each other, frequently over which will be the dominant bird in the flock's pecking order. (See Chapter 7, Flock Wars! for more information on this).
Pain-Induced aggression: Usually an inappropriate response due to an underlying physical condition that causes the bird pain. An example of this was when Leslie was "autopsied" by the vet and found to be victim of a serious systemic illness that had ravaged her body and had caused unabated pain triggering her aggression.

As with dogs, Dr. Larry, Diane and Dr. Frank have found that Dominance aggression with pet birds is rampant in families in which the emotional boundaries are too enmeshed—there is no clear demarcation of authority between person and bird. Whereas, fear or territorial aggression is rampant in families in which the emotional boundaries are too disengaged, or rigid—there's insufficient bonding and nurturance. The goal of the animal behaviorist, like the human Structural Family Therapist, is to create change in the family system and restructure the emotional boundaries between the family and bird in order to eliminate the biting.

The reasons why your bird may bite include:

Displacement behavior, his natural instinct is to do a behavior he cannot do in his current situation (fight or flight)
Defending territory due to breeding instincts
"Protecting" his surrogate mate; it's favorite human
Dominance issues, believing it is dominant over its person in the pecking order
Social Reinforcement, biting gets the parrot what he wants: Dramatic response for the owner or a scream or extra attention.
And, Lack of communication, meaning the bird finds itself having no other ways of expressing its needs than acting aggressively and biting. One of the keys for you can overcome this is to work on communication aids like learning tricks (which we cover in detail in Chapters 11-14 of this book). This can provide more acceptable types of communication that don't require stitches or trauma to either party. By having your pet bird do a trick or series of tricks before giving it anything it wants, you are benevolently, without violence, re-establishing yourself as head of the "flock," and thereby decreasing dominance aggression-induced biting.

Basic Instinct: Treating the Biting Bird

Parrots do not regularly bite and hurt each other in the wild. They live in flocks that are committed to the welfare of all its members. Most flock communication happens with vocalizations, flashes of colorful feathers, bluffing and beak sparring that does not harm either the aggressor or the aggressee. This "posturing" is similar to the wolf or dog submitting to the pack leader in response to a direct stare-down or a warning snarl. Despite their formidable beaks that are designed to crack nuts and chew on wood, parrots are not "designed" to do their people harm. Unfortunately, with chronically biting birds, they do in fact cause injury to their human caretakers. So the question arises: Is there some sort of short-circuit between our biting bird's instincts and what it has learned socially? How come our bird's etiquette "flew" out the window, so to speak?

Well, generally speaking, an instinct, like screaming and biting in birds, is a survival tool. There's a reason for this behavior. When a parrot feels threatened, his "fight or flight" instinct will take over. However, just as in the case of the fearful dog tied to a tree or enclosed in the car at the gas station with no avenue to defend itself, if the bird cannot "flee" during it's fight or flight response, then that leaves the bird only one option: to fight like the dickens! However, a caged parrot is not going to be able to either fight effectively or fly away from danger. It doesn't have sufficient room to do it. Hence, he may be forced to resort to a less-than-optimally programmed or instinctive behavior for its species: biting the perceived threat!

Parrots are among the most intelligent animals we choose to keep in captivity. Unlike dogs, who have been domesticated for centuries and who love to please their human companions, parrots can be self-centered and cultivate behaviors which result in getting them what they want (as with most children under 6 years of age who appropriately demonstrate high egocentricity, and as with our cat friends, who are more interdependent being able to meet two-thirds of their needs on their own). They usually want food, play time and "drama" ("hey Mom, I'm bored, make some unique sounds") from their owners. A parrot will quickly learn what provokes excitement or makes you come running. Think about it: What has your parrot trained you to do lately? Biting can create some great drama in the household. As with acting-out adolescents caught for shoplifting at the department store, negative attention is better than receiving no attention. And when the bird is in its cage or aviary, it begins to "guard" its "turf," and may, like dogs and cats, start to associate the room its cage is in, or even the entire house, as an extension of its turf to defend and "protect." Of course, if your bird thinks that the kitchen and den is its turf, and YOU think the kitchen and den is YOUR turf, then there's going to be a conflict regarding whose turf it really is and what is to be done about it. An avian version of "West Side Story!"

My Nest Is My Castle: Treating Territorial Aggression In Pet Birds

Since we don't neuter parrots, their breeding instincts surface in many areas and in many ways. Un-neutered animals are very territorial! Parrots defend their nests, territories and mates vigorously. A nest to a wild parrot is akin to a dark hole in a tree. It can also be any dark enclosed space in the house. We think that only our bird's cage qualifies for this. However, other locations that your bird will associate as its nest or turf can include:

A box it has played in
A book shelf or mantle place that it has perched on
Or, the cabinet or desk that it has sought refuge under.

Your parrot may bite you, even though he loves you, if you approach him in these locations (as with a dog guarding its bone or a cat avoiding a bath or getting "pilled.") To him, you're encroaching on his "pad," and he may fear that you're thinking of setting up housekeeping in his "digs." Instinctively, your bird may react to this—as it would in the wild—to help its flock survive, by chasing away or attacking the animal or person who encroach on its nest.

With your commitment to your companion bird, you can indeed change his behavior. It will require patience and consistency on your part. If your bird is biting out of Territorial aggression, do the following:

Change his territory. Get another cage or move his cage to a different location.
Instruct your entire family not to allow the parrot to perch in high locations.
Never feed, water, play, talk to or let your bird out of its cage in the location of the house where the biting has mainly taken place.

The Pecking Order: Treating Dominance Aggression In Pet Birds

Birds establish loose dominant inter-relationships in their flocks. An especially aggressive bird may feel the need to occupy the "top perch" in your family. Literally! If you're having problems with dominance aggression or biting with your parrot, implement the following family rules to re-establish dominance and make the emotional boundaries in the house less enmeshed:

Do not hold the parrot higher than your heart. As with dogs, whoever is physically "on top," is politically on top.
Do not let him reside in a tall cage. Again, he/she will be "taller" than you and hence, will act dominant over you through biting.
Do not let your bird play on top of his cage.
When your bird is out with you, he can sit on your hand of knee, or the back of a chair only! He should always be in a "one-down" power position in the pecking order (as I suggest to my dog people who have a dominant aggressive dog. They are always to have their dog one level below them and have it do at least one obedience command before getting anything it desires—period!)
Put your bird's play gym on a low table, and buy a model that is not tall in height.

Negative Attention Is Better Than No Attention: Treating Learned Aggression in Pet Birds

Children, dogs, cats and pet birds frequently misbehave because they get some sort of "pay-off" for doing so. Somehow, their aggressive behavior is being reinforced by the reaction of its victim. Not backing down, not screaming thereby creating drama, and not retaliating with more violence (which with dogs, cats and birds, it's like putting kerosene on the fire—it only escalates the aggressive displays), is the key to removing inadvertent reinforcement for biting and beneficially adjusting the dysfunctional emotional boundaries in the family system.

When handling your parrot, wrap your arm in a towel so that your parrot gets no reaction to his bites and you protect your arm. To "counter-condition" your bird to no longer bite, but to be gentle and communicate its needs through alternative behavior, like talking or doing tricks or remaining still and quiet, you may have to begin by doing the following procedures:

When your bird has been both quiet and non-aggressive for at least 30 minutes, enter the room that his/her cage is in, look at the bird and say hi, and then immediately leave. Do this twice a day for 10 repetitions for three to five days.
Once this is stage is successful, the next baby step to take is coming in the room, walking by the cage and tossing in a favorite food treat, saying "good quiet," and walking on. Again, twice a day for 10 reps, for three to five days.
After a few days of this, come in the room, go over to the cage and carefully hand feed your bird a food treat with non-shiny plastic tweezers coated with fruit nectar until it learns to take the food gently and without any aggressive displays. Do this two to three times a day for 3-5 days.
In two weeks, start handing large pieces of food by hand to the bird and praise its gentle taking of it. If need be, use thick protective gloves that you have already gradually introduced in a positive non-threatening manner to your bird. Do this three times a day, for 3-5 days.
After achieving success with the previous step, proceed to letting your bird walk into your hand or perch safely on your covered arm (thick jacket), keeping your bird BELOW your chest level and away from your face at all times, while feeding it some treats and talking soothingly to it. Conclude the session by returning it to its cage with a new toy, or a different toy rotated in.
After 4-6 weeks of this, assuming there has been no aggressive displays, then you can gradually do the above exercise with thinner and thinner arm/hand protection until you are using your bare hands. Take your time and give it at least 6-8 weeks.

Redirecting Behavior For The Die-Hards: Stick Training

Self-preservation is a strong instinct. If your parrot's behavior is not changing by week four, you may have to use a "bridging technique" to achieve your goals by redirecting your parrot to bite down on a stick, as opposed to chomping on your hand (similar to redirecting teething dogs to natural sterilized bones and kong toys or cats to prey stalking fishing pole-like wand toys, instead of your hands or ankles.) "Stick train" your parrot so that you can move him with a stick. You may teach your parrot to enter and exit his cage with verbal commands and/or for treats rather than wrestling with a snarling parrot. You can use your intellect to devise ways of working with your parrot while minimizing the band aids you need to continue the relationship. Within 6-8 weeks, you should notice a significant drop (at least 60-80%) in the intensity, frequency and severity of your pet birds' biting behavior.

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