Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnewsd!heneghan
From: heneghan@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (joseph.t.heneghan)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: INDOOR: Biting Conure
Keywords: I disagree with water method
Message-ID: <12254@cbnewsd.ATT.COM>
Date: 18 Dec 89 23:58:35 GMT
References: <3343@cbnewsl.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: heneghan@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (joseph.t.heneghan,ihp,)
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 26

In article <3343@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> nora@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (nora.y.mclaughlin) writes:
>I have a 3 year old Blue Front Amazon which we got when he was
>about 3 months.  He had a real problem with biting also and what
>we did to break him was to blow sharply on him when he bites.  
>This stops him right away.>I also found that being gentle with your
>bird makes them gentle in return.
My Nanday disagrees with you. He does like gentle treatment, but he
will every now and then clamp down. He had my daughter in tears, she
has since learned to discipline him when he bites and they get along
great about 90% of the time.
>this may be a hard one to swallow but..... when they bite you
>give them no satisfaction with a reaction.  Act like it doesn't
>hurt, because what they want to do is see some result of a bite.
...and if a child has a hissy fit when s(he) can't have candy in
your grocer's check out line, ignore that behaviour, and every thing
will be fine... I think that you have to train animals. They have to
be conditioned with positive and negative reinforcement ~= psych 100.
When they're good, praise them. When they're bad, smack them.
and play with them
and love them
and give them a balanced diet
and keep their cage clean!
Good luck,
Joe Heneghan
>Good Luck
>Nora