I have been reading Barbara H[eidenreich]'s Parrot Problem Solver book and Sally Blanchard's Beak Book and getting a lot of good info. Gosh, I wish I had the knowledge and skill of these two ladies! Reading these books has given me hope when I feel down in the dumps about how things are going with Lucy.

I fear that I am not doing the "right" things with Lucy as she has attempted to bite a couple times this last week. Fortunately, I had my hand covered and she couldn't break the skin, but I could definitely feel the force behind the bites. I have been reading that a bird will give you definitive signs that they are about to bite and I have been watching Lucy's body language very closely, but a couple of the biting incidents, I can't figure out what triggered them. They seemed to have come without warning (I know this is probably not the case, but I just don't know what caused Lucy to be loving and affectionate one minute as she was getting head scritches, and the next minute, she starts biting hard --not play biting-- at my fingers. She was enjoying the scritches, then looked up at me with an "evil eye"for 2 seconds, and then started biting).

Things have been getting better! :-) She has not bitten me to break the skin since May! Barbara H[eidenreich] and Sally B[lanchard]'s books have really helped! I feel like I am getting better at reading bird body language and know when Lucy is in a grouchy mood. In fact, I have been brave lately, and when I determine Lucy is in a good mood, have been having her step up with my hand exposed. She seems to be much happier when she steps up on my hand instead of my wrapped up hand, but when I determine she is going to be naughty and I have to pick her up (say when she is on her play stand and I am putting the birds back in their cages for the night) I will cover my hand up. She has been allowing me to kiss her, scratch her belly, etc, all the things we used to do. She has been wanting head scritches all the time and has been quite a needy bird lately! She does still get fearful of things at times, so I back up and get her out of the scary thing (like Barbara H suggests). That seems to help. I know now how important it is to have Lucy trained to step up on a perch, and would like to learn how to do this with minimal fear on Lucy's part.

Looking back at Lucy's biting log, a couple of the "bites" through the wrapped sweatshirt sleeve may not have been as bad as I might have thought originally. Since I have had Lucy stepping up on my hand, she will sometimes move suddenly and nibble on my hands, but it is not a bite. Maybe this is what she was doing a couple times, but I was probably on such a high alert status, I thought that she may be biting. Also, the bad behavior seemed to stop around the end of May (lasted from beginning of April through May). Last year, when she was highly fearful of things, the behavior started in the beginning of April and started to die down around the end of May. [I wonder if] part of this could be related to hormones? Should I expect and prepare myself for this type of behavior around April and May of every year? I thought I had read somewhere that hormonal behaviors seem to lessen the older a parrot becomes.

Also, I forgot to put under the "what have you done to correct the behavior" section what Dr Speer had suggested for when Lucy was jumping of her play gym and chasing the other birds. He suggested lots of foraging activities for her on her play gym, so her attention was more preoccupied with the foraging than scaring and chasing the other birds. For the most part, this worked, but Lucy becomes bored very quickly with certain toys, foraging activities etc, so she really kept my creative juices flowing, trying to think of new ways to keep her occupied. This behavior has stopped, but I do still detect a bit of jealousy with the other birds, especially if I am paying attention to them. I have making a special attempt to pay attention to Lucy many times throughout the day and telling her what a good bird she is. This seems to have helped a lot.

I guess I spoke too soon when I said things have been going well with Lucy. I know that there are always small set backs to everything so I am not discouraged and I will continue to work with Lucy.

Last night, I got Lucy out of the cage with my bare hand. She was quite affectionate and I gave her head scritches, talked with her, held her, turned her over on her back and gave her belly scratches, kisses, etc. When I went to put her on her play gym, she did not want to leave me and would not step down. She held on to my hand with her beak, not biting, but hanging on, and would not step down. I gently was able to get her to release and praised her after she did. (I have been spending a few minutes with her after I have her step down in her cage or on her play gym, because I know she figures when I set her down, I am going to leave her. I have been trying to show her that when I set her down, it doesn't necessarily mean that I am going to leave her right away. I always praise her after she steps down, talk to her, scritch her head, etc for a few minutes before I leave).

She got jealous when I took the other birds out of their cages and put them on their play stands, but I would go back and pay attention to her many times through the night and tell her what a good girl she was being when she was good and gave her head scritches. Several time through the evening she jumped off her play gym, a few times she was freaked by something, and a few times I think she was just trying to get to me. Each time I would go get her, ask her to step up, and place her back on her play gym. Each time she fought not wanting to go back on her gym, and would hang on a bit tighter with her beak (my hand was protected with my sweatshirt sleeve. When she jumps off her gym, I usually will protect my hand, as she is usually freaked out by something and is in high alert).

When Lucy calmed down a bit, I worked with her on step up and step down, and praised her a lot when she stepped down with out any problems and spent some time with her. When it came time to put the birds to bed, Lucy stepped up nicely, but as we approached the cage, she started biting at my hand hard (my hand was protected). These bites were not "nibbles" like I had described in my last entry, as the force was strong enough to make couple small breaks in my skin through my thick, heavy sweatshirt covered hand. I tried distracting her but it did not work so I gave her a small earthquake and told her "no". She stopped, so I continued to put her in her cage and she started to bite my hand again. I got her to finally get off of my hand ( I had to give a couple more small earthquakes to get her to stop biting and to release from my hand). I walked away from her cage without saying anything to her. I remember reading to ignore bad behavior, so that is why I walked away from the cage without saying anything, but I am not sure if that was the best way to handle the situation. Obviously, Lucy did not want to go back into the cage at bedtime and seemed to be jealous after the other birds came out. Paying a lot of attention to her throughout the day and telling her what a good girls she is has been working in the last few weeks, but did not work last night.

[Lucy's] trainings have been trying at times lately, for she has been either grouchy, fearful, or aggressive, so even though I have worked with Lucy everyday, we haven't really been able to have some good trainings lately. I always try to have her be the first bird out of the cage so I can spend time just with her, with the other birds in their cages.

Tonight she did not want to come out of her cage. She was giving me the "evil eye" that she gives when she is in a bad mood, so I closed the door of her cage and went to take out the other birds (I had not asked her to step up but had surveyed her behavior before asking her to do anything. I don't want to ask her to step up and then not have her follow through or worse, have her bite me). After a while, I went back to see if she wanted to come out, but it was as if she was playing a game. She was sitting on her boing swing towards the back of the cage, twirling herself around on the boing, and looking at me as if she was saying "hee hee, just try and come get me". Again, I just waited to see if she would make a move towards the cage door (looking for some kind of sign that she was open to coming out of the cage) but she showed no signs of this. When I walked away and hung out with the other birds, I could see her in her cage getting really upset and jealous when I was interacting with the other birds, but then when I went to get her out, she had no interest in coming out at all. At one point, she did step up but as I was taking her out, she screeched out an alert cry, which sent all the other birds flying off their play gyms (I'm not if this was a genuine fear cry or if she was just doing this to scare the other birds. I did notice a person walking by in front of the house when this happened and Lucy was looking in that direction when it happened). I put Lucy back in the cage and went to put the other birds back on their play gyms. The second time I was taking Lucy out of the cage, I no sooner got her out and she let out an alert cry again (this time I believe it was done intentionally). All the other birds flew, so I put Lucy in the cage again and went to put the other guys back on their perches. After that, Lucy stayed in her cage for the rest of the evening (I had made plans to go out with friends later in the evening so all the birds went to bed at that point shortly after that incident).

Lucy really is proving to be quite a challenge! I have been reading a lot of Barbara H[eidenreich]'s books, but the things Lucy does are nothing like the examples Barbara speaks of in her books. I am currently fostering a CAG [Congo African Grey] for Mickaboo who has trust issues, and the things I have learned from Barbara's books are really helping him come along nicely.

Treats don't seem to work for Lucy, so I can't lure her out of her cage with treats-she is either really freaked out about taking a treat from me (even her favorite ones) or she grabs the treat and throws it on the floor. It is so frustrating because I know how important the trainings are and I don't want Lucy to have to spend her time inside a cage all day. Yet, I don't want to ignore the "leave me alone or I'll bite" signs she gives when she is in her cage. It is almost as if she's fighting to not interact with me, but yet she gets so jealous of the other birds when I spend time with them. I just can't seem to figure out why she is doing this and what I have done to cause this behavior.

Lucy is now becoming territorial over her food bowl and is screaming at me anytime I walk by her cage or go to interact with her. In the mornings when I go to feed, I have to wrap my hand to get her to get off the bowl and come out away from her food bowl. She is usually screaming and sometimes tries to lunge. I have been telling her "no" in a firm voice and telling her to "step up", which she usually complies with, without trying to lunge or bite, but she is not happy and grumbles and mumbles. I know that this is not the best way to handle this under these circumstances, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Last night, she was behaving nicely, was allowing me to pick her up w/o my hand wrapped, letting me give her scritches, interacting with me, etc (which is the first time in a couple of weeks she has been like this). I watched her closely as I was bringing her back to her cage for the evening and she suddenly bit me hard on the thumb. I gave her an earthquake, which may have been a little too much because she flew to the ground. I covered my hand, asked her to step up and put her back in her cage. I know that I was bit because Lucy didn't want to go back into the cage but before the bite, I saw no signs in her body language that indicated that she was going to bite.

Help!

When Lucy screams at me when I walk by, I ignore her. When she screams at me when I approach her cage to talk to her, I turn my back on her for 2-3 seconds and then turn around and tell her what a good girl she is being if she is not screaming at me. I haven't been taking her out of the cage when she is screaming at me, so there are some nights she doesn't come out and when she is in a bad mood, I don't try to train her. She really has been resisting the trainings. She either gets really grouchy or becomes fearful and freezes and won't do anything.

It really saddens and frustrates me that all of this is happening. All the books I have been reading say that behavior problems are caused by the bird's guardian. I have always tried to be educated on bird husbandry and behavior, and have always tried to do what is right and what is best for Lucy, but obviously, I am doing something really really wrong :-( I'm just afraid that I'm just making things worse.

It was really nice meeting you yesterday. Thank you again for all the help and good advice (and for the copies of Good Bird Magazine :-) ). I put Lucy to bed shortly after you left (around 7:30pm) in the front bedroom [so that she could get 10-12 hours of sleep]. She seemed to be in better spirits this morning when I went to get her up. I'm guessing that she hasn't gotten used to her new sleeping arrangements yet, as she calls out to the other birds and to me when I put her to bed. Tonight she called out for about an hour, which saddened me, but I ignored it, knowing that if I went in, it would reward that behavior. Will this behavior eventually stop? I am figuring that she just hasn't gotten used to her new sleeping arrangements and she is confused as to why she is going to bed so early. I've been trying to make the bedtime upbeat and "fun" for her. I bought a white noise machine on the internet, like you had suggested, so hopefully that will block out some of the noise going on in the rest of the household.

Lucy was more receptive today to training. She even stepped back for me a couple of times! (she really was freaked out about doing this at first, and you could see the gears going in her mind "Do I really want to do this?"). I gave her a big jackpot when she finally did it. I must say it was one of the more positive training sessions I've had with her. In the past, she has been so resistant to the trainings. I'm still covering my hand, but hope to phase this out when I start to feel more confident with Lucy again.

Thank you again for your help! I will keep in touch with you and let you know how things are going. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

After our trainings, I put Lucy on her play gym and take the other birds out. She gets quite jealous and flies over to me or jumps off her play gym. I will be solving part of this problem as I will be getting her wings trimmed at Dr Speer's tomorrow. When she jumps off her play stand, she screeches and flies straight towards me but usually lands somewhere close by, which freaks out the other birds, causing them to all fly off their play gyms and causing me to flinch when I hear her screech. I am trying not to flinch when she does this, as I know she picks up on this, but the first biting incident I had with Lucy is when she jumped off her play stand onto my back and as I was trying to get her off, she was biting at my hands. I have been trying not to give her any attention when she jumps off her gym, ask her to step up, and put her back on her play stand. Sometimes she gets a bit aggressive and lunges towards my hand, but I tell her "no" in firm voice and ask her to step up. She usually complies. Last night she seemed to really want my attention, so I had her hang out with me as I fed her some cooked yams that I had made the birds. All of a sudden, she freaked out, screeched, and flew off. It was close to her bed time, so I put her back on her play stand, and then a minute later put her in her sleeping cage and put her to bed.

Today, I took Lucy out of her cage and spent a few minutes with her, talking to her and hanging out with her. I then put her on her playgym, took the other birds out of their cages, and started to clean their cages. Again, Lucy got upset and jumped onto the top of her cage as I was cleaning it (which is something I don't let her do, as she gets very aggressive on top of her cage). I went to go get her and she started to lunge and bite, so I wrapped my hand in a towel (which I should have known better as she hates towels and will go into fear mode). Lucy did go into fear mode, jumped off the cage, and was screeching and jumping around on the floor. I took the towel off my hand, wrapped my hand in my sweatshirt sleeve and asked her to step up. After getting her back on her play gym, she was quite pissed at me for the rest of the day (she was giving me the evil eye and displaying the aggression signs she was doing in her cage when [CPC] was here [eye pinning and banging beak on perch]). I tried to tell her she was a good girl when she was being good and talk to her every once in a while, but she was going to have nothing to do with it. Obviously, we didn't do her training today as she was in a bad mood after that.

Tonight Lucy was quite aggressive, much more so than she has been in the last month or so. Needless to say, we did not do our training tonight.

I had all the birds out tonight and Lucy was again testing her limits by jumping off her t-stand. When I would ask her to "step up", she would look at me and cock her head side to side, or she would stand stead fast and not budge. I could tell from these stances that she was getting ready to bite, but I felt that I couldn't back down and allow her to get away with jumping off her play stand and doing what she wanted. She did try to bite me several times tonight, but I would give her a small earthquake and ask her to "step up" again until she complied. Again, normally I would not ask Lucy to step up if I saw these signs in her, but because she was being bratty and trying to get away with stuff, I felt I had to set guidelines for her and not allow her to act this way.

At one point, Lucy jumped off her t-stand and went after my TAG [Timneh African Grey]. She cornered her and started to attack her. I had to push Lucy away from my TAG so that she would stop attacking her and not do any physical harm. Lucy is quite jealous when it come to the other birds. I put Lucy to bed earlier tonight than normal (7pm, normally bedtime is 7:30pm). She jumped off her play gym and would not step up and was trying to lunge and bite me. She would ignore the command and then lunge and try to bite. I tried getting her to step back, like we have been practicing in our trainings, but she lunged around like a shark and tried to bite. I just kept giving her earthquakes and putting my hand in front of her and repeating the "step up" command. All of my handling of Lucy tonight was with my hand covered and protected so I did not endure any bite wounds or trauma to my hands. She finally complied and I put her in her sleep cage and put her to bed. She cried out to the other birds for about an hour after I put her to bed.

Kind of frustrating, especially after I felt we were starting to make progress.

See "Q&A with Steve Martin" at ParrotChronicles.com for more information on extinguishing behaviors and "extinction bursts."

I just went back and read the entire blog. It was fun going back and reading some of the stuff. Some of it I had forgotten already! (Shows why it is good to keep a training diary).

Lucy was quite grouchy all day today (screaming at me as I walk by). I have been ignoring it and not giving her any attention when she does this and praising her when she is being good. Sometimes when I would go to talk to her and she would scream at me, I would just turn my back on her until she stopped, and then I would turn back round and if she wasn't screaming, I would praise her for being good. I'm not sure why she is behaving this way because she has been going to bed at 7:30pm. Tonight during her training, she was grouchy and irritable but only when she was asked to step up or step back onto my hand. She was fine with the step downs and moving towards the target. I cut the training short and put her to bed as it was close to 7:30pm. I am going to try to do her trainings earlier in the evening so she is not so grouchy. Hopefully she won't be so bad tomorrow.

Tonight Lucy was happy and in a good mood to see me when I got home. I spent some time with her talking to her. As the evening went on, though, she became more grouchy. She seems to get grouchy when I put her down on her play stand and start doing other things around the house. It is as if she gets mad that I'm not paying attention to her. Lucy has always been a sensitive birds who constantly craves attention, but I have always made it a point to make sure that she learns how to hang out by herself when I'm not around because I don't want to become spoiled and expect that I will spend all my time with her. When it came time for her training, she was grouchy and was screaming and growling at me. I took on a stance that I saw Barbara Heidenreich do at a seminar, and it worked with Lucy. Anytime she growled or screamed at me, the soybeans went away out of sight (dropped them down behind my back) and I just stood there silent. When she stopped growling and I tried the training again, she didn't growl or scream anymore. At one point, she gave a little growl when she stepped down and the treat disappeared. When I asked her to step up, she was good and complied and got the treat.

I also started to desensitize Lucy tonight to towels, which recently have become "scary." I did this, though, casually and in a disguised kind of manner so it didn't seem like it was a training to Lucy. When Lucy sees a towel, she screams and growls. Tonight Lucy was on her play stand and I brought in some clean towels from the dryer that needed to be folded. She screamed when she saw me folding the towels, but when she stopped, I immediately started praising her and gave her a piece of almond. She was quite happy to receive the treat and I kept praising her as she munched away at the almond. As I continued to fold the towels, she didn't scream or growl anymore (I was probably about 8 feet away from her while I folded the towels).

I was able to have Lucy step up this morning on my bare hand! I finally worked up the confidence to do this without having my hand covered. Of course, I could tell Lucy was in a good mood this morning and was not showing any signs of aggression. So I asked her to"step up" and she did. It was only for a minute or two, but it's a start!

This morning Lucy was back to her grouchy self again (growling and screaming at me), so I did not ask her to step up on my bare hand (had my hand covered). I'm not sure why Lucy acts like this first thing in the morning. She is going to bed every night at 7:30pm and is getting at least 10 hours of sleep a night.

Training went well tonight at first, but Lucy always is grouchy and growls. I don't give her a treat or continue with the training until she stops growling. I tried to introduce the wooden perch to Lucy tonight to start teaching her how to eventually step up on it. She absolutely freaked out when she saw the perch. She jumped off her t-stand screaming. I immediately took the perch away. I don't know where she got this phobia of perches. Training her to step up on a perch is going to be a long process.

Lucy stepped up on my bare hand again this morning. It was only for a minute but it was a positive experience. I have really been watching her body language.

Lucy would not stay on her play stand tonight. She kept jumping off and screaming. When Lucy did this, my TAG would get scared and jump off as well, and Lucy would go after her and try to attack her. This happened a couple times tonight but I was right there to intervene. Lucy is very jealous of my TAG. She is also back to challenging me about stepping up when she jumps onto the floor from her play gym (I ask her to step up and she cocks her head side to side, get and aggressive look and stands stead fast and won't budge). I have been keeping my hand in front of her until she complies. Normally I would not ask her to step up if I noticed she was acting aggressive, but Lucy is jumping off her play gym on to the floor. It is not safe on the floor for Lucy, plus I don't want Lucy to start thinking that she can do anything she wants and that there are no boundaries or guidelines she needs to follow.

Started moving the wooden perch closer to Lucy's cage so she can see it and determine that it isn't so evil as she thinks it is. I have praising her and giving her an almond when she is calm and not screaming at the perch when I am holding it. I have also been doing the same thing when she is calm around towels that I am holding (she has been screaming lately when she sees me holding a towel).

Training went well tonight but she is still grouchy with me and tries to scream and growl before her training or when I ask her to step up. Once she realizes she is doing her training and is getting pieces of soybeans as a treat, she is as good as gold. Why is she behaving like this? Lucy seems to be craving my attention (especially when I'm spending time with the other birds) and is constantly trying to get my attention, but once I am spending time with her, she becomes grouchy. I have been trying to spend time with her first before the other birds, but lately that doesn't even seem to be helping. It is like she wants attention from me all the time, and the other birds and pets are not allowed to have any attention, which is not possible. I make a special point to make sure all my pets get equal amounts of attention and love.

Tonight Lucy was the most aggressive she has been in quite a long time, but she was not like this at the beginning of the evening. I got home a bit later than usual tonight and was quite tired. I went to say hello to all my birds and Lucy was quite affectionate and was enjoying the head scritches I was giving her. After scritching Lucy's head, I went to go say hello to the other birds, I took my TAG out of her cage and started to give her head scritches and cuddles and I think this really angered Lucy. After getting all the birds out of their cages, I could see the aggressive signs showing up in Lucy's face and demeanor. She kept jumping off her t-stand as I was making the birds evening vegetables. I would ask her to step up (on my covered hand since I could see the aggression building up) and she started challenging me by standing still, not stepping up, cocking her head back and forth as if she was getting ready to bite. I kept my hand there and several times she lunged and tried to bite my hand. I would give an earth quake and tell he to step up. She would eventually comply and I would put her on her play stand, but as soon as she was on her play stand for a few seconds, she would jump off again. Then she started running towards my feet and started to attack my shoes. I asked her to step up, she would try to bite my hand, I would earthquake, ask her to step up again, etc until she stepped up. After this happened a few times, Lucy was quite worked up and was not interested in eating her vegetables. By this point it was a little after 7:30pm, so I decided it probably would be best to put Lucy to bed. She was getting grouchy and was quite worked up. I could tell Lucy was quite upset when she went to bed, and it really saddened me that it couldn't have ended on a positive note tonight. I tried to spend some quiet time with her before bedtime, feeding her some of her vegetables, but she was so worked up and upset, I felt it probably was not going to do any good and she was showing signs that she wanted to bite me again.