I want to show off how much progress Raja has made in three days! Im so proud of her, and especially proud of myself. When her old owners left her at my house, she got sooo stressed out and nervous. i reached to get her to step up and she bit me hard on my arm four times and punctured my skin every time. In hindsight, im glad we got that out of the way early as i was afraid i wouldnt be able to stop myself from jerking back when she bit me. Youre not supposed to show fear of their beak so every time she bit me that night i held my arm still and gently said no biting. Barry was so proud and amazed that i didnt flinch! We have been working on bonding and learning commands. Macaws are VERY mouthy and use their beaks like hands so they have to be taught early on what is an acceptable pressure to use around humans. Ive basically been having to give her my hands and arms and let her explore them, only disciplining her if she bit hard, and never jerking back. It was really stressful at times, to say the least. Her owners also said you just have to force her to step up, which resulted in a bite every time because she was scared of losing balance. I chose to take my own approach and used treats and positive reinforcement to teach her it as a trick. She learned it in fifteen minutes!! So heres her progress video, taken this morning. She now steps up every time, doesnt bite anymore, and is gentle with my hands. Theres several other videos on my channel of her progress up to this point. She just discovered fingernails this morning so im teaching her in the video that nails do not pop off! She likes to hold my hand with one foot while I rub under her wings, and uses her beak to gently hold one of my fingers. Adorable! She hugged and cuddled me this morning when I picked her up to put her back in her cage. It made it all worth it!! youtu.be/aE-_2LEkICU
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 17:03:09 +0000
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