16/03/2022
Let’s talk about a nice trick to get your bird to “stop chewing [X] and chew [Y] instead.”
This is a little bit of a twist on the model/rival technique. It also helps if you’ve taught your bird that you do not WANT him to chew on X (X can of course be the molding, the chair, the kids, whatever). In fact, this is a go-to for when simply teaching boundaries isn’t enough. Sometimes your bird will feel independent and won’t care what you want, after all!
Refer to my post “let’s talk boundaries!” For that lesson.
To start, make sure you keep a nice foot toy on hand that your bird will enjoy. Have some good textures in there for him, especially ones that compete with things he might want to chew. This is Y!
Ideally, you will also have another human partner to help you (low effort, low participation) but this is not required.
Y should not be a treat. Treats are good for establishing boundaries, but if you’re sure your bird understands the boundary and is choosing to ignore it, we don’t want to offer a reward for that. It can turn being naughty into a game!
Next, when you see your bird go for X, start by just asking him to stop and offering Y. Sounds familiar, right?
But perhaps your bird has discovered something NEW and COOL to destroy like Chutney here discovered the top of the door the other night. He very badly wanted to take the weather stripping off of it. Not ok! That weather stripping was way more interesting than some silly foot toy.
Well, now that Y is being ignored, this is where your assistant comes in. Go to your assistant and offer them Y, exactly as you did to your bird. Say the same things, use the same gestures and tone of voice. This is especially effective if your bird doesn’t like your assistant. Your assistant should make a big deal over Y and start playing with it (but please don’t have them put their mouth on it).
During all this, try to avoid looking directly at your bird, but try to watch from the corner of your eye. Make sure he doesn’t destroy anything, and see if he is paying attention. Try to keep everything you’re doing so that he can see it.
At this point, your bird is likely to get very interested in what’s going on. The flock is making a lot of noise over something! If he approaches though, don’t let him have Y right away! No! It’s high value. Not just ANYONE can have Y.
Don’t give him a chance to lose interest of course. Let him have his prize after a few seconds.
If you don’t have a human assistant, you can do this alone as well. You can pretend to play with the toy on your own and make a big deal while walking away. If your bird values your attention, he will still likely seek you out to see what the fuss is about fairly quickly.
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