Jake is a male Catalina Macaw who is back with us for the third time. He is a challenging fellow who is headstrong about what he wants to do. Jake is definitely a man's bird and would do best with someone who is experienced with big parrots. As with all large species, Macaws must have an expansive cage and be in a single family home -- their naturally loud vocalizations are not suitable for apartments or condos.

Peaches, Available for Adoption

The two most common problem behaviors in parrots are biting and screaming and the fact is that no living being does something for no reason. What if I told you that it's possible that you might taught your bird to do the unwanted behavior?

If a bird is screaming and you talk to it or give it a head scratch, then the bird will likely scream more often for attention. If a bird bites when you put your hand in the cage and you continue to do that, it may learn to bite harder and faster. 

There are three components to behavior: the antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The antecedent is what immediately precedes the behavior. The consequence is what immediately follows it. The type of consequence either increases or decreases the behavior.

While the animal owns the behavior, you own the environment, and the antecedent and consequence are in the environment. Those are available for you to change in order for the behavior to change.

Pebbles, Available for Adoption

For example, if I put my hand in Bosley's cage (antecedent) and Bos bites me (behavior), I might withdraw my now painful hand (consequence). 

But we could change the antecedent to change the biting behavior. If Bos can't reach my hand, she can't bite my hand, right? So if I open the door and let Bos come out on her own, she won't bite.

So here's your challenge: Become a keen observer of your bird's behavior and see if you can identify the antecedent and the consequence.  Then analyze what you can change to get the desired behavior.