Do you own a parrot that bites? Would you like me to share some proven principals for getting your parrot to stop biting? If so, you’re about to discover how to get rid of your parrot’s biting, using a strategy I call “Target Training”.

Never heard of target training? I’m not surprised. Most so called parrot behavior “Gurus” have been so busy standing on their soapboxes, preaching to everyone that “if we just loved our parrots more, they’d start to be nice” – what a bunch of garbage! And what they’re preaching couldn’t be further from the truth.

Let’s face it. When most people buy a baby parrot, it’s just been hand fed, it’s still a baby, not yet strong enough to bite, and it’s the cutest, cuddliest little thing in the world. And they actually stay that way, for several months & even years.

But then every parrot eventually comes into what I call their “Teenage Years”. It’s basically puberty for your bird. Its hormones are a wreck, it starts wanting a mate, and just like your teenage kids, parrot’s tend to become a bit troublesome during this time, and there’s no amount of love that can turn their behavior around. Instead the magical fix is to do what every therapist says to their emotionally challenged clients when their relationships are in a mess – “work on strengthening your communication”.

And that’s exactly what “Target Training” does. It develops a level of communication with your bird that both of you can understand.

Here’s how it works. You train your parrot to understand simple commands from you, or cues. Then you teach your parrot that whenever he follows these cues, he gets rewarded – usually with a really tasty treat! The more commands you teach your parrot, the better the level of communication and the more your parrot will trust you, and cease to bite you.

The very first and most basic level of target training is teaching your parrot to touch the end of a small wooden stick, or wooden dowel. You reward your parrot every time he touches the end of the wooden dowel by giving him a treat each time, even if when he touches it, he’s lashing out at the dowel.

And with time, the parrot realizes that you’re calling the shots, and that you’re actually opening up a new level of communication to him that he never knew existed. He’ll start to realize that if he follows your cues, and touches the end of the stick like you’ve asked him to, that you’ll reward him… and reward him well.

Your parrot will start to trust you so much, that a well target trained parrot, can be known to actually be trained to do whatever it takes to touch the end of that stick, even by flying or walking over your entire house, just to obey your cues.

By focusing on training your parrot to “Target” or touch the end of a stick, you’ll open up that level of communication it takes to get your parrot to realize you really are a nice person and that he doesn’t need to bite you to get what he wants after all. Making your parrot training efforts MUCH easier!