Environmental Manipulation for Behavioral Modification

Environmental manipulation can just be the answer to behavioral concerns. Sometimes, the answer is the simplest answer. Environmental manipulation is simply just modifying the animal’s environment in order to get a desired response and pairing the desired response with proper reinforcement. But how can it be used? What kind of environmental changes are needed for behavioral growth and change? In what situations?

               Environmental manipulation will be unique per bird, environment, and the behaviors shown. There is no way for me to say “if your bird is screaming, manipulate the environment as such, and that will stop” because screaming is a complex behavior in itself. On the other hand, there are some examples that can be given in order to inspire you, as well as get you on the right thought process to make changes.

               First, we have to determine what is the environment. The environment would be anywhere your animal is. This would include the cage, the room the cage is in, the rooms that can be seen from the cage, the people in the room or other animals, as well as following the same criteria for play gyms or perches placed throughout the house. Environmental change may be in a specific area; the behaviors only happen in the living room, or the behaviors only happen when inside the cage.

               Next, we need to completely understand the behavior that the animal is doing. Forget labels, write down the behavior in observable and measurable terms. Instead of saying “my bird is aggressive when we are in the living room” lets think of it like “my bird will bow down, feathers tight to their body upon my approach, and if it continues, it results in a bite that does not break skin, but hurts, lasting only seconds then release when the bird is in the living room with the TV on, another person in the room, and has been out for at least 30 minutes.” Just that one sentence change still is not enough information to truly understand the behavior, but you can already tell how much more descriptive the second sentence in from the first.

               Once we have a behavior log spanning weeks describing behavioral instances, we can find connections. For example, your bird screams. Going over your notes you find a few things in common. The bird only screams when in its cage, it happens when no one is in the room but in other areas of the house, the bird will stop screaming when you get annoyed with the screaming and come in to give it some food. We learn the bird is quiet when given food, which could also be reinforcing the screaming, and this happens in isolation. This can be narrowed down to screaming for attention or boredom. A need is not being met. We cannot always give our birds attention, and it is good to have that separation so your bird can practice being independent, but a bird cannot successfully be independent without the right environment to support its needs for constant stimulation.

               Following our screaming example, the environmental manipulation that might be done is to teach your bird to forage with their enrichment. When you know you are wanting time away from your bird, and it’s going into a situation where it would rehearse the screaming behaviors, when you put the bird back, put a foraging toy or two with it. If you do not know how to do this, or your bird doesn’t engage in foraging, we have a webinar just for that found here. Another manipulation I would look into is the cage size and contents. Is the cage size big enough to meet the requirements of the species? Some species are more active than others; therefore, would need more room for movement. Does it allow for a complete and full flap without hitting any enrichment or perches or the bars? Possibly the cage needs to be rearranged. I rearrange perches in my bird’s cages at least once a month, but I try too as often as I can. Another manipulation would be adding some music or natural sounds to the environment to drown out our talking and noises, as well as provide auditory stimulation.

               Environmental manipulation can also help with a bird that is not friendly. If your bird only likes one person, or maybe no one yet, and they throw themselves at the bars, biting things out of frustration of your presence, vocalizing, pacing or other stereotypical behavior, then we might look into how the environment can aid in the training we are doing. We can put tape on the ground to outline the area where the reactions do not happen and do. Avoidance is not a behavior we should rehearse forever, as avoidance does not resolve the problem and can make it worse, but in the beginning, it can be useful to disallow the animal to feel the need to rehearse the behaviors. The more an animal rehearses a behavior, the harder it is to fully stop. So, if distance is the factor, staying out of the area and using something like exposure and response occupational therapy during structured training sessions can be helpful so overtime you can have your bird feel more secure and move that tape line in closer and closer till you can approach. It may also help moving the cage temporarily to a quieter part of the home to allow for decompression.

               I have worked with birds that preform better in different environments. Whether inside the house, or outside, the change in environment can easily affect behavior. I once was seeing a lot of aggression towards males from my Moluccan cockatoo, but did not see the same behaviors when he was outside. He actually loves meeting new people, asks for males to hold him, and is super jazzed being outside on his harness or in his aviary. Inside, he would try to bite males who would ask him to step up, even with a food lure or a target stick being used. Reinforcing positive male interactions outside could help feelings inside, as well as possibly starting the interaction outside and coming inside for a continuation.

               Environmental manipulation can be incredibly helpful when training your animal. It could even be the only change needed in order to get the desired behavioral response depending on the situation. Generally, manipulation of the environment is used in conjunction with a training plan to support the training. If you are interested in modifying your bird’s behaviors, feel free to contact us so we can set up online training sessions and give you all the tools you need in order to be successful!