IndianRingNeck.com

Hi All

Any tips for a biting bird? Janey is turning two soon... and usually she is very loving, begs for pats, does tricks, etc. However, she's not the type of bird that you can do anything with. What I mean by that is I see some birds that will allow you to almost grab them, flip them over, and will do anything you ask. She is not as compliant as that... but she definitely likes to be with us.

Occasionally she will lash out and bite hard and when she does, it is usually in the face area (ears, lips, cheek). Sometimes she will also bite your finger hard when you try to give her a treat. Sometimes I'll go weeks or even more than a month where she doesn't bite and you'll think she's not going to do it ever again... and then she does it again (seemingly out of the blue). When we first brought her home we tried to stop her from getting onto the shoulder... but she is so determined to be there, we gave in.

Charlie, our boy ringneck has never ever bitten hard at all and he does things much more slowly. To describe the difference between them, she's a fiery, passionate sort of creature and he's more of a deliberate, patient type.

In addition, Janey seems to be more strongly bonded to my husband (than to me or Charlie). Today, Janey was on my husband's shoulder when she bit his ear really hard (didn't draw blood but it was enough to make him shout out). He proceeded to yell at her and move his body around to try to show her that she had done something wrong. She can be difficult to extricate from my husband but we eventually managed to do it.

About 15 minutes later, I started doing some tricks with her and Charlie and she was taking sunflower seeds from my hand, then my husband asked her to do a trick. She did it and instead of taking the sunflower seed, she bit his finger hard.

How should we handle this? How can we curb the behaviour?

I disrupted her routine yesterday and I'm wondering if that may be the cause of the problem? We had some people over for dinner last night and we slept the two birds in a smaller cage at the end of our hallway because we thought it would be less disruptive for them. Normally, they sleep in their patio aviary in our dining room. I put them to bed at a similar time to normal and covered their cage but we did hear them climbing around in the cage throughout the night. Maybe it was the disruption and the lack of sleep that caused it? Why would she take this out on my husband more than me? especially when she prefers him to me? They have slept in the smaller cage before. They sleep in there when we take them on holidays with us.

Ellie.

Just thought I'd post an update... Janey was on her best behaviour today, no biting... which is good but it's also difficult because we never can tell when the bitey Janey is going to turn up... and when she does bite, she bites really hard, sometimes fingers and sometimes faces or ears.

I noticed that a number of people on the forum suggest you don't react when the bird bites... but that is really hard to do. Is that the recommended way of doing it? I remember a couple of months ago when Janey bit me, because it was so out of the blue, I wasn't prepared for it and my reflex action was to yank my finger back. Unfortunately she was still attached to my finger at the time and she was thrown half way across the room (by accident). I felt so bad. She seemed ok but I felt terrible about it. Has anyone else had that sort of problem? I think I wouldn't have reacted like that had I been expecting the bite.

Regards

Ellie.

I am by no means a pro at this, having just gotten Skye, my blue IRN a little over a month ago. One thing the Parrot Perch told me was that sunflower seeds have a tendency to bring about aggression in IRN's due to the oil in it or something like that. We have never given Skye sunflower seeds, and I doubt we ever will just for that purpose.
Dana

Thanks Dana. I haven't heard that before. That's really interesting. We had been a sunflower seed free zone for months... and just dug them out the cupboard the other day because they love them so much!

Regards

Ellie.

A few things to consider:

Females have a tendency to bond to one person in the family- looks like she chose your hubby!

The best way to train a biting bird is to do nothing at all. If she bites, no matter where, or how bad it is, dont react at all. Act normal, go into the other room and cry like a baby and tend to your wounds if necessary. Birds generally dont understand the difference between good feedback and negative feedback. Your husband flailing around lets her know she can get a reaction if she bites. If she doesnt get a reaction, she will eventually stop doing it because she wont get to watch her daddy run around like an ape!
Especially during the training process you have to set boundaries. YHour bird will feel dominate if she is on your shoulder or up high. Keep her below your eye level, Her actions will be less aggressive, and if she does bite, you dont have to worry about losing a chunk of your face.

Be receptive to her actions. Regardless of whats going on, she will ALWAYS get her way, you just have to accept it and try to mold her actions. Spend time trying to learn games and skills. She will eventually learn that the more she receptive she is to YOU, the more treats she gets!


I can pretty much get my bird to stop doing something bad by snapping my fingers and saying 'no'. He will, however,fluff up, put his head down and pin his eyes. He knows he is wrong and shows that he is angry that he is yelled at, but I would never try to interact with him when he is showing those signs, If your bird looks cranky, dont push the interaction,

Good Luck!
Jessica and William "wally" Wallace (blue IRN male hatched 3-8-09)


also, is your bird clipped or flighted?

Hi Jessica

Thank you for your response. In response to your question, her wings are clipped.

When we first brought Janey home we tried to stop her from getting on our shoulder, however it was so hard to do.. and she seems to be able outsmart us if she really wanted to, so we gave in.... and I read differing opinions on whether it was appropriate or not.

I also spend quite a bit of time training her to do tricks and so on... I seem to get less bites than my husband... so maybe she has figured out her boundaries with me. I have noticed that some times when I say "no" to her, she pins and puts her head down... and I think it is her realising that I haven't been happy with what she is doing. If he spent time training them, would that help?

What we find hard about working with her is that she doesn't bite regularly... It might be more than a month in between bites... so when she does it, we are caught off guard and that's when our responses may be inappropriate.

You also mentioned about going into another room if you need to react to your wounds... Janey usually bites when she is on our shoulder and sometimes we can't get her to get off. We try to put her on her gym but she just refuses to get off. She knows how to step up and step down but she only does it when she wants to do it. Any ideas?

Thanks for your advice and support.

Ellie.