occasional biting?
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 3:50 am
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.
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.