IndianRingNeck.com

Hey guys, we just got 2 young ringnecks, 1 olive and 1 grey. Theyre about 4 months old according to the store.
Now, the grey boy (we call him greyjoy) is very skitty and doesn't want to come near us. The olive female however has a strange little way of doing things. She appears to be very friendly. When shes in her huge cage she'll come straight up to you, latch on the side and nibble at your fingers gently. She'll follow you all around the cage too. Looks very sweet.
However, the problem is when you get in the cage. She will automatically fly up to and land on you, which is also sweet, however she then continually bites. Hard. Now the weird thing is she is showing zero signs of aggression. No eye pinning, no puffing up or any of the usual behaviours like shes threatened or scared of us, but she just won't stop biting anything she can get her beak on. Fingers, exposed part of your neck or arms.. anywhere pink and fleshy is a target! Its almost like its a kind of playing, maybe possibly she doesnt realize what shes doing is painful.

Im assuming that this behaviour has been seen a million times before. Can anyone explain it to me? And possibly give some tips as to maybe get her out of it??

Young birds can do exploratory biting which isn't intended to inflict pain but definitely can be quite painful. Does the bird do it out of the cage too?

I'm not sure what the "recommended" method of dealing with exploratory biting is but a couple of ideas come to mind:
1) If the bird is on your hand gently rotate your hand so it has to adjust its balance a little and should let its beak go. Don't rock your hand too much as this will scare the bird or possibly worse, it may think its a game and try to make it happen again. If this doesn't work, you may want to keep your hands out of the cage for a bit.
2) if the bird isn't on your hand, just slowly withdraw your hand and go away. Try again later.
3) try to imitate the sound of an in-pain bird squark. Don't do it too loudly and only do it once. You're not trying to scare the bird, just trying to let it know you don't like it.

Please note: these strategies are intended for exploratory biting. Before trying them you should be sure that is the reason for biting. I would recommend different strategies for fear/aggression biting these strategies involve finding the trigger for the fear/aggression and working on either the trigger or the response to the trigger using rewards.

What other taming strategies are you using? In then early days you need to spend lots of time with treats and letting them observe you in an unobtrusive way.

Ellie.

on my cell, sorry for quick reply.

1. when she bites pull hand back. ignore it. dont react or scold her. elle was right, rotate hand to distract her.

2. continue holding her. don't let her know that biting will control the situation. should she bite go about your business handling her.

3. I have phased out biting with devri. Although expect occasional bites...its like that with all parrots.

Best wishes, IMRAN-C

Hey guys thanks for the tips. It already seems to be working she seems to bite less frequently now. Unless shes a little bit stressed or in a cranky mood.
So it definetly is something that you can get rid of? Or is there a better chance that she'll be a biter just cause its in her personality?