Biting Cockatiel

[cane5663]

About two months ago I adopted a male cockatiel from the humane society. Since day one, we have been best buds, he lets me scratch his head all the time, though he has always been a bit nippy. I will be scratching his head and he will start rapidfire biting me for no apparent reason. I will put my hand by him and ask him to step up, and he will start "bawking" like a chicken then start rapidfire biting me. I have been trying to target train him in an attempt to stop this weird behavior, he will start aggressively biting the stick that I use. I just find it weird how he lets me scratch his head all the time but I can't even put my hand near him without him "bawking" and biting.

[GMV]

almost every cockatiel i met does this. Mine does too. Cockatiels have been inbred to have weak beaks, so most can't bite hard. I don't know if they are trying to though.

[cane5663]

How do I train him to not bite me? I have tried saying "no" and I never back away my hand when he bites

[GMV]

How do I train him to not bite me? I have tried saying "no" and I never back away my hand when he bites

if you are talking about the rapid fire biting, thats just natural. But you can train them by distracting them when they do it to break the habit if you don't like it.

[NICrosis]

It's a cockatiel. Hold it upside down until it calms down XD. They're bites don't even hurt

[GMV]

It's a cockatiel. Hold it upside down until it calms down XD. They're bites don't even hurt

they used to, but we bred them so hard their beaks lost power...

[NICrosis]

It's at the point where I feel Cockatiels should either stop being bred in captivity, or we should extinct a species. Through eugenics and inbreeding we literally destroyed an entire species.

[GMV]

we ruined the cockatiels natural posture, beaks, head size, and the way they perch (now the rest their belly on the perch)