Teaching not to bite

[ParrotsForLife]

So most of you know I got Tiko hand reared 6 years ago and shes only used to my mam she gives her kisses before bed and steps up for my mam although she will step up if shes on the floor but I wanna teach her to step up for me without her biting I would be afraid that if I got her on my arm she would bite.Im gonna target train her too to help with the step up.So how exactly can I teach her not to bite.I watch out for her body language and know it very well shes very relaxed when I come near her and sometimes she lets me scratch her beak from the cage bars.

[ParrotsForLife]

Here is a pic of her today eating a strawberry.

[Wolf]

Not quite sure how to word this, but you don't actually teach a bird not to bite, you avoid getting bit. It has always been one of the most amusing things that I was ever told about birds that the only way to teach a bird to not bite is to not get bitten. I do, however, find it to be true.
With a Grey, you may or may not be very successful as they are very picky about who they allow to touch them and when. Even in their natural state they are not very touchy birds with mates rarely touching each other. In your favor is that they are really not that aggressive of a bird, so if you can gain the birds trust first, so that it indicates to you that it wants to interact with you, then it is more likely to grab your finger and move it away from its body rather than to actually bite. If, however, it does not want to interact with you it will bite with little warning. So I would recommend starting from scratch and try to gain the birds trust. I do hope this will give you some insight into the way that a Grey thinks and help you to accomplish your goal.

[ParrotsForLife]

She already trusts me shes living with me 6 years and she will let me scratch her head through the cage bars and she takes food from me.Also when I say step up she puts one foot on my hand and then goes to bite so I let go.She has accidentally bit me before very hard because she fell and was gripping on very hard.And she eats anything any veg or other food I hand to her she eats it all.She is on a pellet diet and sometimes she gets vegetables and fruit and seeds and she gets egg but not much and we also give her food that we eat at dinner and stuff like chicken or turkey.

[Wolf]

Just because she will take treats from you doesn't mean that she trusts you. My Grey will take treats from my Lady while she is in her cage( the Grey, not my Lady), and will let her scratch her head sometimes and even give her kisses through the cage bars, but does not trust her enough for anything more than that. If my Lady attempts to do more than these tings she immediately get reprimanded with a bite.
I won't say that all Greys act the same because they are individuals and I have never met any two of them that responded the same as another all of the time. There are a few things, however seem to be traits that most of them share. With only having the one Grey and knowing only a couple of others, I can only offer my observations on this and let you run with it as best as you can.
Greys are very loyal to their mate whether that mate is human or bird and does not seem to have any desire to socialize with anyone other than this mate. If for example my Lady wants to approach her, when she gets to a certain point the first thing that Kookooloo does is to turn her back to her, signifying that she doesn't want to talk to my Lady. If my Lady persists in her attempts to interact with her, Kookooloo will turn back around and bow her head as if she were asking for a head scratch and then when my Lady reaches for her she will grab her finger or hand and try to throw it away from her. The next attempt by my Lady is usually met with the same head bowing posture, but not always and then when my Lady tries to get closer to ask for step up Kookooloo will bite with no further warnings.
So you can say that the bird doesn't trust the person enough or you can say that the bird doesn't want any closer of a relationship than it already has, but the results are identical, if you persist you are very likely to get bitten. Since Greys are normally pretty much non aggressive, you may or may not be able to tolerate the bite and get the bird to do what you are asking, sometimes it will work for a while but usually ends up with a resentful bird and you lose any trust that you may have earned in just minutes and I know that my Grey has an excellent and long memory.
I am not trying to discourage you in any manner, but I guess that I am saying is that if you are going to be successful then expect it to be slow going and that you really can't push this bird into submission for any length of time or you will very quickly have a biter or possibly worse a bird that plucks its feathers. So again take your time and proceed only as far as your Grey permits and at the birds pace, or you will fail. Wishing you the best of luck as it sounds like she is a wonderful bird and that she could really use more interaction than she is receiving.

[Pajarita]

I agree with Wolf (I had six greys and have two right now) and have just two things to add.
1) is that with the diet and light schedule you mentioned (non solar and super high in protein), you will never be successful in training her because you need high value food items as rewards and she is not only getting them all the time but an excess of them (please ask your mother to do a more thorough research on their diet because chicken, beef, etc are 100% no-nos for parrots, they all end up with high cholesterol and hepatic lipidosis).
2) is that, going by what you describe, she doesn't really 'trust' you, she good naturedly tolerates you. Greys are not really aggressive birds and are very tolerant so they don't go out of their way to bite and very, very often give you a couple of warnings (like Wolf's lady gets). If she trusted you, she would come to you on her own initiative because they do love been with people.

[ParrotsForLife]

Just because she will take treats from you doesn't mean that she trusts you. My Grey will take treats from my Lady while she is in her cage( the Grey, not my Lady), and will let her scratch her head sometimes and even give her kisses through the cage bars, but does not trust her enough for anything more than that. If my Lady attempts to do more than these tings she immediately get reprimanded with a bite.
I won't say that all Greys act the same because they are individuals and I have never met any two of them that responded the same as another all of the time. There are a few things, however seem to be traits that most of them share. With only having the one Grey and knowing only a couple of others, I can only offer my observations on this and let you run with it as best as you can.
Greys are very loyal to their mate whether that mate is human or bird and does not seem to have any desire to socialize with anyone other than this mate. If for example my Lady wants to approach her, when she gets to a certain point the first thing that Kookooloo does is to turn her back to her, signifying that she doesn't want to talk to my Lady. If my Lady persists in her attempts to interact with her, Kookooloo will turn back around and bow her head as if she were asking for a head scratch and then when my Lady reaches for her she will grab her finger or hand and try to throw it away from her. The next attempt by my Lady is usually met with the same head bowing posture, but not always and then when my Lady tries to get closer to ask for step up Kookooloo will bite with no further warnings.
So you can say that the bird doesn't trust the person enough or you can say that the bird doesn't want any closer of a relationship than it already has, but the results are identical, if you persist you are very likely to get bitten. Since Greys are normally pretty much non aggressive, you may or may not be able to tolerate the bite and get the bird to do what you are asking, sometimes it will work for a while but usually ends up with a resentful bird and you lose any trust that you may have earned in just minutes and I know that my Grey has an excellent and long memory.
I am not trying to discourage you in any manner, but I guess that I am saying is that if you are going to be successful then expect it to be slow going and that you really can't push this bird into submission for any length of time or you will very quickly have a biter or possibly worse a bird that plucks its feathers. So again take your time and proceed only as far as your Grey permits and at the birds pace, or you will fail. Wishing you the best of luck as it sounds like she is a wonderful bird and that she could really use more interaction than she is receiving.

Yes but she does trust me I know that and she steps up when shes on the floor.She never snaps at me or tries to bite.

[ParrotsForLife]

I agree with Wolf (I had six greys and have two right now) and have just two things to add.
1) is that with the diet and light schedule you mentioned (non solar and super high in protein), you will never be successful in training her because you need high value food items as rewards and she is not only getting them all the time but an excess of them (please ask your mother to do a more thorough research on their diet because chicken, beef, etc are 100% no-nos for parrots, they all end up with high cholesterol and hepatic lipidosis).
2) is that, going by what you describe, she doesn't really 'trust' you, she good naturedly tolerates you. Greys are not really aggressive birds and are very tolerant so they don't go out of their way to bite and very, very often give you a couple of warnings (like Wolf's lady gets). If she trusted you, she would come to you on her own initiative because they do love been with people.

She does come to me sometimes.Also theres nothing wrong with her diet a pellet diet and seed is ok for her.She dosent get veg all the time and she hardly gets egg or chicken.The only time she would get chicken or turkey is if we got it for dinner and they are good for them not bad.Also I havent even start training her.She already bonded to my mam are greys one person birds she probably will not want to bond with me if shes already bonded to my mam and im ok with that.She also loves getting in the shower.

[liz]

There is a lot wrong with her diet. She will develop liver disease if it continues. You are giving her too much protein and not enough veg and fruit.
I give mine 3 kinds of fruit and veg a day. If I don't have produce on hand I use frozen mixed veg. I give them a mixture of cooked grains.
They no longer get sunflower seed and only get almonds at bed time.

Do you give a kid unlimited junk food just because it is easier than fixing nutritious food?

[ParrotsForLife]

There is a lot wrong with her diet. She will develop liver disease if it continues. You are giving her too much protein and not enough veg and fruit.
I give mine 3 kinds of fruit and veg a day. If I don't have produce on hand I use frozen mixed veg. I give them a mixture of cooked grains.
They no longer get sunflower seed and only get almonds at bed time.

Do you give a kid unlimited junk food just because it is easier than fixing nutritious food?

I dont know where you all got this from I dont feed her junk food.She gets her pellets to eat throughout the day and she had all different types of veg and fruit she loves strawberries and she saids can I have a strawberry and she likes broccoli,corn,peas,sprouts and other stuff and how am I giving her too much protein I dont understand the only thing with protein in it would be egg and meat she never really gets egg because I dont like egg myself.And like I already said over and over she dosent get meat either only if say we got it for dinner and the only time we get chicken or turkey for dinner is if we are having veg.I dont know where your getting all your information from and saying I said that Read properly because you obviously didnt you can clearly see she has a healthy diet.Its so funny how you guys always try make what I say into something else just to start an argument.And as you clearly dont seem to know veg and fruit is healthy so how is she getting junk food exactly,Thought so read properly.