by mmeager » Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:19 am
My thoughts and small amount of experience might not apply to you, as our situations are very different, but our bird has also, and still is! Giving us biting issues so to speak. However things are getting much much better. So much better in fact its hardly an issue anymore.
The biggest reason the biting is hardly an issue anymore, is because I have now learned about, and understood my bird a lot more, and by that I don't mean learning about his species or type or generalised information. What I mean is learning about him personally, his personal individual traits, his personality, what his trying to tell me, and from this, we get a platform to work on!
From what I understand you and your bird are reasonably new to each other, and just in the stages of developing a relationship, a part of this process is developing trust, not just the birds trust in you, but very importantly your trust in your bird! Its always going to be a two way street! And I don't think you can put a time frame on this, I think that all depends on your bird and your own patience.
There are techniques out there to help you, and yes you should use them, BUT, I would also be vary careful on how you implement them, if you want that beautiful relationship together, be very conscious of not putting your bird in a situation where he just gives up, and does what you want because that's what you insist he does.
So, my advice would be, go very very slowly, don't focus on presenting your hand to your bird, but present more your forearm, keeping your fingers tucked away, meaning make a fist, and keep the back of your hand facing him, (Bonus is it doesn't hurt as much when he bites you that way!) when he is standing on your forearm offer his favorite treat with your other hand, once again keeping most of your fingers tucked away, if he freaks out over your hand offering food, while he is on your forearm, then back off, offer him the safety of his perch, and go away, come back in a few minutes and try again, repeat this a couple of times, not too much tho! otherwise you re-enforce his fear!
Try again the next day, eventually he will associate this process as a good thing for him, because he gets a nice treat! Clicker training can really help with this. When he feels safe and comfortable standing on your forearm, slowly extend a finger, and watch him, watch what he does and how he reacts. If he attacks, quietly but sternly say NO, put him back on his perch and walk away, in a few mins come back and try again, over time keep it up until you can wiggle your fingers around with no issue! Parrots are very smart, he will figure out that your hands mean a good thing, not a bad scary thing! And that's what we want.
I hope this has helped, a little anyway!
I must say I am not an experienced bird owner, I am also new to bird ownership, so please listen to the more experienced people here over and above what I have said!
The only reason I feel I have a voice here, is because we have taken a young IRN, (with the help of this forum) from a little bird who would not let us come anywhere near his cage without going crazy with fear, who would bite so hard he drew blood, and in three months, to a little bird who now sits on my shoulder every night after work, preens my ears, preens my beard, preens my eyelashes! Strokes the top of his beak on my cheek ever so gently! Gets all tangled in my wife's long hair (and loves it!) And I look forward every single day to coming home and spending time with my beautiful little mate, Buddy.
And this is a good part of how we accomplished this.