help with BITING?

[pabeth]

Hello. So I recently got two new parrotlets. One is only 4 mo old or so, the other is young, but who knows, maybe even up to a year (the breeder lied to me).

ANyway... I keep them completely separate. The older one Monty, bites becaus he's super wild and is agressive/territorial, sometimes i think scared. And now my baby one, Louie, that was soo sweet, the last couple of days starts to bite me too!

He wants bite my lips and my fingers. When he bites I usually make an "eehh ehh" sound to distract him. And... now he does that sound and bites me. lol . I hope this is a sign he might talk one day??? Anyway, back on subject. What can I do?

I have heard to distract them with a treat... but to me, that seems like I"m saying bite me and get a treat. He is getting more comfortable which is bring out the biting. right now he is going Eh eh , like i do, and is trying to pull up the keyboard keys. He also likes to try to pull up the keys to my phone. SHould I not let him to this? He looks like he is playing, but maybe I should not let him bite stuff hard? He doesn't really play with his toys, except the swing. Sometimes he "mouths" me, but he's def. biting now. And doing the sound I make.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

There are lots of threads on this topic if you do a search! Unfortunately, I think you may have accidentally taught him biting is a fun behavior because you react and he probably thinks it is a game. The often repeated advice is to ignore the biting itself as much as you can, avoid the situations which provoke biting as much as you can, and encourage behaviors you do want. I also found with Scooter that in some cases it helped to do something to discourage the biting, like the finger-wobble or blowing lightly on him. It's a bit hard sometimes to ignore a beak that is clamped on your finger! But baby birds and birds that are new to a place seem to explore the environment with their beaks and also what their beaks DO in the environment, so I think he's just trying things out, doesn't particularly know it's bad, and that you can probably easily redirect his behavior.

But I'm new at this, so take my advice with grain of salt. Coarse sea salt would probably be appropriate.

[skeetersunconure]

well from what i know you made one mistake. when he bit you you made an eeh eeh sound trying to distract him. you acknowledged him biting you. that eggs him on if you know what i mean he wants to keep doing it because who knows maybe he liked the sound you made and he thought you wanted him to bite. keep this in mind any aknowledgement to a bird when he is biting is an encourager. simply ignore him. he may have started biting a a result of getting a new bird. think about it. he may be territorial of you or maybe a jelousy factor here. dont give up you can get around it. also going for the lips is not that surprising. sometimes skeeter tries to and i think its because they feel wet and interesting. skeeter use to be a big biter a few weeks ago, now he hardy ever bites. i learned to read his moods and assess the situation whenever he bites asking what happened that made him bite and then you can respond differant ways if he bit cuz he's scared then find out what made him scared and possibly in the future desesitize him to it. you'll learn to read your bird too good luck!

[pabeth]

Thanks for the responses. I think is is partially testing out the beak and the effect it has on the environment. I have heard before not to respond, and I will try that again but it is hard!

I did some search and a lot of it gave reasons why... like over-stimulation and excitement. I'm going to try all the ones on here and see which one works best.

Another thing, my bird does this rapid flapping on wings whilst chirping. This is Louie, the 4 mo old. What is he doing? I know it gets my other birds really excited and they start to chirp too. I don't think he's trying to fly, it sounds like a drum beating. Is this some sort of communication?

Also, my baby bird's poo seems really watery compared to the older one. Is that normal?

[skeetersunconure]

he is probably excited. skeeter does this sometimes too. i know its hard just try your best not to respond. and baby bird well idk have you given it a lot of watery foods like fruits and vegetables? that might cause it.

[lainmai]

When Parrotlets vocalize they usually do the wing beats, its actually HOW they make sounds that are like our own, or how they imitate non-native sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSl_5_JTBvE
In the video you can see Koolaid raise his wings when he talks, it allows more air into his lungs and helps modify the vocals (birds don't have "vocal chords" like we do)

As for the biting...only thing you can do is ignore it and when they bite you gently move your hand/arm towards them - they won't expect that reaction and eventually will learn biting will not get them what they want.

[Giantmoa]

Just to add to the responses, I ussually carry some sort of foot toy or object to let my conure chew on when she is on me. It distracts her from my fingers which were her fav chew toy when I first got her... she only beaks my hands now gently unless I do something wrong. But other than that, ignoring sounds like good advice. My conure loves to bite/nibble on my dad because he makes funny squeeky noises when she does....

[pabeth]

Thank you for all the posts. That youtube video is so cute. I will also have to try really hard to listen if they are talking. I sort or recall a jibber jabber sound... i hope he was trying!

I trying to ween him off seed by mixing in the exact pellet and some bird food "greens" and bird food "dried fruits." I also give him some lettuce and carrot. He doesn't eat it though. Sometimes he poops normal, somtiems seems watery. The wilder bird (Monty) will sorta eat the kibble, but he definitely kicks it all out digging for seeds. The younger baby bird (Louie) is for sure only eating seeds. He chews the dried greens and fruits, but I don't think he's eating any. Also when he nibble on the seed, so many crumbs tall, I don't think he's swallowing. I think he's just trying to "break open the hull" and then there is no hull because its kibble, so he just crumbles it up. I'm slowly taking out seed and adding in pellets, but he only will pick out the seeds and frantically throw out the pellets. This is reminiscent of my deceased bird, so I just worry! But vet says he looks really healthy.

I will try to find a toy that he really finds interesting to play when he is with me. He likes the keyboard and the remote and cell phone buttons, bc he wants to pull them up, but do you guys think I shouldn't let him bite so hard on anything? Just for now until he learns not ot bite me. lol right now he want to go to the keyboard but can't figure out how. Its funny to see him throw his chest and try to fly. he is already losing his baby face and trying to explore more.

I will try to do the movig slowly toward him trick. I think it might work! I just did it and he went back to the keyboard keys.