Ouch! He bites!

[aviv]

Hi Michael!

I've been following your advice on trying to get my Grey used to touching all over his body.
He's perfectly ok (most of the times) with me petting his head, or his back, with my fingers or with my entire palm- but he doesnt really like it when i'm touching under his wings or his belly- he'd start giving painful bites.
I do get to touch his belly and under-wings when he's busy in something (destroying a piece of toy, concentrating something)- but as soon he'd stop and will just bite me.
even though he's a 4 months old Grey, he bites sooo hard. I'm trying to dodge his bites, and when he does get to bite me, i'm trying to ignore it- even though it's extremely hard not to scream when he bites. Is that the right way to handle those bites, with the hope it'll stop in the future?

So here're my questions about his bites:
1. How to I get to make him used to a touch all over? should I just be delicate and persistent?
2. In general, how do I stop him from biting? Is it just to ignore as much as possible his bites?
3. When someone else- other than me- gets close to him, he'll try to bite even if that someone just trying to pet his head. Is there a simple way to get my Grey used to other people petting him as well?

Thanks!

[Michael]

Parrots generally don't like being touched anywhere but the head and will bite other parrots if they do. Don't expect him to want you to or let you do that unless you do something worthwhile in return for him. I generally don't touch my parrots there but if I need to, they let me. This is mostly because I tamed them over time to be held and handled. The following articles talk about ways of using positive reinforcement to tame parrots for various methods of touch.

http://TrainedParrot.com/Taming
http://TrainedParrot.com/Toweling
http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid= ... New+Parrot

As for stopping biting, you just have to develop a better relationship where other things go on between you two and he looks forward to being around you such that biting isn't necessary. Trick training happens to achieve this while developing cute tricks which is why I recommend it so much.

[Naurthon]

Dante doesn't bite, but he does occasionally beak me a little more firmly than I like. I tell him "gentle" once, and if he does it again, I tell him "gentle" a second time, and put him in his cage for a few minutes.

He understands that "gentle" means "don't do that" well enough that a few days ago, when I was trying to stroke him under his wing, HE said "gentle" TO ME!

It is good that you're not responding when you are bitten, but by pulling your hand away when he reaches to nip at you, you are actually reinforcing the behavior. Your bird has learned it can control what you do that way.

Understand that a bird's wings are essential to their survival in the wild, so they're going to be touchy about them being touched. You might try rewarding him with a treat when he does allow you to stroke him anywhere other than the head. (Head scratches are their own reward!) Also, stroking a bird's back can be interpreted by the bird as being sexual, so you might want to minimize that.