New Parrotlet- :(

[Jabbgard]

So we adopted a parrotlet about 2 weeks ago. When we first brought him home he was amazing! Would step right up onto your finger when you told him to and came out of his cage with no problems at all. He LOVES to just hang out with me, sitting on my shoulder or laying on the couch so he can walk back an forth on me. Anyways....we got him some new toys and I put them in there, one was a small rope toy with some little wooden beads on it, the ends were frayed and a friend of mine told me that he prolly thought that it was his mate and he was trying to protect it. Anyways we took that toy out. Well now, he bites the crap out of you every time we go to get him out. He will "step up" when you say it but you also get a pretty hard love "taste" as well....Broke the skin on my thumb today. So, Im asking for advice or suggestions. Anything will help I think at this point.

Thanks, Ashlee

[liz]

Those little guys scare my amazons.

Maybe wait until he gets to the cage door to ask for a step up.

[Jabbgard]

Ya, I searched on here last night to see if anyone else has had the same problem and I did find pretty much the same thing. She said the first week he pretty much let them do whatever to him (because it was all new and he was in shock still lol) then he started the biting and about 2 weeks later it just stopped. So maybe he is still adjusting. Ill just grin and bare it. Even though his little beak can draw some blood! His new cage is comming tomorrow and its a lot bigger with bigger doors too, and it has a big play top so maybe it will get better

[Polarn]

saw a video of someone teaching the parrot not to bite while stepping up, basicly what he did was step up training with a clicker and reward every time the bird stepped up, but while asking the bird to step up on his right hand he held the left hand above it as for the bird to try and reach that with the beak, but not within reach, and as soon as the bird stepped up on the right hand clicked and gave it a treat, then he basicly repeated this and faded the left hand further and further away until it was no longer nessesary, he claimed this method would work to train birds to not use the beak to pull them up as well (if their not biting just grabbing with the beak) I havnt tried this and dont know if it works, or if there is any secondary behaviors tought at the same time...

[cornettocockatiel]

How about you just give him back the toy once every week and then slowly cut down ie. give him the toy once every 2 weeks and so on.