How to discourage biting?

[hlasdf]

How long have you had your lovebird and where did you get her from? Has she been bitey like that since you got her?

I've had her for 3 weeks so admittedly, not very long. I got her from Canary World Exotic Bird Farm(It was a bit of a shady place...). When we first brought her home, no she wasn't very bitey, but it progressed to that after I started interrupting things she was doing(like the things mentioned above).

[hlasdf]

I will add a bit to first reply, which was a good one. By training your bird you are deepening the bond between you and said bird. THAT is the most important part you should be taking out of the advice. Second to that is the fact that biting WONT get the reaction the bird is looking for. Birds are smart and will try all different means to get what they want. This is all a precursor to positive re-enforcement/training. Personally I would do everything to avoid bites in the first place. Go back to square one basically. Read Micheals training guides and pretend your bird is not socialized and start target training in cage...then progress from there. Again avoid bites by not handling directly. Since your bird is clipped it has no flight reflex in times of fear, thus biting is only recourse. Take things very slow, again work on taming techniques that limit direct handling but work on bond building. The bird will/should see time with you as positive and biting will not be re-enforced/patterned behaviour and become less frequent as time goes on. Handling can be increased as time goes on but dont go too fast in this regard. If a bite is observed/felt than go back and work more on basic taming/bonding techniques. Patience and time should work in both your favour and the birds.

Hope this helps,

Wayne

PS...let the wings grow out. A flighted parrot is a happier, better adjusted, more confident/less fearful, and less BITY than a clipped one....

I've decided to try this. It sounds like it may not only work, but also get Daisy used to or even like her cage, seeing as she absolutely hates being in there. I'll definitely read more of Michael's articles and see how she progresses from here on out. Thanks!
P.S. Yeah, I was already planning on letting her grow her wings out. The employees at the store clip all their birds' wings so I didn't have a say.

[Wayne361]

Good stuff. Basically the more you read and experience the more you will learn. Also read up on "food management" as this will assist as well. I cant stress positive re-enforcement enough. You mentioned your bird hates the cage....you need to turn this around. Simple way to do it is to make going back into cage coincide with meal time or with a treat. I work all day...come home and spend time with my do training exercises, flight training, etc. I put him in his cage when my family sits down to eat. I will place a small treat in his food bowl and he expects it and is too happy to enter. His meal-time is around midnight and Oscar is very happy about going into his cage. He sees going into cage as a rewarding experience. Basically EVERYTHING you want your bird to do based on positive re-enforcement i.e. he/she will only do it if they WANT to. If you for force anything you risk losing the bird/human bond and more problems will arise. Whenever I want Oscar to do something I think to myself "how can I make experience a rewarding one and how to teach this rewarding experience so that end result is accomplished" Recently while lounging with Oscar he wanted his head scratched....i ignored him to see what he would do....he proceeded to "beak" my fingers (not bite) and got no reaction. He then used his head to nudge my fingers, again no reaction from me. He then stepped up on my hand hoping for a scratch...I ignored this too. He sat there for a second, I could almost see the gears turning in his head. Then he said "Hey Buddy?' and I scratched his head. They are smart....now when he wants his head scratched he will say "Hey Buddy?'" Basically your job is reward the good and do not reward the bad. BTW 3 weeks is WAY to short of a time to develop a close bond to any bird IMO. Slow down, start from scratch and build the bond and dont force anything or take things too fast. You might have the best intentions but the bird has no way of knowing this till some sort of bond forms.

Wayne

[CaitlinRice413]

[Wayne361]

Good point......I didnt see/read the birds age. Food managment for older birds....

[rebcart]

Hey hlasdf,

Welcome to this forum! It's good to see you getting lots of replies.

I wanted to chime in, based on the information you've given here, plus one of your posts on a different forum - it sounds to me like you're really pushing your little birdie to do things it doesn't want too fast, too soon. I can totally get why it's getting angry and biting - can you imagine if you were to sit down and try to surf the net or do work on your computer, and this annoying giant the size of a skyscraper keeps putting its fingers between you and the computer to interrupt you?

Just in general, I think you need to go a lot slower and calmer with this. Try to manage situations so that the bird getting into things/places you don't want never happens - it's better to prevent a problem than to have to go in and stop it afterwards. And, try to make whatever you want your bird to do MORE fun than what it's already doing. I'd even go so far as to leave boring toys on the countertop, and then give it fun shredding toys as a reward for stepping up without biting... things like that. A big, fat, wide toy is easier for you to put between your bird's beak and your fingers than a small treat, too, so that can help with the finger-chomping you mentioned.

Prevent/ignore the bad and reward the good is my motto, for all the animals I work with, and it's worked well for me. Good luck! And please don't give up, and DO expect it to take some time. I know what it's like to have a bitey bird (my GCC is called Shark for a reason...), and even though it's so easy to get frustrated at why-is-this-bird-still-biting-can't-it-see-I-want-to-love-it-GRARGH, having a zen attitude of "it's ok, that's how the bird feels about me right now, so I'll let it go and try again later" really pays off way more than trying to force the bird to accept your demands immediately.

[hlasdf]

Wow, thanks for all the replies, everyone! I got some really good advice here that DEFINITELY helped. Daisy's biting has become much less frequent and vicious in only 2-3 days. The next problem seems to be separation anxiety, but I'll read around on how to fix that. Thank you, everyone!!!

[hlasdf]

Ok, you got your bird from a bird farm. It is possible that your lovebird had little handling, so instead of it being like my situation where Stevie is always expecting to be grabbed, your lovebird might be used to having a lot of independence. It would make sense why he/she gets annoyed when being interrupted. The advice given on this thread is very good, and I would emphasize watching the body language that leads to a bite. Trust me that it is very unpleasant to be bitten without warning when those signs have been ignored. It is exciting to have a new bird friend and want to interact with them often, just make sure you acclimate them to being with people who are trustworthy. Good luck!

Ps If your bird is still young, you should not do any food management. Michael had told me this when I asked him about it.

I've gotten used to reading Daisy's body language and it's helped a bunch Also what do you mean by food management?

[GreenWing]

Tiki has not bitten me in a very long time. When she has in the past, there were triggers, such as jealousy with the phone or being possessive of food. Furthermore I think it's also because I use positive reinforcement when I handle her. In other words, these beasts need our attention and she gets it when she behaves! She gets no attention when she bites, and I've even turned my back which does indeed communicate to a parrot "I am ignoring you." Tiki has done this very same behavior to me in the past so they know what it means.

Conclusion: Positive reinforcement works. Give your bird something to focus on, like trainings. Praise them, give them something to feel good about which builds confidence. Check out Michael's videos and blog for more info.

[hlasdf]

Tiki has not bitten me in a very long time. When she has in the past, there were triggers, such as jealousy with the phone or being possessive of food. Furthermore I think it's also because I use positive reinforcement when I handle her. In other words, these beasts need our attention and she gets it when she behaves! She gets no attention when she bites, and I've even turned my back which does indeed communicate to a parrot "I am ignoring you." Tiki has done this very same behavior to me in the past so they know what it means.

Conclusion: Positive reinforcement works. Give your bird something to focus on, like trainings. Praise them, give them something to feel good about which builds confidence. Check out Michael's videos and blog for more info.

Since these replies, I've stopped with punishments like putting Daisy back in her cage when she bites, and instead worked more on positive reinforcement. It's helped a lot and although she's still a bit nippy, she's doing better!