GCCs pros and cons

[marie83]

I think the nippy phase can last any amount of time depending on the bird and how you deal with it. They can draw blood for sure when they want but most of the time it's more of a painful pinch.

Velcro as in they won't leave you alone, they always want to be on you and be center of attention to the point it gets really really annoying because you can't do anything, so its important to teach them independance from day one and not spoil them with attention otherwise they come to expect it and will literally do almost anything to get it back, including drawing blood if thats what gets them attention.

[CommaCole]

Ouch......Is that common?..... Hard to deal with?

[pennyandrocky]

mine has drawn blood many times but only with people who allow him to intimidate him and never with me because he knows it means i won't let him on my shoulder if he does. they can be bullies too they are a large bird in a small package but only if you allow it. it's easier if flighted so you can shoo them off when they get too nippy then allow them right back mine learned within days i would not tolerate him biting me for attention now he says i love you or mommy to get my attention.

[marie83]

Fairly common I think but thats from all the posts I see, how common I don't know because alot of people only find a forum to join once they have a problem. I would say it is a typical characteristic of the green cheeks though.

We built a tree for our green cheek, filled it with loads of toys and had to play with them ourselves to try to get him to use it. That failed so we started hiding treats in the toys, this encouraged him to play and search them and gradually he spent more time doing his own thing.

I believe our birds nipping was primarily for attention, I ignored him all the time and let him get on with it but it went on and on. Occasionally I had to remove his beak because he would latch on then grind his beak, I won through eventually but it took time, it is possible my partner was reinfocing the biting which is why it took ages to get him out of the nippy phase.

[CommaCole]

Thanks you guys, think i've got a good idea of what gccs are like, appreciate help.