Biting phase

[Angie]

I have asked about this biting phase some time ago and was told that it was completely normal, but right now I'm starting to think there's more going on.

I would say about 2 weeks ago she started with this 'biting'. She never draws blood, but it's pretty damn painful. With me she does it A LOT less than with my parents, especially my mom. (she listens better to me when I tell her 'no' or 'be gentle') She would look for her fingers and put a lot of pressure on em. Also the skin around her neck, she seems to like to grab her there and the skin in between the fingers.

Am I missing something here, am I doing something wrong for her to have reason to do this or is this still part of this 'biting' phase? I would say it isn't since she is actually looking for fingers to 'bite' on. Also, this doesn't go on 24/7. Besides these moments she's very sweet and playful.

[Wolf]

There are several possibilities for the behavior that you are describing. Would you try to give us some examples of when Monty is doing this? You know, what is going on when she is biting as well as time of day. These are all clues and may help us to work out why she is behaving this way.

[Angie]

Happens throughout the entire day. She bites my mom when she gets her out of the cage, not me. Then usually we sit her on her tree or have her with us. She'd then look for fingers or the skin of your hand to twist. When she does this, she tries to hold on as hard as possible so it's not always that easy to get her to let go. But I can't think anything that we are doing for her to behave like this. She's 6 months old now, I don't know if that could be of some influence.

Sometimes she'd walk around, looking at her cage. I'm thinking that she's hungry or thirsty and wants to eat/drink some so I'd make her step up and bring her to her cage, but then she'd flap her wings or just doesn't sit still and leans forward till she's almost upside down and grabs one of my fingers to bite.

The neck thing she just does that out of the blue. She would be sitting on my moms shoulder, then suddenly she grabs the skin of her neck, same pressure as she does with our hands. So my mom has quite a lot of red marks there.

When she is playing or gets a bit sleepy it doesn't happen.

[Wolf]

Part of it appears to be related to her cage. Try opening her cage and letting her come out on her own before you offer to let her step up. And when you put her in the cage give her a treat so that she has it in her beak when you put her in.
In addition to what appears to be a territorial type aggression, it appears that she may be jealous as well. It is also possible that she may be getting too much protein in her diet or even just getting it at the wrong time of day.
What does she have for breakfast? Also please watch her closely to see what she is doing just prior to the biting incidents. Does she pin or flash her eyes? Or does she do anything different with them prior to biting? My Grey doesn't pin her eyes but she gets a look that I can only refer to as sly or scheming type of look before she offers to bite. Does she do anything with her feathers, tail feathers, wing feathers, and/ or head and neck feathers? They usually give some signal before they bite but it may be very subtle and you need to watch for it and learn it. as it can prevent you from getting bit which is the best way to train them to not bite.
Please let me know if any of this helps or not.

[Angie]

Mornings I give her some fruit and oats. I often tried to give her some vegetables in the morning as well, but she seems to prefer her pellets, seeds and fruit around that time of day.

I find the body language stuff quite difficult still. I can't really see her pupils that well cause her eyes are so dark. >__< But I will try my best to pay as closely attention as possible! I don't remember her doing anything with her feathers, though. At least not her tail or wing feathers.

[Angie]

She just bit me and I saw no change in her feathers or pupils. They were large and the feathers just.. normal..

[Wolf]

I don't mean to be rude, but if someone was messing with me at 4:29 am, I would bite the crap out of them too.
What time do you get Monty up in the morning? And what time does she go to bed? What were you doing with her when she bit you?
Sorry about always asking questions, but I can't see for myself. One thing that may be influencing this is that you are feeding high protein foods in the morning, Protein, at least too much of it, can cause them to be irritable and lead to biting. Also there is the possibility of hormonal biting as it is still within their normal breeding season in the northern hemisphere. And I am leaning towards jealousy being at least a partial factor for her biting your mother.

[Angie]

She goes to sleep around 21:00 and I take her out 12 hours later, unless she's screaming to get out. I live in the Netherlands so we don't live in the same timezone.

And honestly, I wasn't doing anything. She wanted to step up and then went for my fingers.

And what sort of foods are high in protein? Cause I have no idea what I could be feeding which causes her to get too much of it.

[Wolf]

I realize that we are in differing time zones and I also realize that you are much further north than I am. But your math appears to be off just a little as there is only 7 1/2 hr. from 2100 to 0430, not 12. If this happens regularly it may be a contributing factor as Monty could sometimes just be tired and cranky, I know that I get that way sometimes, too.
Seeds and pellets are both high in proteins, and seed may also be high in fats which is why they don't make for a good diet. I would feed these in the evening and remove them after she goes to sleep. I know that it can be a pains where the sun don't shine as my birds prefer these foods to their fruit and veggies, too.
If Monty was still in her cage when she bit you this morning, and taking into account the other times that you said that she bit when in or on the cage she may be getting a little territorial about her house.
It appears that there are several variables, which are each known to contribute to biting, coming into play here and it is possible that all of them are part of the problem, especially when they are all added together, even if none of them alone are occurring enough to cause it alone.
Keep on calmly telling her to be gentle and no biting, watch to see if her biting your mom might be a jealousy thing, and vary how you are interacting with her when Monty can see. Maybe try a little more distance between the two of you and/ or less physical contact and see if it has any effect on the biting.
I do not have this species of parrot and therefor cannot give you any real help on Monty's body language, but there are others here that have this or a closely related species that might be able to help with this part of this. If you look through the Species section looking in the profile portion you may find some people with this species and drop them a PM asking about their birds body language. Just a thought.

[Pajarita]

I can't be hormones, she is not mature yet. Her diet could be better because free-feeding seeds and pellets is never healthy for them but she is so young that there is no harm done yet although this is something that you might want to consider changing for the future.

Now, if she is not breaking the skin, she is not biting, she's nipping and there is a big difference between the two and it's not a matter of one hurting much more than the other, it's that, for a parrot, a nip is not aggression in any way. It could be 'beaking', it could be a warning that there is danger nearby (a dog, a car, a stranger, etc approaching both of you),it could be a warning that you are pestering her (asking her to step up when she doesn't want to), it could be a request for attention, etc. Nipping is a form of communication for birds and the difference with us is that we are 'defective' birds who have no protective plumage covering our bodies so their nips hurt us while, if they had done it to another parrot, it would have felt like a hard nudge, a push or an elbow to our ribs - something hard enough to make us react but that it causes no real pain.

The trick here is to figure out exactly what is making her do this so often throughout the day and to make her realize she is been too hard. I realize that you are already doing that by telling her to be gentle but if she perceives that the 'work' is only on her side (she has to be gentle) while you are not doing your part (because you don't do what you are supposed to do according to her) then she will do it harder and more often. So the key here is to observe her very closely and to figure out what is it that she is trying to tell you and to act on it.

For example, she nips your fingers when you take her out of her cage so don't. Open the door to her cage and let her come out on her own. Put a perch on the outside or top of the cage or a stand nearby and see if she goes there or if she asks you to pick her up. Do you let her out before she eats her breakfast? Because it could be that she's hungry and you are making her wait for it. You are also taking her out around 9 am while your sunrise is a little after 5 am (I checked the sunrise and sunset in Amsterdam for today) so it's entirely possible that she has been waiting for 4 hours and, by the time you do take her out, she's already frustrated about the whole thing. Is it possible that she wants soft, warm food in the am instead? She is still quite young and children (and young animals) do need 'comfort' foods. Does she bite your mother 'out of the blue' when she has been way too long on her shoulder just perching there and doing nothing? Because babies need more than just having them there (adults are usually good with that though), they need to play and explore so she might be trying to tell her that she is bored and wants one-on-one attention. Does she bite 'out of the blue' when another person/animal walks into the room? Because she could be telling you that there might be danger approaching. They really don't usually do things 'out of the blue' or 'for no reason whatsoever'. They always have a reason and it's always a good one, too. The trick is to find out what the reason is and eliminate it or avoid it.

Parrots are difficult animals to keep happy and healthy. They are undomesticated and have their own 'wild' ways which are all very alien to us - and this is not only because they are birds and we are mammals (and that's a doozy in itself) but also because all other animals we are used to living with are also mammals so their 'reactions' are very similar to ours while birds' are not. It's very, very hard to figure them out. I've kept parrots since 1992, I spend hours watching them, making mental notes, reading about other people's birds behaviors and I still struggle each and every day to figure them out so don't feel bad about this. It happens to all of us. The point I am trying to make is that she is not doing this because she doesn't like you, she is doing it because you are not understanding where she's coming from.