What do you do when your bird bites you?

[Pacobel]

Hello,
In looking for information on my bird's recent decision to bite me, I came across this line of posts. The information has been really helpful, especially about finding a method that works best and stick with it. Earthquakes are fun for him - he actually laughs and flaps. "No!" seems to trigger behavior from his previous home where he was neglected and abused. Silent tears and plopping him back down on his perch seems to have the best effect - he HATES being ignored.
But the crux of my question is "why?" I have never had a bird before, had this male Amazon pretty much dumped on me, and I have come to love him to death. I've tried to educate myself as best that I can, but I know there are things that you just don't get except through experience.
He has pair bonded with me, and even my vet said that he is VERY bonded to me. Clipped and knows "no flying" as a command. We have traveled together, go shopping together, lots of car rides, frequently shouldered (a "no," I know), and extremely affectionate during the Spring - just wanted to feed me regurgitation and try to mate with my face. I handled that with tactful declinations, distraction, then redirection. He's been living with me 1.5ys and lived in my office 6mos prior to that because he was too hard to handle and pretty mean. He's had the full exam and came back "in excellent health." Primarily a pelleted diet, with fruits, nuts, veggies, and sometimes meat.
The issue now is that he will literally bait me to bite me - he will beg for me to to come get him, eagerly step up, then bite the snot out of me. He's even lunged at my face from my shoulder a few times this past month, but backs down quickly when I pull my head back and give low and firm "don't even." It "feels" like we're in a power struggle. Is that possible? I know that they have earned a reputation of hard-headedness, but would he really be trying to put me in what he thinks is my place? Thoughts, recommendations, experiences?

Thanks much.

[Michael]

Stop rewarding him for biting. Yours is a different case than ones previously described. It sounds like you encourage him to bite you by turning it into a game and positively reinforcing the biting.

[Pacobel]

Thank you for responding - could you please tell me what you see that I'm doing that's rewarding him? I thought that by not reacting, putting him down, and walking away, I was doing exactly the opposite - it's why I stopped the earthquakes and telling him "no."

[Michael]

Well I have no way of knowing for certain what the full scenario is, but clearly at some point you are positively reinforcing the parrot for biting. Or possibly negatively reinforcing.

Let me give you a sample scenario of how a parrot could be inadvertently taught to bite using negative reinforcement (whereas the owner thinks they are punishing the bird). Parrot gets food in cage all day but has been taken out of cage and about for a few hours. Parrot gets hungry/tired. It tries nipping owner for attention and owner thinks this is biting. To "punish" the parrot the owner puts it away. The parrot has a feast in the cage and is thrilled to be home. Guess what the parrot will do next time it wants a break?

However, for your specific example you'll need to clarify a bit and provide the details of the antecedents and consequences. It may not always be the most obvious thing.

[Pacobel]

Ok - thanks for the clarification. I'll do my best to be concise:
No cage. He has one of those perches that looks like a lawn table. His previous owner was a disaster of a human being who nearly killed them both when he arsoned his own house with them in it. Paco freaks out over cages. Things really have been fine once we got over the initial 6mos - I got chewed up regularly and wrote it off to where he came from (didn't know the breed can be aggressive). We made it through breeding season with no problems - he actually became very affectionate and looked at me with moon eyes. There's never been an issue with shouldering and I admit that I started it out of convenience - it kept arms/hands free. About 2mos ago, I asked if he wanted to go for a ride and he did his "yeah, yeah," with the bouncing, but when I reached out to take him off his perch, he bit me. I freely admit that that earthquake was the reactionary jerk, not deliberate, with "dammit" said pretty loudly. Since then, it's just gotten more frequent, unpredictable, and harder bites. But equally as often, he'll look at me and I know he's going to bite me, but I've trained myself not to react, and then just give me the gentlest of beakings. Then he starts the bouncing like he's proud of himself. He even knows the "no biting" command and will not even bite the vet staff if I tell him not to. My vet described him as the most "mellow, chill amazon" she'd ever met. 2-3 weeks ago, he started posturing and walking up and down the perch scraping his beak and growling/hissing. I just walk away when that starts. But now he's acting like he is just dying for me to come get him, begging for attention, scrambles right on to my hand, then bites! When I walk away, he pitches a fit. If he knows that I thought I was getting him to go for a ride, and leave without him, I can hear him all the way into my car with the doors shut.

His routine, food, and rest have not changed. He gets 11-12hrs of complete darkness and silence in his own room. I've read where health can cause problems - no issue there. He lived through me falling so hard that I cracked the head of my tibia a year ago, so I don't think it's a delayed reaction to fear of being dropped. No new people around. I'm at a loss. The behavior now is what I expected for breeding season. I do believe that he senses that I'm a little afraid of him again. But I feel like he's wanting me to do something and I don't know what it is... Is this part of the evolution of our relationship?

[Pacobel]

Oh, and if this helps - after the "come here/go away" episode today, I loaded him up on things to destroy. He went through in 30mins what he will usually go through in a day.

[a.susz]

it could be a delayed breeding thing, it may pass. I've heard a lot of people saying that their birds are feistier than usual, here in Arizona we have had strange and not so normal weather (late heat, didn't get it til late june this year, plus a lot more rain, which means constant heating, then instant cooling, stimulating spring.) so i would say weather can definitely be a factor in correlation to breeding.

[Pacobel]

Thank you a.susz. He's very possessive of me - and in thinking this through, he's been more "guarding" of me in public at the same time that the increased nippiness has become a problem. He's even started neck-nibbling me in situations where he typically thrives on all the attention. It really is more what I expected in the Spring. We have had a milder summer here in Austin, compared to the last couple of years, and the behavior has also coincided with the onset of "real" summer - harsher sun and much higher temps - leading me to believe that it could be weather-related. He's also MUCH less tolerant of people coming into the house, including flying into the face of a friend he's known as long as he's known me (we worked at the same office that he came to me through). You've validated what I've been suspecting, so thanks, again.

[Ben]

Jabba was really nippy this morning. I got him out for a bit shortly after uncovering him. I think he was just a bit too excited and was letting me know it. He was happy to let me scratch him and encouraging it by pushing into my fingers.

I dont want to encourage the nipping, wondering what i should do. I wouldnt say he is biting, he certainly isnt drawing blood. He just sits and nibbles.

[Pacobel]

My experience is limited - I have had the one bird that I have now, but I can say that I'm glad that I've trusted my instincts and what I've come to learn about his personality. I agree about how nippiness can escalate, but Paco knows when he's bitten too hard b/c I put him back down and walk away. That's working with him. I've read where they supposedly don't bite each other in the wild, but in a captive environment, it seems natural that it could evolve as a way to interact with different meanings. Definitely discourage it, but my suggestion is to put him down as soon as he does it, and keep going back and retrying. Whenever it doesn't happen, lots of whooping and hollering, and maybe even a treat. I've made headway with Paco finally, and he's opting for the Sneaky Bird trick instead of biting me - which I think in his mind was playful teasing. He knows Sneaky Bird by name, so there's lots of praise and laughing - which is reinforcing nicely. You may also want to pay attention to the time of day and see if there's a pattern.