Neck Biting and More!

[Kirsten]

It gets darker at night on the first floor usually. Around 8 or 9pm she usually is pretty tired. It's about that time that she'll wiggle into someone's jacket or under some covers until we put her up. As for her time in her cage, it varies. Most of the time she spends a good 8-9 hours in her cage on work days. However, if someone has a day off, they usually take her out and play with her. Some days she doesn't spend much time at all in her cage. So overstimulation is a definite possibility and I'll try to let her have more downtime.

Some of it is definitely bratty behavior because she bites hard and gets food out of it. I need to get another cage or something to put her in while I'm eating. I admit, I share food with her way too much. When we got her we didn't anticipate for the house to suddenly go completely chaotic. Let's just say that my aunt starts a lot of things and can be a source of anxiety for the house. Luckily, she's supposed to be moving out on the 24th. Secretly I've been wanting to use her room as a training room for the bird. Also, my dad hasn't done that before, that was the only time. I'm pretty sure Skittles trusts him for the most part. She gets pretty affectionate with just about anyone.

[patdbunny]

8 or 9 p.m. is pretty late. It's not about the number of hours he's in the cage during the daytime. I really think you need to let him go to bed shortly after the sun goes down. If your house is super chaotic and it's still really busy after nightfall, you might consider putting a sleeping cage in a closet so the bird can have real peace and quiet and good quality sleep. Just remember to take him out of the sleeping cage first thing in the morning. I don't usually recommend putting a bird in the closet, but your house sounds like that may be the only place for any peace and quiet.

You can't reward him for biting if it's bratty biting. Try a slight hand wobble (not so hard that the bird falls, just hard enough for the bird to take notice) and maybe a hiss, followed by a stern "no". If you've been giving him food for biting you. . . well, that's your mistake and you need to stop. I don't think you actually eating and sharing food with the bird is the problem. I share food all the time with our birds, including at the table and they eat off my plate, but I don't have biting problems. '

Yes, if your aunt causes an overall anxious feeling in the house then the bird can pick up on it and behave nervously which can manifest as biting. The calmer the vibes, the easier going the bird will be.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I agree with patdbunny's suggestions completely. just want to emphasize the "dont trim the beak" part -- not only is it not necessary, but a beak is not dead tissue like a fingernail, extreme care must be taken not hit sensitive tissue, trimming can be painful and can make it so using the beak is painful. I have heard of people doing that on purpose so it hurts too much for them to bite, but that is not what you want and not in the bird's best interests.

If it only happens downstairs when she's getting tired, I'd suggest putting her away upstairs before it gets to that point. Try to learn to read the warning signals. Avoidance is better than correction IMO. It's not "failing to fix the problem", it's understanding that the "problem" is an attempt to communicate something, and the real solution is to hear that communication earlier, or to teach a more productive way to communicate. And, as already pointed out, don't do anything to reward the bite! Even negative attention can be construed as reward, so it is important to understand why the bite is occurring and try to deal with the root cause. I'm not dead against any kind of aversive, but first you have to be really confident it IS an aversive and not an accidental reward. And you have to be confident it will neither hurt nor frighten the bird. It should be undesirable, but not dangerous or trust-damaging and it should only be a last resort, with avoiding the behavior altogether being the goal.

I know this might not be accurate, but if I imagine a person was sitting at the table having dinner with their bird on their shoulder, and the person was mostly paying attention to the food, maybe to conversation or to the TV or a book, and not really focusing on the bird until the bird bites them. Then they become annoyed but don't want to interrupt the meal to focus on the bird, so they give the bird a morsel to keep it quiet until the meal is over. This would be teaching the bird if it wants attention and food it should bite. If it were me in that situation, I'd try to pay attention to the bird throughout the interaction -- if I didn't want to have to do that at all, I'd put the bird in his or her cage for the duration of the meal. If I did want to be able to share that time, I'd pay close attention to how my bird was acting. If I wanted to be able to share my food, I'd look for and nuture a signal that says "I'd like some please". It could be a gesture, it could be a vocalization (polly want a cracker?) but whatever I'd chosen, I'd make a point of rewarding it with the food EVERY TIME, whenever feasible, forever. If I got bitten, I'd end the interaction immediately either by putting the bird on a stand or in a cage or carrier depending on how far away the cage was. I wouldn't make a fuss, I'd just try to set things up so that the bird has a legitimate way to communicate what it wants, and so that if that was falling apart, I could simply remove the opportunity for the problem to get reinforced. Not so much a punishment as just not facilitating the bad behavior.

I don't really think birds are exactly "bratty" -- I can't see what they would get out of causing us unhappiness as such -- but they can certainly learn to manipulate us. However, it is fundamentally our fault for allowing them to learn that lesson -- not theirs. So it's not about being angry or imposing discipline, it's about not allowing an undesirable behavior to get rewarded. And it can take time for it to go away, unfortunately.