If you can't bite the one you want...

[MandyG]

I'm sure we've all heard the saying "If you can't bite the one you want, bite the one you're with.". I've experienced it myself and know that Amazons can be particularily bad for this. I've heard a few different opinions of why some parrots do this and was just wondering what other people's thoughts were. Do they do this because of displaced aggression? Do they do it to warn you to stay away from the person (or object) that they view as dangerous? What do you think? Have you ever experienced this?

I haven't been able to keep up with all of the posts lately, so if this subject was brought up before please point me in the direction of that thread.

[pchela]

Pippin, my Senegal, only does this if there is another bird on me and he's pissed about it. He almost always goes for the other bird but once in a while he bites me. My theory is that he gets so angry that he momentarily loses control and just bites at whatever is in front of him.

[Michael]

There can be displaced aggression where the bird bites you because it is mad about you putting it in the situation where someone else does it harm. This is a bit more rational and purposeful. "I don't like this so I'll bite you to get you to change things" sort of bite.

However, there is also the panic attack bite where the bird is sooooo scared it just bites straight in front of it in self defense. It's kind of like putting your arms up in front of yourself in self defense with something coming at you. The parrot sticks its beak out and blindly starts biting to prevent anything from coming in contact with it when it is panicked. This is the kind where it really doesn't matter who or what touches it, will get bit.

The best prevention for these things is to avoid overly stressful situations, teach the parrot to deal with stress in the long term, and not to be too close when something like this is happening.