Today, out of the blue, Ringo bit me on the nose during scritches time.
It was a hard and painful bite, that would probably have drawn blood had it been delivered at a slightly different angle. But luckily it only left a big puffy red swollen spot and what looks like a very light scratch. But this was no nip. Ringo clearly intended it as a bite, and delivered it with maximum force. i think the trigger for the bite was Toby's chirping and flying. these days toby has developed a habit of chirping and flying around excitedly whenever he sees me doing one-on-one activities with Ringo, such as flight recalls, scritches, cuddles. he doesn't interrupt my lessons with Ringo, but I think Ringo gets overwhelmed and distracted by toby's rapid haphazard flying+chirping, Toby ONLY starts doing this when I begin Ringo's lessons. I think Toby has been jealous for a while of the amount of attention Ringo has been getting as part of his post-spookout therapy, and this is his new way of letting me know.
well, Ringo was fine for one hour of various activities, including flight recalls, step ups, directed flight (I tell him to fly to a particular location). (the whole time, Toby was flying around makinga chirping racket, but Ringo has learned how to tune him out and concentrate on my commands, which I say in a loud enough voice over Toby's chirping. when Ringo seemed tired, I decided it would be a good time for scritches. he seemed very relaxed. and then all of a sudden -CHOMP DOWN! - on my nose.
what I would like help with is the following: I was wondering if you guys could tell me if my reaction to the bite was correct: I pried Ringo's beak off my nose in a single, gentle motion, without making any sound. I placed him swiftly but gently on the floor, walked about five steps away, and "gave him the cold shoulder": I turned sideways and looked elsewhere, and stood still, completely ignoring him, with a flat, blank expression on my face, silent. I think Ringo understood something was wrong - because instead of trying to follow me as he normally would have, he flew up onto a table and just sat there. for a full three or four minutes! he never sits still in one place for that long. after that, what was even more unexpected is that he went off to find toby and started hanging out near toby on their tree. he played with a toy there, while I sat on a chair in the same room, looking the other way, to "show" my displeasure at his bite. ( I wasn't really mad at him, I just wanted him to think I was displeased) he ignored me, and I ignored him. this never happened before!! it was kind of weird and I felt a little guilty for giving him the cold shoulder. it was only about twenty minutes later, that Ringo broke the ice by landing on my lap. I did not react, and he started preening himself. I realized he was trying to make friends again. so I picked him up, gave him some nice cuddles, and twenty minutes later, put him back in his cage on a positive note, with a treat, so I could check out my nose.
so i'm wondering if the cold shoulder was the right thing to do. in the past, I would ignore bites, by placing ringo down, ignoring him for one minute, and then resuming training on a happy positive note. today, because his bite was on the face (first facial bite since his spookout) I thought it warranted a more sustained disapproval from me.
wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this matter, or if you would like to share how you react to sudden unexpected bites?
