HELLO FROM FL/TN (can'tdecide)

[jrigadoon]

I have joined the forum for help, and to associate with those who understand why we talk about our birds as if they were our favored children.
Bob bites. I made the mistake of allowing the woman who sold him to me, to clip his wings. I had lost a cockatiel years ago who was not clipped. (And I had not done enough reading on the subject.)
I've had him 8months. He is just finishing a molt and should be flying. I am hoping to eventually get my lovey boy back. What do you suggest?

[marie83]

Welcome to the forums.

I'll try to nip back in a bit and try to answer your questions, just expecting a guest arriving at any minute but didn't want to read and run. Hopefully someone else will respond to you in a while.

[cml]

Welcome to the forums!

I feel your pain, and I know what it feels like to have an amazon beak clunching down on your skin .
We also had a bitey phase with our amazon, not due to clipping, but due to me inadvertently reinforcing the biting (despite having read tons of articles here and thinking I knew what I was doing ^^). This peaked with Stitch biting quite often, and almost always drawing blood, which isnt funny at all. My hands were covered in band aids for a couple of months while we worked through this. It took a lot of blood and time, but it is possible to overcome!

The key is in prevention along with positive reinforcement on good behaviour. There's alot of articles on Michael's blog about it, as well as numerous forum topics on the subject. We are all here to help you .

I am glad that you are choosing to let your guy regain flight, that will definetely help as a bird who can fly away, is less likely to attack. Your guy has probably learnt the bite-response atm though, so dont despair if it doesnt go away quick, because it will need to be unlearned. This is possible.

There will be a lot of people giving you advice who knows alot about these problems, so I will stop here for now, but feel free to ask away!

Again welcome to the forums!

Oh and by the way, I totally get what you mean by us talking about them as favored children, Stitch and Leroy both mean the world to me. People around us dont really get how much we care for our birds.

I get what parents feel when always prioratising their kids, rather than themselvs, I do the same with the birds. Ive been putting off buying a new shaver for a year (would cost me around 120£) but didnt hesitate a moment to order a new travel cage for Stitch at 160£....