by Tazlima » Mon Mar 04, 2019 10:38 am
Hello there! This is my first post here, and there are folks with far more experience than me, so take this with a grain of salt, but my quaker came to me three months ago in a similar situation, rehomed because he was biting (and he doesn't go for gentle warning nips - when he bites, he clamps down hard and hangs on).
A couple things I've worked out over the past three months. 1) Like a toddler, he's more prone to be grumpy if he's hungry (this is the most common one), overly tired and up past his bedtime, or wound up and overexcited. Now that I've gotten better at reading his body language, when I see the behavior beginning, I'll put him in his cage for just a couple minutes - long enough for him to grab a snack, and when I let him back out, he's generally much better. Even if he's hangry, he doesn't want to miss any of the non-stop action that is watching me do chores. I have to remind him to eat, and then he'll be like "oh yeah, I guess I AM pretty hungry."
2) Re: doing chores - I've found that the time I'm most likely to get bitten is if I try to sit down and relax. Gus gets bored easily and has zero interest in foot toys (I'm working on this), so he entertains himself by bothering me, sometimes by chewing on my clothes (which would be fine, only he always ends up biting too deeply and pinching my skin in a fold of cloth), or trying to preen me, which would also be fine, except his idea of preening involves plucking hair (from arms, legs, head, my boyfriend's beard, or the dogs) and/or attempting to surgically remove my freckles. Sometimes he simply bites me with no other reason than to bite, but this is the least common and there's generally a reason, although it can take me a while to figure out what it is - I've learned the hard way that Gus HATES wristwatches and bracelets. If I wear anything on my wrist, I'll bleed for it.
However, if I'm actually doing something, he's perfectly content to sit nearby, observe my actions, and chatter with me. My house is much cleaner thanks to Gus, because when he's out, I know that as long as I'm in motion, I'm much less likely to be bitten. So I turn on some music and he'll sit on the faucet and watch me do dishes, periodically flying away when spooked by a large plate or something, only to return a moment later. Then he'll fly from door to door and watch me fold laundry. Then I'll get out the broom or the vacuum and he'll fly to his playstand or cage and scold me for fooling with such dangerous and terrifying contraptions.
After I get tired of cleaning, we have a nice little training session, which he seems to enjoy immensely (he actually initiates about half our training sessions by coming over and saying "Good boy," which I've figured out means "hey, let's do some training!"). I enjoy the training sessions, because it's the only time he's never once bitten me. They're wholly positive and pleasant for both of us. Finally, if I feel like he hasn't flown around enough, we play a bit of chase/hide-and-seek around the house (this emerged naturally as recall training got more complex) to burn off any remaining excess energy. By the time I finally sit down, he's happy, tuckered out, and content to sit calmly for a bit, preening or dozing off.
It's not always easy, and it's really only in the past few days that I've really started to trust him (and he's strictly forbidden from sitting on my head or shoulders), but little by little, the biting is slowly going away.
I've found two bits of knowledge from my experience with dogs have carried over particularly well.
1) a tired dog is a good dog
2) A dog (or child, or bird, or whatever) has to have the opportunity to be bad to learn to be good. If you want your dog to have good leash manners, or your child to comport themselves well in a restaurant, you HAVE to take the dog out on a leash or take the kid to restaurants. And they'll probably be little turds the first few times and you may have to cut the evening short if the behavior is too bad and you're too stressed to handle it well... but if you keep trying, eventually they'll learn.
The hardest moments for me have been re-approaching Gus after I've recieved a nasty bite. It's hard to stay cool when you're bleeding. If he's been put in the cage, it's a bit scary to let him back out, aware you might get bitten again. But you HAVE to keep trying. He can't learn to be good if he doesn't have the opportunity to be bad.
He's bonded to me now, so if your bird isn't bonded to you, I don't know if this will work, but the method I've found most effective for handling bites (and I've tried a variety of different things) is to yelp so he knows he hurt me, which will generally cause him to fly away - if he doesn't fly off, I'll set him down. Then I go into another room and shut the door behind me. I give him a minute or two, no longer, to be upset that I've left him all alone. During that pause, I focus on my own behavior. I do some breathing exercises to make sure I'm calm and relaxed, not giving off any signals of tension or fear, and then I go back out, with all forgiven and continue as if nothing happened. He's generally contrite and gentler afterward.
I'm sure there will be others along with good advice later, and there are questions of light and diet that are also of vital importance and which I'm sure they'll cover in depth, but as someone who was in your position just a few months ago, I figured it can't hurt to share what's been working for me.