Leaderboard

Hi there, and thanks in advance for reading my post. This is my second post about Vim, who is doing great. She enjoys my company, and has learned all sorts of tricks. I can say, "Hello," and she says, "Hi Kara" (my wife's name). I can say, "The Andy Griffith show!", and she whistles the theme song. I say, "What's wrong with you?", and she responds, "I have no lips!" Every day I train her for about a 30 minutes. One of the tricks we work on is step-up. We've been doing this trick for months, but the other day she bit the crud out of me after she stepped up nicely. I think she was kind of demanding a treat. A few days later, I was scratching her head at night, which she loves, and she bit me again! I think I touched a sore quill feather. And one more time a few days later, she got spooked on my shoulder or something and bit me on the nose. It doesn't seem like she's been angry with me on any of these occasions, more like an instinctual, in-the-moment bite. This is my third parrot, and while I'm not expert in bird behavior, I do have some bird-brain understanding. Vim's never been forced to step up: I always ask her and respect her when she doesn't want to be held. She's never been disciplined or had any sort of demonstration of aggressive behavior. I generally just ignore behavior I don't like, and promote behavior I do with kind words, scratches, or a treat. That's worked well so far because she's very well behaved, sweet, quiet (compared to our resident conure), potty trained... But now this biting out of the blue! No eye pinning, no ruffled feathers, no hissing, just wham! My response so far has been to remain calm and say, "Ow, I bite!" with a sad tone. When I tell her that, she looks like she understands (maybe that sounds strange). When she bit my nose, I calmly put her back in her cage and walked away. Does that seem like the right strategy? She really is a great bird, but I'm used to conures. I can grab them by the body, flip them over, ruffle their feathers, and it's all play to them. Vim's very body shy, proud, and she spooks easily, and I'm constantly working on trust accordingly. Thanks again, and I'll leave you with this picture.

Hey Talon, thanks for the response. I'll keep on with just ignoring her when she bites, although sometimes that's hard to do since her bite packs a punch compared to our conure. I think maybe she's a bit hormonal this summer. Vim's very gentle and likes to hang out with me, and she loves scratches, so this is a bit unusual for her temperament. My gut is that she gets scared and is still just learning how to communicate. Sometimes when I hit touch a sore quill, she says, "I'm sorry" and winces. I've been trying to reinforce that communication. I tell her, "I'm sorry" in response, then "good girl" (our training "click"), and then I back off. She's very smart and seems to understand tone remarkably well. Perhaps the honeymoon period is over. I used to work in a pet store in high school and some of the rescue parrots there were testers. Others were tricksters, especially the cockatoos: they would fluff up and squint like they wanted to be pet, then they would bite and cackle! Vim's more of a snuggle bug, but she is still young and starting to mature. Her personality could be changing, and maybe she's pushing boundaries. I'll keep trying to better understand her language. My fear, of course, is that I've unknowingly been somehow reinforcing the biting. Over the years I've learned that it's easy to accidentally reinforce undesired behavior.

Oh my! I have sooo been down this road. I don't remember how long you have had her. but it could be a few things..perhaps the honeymoon period is over & she is testing you.....mine all did that. YOU did the right thing when she bit your nose in putting her back in her cage and walking aways without saying anything. They WANT a response, a reaction. best not to give it to them or it will reinforce the behavior. When my parrots are on my shoulder, I do my best to keep my face away from them..you never know what will spook them , when they get spooked, their reaction is to react by flying or biting..they dont know whatever happened isn't your fault, they just know to react. I would try and ignore the biting, so she finds nothing exciting happens when she does it. It will take time..as she will continue to try & get a reaction out of you, then it just becomes a game to her Also try and read her body language..most bites happen because we miss something, not always tho. I have a grey who usually is a doll when I tell her to step up for bedtime..but everyone in a while, I see it in her eyes & she will just quickly give my hand a hard bite instead..I just walk away & allow her time to settle down while I go about my business.. then when I finally do go get her, I talk to her sweetly first ..you can tell her reaction and then I know if I can try again or not. If you find that she is biting your finger when you tell her to step uo, put your hand in a fist, they can't bite hard & there is nothing much to grab onto. A grey will always be more on the nervous side, they don't usally like their feathers ruffled or to be flipped around..they spook very easily. I always say they are like horses, cause they spook over anything, so do greys. When you are doing head scratches, every bird is different, & some can only tolerate a tiny amount before they bite, I have 1 grey who just loves light head rubs forever, another who I can rub 2 or 3 times, then I get a squeak & a bite! You just have to know that a little is better & learn her body language. It took my rescued grey 3 to 4 years to settle in ( I was her 4th home) and truly feel comfortable to start to trust fully, but still I have to always watch body language on all 3 of my parrots that I have had for 17 years! Keep us posted..Sorry my reply is so scattered, I am at work! LOL