Lilly n Tina

[Boom]

this one kinda comes out of left field a bit.

daily routine here is kinda normal. wake up in the morning, wait for lilly to start chattering under her cover to let me know she is awake.

i make lillys breakfast (veg and pulses with a wee bit of fruit) her diet is nutritionally sound.

take cover off and let her out for an hour or so before me and tina put the pups n parrot in their cages and head to work.

tina works 3-4 hours then comes home.

lets the pups out then lilly and they all chill in the sitting room with lilly either on her play stand or the top of the door.

if tina goes on her laptop lilly will come down and land on the lid at which point tina coaxes her off the lid with a few seeds so she either sits on her chest or the arm of the sofa.

tina does basic step up training and other normal things during each day.

lilly spends time in the kitchen on the window perch each day and gets quite a bit of flying time.

when i get home from work she is normally waiting for me on top of the door frame to the sitting room. i walk by and she hops on my shoulder to hitch a ride.

she spends alot of her time out when i am home either on my shoulder or on her playstand which is right near my seat in the sitting room.

come 7-8 pm i collect her from wherever she is and put her in her cage. sometimes she dont wanna go but thats to be expected with any kid. put the cover on her cage and within 3-4 minutes she has found her way up to her sleep perch and is quiet till morning.

this cycle repeats itself daily.

or i should say it did, until about a week ago.

everything seemed as normal in the morning other than the fact lilly decided since tina didnt do something fast enough she deserved a good bite. wasnt enough to break skin but did leave a hefty mark. tina didnt say anything, basicaly sat still while i came and collected lilly and put her in her cage for the morning.

we figured maybe it was a one off occurance but it seems it wasnt.

now lilly has taken to coming from the top of the door, to tinas arm, immediately down to her hand to bite her.

tina has never even been forceful with her or anything to kick off aggression.

lilly has yet to try to bite me. she does the mouthing thing and has tested once or twice seeing what her limits are with pressure i will allow before telling her its enough. but never to the extent she is doing with tina.

i really need to find a way to get her to stop this behaviour.

i dont expect the bird to be nice to everyone but considering tina does training and gives her treats i was hoping to avoid the biting the hand that feeds ya bit.

her biting is really not acceptable as it will end up doing one of two things.

either it will get lilly grounded because we are too afraid let her out because she flies right to tina to bite her. since thats not the proper life for a parrot i would have to consider rehoming her and i would really really rather not do that if i can help it but keeping my wife safe is a touch above keeping a pet bird no matter how much ya care about them.

anyone have any suggestions or ideas to try???

[Jingles]

she's 4 months old? how long have you had her?

[Dave007]

That's just part of what she can show you as far as capabilies go. If your bird lands on the arm or hand, simply twist your hand/ arm around as if you were turning a door knob. Not to fast, just enough for her to feel less secure while on the hand/arm. Do this as long as she does it and eventually, she'll stop the biting. Making the bird unsteady as far as gripping makes the bird immediately stop biting. She'll soon learn. If she flies to the shoulder and does this type of thing to the neck/clothing/face/jewelry, then it's time not to let the bird on the shoulder anymore. That's a habit they won't stop.

Edited November 30, 2010 by Dave007

[judygram]

I think it is a phase she is going thru right now and it may pass, she is fairly new to flying if she is only 4 months old but she has decided to shake things up a bit with the biting. Why don't you have Tina put her arm up when Lilly flies toward her to direct her away from her. She has probably decided that you are her favorite person and Tina is second best and it matters none that she may be the one feeding and taking care of her every need.

You can also tell Lilly "no bite" when she goes to bite Tina and put her back in her cage and with some time she will know that biting is not acceptable behavior and be sure to praise the good behavior for they love praise and treats.

[Boom]

yesterday was better. tina threw her long sleved bath robe on and let lilly out while i was at work. gave her a bit of oj where lilly tried to nip her once so tina told her no and put her on her perch. when she stepped on her perch she got a seed and told good girl.

rest of the day non eventful till i got home and the lil bugger decided to take advantage of the treat when on the perch thing with me.

she hopped over and got on my shoulder so i walked her to her perch and had her step onto it. told her good girl and treated her. turned to walk away and miraculously i had a parrot on my shoulder again.

after the 3rd or 4th time of her little game i was getting a lil bit bored so i moved her to a diff perch which seemed to work out ok.