Nail biting

[ROBERT RICE]

My 8-month old grey is really pulling and biting

at her nails alot. The vet said it is just her

being a grey and a little high strung. I am

afraid this could turn into feather plucking

before long. Anybody else have this problem??

Edited August 17, 2011 by ROBERT RICE

[prettyBird]

I am no expert, but from what I've read here, it's a normal, grey kind of thing.

But nonetheless, welcome to the fourms .

Also, you might get more replies if you post this in the Health forums.

Looking forward to talking with you!

[Morana]

I wrote the whole post and then my internet connection broke and I lost the post!:-(( So here we go again..

 

Hello and welcome!

I wanted to say before is that my Zak had similar, if not the same issues few years back. I recently also noticed this behavior coming back again but I nipped it in a bud this time. It started because we moved recently. It is unbelievable how this type of behavior can quickly come back.

So, few years back, Zak was biting and pulling his nails when he was extremely anxious/nervous. For example: when I was going away; when I couldn't let him out of the cage; when he was scared of something. Now he is doing it very rarely and because/when he is afraid of something. I solved this by occupying him with toys when going out, or by giving him his favorite thing to eat at that particular moment. Also I didn't encourage this behavior with attention. If he starts to byte nails, I walked a way for a little while. If he is scared of (for example) something I carry, I immediately back off and than approach differently. If I have an item that he is scared of then I first present that item holding it rather far away from Zak. If he is ok with it or when he settles down (a bit) I reward him with fruit or clicker and praise him. Then I come a bit closer and wait for him to be calm; reward and slowly work my way toward him. If I notice in any way that he is not calming down I back off and start again. You could also reward him by just praising him and taking this item further away once you notice he settled down. When you come back again come a step closer than before. When he settles down, praise and leave. Repeat the process till he feels fine with the object being near him. This worked great and now I introduce more new items every day so he is much better at accepting so sometimes I can skip this introducing. But it took time to come to this point. A week ago I took Zak out on a balcony for the first time in his life and just carrying him there made him freak out. In this situation he had to endure it (because id doesn't take long to come on the balcony) and then I took a chair, sat down and started talking to him and explaining what was the stuff around him till he came down. Then I praised him and offered grapes but he was too nervous so he threw them away. This was a sign that I shouldn't keep him out long on his first day. Next day he was much calmer and soon he settled down on his perch and accepted grapes I offered. A week later we are having fun on the balcony, we talk, play and eat. We stayed for an hour today. So my point is, you need to determine at what point your bird starts to bite nails. What triggers it and go from there. If it is frustration, try preoccupying her with toys, treats, something... You need to determine that first , tell us what you found out and we'll go from there. Hope this helps.. Probably there are much better explanations, at least, better formulations of this process I suggested, but i don't know how to write it better so it will have to do;-)

Edited August 17, 2011 by Morana

[ROBERT RICE]

thanks for the comments: I do think it is an anxious/nervous thing. If I keep

her occupied she doesn't bite her nails much, but it is hard to entertain her

24/7. I just don't want the nervous habit to turn into a plucking problem. I am

just going to keep loving on her and hope for the best.

thanks

[Morana]

I don't think hoping is gonna solve much.. When did this start? What has changed around then? Has she been checked by an avian vet? When she is not preoccupied when does she start the nail thing? -it couldn't be all the remaining time so think a bit..