Help me on what to do with this behavior

[RayRay]

Heres a little backround on our CAG. His name is Buddy, and we bought him as a rehome. He has been with us for about 7 months now. He's normally very well behaved and will hardly ever be stubborn and never bites when stepping up on my hand, my kids hands, or my wifes hand. I normalll leave his cage open so he can climb down and explore the floor of our house, and he's gotten really used to hanging around with my wife when I'm at work. He'll get down on our floor and walk around with my wife down the hall and in the hallway bathroom. My wife says he has started climbing on her feet and bobs up and down and reguritates on them. I know this is either a mating ritual or he just really likes her.

 

Anyways, he's develeped this nasty habit now when I go to the hallway bathroom. He will climb down from his cage and come and try to aggressively bite my feet. By aggressively, I mean draw blood on my toes, or my ankles. This isn't an anger bite or scared bite. He doesn't growl or anything. He just chases down my feet and toes , puffs up, tips his head sideways and slips in for a nasty toe biter session. I tried being stern with him telling him NO...but he just does not listen. I've tried different methods to get him to stop. I've put on shoes and tried to resist and push back against his bites, this didn't help. I've tried watering him to get him to stop. He gets distracted by that, but then eventually keeps on coming to my toes and and tries to bite the heck out of them. I've even tried picking him back up, Telling him NO many times, then put him in is cage and shut the door for timeout. No luck. This bird is darn stubborn on this issue and I'm not sure what to do about it.

 

He is very loving with me all other times. So I dont' get it. Is this a territorial thing? If my wife is around he'll bite her toes very gently, kinda in a loving manner. He goes for mine with a vengance. How do I correct this behavior?

 

Its not like I can use a positive re-enforment technique on this. If I feed him seeds or prasie him and pick him up when he tries to bite my toes He'll eqaute that with gettting rewared for it....there has to be some positive way to get him to stop.....It just eludes me at the moment. I don't want to have to shut the cage on him cause he really is a good bird all other times. And, he really enjoys our home now and has some real freedom.

Edited November 29, 2012 by RayRay

[Dave007]

Heres a little backround on our CAG. His name is Buddy, and we bought him as a rehome. He has been with us for about 7 months now. He's normally very well behaved and will hardly ever be stubborn and never bites when stepping up on my hand, my kids hands, or my wifes hand. I normalll leave his cage open so he can climb down and explore the floor of our house, and he's gotten really used to hanging around with my wife when I'm at work. He'll get down on our floor and walk around with my wife down the hall and in the hallway bathroom. My wife says he has started climbing on her feet and bobs up and down and reguritates on them. I know this is either a mating ritual or he just really likes her.

 

Anyways, he's develeped this nasty habit now when I go to the hallway bathroom. He will climb down from his cage and come and try to aggressively bite my feet. By aggressively, I mean draw blood on my toes, or my ankles. This isn't an anger bite or scared bite. He doesn't growl or anything. He just chases down my feet and toes , puffs up, tips his head sideways and slips in for a nasty toe biter session. I tried being stern with him telling him NO...but he just does not listen. I've tried different methods to get him to stop. I've put on shoes and tried to resist and push back against his bites, this didn't help. I've tried watering him to get him to stop. He gets distracted by that, but then eventually keeps on coming to my toes and and tries to bite the heck out of them. I've even tried picking him back up, Telling him NO many times, then put him in is cage and shut the door for timeout. No luck. This bird is darn stubborn on this issue and I'm not sure what to do about it.

 

He is very loving with me all other times. So I dont' get it. Is this a territorial thing? If my wife is around he'll bite her toes very gently, kinda in a loving manner. He goes for mine with a vengance. How do I correct this behavior?

 

Its not like I can use a positive re-enforment technique on this. If I feed him seeds or prasie him and pick him up when he tries to bite my toes He'll eqaute that with gettting rewared for it....there has to be some positive way to get him to stop.....It just eludes me at the moment. I don't want to have to shut the cage on him cause he really is a good bird all other times. And, he really enjoys our home now and has some real freedom.

 

You're dealing w ith a situation and practice that's no good in the first place. As a bird gets more and more used to things, behavior can change towards many different things. These behavior changes don't have to occur when a bird first comes home. These types of habits occur after the bird completely fits into the family. No one complains when those changes are for the better but they do complain when things aren't so good. Letting a bird follow people around so that nibbling and biting on feet happen is very unnatural. People's feet have germs and residue from walking around other places on the floor. You may say that you and the wife have the cleanest feet in the world but that can't be true as far as what's on them. Giving treats, seeds doesn't do any good here because feet are an area that you can't watch all the time when the bird is around. The same applies to shoes. What your bird is doing is the same thing that a no shoulder bird is doing. A bird who's allowed on a shoulder where it starts nipping and biting on facial areas or neck areas or jewelry or clothes collars is immediately classified as a no shoulder bird. The bird means no harm. It simply enjoys biting upper facial areas. It applies pain, draws blood and damage. A person can't stop that behavior because the bird isn't doing anything wrong. The end result is no more shoulders. In your case it's no more feet. Your bird may not have any ill effects from biting on bare feet or shoes but you can't know what tommorow brings. It may take a while to stop the bird from biting, nipping, injuring feet and shoes but it needs to be done.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Dave007

[RayRay]

Which one is unnatural? Letting the bird follow you around? Letiing the bird walk on the ground(our floor)? Biting toes?

 

Don't african greys natuarally walk on the ground in the wild? I've read books and seen tons of videos of this.

Don't african greys natuarally follow flock members? I've read and seen videos on this.

Don't african greys bite toes? Definitally haven't read anything about this. So I suppose this is the unnatural behavior

 

I do get what you are saying with NO MORE FEET, and No I don't want him to bite my toes or shoes. But I also don't want to lock him in his cage.

You know what....I'll just lock him in his cage whenever I'm down the hallway or in the hallway bathroom, then unlock it afterwards. Its not black or white here...I don't have to keep his cage always locked.

[JeffNOK]

Hi--Welcome to the forum. I think it's great that your bird has a lot of freedom. I have an open cage policy at my home as well. I like your idea of putting Buddy in his cage when you go down the hallway or in the hallway bathroom.--Maybe you could just close the door also. Find a way to prevent the opportunity for biting and the habit will likely go away. I know that humans harbor lots of bacteria. I don't know if feet are dirtier than hands or other parts of the body. In any case biting hurts and it isn't good for either of you. I'm glad you have a bird that seems to fit well into the family. You mentioned that it is natural for greys to "explore the floor" so to speak. You are correct that in the wild they are ground feeders, so I guess it is natural. My CAG, on the other hand, never voluntarily goes to the floor. If she is on the floor it means she had a crash landing--which thankfully is very rare now (she is 16 months old now). Is Buddy flighted? Good luck and keep us posted on how things progress. Pictures and videos are also very appreciated.

Edited November 30, 2012 by JeffNOK

[CLB]

Hello and welcome! My CAG likes to get on the floor also, but it is not the best/safest place for her and she likes to chew up my cabinets so, whenever she hops down there, I simply have her step up and I relocate her to a more appropriate place. As I reread your post, I did notice that there seemed to be a piece of this behavior that was specifically focused on you. I am certainly no expert, but fro personal experience, I do understand how a behavior can be focused on one individual. It sounds to me like maybe Buddy has chosen your wife as his favorite and unfortunately, you might be second best. Shadow would never dream of biting my husband...he is her favorite. On the other hand, she does not hesitate to waltz over to my toes for a quick bite! As a result, I am extra vigilant about keeping her off the floor. I hope this helps...Grey behavior keeps us all on our toes!! Best of luck in your journey with Buddy. Keep us posted on how things work out.

[Luvparrots]

My parrots do not like the floor. They are all flighted and if for some reason they are on the floor they immediate fly upward. As for the toe biting. How about painting your toe nails. Some greys do not like certain colors. Perhaps bright red toenails? Frankly, if one of my greys were biting my toes, they would not get the chance to bite them. I would be wearing socks or slippers or just shaking him/her off when coming near my feet. Unfortunately there is no easy cure. Good luck with your foot fetish grey.

[RayRay]

When I first got him his wings were clipped, but I decided to not keep up with that. After about 4 months of having him he can now finally fly around. He is not a very confident flier, and usally only takes off when startled. I've been trying to get him to fly to my arm when he takes off, and have successfully got him to land on if quite a few times now. I really want to get him completely comfortable with flying around in my home....but I think this may be a long ways off. He also has a lot of touching issues. He does not like to be touched anywhere near his back or wings, and there is no way I can even try to get a harness on him. He's just way to jumpy for that and the few times I've tried he was about to have a meltdown so I decided to try again later if he ever lets me touch his wings. I suppose all greys are different as he will let me stroke his beak and head and belly area....but its a NO NO on his wings. I'll try to post a video of him one day and I'll show you what I mean.

[danmcq]

My grey has always tried to get shoes and feet. He has always been flighted, but does like going to the floor at times to just forage around, explore and at some point runs over and tries to nibble on shoes or feet. The shoes or feet are always a no-no so it is at that point he is made to step up and placed on our lap. a counter or a perch. he may of course fly straight back to floor and start chasing feet again as they do become obsessed at times with what they are trying to accomplish at that moment in time. This where when you must get a foot toy or something else that will get their attention and they lose focus on the feet.

 

Since this behavior seems to have become a daily ritual almost, I like the others comments on just caging him during the time you are down the hallway. Then just letting him out once you are done. Another thing you could do, is put some type of goofy slippers on like those with bunny rabbit or other odd designs that would probably scare him and keep him away from your feet. I know this probably will make you laugh, but things like this work for keeping greys away from things that are off limits. You would only wear them of course when in the area that this behavior occurs.

 

My Grey loves to try and chew on our house alarms sensors in various rooms up high on the walls. They each have a stuffed toy above them that scares dayo enough that he no longer goes there for example.