Izzy vs ...me :( Advice please?

[TinaM]

Today marks the 3 week mark of owning my 18 week old CAG. He seems settled in, hates to be alone, always calls for me, whistles when I leave the room. He likes to be picked up and walked around a lot. He gets a lot of toy time and play gym time, and he's around me about 12 hours a day (He sleeps about 10 hours and has a couple of 'alone time' hours in the morning or evening as well).

 

Izzy was hand-fed and hand tamed. His breeder could cuddle with him and scratch him. She'd kiss his beak...

 

The problem I have is, he won't let anyone touch him. At all. He bites with multiple strikes and always grinds his beak to draw blood. I'm used to birds, so I simply don't reach to it. He bites, I give him the 'stern look' and tell him 'no bite'. His biting is random, not simply when I try to touch him, he'll be fine then lower his head and 'chomp!'.

 

I know biting is a 'learned behaviour', but I have no idea where he'd learn this. He didn't bite his breeder, and I've never reacted to his bites WHEN he does it. I don't yell at him, or shake my arm or anything physically scary. I just calmly tell him 'no bite' and the glare. Then we move to more positive things where he can get a treat.

 

I'm not giving up on him, and I don't need him to be a cuddly bird, but I do want to be able to touch him enough to where if something happens, I can handle his body without driving him into a stressed frenzy.

 

I'm kinda at my wits end with him. I don't know why he feels the need to bite and no, he's not giving the usual 'I'm going to bite you' signs - no eye pinning, no sneaky side-looks. He'll go from the "I'm a cute little bird baby" look to CHOMP!

 

Any advice on further techniques that might work with him would be very appreciated, because after 3 weeks, simply saying 'no bite' isn't working.

 

Thanks in advance.

[MisterDavE]

My grey bites when they don't know someone to well or are not acustomed to them, the best way of over coming this is to get maybe a guy who has tough skin and let the bird bite him once bitten say no bite then after that get the bird to step up onto the person this is what we do with our grey. we are just getting her to be used to others around her and not just me and my partner.

i hope you get this sorted another thing we found is if you give the visitor sunflower seed and show the bird this and make the bird steo up on them to get the seed this is good aswel.

good luck.

[Guest Skuffy]

Only thing i would do when teaching Max is to stop what your doing at the time he bites you and put him back in his cage..Use your command no bite, walk away..go make a coffee/tea then go back to him 5-10mins, and try again..He will soon get the hang of No bite or i get locked up..May take time to sink in..but he will get the drift...Good luck........My names Mark and he's ---> Max {Nature-00020095}

[lovemyGreys]

Well you already know not to react to the biting,He needs to learn that biting is not an acceptable behaviour.Never punish him for it.Return him to his playstand or cage for 10 minutes, a firm No & walk away,You may well have to repeat this again & again until he realizes that negative behaviour earns him no rewards.I am at lose to why he doesn't want to be handled at such a young age if he is a hand-reared baby, was he handled by different people when he was being reared or purely just the breeder ? perhaps he wasn't socialized well enough at the beginning.He is still very young, you need to build his confidence up

and show him that being handled by others is ok.

[TinaM]

To Dave: It's not others, it's me he's doing this to.

 

 

To LovemyGreys: The breeder would have him step up, and then he'd lean into her, she'd snuggle him like a baby and he'd make those cute little baby chirps at her. He was handled this way by her, her husband and her two adult children. They had the babies in their house so the babies got used to a household type of environment, all hands-on.

 

I've tried laying on the bed with him and letting him explore - he doesn't. He just sits there and clicks his beak the whole time, not even playing with his toys (and he loves toys!).

 

I don't try to initiate any of our 'hands on time' near his stuff, but a neutral place... though he's been everywhere in the house and has had a chance to explore whatever he wants. It's just not 'his' place or cage, or whatnot.

 

He will readily step up, and asks to step up a lot. He loves to be talked to and acts very distressed when I'm leaving the room to use the bathroom or head to the kitchen. So, it's not like he's hissing at me or ignoring me, he is the one that initiates interaction a lot of the time. He's a challenge!

 

I will try the time out method. He really dislikes cage time, and is out of the cage most of his time, except sleepy time. Maybe his dislike will work in my favour!

 

Thanks for the advice!

[lovemyGreys]

Well Step up is good, the best command we can have our grey's learn, continue every day with that one

 

Is he clicking his beak ? or grinding ? like a human grinding their teeth ? Grinding is a sign of contentment.

 

"acts very distressed when I'm leaving the room to use the bathroom or head to the kitchen " get him use to you leaving him, or he will start calling for you, this can lead to screaming behaviour so you re-enter the room & he has got you right where he wants you ;)ignore him for a few moments when you leave the room, if he is noisy ignore him, when he is quiet praise him.

 

Do try the time out, keep us informed on how things progress.

[TinaM]

Oh he's always grinding his beak and lifting his foot. If he's not touched, he's the perfect picture of happy bird! lol

 

When I leave the room, he'll whistle for me and say "Up! Up!" lol. I do my own thing. I'll keep out of the room for 15 mins or an hour, depending on what I'm doing and he gets used to it. But he always does the whistle and up up in the beginning.

 

Right now he's making clucky noises at me because I'm typing and not paying attention to him. lol

[lovemyGreys]

" Right now he's making clucky noises at me " sure you have a grey & not a chicken :laugh:

 

Im sure by laying down some ground rules & patience you can sort the biting issue out, other than that he sounds fine to me