bitting

[shazbaby36]

hi could anyone help my barney who is nearly 15 months bite me today as i tryed to get him out of my otherones cage freddie was not in the cage but barney got in it and i just wanted to get him out and is marked my hand so when i did get him out i just put him back in his cage and walk away is there is therte anythink else i can do before its gets out of hand

[Dave007]

Just keep each cage door closed when they're out so neither will get into the novelty of visiting a place that's different than their own cage. There's nothing you can do to stop it other than preventing it from happening again.

[shazbaby36]

but it still dont help me why he bite me as he never has before

[shazbaby36]

can anyone tell me why he started to bite me when i tryed to get him out of the other ones cage he has never done it before to me he so cuddle and loves to be messed around with so pls help

[danmcq]

At his age, he is telling you NO he does not want to come out or step up. The only way to communicate that to you is with a good bite, unfortunately.

 

As they mature, most will start letting you know their likes and dislikes by biting. You took the right action, by saying a firm No Bite and giving him a time out in his cage.

[Dave007]

Another thing you need to take into consideration is the natural personality of an african grey and your bird's age.. The grey that has been cuddly and sweet for the first year of it's life, starts to change. Greys are not known to be cuddly anymore when they reach a certain age and level of independence. They wanna be left alone more than before. They wanna be held less. At that age they find more things to amuse themselves then before and many times, that doesn't include the owner. It has nothing to do with it's feelings for the owner. Greys get much more aloof as they get older. Their body language becomes more obvious. A person eventually has to learn about that body language. Part of that body language has to do with the bird warning a person that he's about to bite. Many other parrots don't give out warning signals. An african grey has to be left alone more as it gets older because that's their natural personality showing through.

There are hundreds of posts on this board and other grey boards that have to do with the exact situation that has happened to you. It's been asked about for years.

Not all species of parrots are like this. The best example to refer to is the Cockatoo. They're the exact opposite of greys. As a TOO gets older it becomes extremely clingy. It wants to be with the owner for as long as the owner allows. They wanna be in the middle of everything all the time. They wanna be held constantly. When they're treated like this biting decreases drastically. At first, the TOO owner is thrilled. Just as you have a complaint as to what your bird is doing, TOO owners have a situation which even though it's the opposite of greys, it's also extremely annoying. People are constantly asking about how to get the TOO to be more independent. They don't want the bird to be so clingy, Many TOOs will seriously pluck themselves if left alone to amuse themselves too much.

Your bird is growing up now. Maybe, the act of saying NO will help your situation sometimes but there are many greys out there that find that being told NO is very appealing.

Your grey is now growing up and showing you it's CAG/TAG nature. Some people have even given this time in a grey's life a nickname. It's called the *terrible twos* As they get older, the problem evens out and eventually subsides but not completely but by then, you will have become more familar with body language. The whole process takes a little longer when there's 2 or more birds around that have great interest in each other.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/11/11 19:10

[shazbaby36]

thx dave it was just a suprize when he did it i was used to my other one doing that but not barney