grey biting my wife and loves me

[lidgett]

so we got him when he/she 5 months old.. was sweet and loving to EVERYONE (for sure me and my daughter) even when we took him out on walks or pet stores. despite that he is now biting and lunging at everyone and their brother. i dont try as much now but i never changed what i was doing until his major mood change. i still do try and i am the one who feeds his and gets him out of his cage daily but he still is being very very very mean.

 

when my husband is home he hugs him, kiss him, pets him just like i did but he now took to him. i thought that IF my husband backed off a little (not saying stop) with the hugs and kisses maybe he will be more willing to let me or my daughter to be the one who gives it to him. i am not saying he shouldnt pet and love just not be sooooooooooooo loving so we have a chance at it.

 

also why the sudden change? he is only 9 months and no big changes.. same diet, same house and same people

 

please help..

[Kaedyn]

That's about the same pattern I experienced with my first grey, Rigel. He was sweet with everyone until somewhere around 8 or 9 months old. That's when he started reacting to anyone and everyone that wasn't me. It's just part of growing up and bring a grey. He was especially that way with people he knew. Those were the people who had reacted to his biting and he knew he could get away with it. He was less likely to do so with strangers, since he had no idea how they'd react, but once they reacted, it was all over.

 

Now, I'm not going to tell you that he never bites anymore, but it really started to taper off when he hit around 13 months. You are likely going to have to put up with a little pain and let him know that his biting just isn't going to work. That's what I told one of my best friends who used to be able to handle him before that magic 9 month mark. Take the bite and don't react. Don't immediately put him down after the bite. That's exactly what he wants. Also, take advantage of the good moods. Rigel is most forgiving at night when he's tired. That's when my brave friends would push their luck and touch him.

 

I also made a point to hand him off to other people, so that he might catch on that this met my approval. I let them feed him treats and when I caught him biting them, I'd be the one to tell him "no". I'd also be the one to praise him when he put up with their touching, without biting. You could see that he wanted to, but he knew that I didn't approve. I socialized him with every person I could that was willing to take the risk and not react when it happened.

 

So, now he's 17 months and I'm not saying that he will snuggle with anyone other than me or that others can touch him in the "off limit" locations, such as under his wings, but they can touch him. He's perfectly content sitting on their arm when we're gathered around the TV. Of course, any time I am in the room he does have a preference for me, but sometimes I just don't allow him to come over.

 

Another thing I did was to have friends play with his box of foot toys. He'd eventually want to get in on the fun, and to do so, he had to initiate the interaction. I didn't do this that much, but the few times I did, it seemed to work.

 

He's definitely made a lot of progress over these months. I recently took a trip to visit with family and brought the fids along. There were many family members that they'd never met. We all crowded around the portable cages and passed parrots from arm to arm. Although I warned them that he was likely to bite, he never did. All of the positive socialization over many months was paying off.

[Dave007]

I'm a little confused here. You have 2 threads here that have the the exact same title. In the other thread is that your husband talking and asking the question??

[Kaedyn]

That's what's going on. Her husband posted the initial thread and she posted the followup for clarification.