Caique won’t stop waking me up and biting. Please help!

[Friendly Feathered Friend]

I have a 4 year old male white bellied caique named Niko. Ever since I’ve gotten him he’s been nippy, which I know is normal. But now he full on bites me for no reason when I tell him to step up to the point or drawing blood, even after his beak is trimmed. He’s fed a good diet of RoudyBush pellets, fruits, and vegetables, is given clean, bottled water, has some fun toys and perches, and is let out of the cage. I’m almost afraid to let him out of the cage anymore because of how hard he bites. He also does this thing when I’m filling his water, where he’ll come by the door, swing at my hand, and bite it non stop. One time he even took a good chunk of skin out of my dad’s hand! Honestly I’m ashamed that I have a bird that acts this way, even after training attempts for the past two years. Another problem he has is that whenever I’m trying to sleep in the morning (like 8-10am on weekends), he will scream uncontrollably, even though I make no noise, the lights are all off, and his cage is covered. The only sounds made around that time are my pet mice running on their wheel, but even that is so quiet that I can barely hear it, and they’re right by my bed. I am so lost, as my training methods all worked when taming my budgie, yet nothing works for him. Please help! I feel very irresponsible!

 

[wrench13]

A few things to consider. ITs mating season. And not every season is the same, especially for young parrots, they are still held in thrall by the yearly flush of hormones - that doesn't really even out until later. And he could well be getting cage territorial. So try to keep encounters well away from that cage. I advocate shunning, always, as the means to combat biting. Done uniformly by all, and almost religiously when bites occur. Caiques are among the most stubborn parrots, it will be a long road to hoe, but you'll get there.

 

[Friendly Feathered Friend]

I know it’s mating season right now which may make it worse, but he does this year round.

 

[Inger]

Remember that as predators, they have extra sensitive hearing. YOU can barely hear the mice in their wheel, but he can probably hear the outside mice running around in the field.

What time is he going to bed at night? He might also be making noise because he's just done sleeping and wants you to get him up for the day.

As for the biting. Yikes. It's the worst being scared/ashamed of our babies. Have you tried target training and then trick training? Learning keeps their brains busy and sometimes helps keep their beaksies closed. The nice thing about target training is that you are teaching them to touch/follow something that isn't your hand so eventually you can use the target to lure them around wherever you them. Lots of great training videos on YouTube, and of course our own Wrench & Salty have lots of training videos as well. Bumble can do a few tricks and I'm sure she would do more if I really put the effort in. I don't use a clicker since I don't have enough hands for that and the bird and a reward and sometimes props, so the "bridge" is me saying YES! excitedly when she gets it right.

Good luck

 

[Friendly Feathered Friend]

He is getting about 10-12 hours of sleep each night. I have tried target training, and he just tries to destroy the stick, then bites me. He doesn’t respond to a clicker like my budgie, and has no interest in learning tricks. He has zero attention span!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Don't you wish our birds would just behave themselves? They can be so uncivilized and difficult to understand. I feel for you but don't have much to add other than sympathy.