Hello from Albuquerque!

[strasia93]

Hi,
I am Gary and my wife is Monica.
We have two Turquoise Green Cheek Cunures, Kalika and Makana. They are brothers hatched November 6th, 2011.

We bought them from a very well respected pet store here in Albuquerque when they were just three months old. We had then DNA tested by a well known Vet, this is how we know they are males. We had never owned birds, we have beeen around some that family members have. We did quite a bit of research on them before we got them.

These two little guys are AWESOME! We love them so much!
They have sooo much "bird-anality" (personality) for such little birds! They are a blast!!!

There is just one small problem, Makana bites! He will snap and draw blood. For this reason we have to use a glove for step up. We worked with them a lot from the start, but the biting never got better. So my Monica just started using a glove for step up and it works great. At the recomendation of my pet store I used "Bitter Apple" spray on my hand, but Makana still bit just as hard. Do you have any recomendations?


Thank you and I'm glad to be part of the forum.
G.S.

 

[friedsoup]

I had two male GCC's brothers from the same clutch Stan and Ollie, Stan was the smart one and Ollie (well maybe not dumer than a box of rock. but close) But Ollie would be the first to defend his brother and that might be what your Makana thinks he doing.
Gloves will keep your Gf's finger safer but it will encourage stronger bites which won't help someone not wearing gloves. That being said look up my post under training "Stick Trick Described" and try that with both so one doesn't feel he isn't getting your special attention (I use my sennie to teach a lot of other birds how to behave and do what I'm asking with a "birdy sees birdy do" so you bird who doesn't bite will teach Makana that step-up without bites means more loving and scritches.

 

[strasia93]

Thank you. we will try that.

 

[MonicaMc]

Welcome to the forum!

As far as bites, well, this is easier said than done... but try not to put Makana in a situation where he'll feel the need to bite. Birds often bite for a reason, and it is up to us to figure out what it is, and then to work around it. Rather than take the bite, it makes more sense to avoid it if you can.

RP - Biting

I would highly recommend clicker training aka positive reinforcement. There are great trainers such as Barbara Heidenreich, Karen Pryor, Melinda Johnson, Susan Friedman! They work on the basis of trying to keep every experience between us and our pets as a positive one. The more the bird enjoys a positive experience, the less likely they are to perform bad behavior.

 

[strasia93]

Very good info, thank you.

 

[wenz2712]

Welcome to the forum

 

[strasia93]

Thank you