My Meyers seems a bit bitsy with my wife

[Soven26]

She is under 1 year and loves me to death. I am trying to figure out ways to make her more a family bird. when shes on my wife she is as close as she can get to me. i can give her head scratches while shes on her or me. My wife can give maybe 2 befor she gets really nippy, lunging bite. Any tips or advice how to get her to get along with my wife a bit mroe? For if she dosnt get along with her how will she get along with the proper aged kids when we have them someday thank you
Kyle

 

[RavensGryf]

Kyle, that's really a tough one. Your little girl is just being a typical Poicephalus! Poi's are more inclined towards automatically being a one person bird than some other species are. Though any parrot "can" be a one person bird, I do believe from experience that it comes more naturally to Poi's to be this way.

Unfortunately, this is the way most of the Poi's I've ever heard about are. Griffin my Ruppell's parrot has shown from a young age that he is my bird, and MY bird only lol. Don can sometimes handle Griffin in another room. Robin my Red Bellied parrot was strictly a one person bird until his teens when he met my husband. There was just something there, and they clicked. I couldn't believe my eyes at first. That I believe is rare - to be a one person bird for that many years and all of a sudden meet the 'right' person lol. Luckily, his bond with me is so strong that he never changed alliances. Robin is now the rare two person Poi later in life .

TRY THIS: pick your girl up and carry her away from her cage and familiar territory. In an unfamiliar room, or at least a room that is not 'hers', sit down with her and your wife. Both talk to the bird reassuringly. Watching the bird's body language, see if you could slowly and calmly hand her off to your wife. Your wife needs to have confident but non-threatening body language as she calmly offers her hand for a step up. If she has a favorite treat, your wife may want to have that in her hand as well. Any amount of not striking out or trying to bite gets a ton of praise.
You can have your wife move closer little by little if the bird won't accept this method right away. Praise for every step of the way when there's no striking out to bite. Being able to actually hand her off to your wife might take a lot of time, and unfortunately there's no guarantee it will ever happen.

I would honestly never suggest a Poicephalus to a family with young kids. There are obviously Poi's who do live with families, and sometimes it's fine, but generally speaking, I'd rather suggest something like a Conure to a family with kids. Poi's are some especially hard biters too.

GOOD LUCK!! Please keep us posted. Fingers crossed for you guys! Since the bird is still young this is the best time for trying. It it doesn't happen right away, have short sessions daily or a couple times a day and see what happens.

EDIT:- Sorry I just re-read your post. That's great that she is able to sit on your wife now. Maybe the above mentioned technique can work to prolong the amount of time she can sit on your wife. Remember praise/treats/head rubs, or whatever she responds positively to as a reward for sitting with her nicely, then sitting longer, then longer yet.