My rainbow lorikeet bites me - help!

[ennovy]

My lorikeet is probably born in November 2018 and so far he was a normal bird. In the beginning he bit me a bit to test but not serious and it stopped almost immediately after I taught him not to do it. He also tried to hump my hand in the beginning but then he stopped as well almost entirely (it had to do with shiny bowl I had my hand close to) . I introduces an other rainbow lory to him in June and all went well. I have them in separate cages and they get to play outside together every day. The other bird was born in the end of April. They sometimes try to fight for dominance , the little bird always loses but usually they are fine together and no serious fights. Until two weeks ago they got outside of cage time for 5 hours and I played with them the whole 5 hours. Now since two weeks my husband took care of them and did not let them out at all when I come home I let them out for about 1.5 to 2 hours. Before they sleppt from 9 til 9 . now they sleep from 8.30 until 7. in the morning. since about 10 days leo is kind of crazy for my feet. He tries to get to them and hump them. In the beginning I was able to take him away from them with my hands and distract him. But yesterday he bit me when I tried and then even later flew at my hands to bite (bloody) I put the other bird(Mia) in her cage because he also tried to bite her (with murder in his eyes) Today the same happened. he flyes at my hands and wants to bite me.

 

[ennovy]

Just wanted to add : the little bird also got much more aggressive , but is not biting. I have to do wake them up at seven because I need to go out at 8 and I come home at 18.30 so I can not put them asleep at 19 because then they would not get any outside time. Starting in 8 days I can give them 5 hours again and 12 hours sleep time.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Laurasea]

Sometimes something can spook them about hands, it's pretty easy to make them fear hands.
I went through this with my GCC awhile back after I had her for years. Try and find the cause, I'm in the camp that bites are the people fault and their can be complex reasons....
For me , I had used my hands to shoo her away from another bird, I had changed her cage, and changed her routine. She also would come running to bite my hands a d make them bleed.
I earned back her trust by hand feeding treats, going slow, never shooing her with hands again , and I out her cage back the way it was. Took about a week to get past the bites..
Pay attention to the birds body language, and try investigate when and where bites are happing, and bribe with treats !

 

[LaManuka]

This sounds like a situation I had some years back with my cockatiel Fang and a much older female cockatiel called Twinkle, only with added lorikeet hyperactivity! Twinkle was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and not surprisingly Fang fell madly in love with her and got extremely aggressive towards her and towards me when I tried to intervene. We would have to keep Twink caged while Fang was in a rage for her own safety! Eventually we took Twinkie to the vet where she had a hormonal implant which reduced her making those “come hither” displays at Fang and peace was largely restored. Sadly we lost beautiful Twinkle to a massive seizure just over a year later so we didn’t get a chance to see if it worked long-term.

I don’t know if this would work for a lorikeet since as we both know they are a different mindset altogether to most other parrots but it might be worth bringing up with your vet!

 

[ennovy]

Hello and thank you La Manuka and Laurasea,

today I took Leo out alone and let him take a bath that made him completely docile and cute again. After a while Mia joined and there was no more aggression. He went for my feet again but I had put sock shoes and he seems no more interested in my feet He also did not try to bite me anymore and I did not chase him away from things. I had the feeling he got annoyed with my hands for always preventing him to go to my feet. I go next week to the vet for check up and talk to him. I am so sorry about Twinkle. I hope next week when I have more time again I try to entertain him more and have fun time together. I think also it was just a handling mistake and I am working on regaining his trust. But no worries... even if he decides to be a jerk for the rest of his live , I still keep him and love him. The thing that made me think it is because of me is, because the little bird is also really hyperactive and always wants to play fight.(much, much more than before.)