My sennie wants to peel off my nails

[thekarens]

Sammie is 4 months old and for the most part is a sweetheart. I can do just about anything with her, but she has one habit I'd like to nip in the bud.

Invariably she tries to use her beak like a can opener and tries to peel my nails off my fingers. I've tried distracting her with toys, food etc., but she's not easily distracted and quickly goes right on back to her intended goal.

I need some suggestions on the best way to change this behavior before she gets too serious/obsessed with it.

 

[weco]

One of my suns tried to do that when one of my birdsitter's grandaughters painted her nails black.....then they all got upset when she came in a few days later with gaudily died hair.....

When she went to open their cages for out of cage time, they would meet her with open beaks and biting stances.....she had to get her grandmother to do the feeding & watering after dinner.....don't know if that's your problem or not.....

She could not be around them until she washed the dye out of her hair & changed her nail polish.....

 

[Birdman666]

A lot of birds equate nails to "feather sheaths." Your bird is mistakenly trying to help you open your pin feathers...

It's actually an "I love you" thing.

A very, very annoying "I love you" thing... but...

 

[ShellyBorg]

Try putting some Apple bitter on your nails to make them taste bad.

 

[thekarens]

Lol Birdman. I'll put it in the same category as the regurgitating as an act of love. Also not lovely, but not as painful

FWIW, I don't use nail polish our dye my hair.

 

[Birdman666]

Lol Birdman. I'll put it in the same category as the regurgitating as an act of love. Also not lovely, but not as painful

FWIW, I don't use nail polish our dye my hair.

I get puked on by several macaws, several times a day... and that is exactly it!

Try convincing a baby macaw that your nail belongs there, when he sticks that crowbar for a beak under your nail and just pops it off...

Yeah, that one hurts!

 

[thekarens]

Lol Birdman. I'll put it in the same category as the regurgitating as an act of love. Also not lovely, but not as painful

FWIW, I don't use nail polish our dye my hair.

I get puked on by several macaws, several times a day... and that is exactly it!

Try convincing a baby macaw that your nail belongs there, when he sticks that crowbar for a beak under your nail and just pops it off...

Yeah, that one hurts!

I'm cringing just reading that....ouch!

 

[Birdman666]

I had worse.

I had a very friendly macaw who was not bite pressure trained grab my finger with his beak to keep me from walking away from him. Accidentally took it down to the bone because he didn't know his own strength. (See! This is why we bite pressure train them! Now call me a doctor...) I don't know which of us was more horrified by that, me or the bird!

I had a severe macaw who was evil through and through take my thumb down to the bone. That was intentional. I took my eyes off him, and he seized the target of opportunity... How did the severe macaw get it's name? "Doctor, How bad was the wound from that bird bite? It was SEVERE!"

I also had a love everyone Hyacinth that was a buddy of mine, in to get grooming. Unfortunately I didn't know that, and he grabbed my hand with his beak to step up and come play with me. Turns out he was there to get that razor sharp point rounded off... It went clean through the meat of my hand and out the other side, just stepping up. Not the bird's fault either...

Sweepea was the one who kept trying to "open the pin feathers" on my fingers when she was a baby. Tore one off (effortlessly) and broke several others in half...

So, yeah, compared to that, getting puked on is downright tolerable!

(Bird people are soooo weird!)

 

[thekarens]

Wow, you have just reaffirmed to me that even though macaws are my favorite I do not have the energy for one, not that I don't think Sammie could very well become a pitbull if I'm not diligent, but at least at her size and strength I'm not likely to get bit to the bone!

However, if someone were to give me a Hy (my dream bird) I'd find the time and energy.

 

[Birdman666]

Wow, you have just reaffirmed to me that even though macaws are my favorite I do not have the energy for one, not that I don't think Sammie could very well become a pitbull if I'm not diligent, but at least at her size and strength I'm not likely to get bit to the bone!

However, if someone were to give me a Hy (my dream bird) I'd find the time and energy.

I was working with abused, poorly trained, and in many, many instances untrained adult birds at the time... The bird that almost took my finger off had been kept in a storage unit for 32 years, and was so sensory and socially deprived even after being removed from that situation, that he couldn't stand being left...

Macaws are actually my favorites...

And if you bite pressure train them, that stuff smply doesn't happen...