NEED HELP!! agressive bird!

[scoman123]

Yeah he really does enjoy the noises back and fourth and yesturday i got to give him a. Short head scratch through that bars so all is looking up! Thanks for all your help!

 

[Anansi]

Fair enough on the biting good points, so when he does bite what should i do about my reaction to the actual bite itself not the cause of the bite?

The frustration im unintentionally conveying is more to do with the posts and wording to be honest, im no where near as frustrated with my parrot as i was - ii think the main thing is the clamping on for no instantly visible reason pushed me over the edge a bit.

His behaviour has relaxed alot today and yesturday, i think he very much enjoyed that i was the one trying to mimic him and not the other way round...

Handling the bite: The whole myth of not reacting to bird bites came, I believe, from the very real fact that an overly dramatic reaction can encourage them to bite. In some ways, parrots have some traits in common with scientific researchers. They are observant enough to notice that biting you with a certain amount of pressure leads to the production of that funny sound and entertaining dance. Then they form a hypothesis. "I bet biting my person will trigger that hilarious response every time!" And then, like any researcher worth their salt, they'll test their hypothesis to see if they can repeat the same results.

And suddenly, there you have it! You've taught your bird to bite.

So how do you handle a bite? Tell your bird "No" in a firm yet even voice, and remove his beak from your finger/hand/arm/nose/ear etc.... For leverage, if he's clamping down, grip the beak a bit above the point and slowly turn it away from your skin. Penalty for an infraction this severe is always a timeout. 5-10 minutes on average. Long enough for him to miss being out with you, but short enough to drive home the association between excess bite pressure and a timeout. It's the invariable consistency of this that will build teach him the appropriate bite pressure. Parrots learn very well via association... so long as you don't switch things up and confuse him.

If he uses bite pressure that passes the point of comfort, but doesn't quite qualify as pain, you can say no in warning. Subsequent violations, however, should lead to a timeout penalty.

All this said, however, remember the importance of rewarding positive behavior and observing his body language so as to avoid getting bitten in the first place.

As for your frustration, I understand what you are saying. But keep in mind that no one here knows your situation as you do, and that when communicating via the written word, and without the benefit of contextual tone and body language, there is bound to be some level of miscommunication. But everyone is just trying to help. Some will see what you're saying straight off. Some won't. Just the nature of the beast. But it's all love up in here. (And in the rare instances when it's not, the mod team will attend to it swiftly as we are able.)

I'm so happy to hear that his behavior has relaxed somewhat, today! Yeah, sometimes it's just a matter of finding out what clicks for him. The whole mimicking bit that you are talking about is exactly what forged the deeper bond between my cockatiel and me. He absolutely loved when I would attempt to mimic the tunes he whistled for me. He even made it into a game where he would start with something simple, and then with each successfully repeated tune he would make it a bit more complicated. Eventually, of course, I would lose (Any of you reading who have owned a cockatiel fond of whistling knows exactly why that outcome was inevitable! Lol!) and he would just look at me and then go simple again. Hahaha! I miss that little guy!

Anyhow, keep the updates coming! I know things are going to continue getting better for you two.