Hi guys,
Today was a miracle and I fixed tiki's biting problem.
When I got my Alexandrine from his previous owner (my aunt) he was a biter. He used to bite her all the time. She was told that bird was a 4 month old Indian ringneck parakeet named Lou. She had a baby and didn't have a lot of time to spend with Lou; she didn't know what to do and had to give him up, then she asked me if I wanted him. I was scared at first, but there was something about him that I liked. (Actually when I used to go over at her house, I used to be the one that was the most afraid of Lou.) When I brought him home, I started looking up ring neck info, and my bird didn't look like an indianring neck at all. after about 10 mins on google, I found out that he was an Alexandrine parakeet. I decided to rename Lou to Tiki. ( there was an article on the Internet that said that renaming can calm aggression). I spent the next two days just researching Alexandrine parakeets while I sat next to him. ( he was in his cage.)
I went to the pet store and ask them for advice. And an old parrot woman told me that when she encounters an aggressive parrots and he wants to bite, she will leave her hand there ( she will not pull away) or when the bird bites she will put her hands closer to the birds face. She said that you will be bitten many times but it works every time.
I thought that was crazy talk and decided to do what most people say to do online. keep taking to the bird, let him get used to you,do stick training, and he will change when he gets comfortable with you. At first he shredded my hands. My hands used to literally drip blood, scab up and when it's almost healed, he would bite it again. Well I've been doing that for exactly 10 moths and 4 days now. I got him to step up, sit on my shoulders, sit on my lap and hands, do a hand shake and high five and go home command. But everyday since the past 10 months and 4 days, when I go to feed him he will lunge at me and bite my fingers. I cannot put my hands in his cage without it getting bitten.
Well when I woke up this morning, something came over me. When I placed his his chopped apples in his cage this morning he bit my fingers. All of a sudden the old woman voice was in my head. And i said to myself, 10 months and his cage ageession has not changed; my old method wasnt working so im gonna give her advice a shot. I left hand there. He kept biting it and and biting it and I kept moving my hands closer towards his beak. It was painful, my hands was bleeding, I didn't make a sound even thought wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, my eyes was filling with tears. About what seemed a neverending forever but was about 3 minutes he stopped and slowly bent his towards his belly, as though he was bowing. I took my hands out of the cage and closed the door. I repeated this process about 2 more times with about a minute break inbetween. My hands felt like they were on fire.
My brother and I counted my cuts; I laterally have 48 cuts on my hands. My hands reek of tea tree oil as I type. But I'm happy today because today was the first time that I can put my hands in tiki's cage without a bite. I can now put my hand in the cage, say up,and he will go on my hand and I will take him out of the cage. We repeated this all day. I'm really really really happy with what we have accomplished today. Yesterday I had a really bad day. I was almost caught in a scam. As it turned out, the blue and gold parrots that I was about adopt we're non existent. And it was a money making scam. ( I posted it in the ' General parrot information' forum. But everything happens for a reason. Today I have a whole new relationship with Tiki. So Im happy. So my advice is sometime you have to take one for the team. But just wait like two months to see if your bird settles down, but of he doesn't, try this method. It's painful but like the old woman said, it works!. Good luck.
good luck with it all. my baby is only 4 weeks, so got loads to go thru! looking foward to more pics of your baby and stories 
