Nibbles and Nips!

[CheshireGrymm]

Hello everyone! I have a Yellow-sided GCc and he is the sweetest, funniest little guy, but he's in that stage of life where he will trick you into thinking he's giving you kisses, and then he'll start to nibble and bite. Not hard enough to bleed, but hard enough for me to pull away and say "OUCH!" Now, he IS fairly new to the family, as we just got him a couple of days ago, so I know he probably is just testing the waters, but does anyone have any advice on trying to have the nips cease? I would like to put a stop to it before it gets worse. Thanks in advance! :42:

 

[Kisota]

First off, holy cow, what a pretty little guy. I think the yellow-sideds are my favorite color mutation.

Careful with the pulling back and saying "ouch!" Sometimes birds can find that exciting. It becomes like a game to get a reaction.

If you can manage despite the discomfort, just outright ignoring is frequently recommended. If he's biting, don't yank away. Just ignore. Don't look at him. Don't interact until he stops. When he does stop, you can go back to what you were doing. Some people say giving the bird an unhappy look can sometimes be helpful.

Any more extreme "punishment" than that, though, is pretty risky. Birds sometimes don't respond well to that.

They do do well with positive reinforcement, though. And you can use things like that as a distraction. It helps if the bird knows a few tricks or at least knows how to follow a target stick. Then you can use tricks or other "nice" behaviors and ask the bird to do that instead of biting. Then he gets a reward and no one gets bitten! This is what I would do. They ARE just nibbly in general from what I hear, but they definitely should be trained away from painful bites. Teaching them some behaviors that they can't do at the same time as biting is a good way to make the interaction positive. They do that instead, they get treats, and the whole thing is really positive instead of being about what NOT to do.

Good luck!! I'm sure others will pop in with more/better advice.

 

[CheshireGrymm]

I try to distract him with sunflower seeds or millet bits, kind of like a "here, bite this instead". I try not to pull away unless its in a risky spot on my face like the bridge of my nose or my lip. Thank you so much for the advice, I will definitely try to ignore it.

 

[JosephN79]

Weve had our 2 green cheeks for a few months now... i think theyre about 5 or 6 months old... so still babies i guess. They have different degrees of nibbles and bites. Even though its uncomfortable, i take some ear nibbles as love bites. Lol. They arent really being aggressive so i just turn my head away... they usually take the hint. Sometimes they bite when they dont want to be picked up... like to put them back in their cage. In this case im more insistant until they climb on. I dont want to pull away then, theyd just associate that with a way to get what they want.

I just take it as they love me and dont want to be seperated...unless theyre really tired, then theyll climb on and sit patiently until i walk to cage. Then they climb down and hop in. Lol.

 

[CheshireGrymm]

He does nibble my ear, and I know I have to do some bite pressure training, but I don't know where to start with that. :/

 

[JosephN79]

I haven't done any *training* per say. But I do feel like theyre gradually more appropriate with their pressure . . . unless theyre frustrated. My hands are rough from my work so I can take pressure . . . they've learned where it hurts though! (the webbing between my fingers) Lol

 

[CheshireGrymm]

So he pretty much will learn as he gets older?

 

[CheshireGrymm]

After much debate, I finally named my little guy! We decided on Sweeney!

 

[Blancaej]

I think you've already been given lots of great advice here on the biting. But I just wanted to say congrats on your new little guy and I love the name "Sweeney"!

 

[CheshireGrymm]

Thank you so much!