Recent Issues With Biting

[JoshuaTarantino]

Juniper is a 3 year old, female budgie. She is very tame and has never has issues with biting. Lately she has been biting my lip and holding in place of giving her normal "kissing" pecks. I believe it is out of affection. My initial thought was that it was due to hormone changes, since it is mating season through this early spring.

However, today she started to bite my fingers seemingly our of aggression or frustration. This has NEVER been a problem. I've been twisting my fingers each time she does it so that she loses balance as a negative reinforcement. It has only been happening last night and today, so perhaps over the next few days she will learn...

But does anyone have any tips or insight on this? It truly has never been an issue before, so I'm a bit confused

It doesn't happen all the time. Right now she's sitting on my shoulder happily chirping away! She'll even play on my fingers, but occasionally gives a nip.

 

[RavensGryf]

Why don't you try putting her down or in her cage for a moment when she gets into those moods. Tell her no. Positively reinforce when she's being good.

My budgie isn't as handleable, but his bites and swiping my head as he flies by I just ignore lol. I put boundaries in place for my parrots and don't tolerate bad behavior from them, but my 30 gram budgie is so tiny his behavior is of no consequence to me LOL.

 

[JoshuaTarantino]

Haha, yeah the bite is easy to take from Juniper too. I definitely incorporate positive reinforcement with any training... It's just so odd because it is something that she has never, in my three years of having her, done before.

I think I'm more curious about whether or not it is a result of hormonal changes, or what other things could cause the spontaneous change. One thing to point out is that I bought a new, larger cage about four days ago. Maybe it has something to do with that?

 

[RavensGryf]

I don't know about budgie hormones, but a larger cage is great. As I'm sure you know, budgies have TONS of energy and are always on the move

 

[JoshuaTarantino]

Oh do I know it. Haha, thanks for the input anyway! I have a feeling I'll really be able to get into this site

 

[SilverSage]

She gives a lot of good advice, my only thing of note is; are you sure she is female? If it is the bird in your picture, your budgie is a male

 

[JoshuaTarantino]

That picture is Juniper, but a very young Juniper! I'll add some more recent pictures. Her cere is a deep brown with that flaky texture now

 

[Puck]

EDIT: I just read your other thread where you said the cere recently turned brown. If it just turned, that's a sign of being in the breeding mood, so it probably is hormonal. Or that would be my guess.

If it's a baby Juniper out of breeding mood then the lighting/brightness and contrast setting could be making it look a much darker blue than it really is. It's been so long since I've kept budgies that I don't remember how much blue is usually on a baby female's cere.

As for the nipping, when I had budgies I would usually set them on a playstand to calm down when they got nippy. It seems like budgies get really excited and energized sometimes when playing and it gets a little rough. Or that was my experience with my flock. Of course it was a rather large flock housed in an outdoor aviary, so not exactly the same conditions! I think twisting your finger is a good reaction, or give her a serious stink eye and let her know you do not approve. I wouldn't allow her to "kiss" you anymore after she nips the lip. I would put her immediately aside and make it clear no more kisses would be happening if the nipping was going on. Then praise her if she gives polite kisses. (Which, in my house includes not trying to slip me the tongue, LOL!) If she enjoys getting kissies then this should encourage her not to nip.

 

[JoshuaTarantino]

Thanks for the great input! I should clarify that I meant the picture of Juniper next to my username is from when she was about 6 months or so, before her cere changed color.

But yeah, I think it could quite possibly be hormonal. Her cere has been brown for a bit, but especially so now with the texture too. It could also be a lack of sleep, since it nearly came out of no where. I'll have to see how she is tomorrow which will give me a better comparison!

 

[amusic20]

Even if it's not hormonal, you should make sure she knows not to bite & that it's good to be calm -- when she's not biting, you can give her some treats (not all the time, obviously) so she knows to associate that kind of relaxed behavior with something good.

 

[JoshuaTarantino]

Absolutely! I have been Today she's been better, I think she was just cranky yesterday! It was just such an odd thing for her, again it has never been a problem and I have always reinforced good behavior! Thank you!