Son's conure keeps biting me

[crocodile]

Hi Everyone,
I don't actually own a bird. My son owns a yellow sided green cheeked conure. The problem is that he keeps biting me to the point of drawing blood. Sometimes he'll run across the table just to get at me. I have no idea why. I feed him every morning.

He never bites when I'm the only one in the room. It's most noticeable when he is sitting on my son. He puffs his feathers up and stands tall then wanders over to take a bite. It has got to the point where I've had to tell my son that any more of this behaviour the bird will have to go. I don't want to do this because he is after all a pet and my son gets great pleasure from him. However, I don't like having to be on the lookout every time that he is out of the cage.

I refer to he but I don't actually know the sex. Hasn't laid any eggs yet. I sure can do with some advice on this.

Thanks,
Croc

 

[noodles123]

1. If he has any shadowy places like tents, huts, boxes, drawers etc in or around his cage, remove his access. These are hormonal triggers and he likely views your son as his mate an is "protecting" him from you (the threat).

2. Make sure your son is only petting him on the head and neck. No cuddles or stroking or touching under the wings/on the sides etc--- this is also sexual and leads to behavioral issues when it is ongoing.

3. Make sure the bird's cage is never covered during the day (not even partially) and that he has at least 10 hours of dark/quiet sleep each night on a set schedule. This will also help regulate hormones and immune function.

4. Keep sugary foods like fruit to a minimum and avoid warm mushy foods during hormonal periods.

5. Piles of paper/bedding etc should also be banned from his access/in his cage.

6. After you remove the triggers, you have to start working on changing the behavior. Never physically punish a bird and never shout or yell at a bird (it will often serve as a reward to them, no matter your intention). You do not want to teach the bird to manipulate by biting. At the same time, you want to give the bird as little biting practice as possible, because the more it bites, the more likely it is to discover that it can change the behaviors of others by doing do. Let me post a link to another post I wrote to a different member on a similar topic. ---> see my 8th and 9th posts in the following thread on ABA:
http://www.parrotforums.com/quakers/85621-casey-acting-increasingly-hostile-towards-fiance.html

Here is the original thread with the OP's message that I copied and pasted to response 8 in the thread above (should you wish to see more detail in-context): http://www.parrotforums.com/conures...-has-become-aggressive-my-7-year-old-som.html

Here is another: http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/85529-how-get-cockatoo-used-husband.html

Read EllenD's post on the shunning method: http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/78055-my-galah-too-attached-me-2.html



This is going to have to be a family project and everyone will have to agree to follow the same protocol when behaviors occur- similarly, every person petting your bird must avoid triggering sexual behavior by sticking to the head and neck only.

 

[chris-md]

Hi Crocodile,

Great advise above. I only want to add clarity as to WHY this is happening: Parrots socialization is rooted in their mating behavior. Many birds pair bond, or mate for life. They accept one mate, and shun everyone else.

This extends to humans as well. Many parrots will bond with a single person, and have varying degrees of reactions to "others" who aren't the chosen one. This ranges from tolerance to outright aggression. Theres a term, google it, called One Person Bird. its VERY common in parrot ownership.

That's whats happening here: your bird is bonded to your son, and seems aggressive to most others. I had aa conure who hated EVERYONE except for me. Though inexplicably she had an exception, a friend of mine who she absolutely adored.

Socialization can help overcome this - there are plenty of conures who tolerate handling by almost anyone - to some degree or other, but you have to put in a LOT of time and effort, and you may honestly only get so far. will largely depend on the bird.

You have a few options: try working on it yourself, hire a parrot trainer to help you get through this if you aren't successful on your own, or simply sit back and accept that this is not actually terribly unusual and you are probably best sitting back and leaving the bird handling to your son.

 

[SandieV]

We have the same issue with my daughters bird Rin. He will make and effort to bit my husband, who doesn't really like birds and is a bit scared of him. When my daughter has the bird and my husband is around, he will actually nip my daughter pretty hard. SO we have our solution. We keep the bird and my husband apart from each other and have put up a screen in my daughters door so when Rin is out, he can't come out of her room. Rin is fine with me. If he nips I tell him no and put him back in his cage.

 

[Scott]

Welcome croc, deep respect for attempting an accommodation with your son's conure.

Wonderful advice above, consider yet another resource: Bite Pressure Training: http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html If the goal of eliminating biting proves unsuccessful, pressure training may minimize the impact to a more gentle pinch.

 

[LaManuka]

I had a green cheeked conure called Baci until i lost him at the age of only 5 through illness, and he was the love of my life (sorry hubby, ya know it’s true!) Baci hated my husband exactly for the reasons stated above, I was Baci’s chosen human and hubby was a threat to his relationship with me, so he’d take any opportunity to bite him. Occasionally he’d even bite me if I got too close to hubby, it was a warning to me to move away from the one who Baci perceived as a threat. No other bird I’ve ever had before or since has done this although it’s fairly common, it just seems to be a bit more pronounced in green cheeks judging by the anecdotal evidence, or maybe it’s just because they’re such a commonly kept species.

Please do try to find a way to make this work for your household. Apart from how much your son must love him and how devastated he’d be to lose him, birds that are rehomed often don’t fare well. Plus the bird is emotionally bonded to your son so he’d be traumatised by the separation. I don’t know how old your son is, but one day he’ll move out into a home of his own and take his bird with him, in the meantime I would urge you to do everything you can to find a way to live with him. Perhaps have your son take over feeding and watering so the bird has less opportunity to bite you. Please do everything you can to find a way to live with this bird, many rehomed birds end up getting shuffled between many homes and often mistreated and I’m sure you don’t want that for him, as bitey a little terror as he may be

 

[crocodile]

Thanks everybody for your answers. I admit that my knowledge of bird behaviour is pretty well zero. I'm not too sure about the bonding angle though. I'm the only one in the house that gets this reaction. Both my sons and my wife don't get bitten. Only me. I've taken to observe things a bit closer just so that I can work out what's going on.

When he is in my eldest son's room he tends to back away, even if I put my arm within a beak's reach. It seems as though he is scared. In the lounge room and kitchen he doesn't do this.

With my younger son, he actually looks for an arm or body part to bite. Sometimes charging at me.

With my wife, he seems placid and just sits quietly as if I'm not there.

I'm not even certain about being scared either. He's willing enough to fly around and land on my shoulder and just sit there quietly and play with my whiskers. He certainly has no fear if I'm cutting up food. He's happy enough for me to put my hand in his cage and remove old food and put in new food. I have stopped feeding him in the mornings to see what happens. Like a human, I thought he might associate me with something nice and resist taking chunks out of me.

Just one note to Noodles. You say never physically punish a bird. I get that but I have to admit that I'm sometimes forced to bat him away as it is really quite painful and sometimes bleeds. I don't know if this has any effect or not.

Maybe this bird has bipolar.

Thanks,
Croc

 

[noodles123]

Don't bat the bird away. You need to look at that stuff on ABA to find out the reason behind the bites. That is what should guide your reaction.How is he getting to you? Who else is in the room, or is it just you?

 

[Flboy]

Hi, I am so glad you are looking for ways to improve the relationship! Throwing him away can’t be an option! Your relationship sounds a lot like the wife’s Bongo and the trespasser, me!
Give this a study, it helped us a lot!
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html

 

[crocodile]

Don't bat the bird away. You need to look at that stuff on ABA to find out the reason behind the bites. That is what should guide your reaction.How is he getting to you? Who else is in the room, or is it just you?

Thanks for taking the time to explain things to me. Unfortunately, I sometimes have no option. It's very painful and he doesn't let go. I'm working on the reason for the bites. The behaviour is confounding as he happily flies to my shoulder, arm and leg without biting but only out of the bedroom. I'll just watch and observe for a few days so I can see if there is a repeatable pattern.

 

[crocodile]

Don't bat the bird away. You need to look at that stuff on ABA to find out the reason behind the bites. That is what should guide your reaction.How is he getting to you? Who else is in the room, or is it just you?

OK, I found that ABA post after some searching. There's a lot in it. I'll have to observe for a few days and try to match the behaviour with what's in the ABA and see if I can make some sense of it.

 

[noodles123]

ABC charting can work "miracles"--- Seriously, see those ABA links- You might be surprised at what you are able to uncover when you detach and look it it from that perspective.

 

[LaManuka]

Thanks for doing so much to try and make this thing work! I know both your son and his bird will appreciate it, even if the little rascal won't show it (the bird that is, not your son!)

Many of us spend years trying to work out the rules of engagement with your feathered charges, only to have them change the rules on us when we get close. There may have been a time when you unknowingly offended your bird (what is his name btw?) and he has not forgotten it. My Baci was also SERIOUSLY drawing blood from me when he reached sexual maturity and, because I was unfamiliar with the species, I didn't realise what it was that had changed his behaviour so radically. We were able to rescue our relationship but he always continued to hate my husband - I think his very existence offended him

Some people advocate carrying a chopstick in their hand or pocket when dealing with a particularly bitey bird, to enable him to latch on to that rather than their skin. I haven't tried this particular method myself yet, but knowing how smart conures are it might only last about 5 minutes before they wise up to the trick!

Keep us posted as to your updates and we'd love some pics too if you got 'em!

 

[noodles123]

There was a period of time when Noodles would try to bite me when I changed out her cups on her playstand---it was only when she was irritated with me for other reasons (and generally, also at my parents' house).
Anyway, I found that she only did it when she was perched on the play-stand at the same time as I switched them (dry for wet food), so I just started holding her on my arm until the cups were switched (sounds simple, but sometimes, it's about avoiding the situations in which biting may occur). Similarly, if I forgot to switch them and she was already on there, I would distract her by either showing her a toy while I changed the bowl with my other hand, or by giving her a treat before I attempted to change it so that he mouth was busy (can't eat and bite at same time). I provided those examples to show how you might AVOID being bitten (in conjunction with building trust, charting behavior etc). Keep in mind, in the examples above, Noodles and I already had a very strong trust bond. I cannot understand (to this day) what the biting was about--seemed almost like she got more showy/territorial because my dad was in the house (but I despite my love for ABA, I struggled to decide whether this behavior was rooted in attention or avoidance)...Either way, my distraction tactics wouldn't have necessarily worked for all birds in that situation (it would depend on their motivation and how committed they were to biting in that moment)...but they worked here because the behavior itself was easily interrupted and not all that ingrained in Noodles.

Stuff like what I did above is part of manipulating setting events and the environment to minimize the behavior before it occurs. The ABC charting deals with what happens before and after the behavior occurs in order to determine the motivation behind the behavioral itself..

 

[crocodile]

Thanks for doing so much to try and make this thing work! I know both your son and his bird will appreciate it, even if the little rascal won't show it (the bird that is, not your son!)

Many of us spend years trying to work out the rules of engagement with your feathered charges, only to have them change the rules on us when we get close. There may have been a time when you unknowingly offended your bird (what is his name btw?) and he has not forgotten it. My Baci was also SERIOUSLY drawing blood from me when he reached sexual maturity and, because I was unfamiliar with the species, I didn't realise what it was that had changed his behaviour so radically. We were able to rescue our relationship but he always continued to hate my husband - I think his very existence offended him

Some people advocate carrying a chopstick in their hand or pocket when dealing with a particularly bitey bird, to enable him to latch on to that rather than their skin. I haven't tried this particular method myself yet, but knowing how smart conures are it might only last about 5 minutes before they wise up to the trick!

Keep us posted as to your updates and we'd love some pics too if you got 'em!

Still watching, observing and noting things. There is definitely different behaviour with different people and surroundings. I'll keep this up for a few days and see if I can work it out. His or her name is Charlie. Named as so because we don't know the sex. Could be Charles or Charlotte so Charlie will do. Tried a photo but wouldn't allow an upload from my phone.

 

[LaManuka]

This link may help you with posting pics..

http://www.parrotforums.com/technical-support/6287-how-post-pictures.html

 

[crocodile]

Not much to report just yet. He's been quite well behaved. As I type this he's sitting on my shoulder nibbling at my whiskers. Go figure.