Teaching GCC fingers are not food?

[quackerz]

Hello,

I recently got a new baby turquoise GCC. He is about 3 months old according to the breeder.

I've been having a hard time interacting with him. Not because he is afraid of me. He would fly to my shoulders as soon as I leave him. He enjoys me petting him on the cheek. He also steps up just fine except on my shoulder. The problem is (I think) he thinks my fingers and hands as potential food source.

Proof:
1. He often bobs his head up and down while having a mouthful of my finger tip in his beak. I looked up some baby conure feeding videos and I think he treats my finger as the syringe.
2. Sometimes he grabs my finger with his claw and starts nipping and biting, like how a conure eats blueberries.
3. It's definitely not defensive biting. He would make a screech sound and bite in this case, usually when I move my finger too quickly towards him.

Any advice on correcting this behaviour is much appreciated!

 

[Tami2]

"I think he treats my finger as the syringe."

That's exactly what I was thinking. Have you tried removing your finger from his mouth and offering him an appropriate piece of food? If not, I would do that while telling him, "No, that's my finger not food, this is your food."

 

[fiddlejen]

Aww this sounds so much like how my Sunny acts. (Although I know, she knows my fingers are not food, because if she's hungry she acts entirely differently.) My Sun Conure will be a year old in mid Sept.

Sunny especially likes to hold onto & chew my fingers at night, which I use as opportunity to reinforce bite pressure-training.

Chewing too hard, or too persistently attempting to unwind my pinfeathers-aka-fingernails, gets a "Be Gentle" command. If, after a second reminder, she doesn't back-off the pressure, I remove my hand, thus ending or interrupting her finger-chewing session. Nowadays she usually responds right away.

 

[Flboy]

"I think he treats my finger as the syringe."

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Oh wow, I just had a moment of brilliance! Oops, gone!
Kidding!
It is in your best interest to always have the little one liking a syringe as a food/treat source! If you ever have to administer any meds, you have a slam dunk method already in place!
I have those flush syringes all over the house, a bit of apple sauce, or baby food, and meds won’t be an issue! Potentially, a great tool for reinforcing target training!
And for you, a great diversion for controlling the nipping, and a comforting time for your baby!

Keep in mind, young parrot=toddler! Everything gets the beak test!

 

[Scott]

Clicker and bite pressure training techniques might help!

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/60435-clicker-target-training.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

 

[dhraiden]

Mochi knows my fingers aren't food; she just enjoys biting them anyway -__-

 

[KawaiiTori]

Oh wow, I just had a moment of brilliance! Oops, gone!
Kidding!
It is in your best interest to always have the little one liking a syringe as a food/treat source! If you ever have to administer any meds, you have a slam dunk method already in place!
I have those flush syringes all over the house, a bit of apple sauce, or baby food, and meds won’t be an issue! Potentially, a great tool for reinforcing target training!
And for you, a great diversion for controlling the nipping, and a comforting time for your baby!

Keep in mind, young parrot=toddler! Everything gets the beak test!

WOW!! That syringe idea is brilliant! I’ve already been target training Tori...I’ll have to give this a try!

 

[YSGC]

Lots of good advice above ...

They know fingers are not food.
But they also know biting them is a way to control us, because we've taught them it is.

Reacting to a bite teaches a bird it has power.

They also hate boredom but LOVE drama, and biting a finger sometimes is a way to get a little show and attention.

 

[Caitnah]

Lots of good advice above ...

They know fingers are not food.
But they also know biting them is a way to control us, because we've taught them it is.

Reacting to a bite teaches a bird it has power.

They also hate boredom but LOVE drama, and biting a finger sometimes is a way to get a little show and attention.

My Pineapple does this a lot when he is in his cage. He will greet me at the front bars when I approach and when I try to touch him, he will always nip my finger. He also will perch on my finger as I stick it through the bars but then bends down to give me a nip. Drives me nuts.

 

[Tami2]

"I think he treats my finger as the syringe."

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Oh wow, I just had a moment of brilliance! Oops, gone!
Kidding!
It is in your best interest to always have the little one liking a syringe as a food/treat source! If you ever have to administer any meds, you have a slam dunk method already in place!
I have those flush syringes all over the house, a bit of apple sauce, or baby food, and meds won’t be an issue! Potentially, a great tool for reinforcing target training!
And for you, a great diversion for controlling the nipping, and a comforting time for your baby!

Keep in mind, young parrot=toddler! Everything gets the beak test!

This is true.
Levi loves syringes, but as his favorite chew toy to destroy.

 

[YSGC]

Lots of good advice above ...

They know fingers are not food.
But they also know biting them is a way to control us, because we've taught them it is.

Reacting to a bite teaches a bird it has power.

They also hate boredom but LOVE drama, and biting a finger sometimes is a way to get a little show and attention.

My Pineapple does this a lot when he is in his cage. He will greet me at the front bars when I approach and when I try to touch him, he will always nip my finger. He also will perch on my finger as I stick it through the bars but then bends down to give me a nip. Drives me nuts.

I'm not surprised.

Pico considers his cage to be his sovereign territory.
I never offer him my hand there.

I use a stick to get him away from his home.
When his cage is out of sight he's a loving, cuddly, sweetheart lovebunny.

While there are similarities in species, individual parrots vary.
It's up to us to learn about, then respect, their idiosyncrasies.

 

[quackerz]

Lots of good advice above ...

They know fingers are not food.
But they also know biting them is a way to control us, because we've taught them it is.

Reacting to a bite teaches a bird it has power.

They also hate boredom but LOVE drama, and biting a finger sometimes is a way to get a little show and attention.

I'm probably taking him to the local pet shot tomorrow. I'll trim his nails and (probably) clip his wings. I'm aware of the training methods. When he bites, I leave him on the cage and walk away. But he can fly so he immediately lands on my shoulder again. I then try to remove it and he's actually pissed about getting grabbed. So I get bitten more and the cycle repeats. I've heard mixed opinions on locking it in the cage so I wanna avoid that.

 

[quackerz]

"I think he treats my finger as the syringe."

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Oh wow, I just had a moment of brilliance! Oops, gone!
Kidding!
It is in your best interest to always have the little one liking a syringe as a food/treat source! If you ever have to administer any meds, you have a slam dunk method already in place!
I have those flush syringes all over the house, a bit of apple sauce, or baby food, and meds won’t be an issue! Potentially, a great tool for reinforcing target training!
And for you, a great diversion for controlling the nipping, and a comforting time for your baby!

Keep in mind, young parrot=toddler! Everything gets the beak test!

Makes sense, but that doesn't teach him the appropriate pressure to exert on my flesh...

 

[quackerz]

Clicker and bite pressure training techniques might help!

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/60435-clicker-target-training.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

That's actually very help thanks. One question though, is it better to clip the wings or is it better to lock the bird in the cage for timeouts. He can fly so leaving him alone without locking him up doesn't work at all.