Young lovebirds started biting me please help me

[Lysh87]

Hi there, I got two young lovebirds about 2 weeks ago (born mid/late July). They were hand raised and taken care of very well in a lovely home.

I have been syringe feeding them as well and am weaning them. The older one never bit but the younger one did. Now they are both biting and hard!

I am a new bird owner and would really love my birds to be nicer to me .

They are afraid of my hands (maybe I was too rough?) but they aren’t scared of me, they always want to sit on my shoulder and head. Last night I had them out while I was reading and they kept biting my neck. I’m feeling at a loss, I try to be so kind and loving to them.

If you could offer me any suggestions I would be so thankful. If I put my hand up to see if they will step, they just grab it....

-sad lovebird mom

 

[Zoruace]

I dont have advise for the biting hand thing but i do have advice for neck biting
shoulders are a big NO if a bird doesnt understand that biting is not ok best to try to remove them from your shoulder if they ho up there them selves raise your hand up in all the confusion of seeing the hand higher then the shoulder most birds will pause to think where to go thats where you scoop the bird up

 

[Lysh87]

I dont have advise for the biting hand thing but i do have advice for neck biting
shoulders are a big NO if a bird doesnt understand that biting is not ok best to try to remove them from your shoulder if they ho up there them selves raise your hand up in all the confusion of seeing the hand higher then the shoulder most birds will pause to think where to go thats where you scoop the bird up

Thanks this helps!

 

[Newfie-N-Tx]

I think because of age they maybe testing you same as a toddler (I have a three year old and it’s crazy how some bird behaviors are similar)

I have a cockatiel I hand fed and she has never bit anyone but started to scream and put her beak against our skin like flapping angry acting like she will bite whenever we put our hands down near her and she doesn’t want to step up or go back in her cage. She’s over a year old and we just accept that she knows what she likes and doesn’t. She acts the same way with our other birds if they do something she doesn’t like (like touch her toys). Our birds all have their own cages because of it. I think for her it’s a personality thing and she’s a bit bossy. We give her space when she wants it and give her attention when she asks(chirping to come out and walks over to us). We already know her body language. I have her out but the moment she starts her bird rants we put her back. We try not to give in when she acts that way but we also realize if she doesn’t want us to touch her at times then do so when she wants us to. There’s times when people want led to hug me and I didn’t feel like it so I understand.

It’s different with our Double yellow headed Amazon since he’s a larger bird. He’s almost 7 months we got him at 6 weeks and head fed him, (recently fully weaned) This week his new thing is to begin to put his beak around our wrists or added pressure to my finger, which Is when he refuses to step down (I only let him stand on my wrists or hands, I avoid shoulders). Whenever he does this new thing I say “ow” not too loudly since loud sounds they interpret as a good to thing, but in a stern voice (same one I use with my kids when they act up)And I put him up on one of the play stands and ignore him for a while. I read that putting them back in cage as punishment is way to teach them not to bite, but I worry that they will bite to go back. So I just ignore them when they do this, it seems to work. But I also keep in mind that we can’t force them to do anything they don’t want to do. Figuring out what they love like a treat or toy is great. Clicker training is great for this also. It takes time to find out still. Only just found out ours loves peanuts so never feed them to him only for treats to reward good behavior. Then again I’m still learning what works for him and what doesn’t.

I do think like human children they go through stages and right now yours are learning what they can do and get away with. They might not even realize it hurts you either. Some birds play rough also, half the time I can’t tell if our budgies are playing or fighting. Which is something to also keep in mind. Study how they act with each other and focus on learning their own individual body language and sounds. Each bird is different and express themselves differently. I tried to use guides to go by on reading their body language but it’s not always the same for each. Some things are but lots are not. Eventually you will understand the way they speak to you with their sounds and body language.

Avoid shoulders! I keep telling my family not to have them on theirs cause of bites even unintentional.

Hope you find out what works for you and them!

 

[Lysh87]

I think because of age they maybe testing you same as a toddler (I have a three year old and it’s crazy how some bird behaviors are similar)

I have a cockatiel I hand fed and she has never bit anyone but started to scream and put her beak against our skin like flapping angry acting like she will bite whenever we put our hands down near her and she doesn’t want to step up or go back in her cage. She’s over a year old and we just accept that she knows what she likes and doesn’t. She acts the same way with our other birds if they do something she doesn’t like (like touch her toys). Our birds all have their own cages because of it. I think for her it’s a personality thing and she’s a bit bossy. We give her space when she wants it and give her attention when she asks(chirping to come out and walks over to us). We already know her body language. I have her out but the moment she starts her bird rants we put her back. We try not to give in when she acts that way but we also realize if she doesn’t want us to touch her at times then do so when she wants us to. There’s times when people want led to hug me and I didn’t feel like it so I understand.

It’s different with our Double yellow headed Amazon since he’s a larger bird. He’s almost 7 months we got him at 6 weeks and head fed him, (recently fully weaned) This week his new thing is to begin to put his beak around our wrists or added pressure to my finger, which Is when he refuses to step down (I only let him stand on my wrists or hands, I avoid shoulders). Whenever he does this new thing I say “ow” not too loudly since loud sounds they interpret as a good to thing, but in a stern voice (same one I use with my kids when they act up)And I put him up on one of the play stands and ignore him for a while. I read that putting them back in cage as punishment is way to teach them not to bite, but I worry that they will bite to go back. So I just ignore them when they do this, it seems to work. But I also keep in mind that we can’t force them to do anything they don’t want to do. Figuring out what they love like a treat or toy is great. Clicker training is great for this also. It takes time to find out still. Only just found out ours loves peanuts so never feed them to him only for treats to reward good behavior. Then again I’m still learning what works for him and what doesn’t.

I do think like human children they go through stages and right now yours are learning what they can do and get away with. They might not even realize it hurts you either. Some birds play rough also, half the time I can’t tell if our budgies are playing or fighting. Which is something to also keep in mind. Study how they act with each other and focus on learning their own individual body language and sounds. Each bird is different and express themselves differently. I tried to use guides to go by on reading their body language but it’s not always the same for each. Some things are but lots are not. Eventually you will understand the way they speak to you with their sounds and body language.

Avoid shoulders! I keep telling my family not to have them on theirs cause of bites even unintentional.

Hope you find out what works for you and them!

This is so incredibly helpful!!! Thank you so so much!

how would you suggest I remove them form me as punishment without making them nervous of my hands?

 

[Newfie-N-Tx]

Honestly it’s hard when they are young to figure out what is good to use to get them to go to to “bribe”. I really wish with my cockatiel I had known about target training when she was younger. I find it works great with our Amazon parrot. I point and tell him to go somewhere even if it’s to get off me, and he does it knowing he will get a treat. I had ordered a training clicker for this online and use it for all our birds. (They are the same one as with dog training)Press the clicker then give them a treat. Once they here that sound they know they are going to get a reward. (You don’t even need a clicker can just make a sound with your mouth even). Then you move onto pointing with a pointer of some sort(a chopstick or anything similar will work) With our Amazon it didn’t take long to teach him this way, only a few days. Every morning I spend about 15 min so not to overwhelm him. I wish I had done it sooner with our tame cockatiel (we have another that is older and will not go to us still after almost 2 years)Although she seems to respond well to it now after doing it each day. Not as fast as our younger Amazon but fairly well.

She still runs from my hands when I go to take her off me not wanting to step up and then doesn’t want to get off but not nearly as much. My oldest son seems to be the only one who can get her back in the cage without any coaxing. Before She would run up my arms and behind my back where I couldn’t reach her. I regret I didn’t work more with her to prevent that before, but everyday working with the clicker and target training the last few months there’s been some improvements. I am also working on teaching all of them to step onto a stick to move around now. There’s some really good videos on YouTube that can help with it. So far we’ve had some success with it.

Also when you train them make sure you go in a room that isn’t where they normally go and make sure you do it one at a time. That’s really important. They both will need alone time with you or they may not pay attention to you as much as each other. That’s what happened with our budgies. They are best buddies and the one that was very tame began to do the same as the other in moving away from us. We made the mistake of always having them together and they aren’t scared of us but just want to do their own thing. I always feel guilty now when separating them because they will call out to each other and seem to be too worried about each other to do much training.

 

[Zoruace]

. Only just found out ours loves peanuts so never feed them to him only for treats to reward good behavior. Then again I’m still learning what works for him and what doesn’t.


h

just make sure the peanuts are high quilty and stored properly

and its best to use human quilty peanuts