Youthful zeal, or something to nip in the bud? (biting)

[Grenage]

We've had this felow about a week now, and he's lovely ; he's also very young, at just over 11 weeks old. Initially he didn't bite much, just nuzzled and ran up our arms, but as the days have progressed, so has his attitude. He now immediately starts 'preening' my hand hairs, which quickly advances to some pain. I don't get the impression he actually means us harm - he just seems to think hands are chew toys.

I've started calmly saying "no biting", and 'earthquaking' with my hand. That gives him pause to think, but once he thinks he's being deprived of the chewing, he just starts doing it more zealously. I place him in the cage after he's done it a few times.

He's young, he's only been here a week, and he doesn't know us very well (although he shows no fear at all). I don't expect this behavious to stop any time soon, but I'd really appreciate some feedback from the more experienced handlers. Am I doing the right thing? Should I be worried, or is this, as I suspect, him being so young.

I'd like to start teaching him "step up", but at the moment, he'd rather molest my hand.

As a side note, I discovered only today that Teflon kills birds. Oh joy, and all of our stuff is Tefal - what an expensive month!

 

[ann]

i just got my bird to, a week yesterday. he doesnt like to step up and tries to bite when asked to, i use positive reinforcement which is working great! have a toy on hand to distract him with, when he bites, you can place him on the floor. this will make him insecure and want to come back to you. he will start to relize that biting gets him placed on the floor. you can also ladder him. this is when he bites, you make him step up, then step up again, and again. about five times, switching hands. this teaches contron and that your the boss. good luck! feel free to pm me, im going through something similar so maybe we can help each other

 

[Parrotmamma]

My GCC does the same stuff sometimes. She is just over a year and gets nippy at times , It's just kinda their nature , they are little balls of energy and get overly excited at times which usually leads to nipping . I give her little foot toys to get her mind of of chewing on me. She loves q tips and little balls of paper,They make great little foot toys and they keep her busy for a while. Also , I put a little bowl of water out for her to bath in and that helps settle her down too.
And when none of that works she gets sent to her room for a time out....lol

 

[friedsoup]

Teflon will kill birds when it is heated to over 400 degrees which happens when you boil a pan dry, that being said yep replacing all that will cost some bucks but the up side is if you have the good stuff you can resell it to recoup some of the money.

 

[Grenage]

I shall persevere and set through it with him eventually. Some hardcore distractions have assisted in more hand damage, as did the grape and clicker training. I'll give the floor trick a go.

Aye, thankfully the stainless steel pan set was on offer, so we managed to pickup a complete set today. Result!