Rory bitting

Hi everyone I've not been on the forum for a while. I am looking for some advice Rory is now 10 mouths over the last few weeks he has started bitting me for no reason. He will be sat on my arm quite happy the for no reason he will keep bitting me. Any advice would be great. Jim C

Jimdc said:

Hi everyone I've not been on the forum for a while. I am looking for some advice Rory is now 10 mouths over the last few weeks he has started bitting me for no reason. He will be sat on my arm quite happy the for no reason he will keep bitting me. Any advice would be great. Jim C

Click to expand...

Clearly, he finally figured-out that you taste pretty good, or he needed more protein in his diet.

Amazon's rarely do anything without a reason when it comes to interactions with Humans! Using the following Statement as a Base to Understand this Action(s): It's NEVER the fault of the Amazon! It's Always the fault of the Human! Coming from this vantage point, you can more quickly determine what you are doing wrong and correct it!

At ten months, your Amazon is and has been transitioning from a baby to a (still) young Parrot. I would strongly recommend that you either read for the first time, or re-read the Sticky Thread at the top of the Amazon Forum titled: Amazon Body Language, high lighted in light blue. The most effective way to read it, is to read it aloud to Rory with him sitting next too you a very near by. Amazon's love to be read too and it counts as time together and you getting other things done at the same time. NOTE: You need to have the basic Amazon Body Language understood as if it was your first Language. It will server as your base method of knowing and understanding your Amazon's Language. It will be a requirement 'When' he physically transitions into an Adult if a few more years! Now at ten months only a few of the Body Language activities are setting into place. But you knowing them will open you to the transition he is beginning!

Why is he biting you now? There are any number of reasons that may come into play here. Anything from you not paying attention, hence he is bored. Too, he is seeing something and is trying to bring it to your attention! So, with the tool above, you (cause he is sitting on your arm, not mine) will need to determine what is driving this action!

I am assuming that you have Step-Up in place and that he moves in and out of this cage with ease. You have worked on Bite Pressure Training and you activity work to socialize him, correct?

Amazon's at this age and for the vast majority of their life need to be keep active and training is part of that activity. Also remember that self-entertainment is part of training process by providing tons of toys for him to play with, when he is not with you.

Enjoy, and come back with what you notice.

I face the same issue with my younger one, Tia. Amazons seem to enjoy wrestling with their owner's hands and my other one, Ori, seems to enjoy that a lot. Sometimes I would put the palm of my one hand rolled up in a cup on her head while scratching her fervently on her neck and she would fall on her back in my rolled-up palm and would start softly gnawing my fingers.

This is something I definitely cannot do with Tia. She will step up, as she and her sisters have been trained to do, but when she starts gnawing my fingers, she quickly resorts to aggressive, painful bites. In those moments, I try to stop her with a resolute "No!" and a raised index finger, but she often will not stop unless I force her off my hand by putting her on the aviary, or shake it to make her lose balance a little or fly away. When that happens, I turn my back at her. She would sometimes try to come back, but I put her back on the aviary and ignore her for a couple of minutes.

She is also more often the one to nib me on the neck if I pick up something she does not like, but that is something I have come to expect and try to avoid such situations if possible.

Tia has been a puzzle to me, frankly. She lets herself get petted on the neck, on the chin, or the cheeks, when the mood strikes her, and she is usually quite docile, too. I reckon she does not like the hands because I had to forcefully put her in the aviary after chasing her for a bit. I regret that, I realize it was a mistake.

I reckon I may have to keep her off my hands until she becomes more comfortable with them again.

clayman said:

I face the same issue with my younger one, Tia. Amazons seem to enjoy wrestling with their owner's hands and my other one, Ori, seems to enjoy that a lot. Sometimes I would put the palm of my one hand rolled up in a cup on her head while scratching her fervently on her neck and she would fall on her back in my rolled-up palm and would start softly gnawing my fingers.

This is something I definitely cannot do with Tia. She will step up, as she and her sisters have been trained to do, but when she starts gnawing my fingers, she quickly resorts to aggressive, painful bites. In those moments, I try to stop her with a resolute "No!" and a raised index finger, but she often will not stop unless I force her off my hand by putting her on the aviary, or shake it to make her lose balance a little or fly away. When that happens, I turn my back at her. She would sometimes try to come back, but I put her back on the aviary and ignore her for a couple of minutes.

She is also more often the one to nib me on the neck if I pick up something she does not like, but that is something I have come to expect and try to avoid such situations if possible.

Tia has been a puzzle to me, frankly. She lets herself get petted on the neck, on the chin, or the cheeks, when the mood strikes her, and she is usually quite docile, too. I reckon she does not like the hands because I had to forcefully put her in the aviary after chasing her for a bit. I regret that, I realize it was a mistake.

I reckon I may have to keep her off my hands until she becomes more comfortable with them again.

Click to expand...

Bite Pressure Training (use Search Button at the bottom of the Banner above) is very important with Amazons. The fact that they use their Beak to hold-on to things and to sever notice of something they dislike demands that we are observant of what they are doing. Amazons, like small children will test to see what they can get away with. Remember that they, like us function with the Pecking Order of the Group! And, young Amazons have a want to be First on that List.

When recovering after an Oooops, the process of working the offending hand back into the good graces can take anywhere from moments to years! Always leave your expectations behind and work at the rate your Amazon will allow. In most cases, its is a process of 'stepping' back into allowing the offending hand to be near, than touch, then Step-Up, etc...

Thank-you, for working with your Amazons! The reward is always much larger than we know!

Thanks, SailBoat. As much as I hate to say it, I do not believe it is always the fault of the keeper if they get bitten. Just a few moments ago, I was preparing dinner for the girls and, of course, they tried to get into the bowl to get to what I had already prepared. As I tried to keep them away, we all grew a little annoyed until they both started biting at the same time.

I swear to God I do my best to keep my cool, but I slept too little today, I had a difficult day at work and there are moments I feel like I am about to lose it.

EDIT: Now I realize I should probably keep them away if I need to prepare their food without their constant interference, but maybe there is another approach I coutd take. However, it is not just this. Quite often, they get agitated, maybe mad at each other (?) and start flying around, chasing each other. If I am in the room and one of them lands on me, she is often so worked up that when the other one approaches, she starts lunging her beak at me, nipping and sometimes biting quite painfully. What should I do then?

Jimdc said:

Hi everyone I've not been on the forum for a while. I am looking for some advice Rory is now 10 mouths over the last few weeks he has started bitting me for no reason. He will be sat on my arm quite happy the for no reason he will keep bitting me. Any advice would be great. Jim C

Click to expand...

I need more information to give you an educated guess.

Does he bite in response to something? Something spooking him? In response to something you are doing? Someone else is doing? Overbonding? Territorial about something/someone?

What is the body posture at the time?

Is there a rival bird?

Need to find the trigger, then desensitize the bird to it.