How do I teach not to bite?

I adopted a green cheek conure last week.

He is in 'quarantine' and I've been working with him a bit. He is halfway tame I guess, but not entirely.

If he will bite *HARD* if you try to make him step up. But not always. I haven't figured out yet why he bites some times but not others.

I need help figuring out #1) why he bites and #2) what to do about it.

I have true a couple of things but I cave not been terribly consistent about it. I have physically restrained him from biting by holding his head and then putting him on my finger. And I have sat there and hand fed him seeds and hand feeding formula (he's used to a 100% seed diet unfortunately).

The biting is worse inside the cage but not confined to the cage. My hubby got him to step up several times without biting. I was able to get him to step up by approaching with my hand very very slowly. But he always returns to biting and tearing my skin off. My hands hurt so much that I'm thinking of using gloves. But I think gloves might scare him even more.

I never ever flick his beak, hit, or do anything harmful to him. I just take the pain, bare it, and do it over and over hoping he will get used to me and realize that I'm not going to hurt him.

Still, my hands can't take much more abuse! Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

I have a new goffin cockatoo and she is quite cage aggressive, but only when she's in the mood. I'm learning to read her body language and know when not to get into her space. She still will not, willingly, step up from her cage without trying to bite.

I find that if I allow her to come to me, I have a chair close to her cage, she is a lot more enjoyable to hang out with. She'll hop over to me and the scritches begin! From there, I can take her around the house, or whatever, but it always has to be her idea to hang with me.

Chewie (the green cheek conure) will sit there and let you scratch his head all day if you have the stamina, even inside the cage. But steppin up is quite the ordeal with him. I can't tell when he's going to snap and bite you 7 times during a single step up or when he will step up 7 times without a bite.

I think I've figured out that it's all out of fear. He's much too you g to be this crabby.

One week isn't long at all. I rescued an IRN about 2 months ago. He's very cage aggressive. He was kept in a room by himself, no toys, perches, and on a cockatiel seed diet only. He's made huge progress, but still has a long way to go. Give him time. Talk to him as much as you can. He will see your not going to hurt him and he'll slowly come around. When I rescued my IRN I wouldnt put my fingers in the cage at all because he's cage aggressive and I didt want to upset him. I wanted him to trust me so I would just talk to him. Now he steps up, but on is terms. Take it slow. He'll come around.

Give him time and try using a stick instead of your hand to have him step up to avoid biting. Practice the command with the stick, lots of praise and after that is going well start trying your finger for step up. I'm not sure what you mean by physically restraining him but if you are picking him up with your hands when he doesn't want you to you will just cause distrust and make the step up process take longer.

Quit trying to make him step up , if he bites you, that means "NO",don't keep asking. If he acts like he wants to bite you when you ask him to "step up",just walk away and act like he's missing out on something really great. When he does step up for you ,don't keep him there long or take him somewhere else, put him back on his cage very quickly and praise and reward him.Before long he'll decide that hanging out with you is lots of fun and won't mind stepping up because he trust you. The secret is to let him discover that your his BFF on his own. After only one week, he doesn't know you that well, he's not sure he trust you and when you ask him to step up ,he's afraid he's lost control of his situation. So reward him by not removing him from his comfort spot when he does start to step up for you. Keep your sessions short, if he ever does tire of this "game" he'll be less likely to want to play again. When training new birds i always announce my intentions before arriving at his cage. While still on the other side of the room i'll ask,"do you want to go?",or "you gonna step up for daddy?" and advance with my out stretched hand, so he knows what's coming. . Give him a chance to think about it and decide ,instead of having to make a snap decision. If he has to make a snap decision, he'll go with the safe thing to do. It will also give you time to gauge his reaction and avoid the bites. good luck and hope that helps.

i found an easy solution to this problem. you get birds who are too small to hurt you like budgies. much less stressful .lol sorry. big birds scare me.

god61021 said:

i found an easy solution to this problem. you get birds who are too small to hurt you like budgies. much less stressful .lol sorry. big birds scare me.

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Heh, so far the most painful bite I've ever gotten was from a wild cockatiel. I'll take a B&G macaw bite (which barely hurt and didn't break the skin) over that any day! The bigger parrots tend to bite and let go, but those little guys like to hang on and grind away with their little beaks.

well, I have been bitten by countless birds and no bite hurts more than a *small* bird hell bent on making you leave him alone. I used to breed birds and even my cag bites are not half as painful.

Well, Chewie is coming along and I think both he and I are beginning to understand eachother a little better. One thing that has helped is the twice a day feedings of hand raising formula. My cag is still a baby so I feed this to him to keep his weight up even tho he is officially weened. My adult sun conure also loves this stuff so I let her have some. I take the leftovers to Chewie and he also likes it. I put powdered vitamins in the leftovers for Chewie, I make him step up, and then he gobbles it up. After this, I give him a quick cuddle and put him back in his comfort zone (his cage). He's got one spot he goes to feel secure.

I do take him out at least once per day and make him sit there on my shoulder and "hang out" for several minutes. He doesn't bite me as long as I let him hang out on my shoulder. He rushes up to it, I think it's where he feels the most secure outside of his cage. After a while, I give him some safflower seeds and then put him to bed.

The next morning, I feed him some more handfeeding formula and the day repeats itself. Consistency, more than anything at least, is giving me a sense of progress (dunno about him) lol!!

But I think it's going to work out in the end.

Oh, he gravitates towards my husband!! Never had a bird do this before. They usually prefer me. Maybe he's had enough of me (or women in general) and would like to try the company of a man for a change. As soon as he sees him, he does that thing with the wings where he's about to launch himself towards my hubby. He also doesn't bite my hubby when he steps up. And he chatters with him. Nice...

My lovebird, whom I handfed and spend most most of my time with every day, prefers my boyfriend too! He only lets my bf put him into his cage for bed (he hates his cage and only goes in when he's tired and then shakes the door when he wants out in the morning) and flies to him whenever he comes into the room.

Me, on the other hand, he likes to nibble. He is constantly biting me--not hard, at first, but as if I was a toy that he was playing with. I can't tell if he's being friendly and playful or trying to get my attention. If I can, I try to pet him before he starts biting hard, but I work on a computer and I need my hands to type. And even when I pet him he'll start gnawing on me after a while.

Do birds beak the way kids teeth? Or do I just need to keep doing the beak-grab "no biting" thing and hope he stops flying away to sulk whenever I rebuke him?

http://www.birdtricks.com/PowerPause check out that video this should help you with your biting problem

[FONT=&quot]Introduce the parrot to new people, birds and other animals. Give the parrot adequate time to settle and feel at ease with guests. The bird may bite if it feels its territory or owner is being threatened.


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Parrot biting and aggressive behavior can be rooted in many different causes. Some parrots bite as a way to let you know they don’t like what you are doing. Some parrots learn to bite to get a desired response. Other parrots may become highly aroused and suddenly bite without warning. Baby parrots may start mouthing gently and then gradually increase the pressure. Some parrots bite defending their territories and some bite in response to someone coming to close to their preferred human.

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Parrot Behavior Problems | Positive Bird Training

Can you identify from above what his cause would be? It's a good idea to find the cause of the biting rather than 'teaching' a bird not to bite. If you eliminate the cause, it can stop the biting. We've heard of birds in the wild who don't bite/or do it as a last resort, and the reason for that is they have 'flight' to chose from in a 'fight or flight' response. In a contained environment such as a cage, the flight option is removed, so the bird has no choice but to fight.

My guess, is your bird is biting because it doesn't want to come out. With my budgie, Yuki, I can't make him do anything. Rather, I let him do what he wants. I don't force him.

He HATES being picked up by anyone, but will come over to you to check out what you are doing, crawl all over you, and nuzzle. Luna on the other hand is perfectly fine, and will step up when asked.

The only time Yuki will let anyone pick him up is if he's ended up on the floor, and he'll gladly step up on anyone's hand. (I think he's scared of feet, and/or is the instinctual thing)

henpecked offered some great advice. And the suggestion of a perch/stick as evesta recommended can work too. While it is not a good idea to 'force' a bird to do what you want, if you can get your bird to step up on a stick, it will help with emergency evacuations and/or occasions when you NEED him out of the cage. (e.g. Vet trip)