A little disheartened

So I've had Basil now for a week, and things were fine at first but now he's so bitey. We started off training with the clicker, and then I had to hold him to inspect is wing (I didn't use a towel, I had to look quickly) and now he lunges at me and is just so not the bird I bought.

I know for a fact these threads come up every week, but now that I have my own bird I just need some reassurance that time will fix things. I mean, I keep telling myself "You've only had him for a week. Calm down." but I just am so upset.

*sigh*

What are your tips for gaining trust in birds? Or articles you've read/liked?

What are some solutions for biting? I use his favorite treat to get him on my hand, but unless the bottle of seeds is nearby he doesn't have anything to do with me and bites.

Thanks so much everyone.

It sounds normal to me that Basil is testing his limits with you. The next few weeks will be bonding time for you and Basil. Treat him just like you would a little 1yr old child. If he’s doing something wrong, tell him no in a stern voice. When he does something right, praise him, and I’ve found that birds really respond to over the top praising. I’ve never used clicker, or treat training with my birds. Just my voice. With biting, I would also push the parrot’s beak away from the place it was biting me while telling it “no biting” in a stern voice. Then immediately I would follow that up with saying in a VERY happy voice, “be a good little birdy” (or something to that effect). When Sweet Pea was about 2.5 months old she found out she could bite, and it took about 3 solid weeks to train her not to bite. She’s still a little nippy even to this day, but she never nips hard enough that it hurts or breaks the skin.

I know it’s trying on the patience during the bonding phase, but hang in there – it will all pay off in the end. I love his name, btw!

Training is an ongoing process. Even if you teach a bird a specific behavior, if you don't recap on that behavior every now and then, the bird can forget the behavior and you would have to reteach it - although it might be easier the second time around if the bird remembers it.

Stick with the clicker training and rewarding with treats. Try not to put him in a situation that will result in a bite, and if it looks like he might, distract him. If he bites, do what you can to get him to let go and reassess the situation.

Here's some links that may help.

Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Respecting the Bite
Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Help! My Parrot Wont Step Up!

A ?Bird Attacking? Question « Lara Joseph

Living With Parrots Cage Free: Bite

Natural Encounters, Inc.
Natural Encounters, Inc.

RP - Biting

I've had my little green cheek for two years and he still occasionally tests his limits like this. You just need to keep reinforcing your training, and it'll get better.

Thank you so much for the replies. I'm going to keep up with the training and see how he does in a few weeks. <3

MonicaMc said:

Training is an ongoing process. Even if you teach a bird a specific behavior, if you don't recap on that behavior every now and then, the bird can forget the behavior and you would have to reteach it - although it might be easier the second time around if the bird remembers it.

Stick with the clicker training and rewarding with treats. Try not to put him in a situation that will result in a bite, and if it looks like he might, distract him. If he bites, do what you can to get him to let go and reassess the situation.

Here's some links that may help.

Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Respecting the Bite
Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Help! My Parrot Wont Step Up!

A ?Bird Attacking? Question « Lara Joseph

Living With Parrots Cage Free: Bite

Natural Encounters, Inc.
Natural Encounters, Inc.

RP - Biting

Click to expand...

These are perfect! Thank you.

My younger Jardine is VERY beaky and likes to chomp down. I have been putting him back on his play stand an ignoring him if he acts up otherwise we play when he behaves.

I was like this for a while as well, but you just have to hang in there. I've had my bird a little over 1 month and she's started letting me pet and scratch her while she lies down... It's things like this that help you realise things are going well. Keep in mind when I bought her she was completely shy of me. It's important to read their body language which took me a while to learn, for example if I open the cage door and she climbs up her ladder onto her favourite part of her perch and faces away from me? Forget it she doesn't want to go anywhere, so I just close the gate back up. If you ignore this kind of body language and put your finger up to her she'll clearly look unimpressed, and if you persist she lunges. If she does want to come out, while you're opening the gate she'll already be climbing down towards my hand just asking to step up and come out. It's so important to learn to read these signs, because you want the parrot to love your hands (and you) and not hate them because you keep forcing it to do things with your hands it doesn't want to. This is basically how I gained my bird's trust, by respecting its wants and needs.

Biting is one of those things where it's hard to know what the hell to do, the best thing to do is avoid the situation in the first place that's causing it. My bird will only bite me when it doesn't want to do something I'm telling it to do, or it's nearing bedtime and she's grumpy. If you think back to respecting needs and wants it's the same idea. Let's say for example a parrot is obsessed with getting on top of the cage (i.e my parrot) and once she's up there, there is no way she's coming down without a lunging, biting, hands-chasing ordeal. Now I'm very aware she wants to get up there, but I also know what it will lead to: my looming hands being used as fun-killing trappers forcing an unwanted command for no reason (in her mind). So I don't let her up there, and if she does get up there (which she does, parrots are stubborn) I use her favourite treat to get her to step up and put her somewhere else. This way nothing bad at all has happened in her mind, she got a treat for stepping up onto the finger she's come to love, and now she's happily sitting on my shoulder (for example).

When the parrot does bite say no in a firm voice and look at him in a frowning manner, if he latches on (painful) and is completely ignoring you, leave your hand in place and blow in his face and he'll back right off, then do the little 'no' act. If you shake your hand about/shoo him away/swipe at him/flick him; it will make the problem so much worse short-term and long-term.

Let me know how it goes.

My Misha will be two on the 12th and he still pushes the boundries, Guapo is 1 and 1/2 and he's in a really crappy stage (with everyone but me, hates other peoples hands).
It's an ongoing thing and it will get better, and then probably worse, and then better again, but each time it improves until they rarely bother to test you. Be patient, it does take a lot of time and effort, but everyone, including myself, will tell you it's worth it.
Stay strong and arm yourself with many different techniques to curb the biting. Also learn his body language and have the mentality that you've done something that he's interpreted in such a way that biting is his response, helps keen you sane and everything in perspective.