Behavior Issue?

Hello..I could use some help?.First let me say I'm not new to keeping parrots.. I keep a few.. GW ,BG, DYH, YN and CAG..all hand fed by me..

Here is my issue.. I rescued a GW last week..(Healthy, well feathered, 6yr old male)For a few days he seemed to have taken to me.. But in true parrot form the Next day I was out and wife was the favorite..I understand this and find this normal.. But what has been occurring that has me scratching my head is his .. Tendency to step up on Q and for no reason what so ever (non that I can identify) he bites down either on my forearm or hand..I'm not talking test bite I'm talking all out chomp and not letting go.. I try not to react but today he latched on to a finger out of nowhere and I had to set him down.. He quickly put his foot up to step back up.. I picked him up again.. He was fine then he latched on again.. he is not giving me any signal.. No pinpointing, no ruffling, no warning what so ever...

Anyone have any thoughts on how to break him of this really annoying and painful behavior.??

I know it's only been a week he is acclimating well.. He loves the wife.. But me not so much.. Again I understand and can live with that but I am the primary care giver to my flock..so I need to be able to pick him up and move him....

I just want to point out all blood work came back normal but he is still under quarantine..


Any help on how best to address this would be appreciated

Thank you

well my friend welcome to my world. We as well rescued a green wing about the same age and for the first ehh week to month he was great... then he hit it the dreaded sexual maturity. he offers s step up, but i have a ton of nice half moon scars from his lower beak. i as well dont react but it is an issue that is hard to solve because it involves hormones. Although rueben gives me body language, but that doesnt mean yours will. I taught rueben how to step on a towel so that his bites dont hurt me nearly as bad. Although my father can handle him just fine. Sounds like the situation with you and your wife. Id say teach him how to step on a towel or stick train him so you can move him. Other then that keep doing what your doing and not give him a reaction or fear and fight until he comes out of this phase. This seems to be an issue in rehomed birds just hitting this stage of life.... This is very hard to fix in my experiences because mine is just sooo full of himself and sounds like yours is to. Daily i work with rueben just to be able to scratch his head and touch his toes, take baby steps and work with anti biting methods. The scary thing with my GW is that you can see the change in his eyes from being that loving rueben we know to this monster his hormones have made him... Its like jekell and hide lol.

Try the stick or towel train so you can at least move him and then work on the true issue at hand which is the biting. I would suggest a time out cage and after he bites put him in this secluded time out cage for 10-15 minutes then let him back out. if the behavior happens again just put him back in for a time out. This will not solve what is making him bite but it will make him have a less desirable reaction to bite and therefore hopefully solve his issue in the long run. This is what i am doing with my GW the progress is slow because they are like unruly teenagers at this point, but there is progress.

feel free to ask more or ask for a better explanantion of something.
hope it helps a little.

JT. You think it could be hormonal..I never went through this with my other GW..and it's been 17 yrs with my other Birds and none have been this devious.. He gives no warning whatsoever just latches on and holds on..first time he took a good chunk out of my arm...I try not to to show any reaction but he might be noticing..That I stop walking and tensing up when he latches on..

I tried the time out route.. He is good for a few pickups then out of nowhere he latches down...I stopped putting him into his cage for fear that that might be what he wants.. So instead I place him on he floor (or on a perch in my office )and walk away.. He then follows me and lifts his leg to step up...

I will give him a few days to rethink his behavior before I handle him again... I'm really trying to avoid the stick training as I know it will freak my other birds out later on..


Any more insight would be appreciated...

Thank you

well see you had your others since babies so you taught them manners before the whole hormonal issue came on.. That would be my thought as to why they did not act that way.

As for the time outs you have to do it everytime all the time consitently for it to work and dont stop or the behavior will not. A stand or the floor is still out and rewarding in my eyes. I dont believe he wants the cage most parrots prefer being out then in a cage. So you must be religious about doing this or it wont stop. It may take weeks or months or even longer, but one thing holds true be consitent.

Well the fact that you show no verbal reaction or over the top reaction is great the tensing up is normal greenwings huuurrrt! so do hyacinths believe me lol. So in that manner you are doing amazing, the idea of giving some space may be good for you both at the moment. Im sure your fed up and slightly hurting so take a good 3 day break let your wife handle him for the most part. Now another thing when you are working with him make sure your wife is not present he could be reacting because he wants her. As far as body language goes i cant help you as to why there is none, it could just be him in general. This is big in cockatoos showing no body language but still biting...

Id suggest atleast getting him trained to step onto a towel then instead of bare skin, until he gets respectable enough not to bite. Each time you get bit it makes it worse for both parties so this will lessen this negative experience and pain.

also by when you leave him on the ground/perch and he puts his leg up and you step him up you just gave him what he wanted. he wanted that reaction and you gave it to him. This is time out time with no interaction what so ever, punishment if you please.

hope this clears some things up feel free to ask more.

Makes sense.. Will go back to putting him in is cage for time outs..but I swear he doesn't seem to mind being in his cage with all his toys.... A few days ago he refused to come out of his cage even for my wife.. Preferring to hang and swing from his toys..

As a mattare of fact, have been going thru the same thing with my Jenday Conure, Bob. He's coming out of it a bit. Those raging hormones! Walking away, leaving him in his cage, letting him "have his space" has worked well. I've had Bob for a little longer than a month. (He was adopted from a rescue.) It is really difficult to "not scream" or react when it feels like your fingers are getting shredded. Walking away for a half hour or so, it's good for both of you. At least it worked great for Bob and I. Every day we make progress and better with each other.

Does this new greenwing have any favored rewards (scritches, treats, food, etc) that he loves? And is there any way that he could be taught some behaviors to do instead of biting? Such as turn around, "big wings", shake, picking up objects, etc?

Giving him something to do other than biting may help keep him from biting.

He won't let me touch him except for his beak..(I'm pretty sure he lets me rub his beak because he is waiting for a chance to grab my finger) As for what he enjoys most.. I can't really say just yet... Haven't found anything he is head over heels for....

Today I was able to move him around a bit.. I cut the sleeves off a few sweat shirts and hid them under my shirt sleeve.. he took quite a few bites but I could tell he was surprised I didn't react or break stride....

After a few step up and moved from perch to perch he stopped biting and refused to step up....

i agree with jt birds ,You need to be able to move him and have an option when he doesnt want to come off whatever hes doing [some of us have to work LOL] .If hes in with the rest of your birds try this: make him want to be courious and see you on his terms .Like be very excited about the other birds .Say hi to him through the cage eventually [no pressure] he might take more of an interest [progress from there he will let you know what he wants to do .Overtime Im sure he will do what you want.

Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Help! My Parrot Wont Step Up!
A Question About an Issue with Nipping | Lara Joseph

Any nuts or seeds he loves? Or what about dried fruit?


He's telling you he doesn't want to step up, and when you force the issue, either you get bitten or he avoids you. This is not the behavior you want. You need to try and find something that he is willing to work for, so you can make him want to do what you want him to.

Sounds like it may be difficult, but not impossible.

Today I moved him quite a bit from one perch to another and not one bite... He did bogart a bit when he could see my wife.. Refusing to step up and giving me the you get close now I'm going to nail you look... (I appreciate the warning over the no warning attack )

Well it was a few days without any biting and I dropped my guard.. He stepped up fine.. Started taking him to the other side of the house to his cage.. I turned the corner and my wife was there.. He saw her and immediately bit down on my finger I fought the urge to react but he bit down harder...This time removing my complete thumb nail..At which time I placed him on the ground and went to the kitchen to wrap my thumb with a towel to stop the bleeding..Turned and relized he was following me wanting to step up..Didn't want to risk getting nailed again so had the wife cage him..

I have to say that last bite was one big step back for me and I'm sure for him on this whole mutual trust thing we were trying to get going..

Monica,

The treat thing is NOT going to work! My partner been giving Willie his favorite treats for the past 9 years going on 10. Willie can care less about my partner and will try to attack anytime he gets the chance. I am the only one that can hold him. Since he picked your wife, it's in your best interest to allow her to handle him. When you want to make him go to places, your best bet is to use a stick. I use a stick on problematic birds that chomps down for no apparent reasons. Yours is basically he wants to be with your wife, not you.

Miley I do agree with that he Wants the wife but I believe greenwing is doing a good enough job handling him that the issue of biting can change. I still hold true that you should towel or stick train him though for just in case purposes. Personally my birds are towel trained in case of a emergency.

I'd like to add his bite response is your wife. She sees her and that's the end of you:s. my amazon is like that once he sees someone else he immediately hates me as well just because other people are around in my house then he chomps me. The only way to fix this would be to handle him only when your wife is not around as that is what he wants. Parrots can pick one person they like and stick to that, but they can be social. Working with a rescue to get them social is not so easy I have expirences that first hand.

So to sum this up if you want to handle and work with your greenwing don't let her around your wife because that is why she is biting you. She wants you as transportation to the real person and if you walk past without going directly to that desired point ten your fair game. She may end up loving your wife For the the major care taker of her.

O btw what is the name of this greenwing loved not to have to put him or her all the time.

I apologize..His name is Charlie...

MikeyTN said:

Monica,

The treat thing is NOT going to work! My partner been giving Willie his favorite treats for the past 9 years going on 10. Willie can care less about my partner and will try to attack anytime he gets the chance. I am the only one that can hold him.

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Then Willie needs to be taught to go to other people.

With the right training, Willie *can* learn to interact with others without biting. Perhaps the right kind of training hasn't been figured out for Willie? If Willie wont step up for your partner, then you simply need to teach him that being around your partner can be an enjoyable experience. This would be something that *you* need to teach, not your partner. I'm sure it can be done.

After nearly 10 years though, I don't know if the desire is still there to teach the behavior of accepting others.