New Green Cheek - Biting

Hello!

I'm the new mama of a gorgeous Turquoise Green Cheek we picked up the other night. To make a long story short, I went to one of my local mom-and-pop pet shops to get some new toys for my Sun Conure and that's how we found her. It was love at first site, even though we walked in with absolutely no intention of getting another bird. We took a few days to think about it before we decided on getting her, but it's been done.

Our new baby (who doesn't have a name yet), is honestly shocking me. We didn't get too much info from the store about her except that she's around 4-6 months, was very much a biter when they first got her, and is, a her. She absolutely loves people and jumps right out onto your hand as soon as you open the cage. She also likes her head scratched and stroked and already knows how to step up. The problem? She bites. HARD. She was crawling all over me earlier and every so often would just find a spot (my neck, my earlobe, my cheek) and clamp down and bite.

Since she's already SO hand and people friendly, should I continue to let her out of the cage every day or should I give her 1-2 weeks to settle before I attempt to handle her? I've never owned a bird before that didn't need to go through the taming process so this is very foreign to me.

Welcome! I hope we'll see pictures of the little cutie

There are lots of great threads on here about curbing biting (I'm still using them myself).

I have a green cheek and a sun. I got them in January and they were 6 years and 18 months. Both were super people-friendly, cuddly and knew how to step up - and they wanted to be on me all of the time. My sun is the older of the two and isn't a biter. My green cheek was a cute, cuddly and clingy "piranha with feathers" - he chewed up my fingers, bit my ears, and managed a couple of good nips on my face. I'll share what I've been doing so far - and I'm sure others will chime in with some expert advice!

My little guy lost his shoulder privileges until I could trust him not to bite me (took several months, but he sits and rides on my shoulder now). Every time he bit me, I would set him down nearby but not within reach of me and not pay attention to him for a minute or two (a perch, a chair back, a cushion - nothing fun for him to do). Then I'd invite him to step up again and praise him and give scratches when he didn't try to massacre my finger. I didn't keep him on my finger very long for the first couple of months - he'd be good for about 30 seconds before he'd start chewing on it - so I found things for him to do before the 30 seconds were up. I found that he did well if I sat down and pulled my leg up so my knee was at eye level and put him on top of my knee (it's very hard to bite a knee). It allowed him to be "on me" and with me - and me to scratch him, but limited his opportunities to bite. It gave me more chances to praise him, give treats, etc (and it was easier to get my fingers out of the way if he was getting excited). Once we had built a bit of a relationship, it got easier for him to be on my fingers. I was able to just gently take his beak off my finger if he started to bite and say ow. I continued to set him down and ignore for a minute or two. He doesn't bite much now, and when he does it has nowhere near the same pressure. My best guess is that consistency, praise when things go well, many treats, reducing situations that encouraged biting, and building trust seem to be what has worked for us. I still vividly remember my poor raw fingers and wish that I had found this forum sooner to get information from those with experience. We're still working at it, but I think we're mostly past it now and I am so glad to be able to have him hang out on me!

Hope you'll keep us updated on progress - and, of course, share some pictures!

Welcome!
Read and reread,
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html

Biting = being normal. Unless it's due to pain or an unsafe situation you will slowly learn their language and the bites will decrease, and you will learn what's going on when they happen.

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Welcome!
Congratulations on your new companion.
This is a great place for information and support, and good humor!
I'm glad you found us!

See this post http://www.parrotforums.com/conures/69953-gcc-biting-baby-2.html

The time out method should work good for a bird that's already very social.

Continue to handle her/him, but put him down when he bites and back away. Make him walk to you. Birds are social animals and he will pick up on the fact if you shun him after a bite he will learn it's unacceptable.

Its been my experience that in general stopping random biting behavior is fairly easy. Whats always worked for me is when bitten.. right away briefly restrain the bird, shake a finger in his face and say NO sternly. Don't yell. Release the bird. All is forgiven til next time. Don't hold a grudge or take it personal. A few times doing this and generally my birds stop biting. Then on top of that they learn meaning of the word NO. U can then use a finger wag and NO from across the room to stop certain behaviors. Remember also you can trigger instinctive bites by not paying attention to certain boundaries birds have. When you trigger that kinda bite its on you and no need to try to teach it out of the bird... more teach yourself what the triggers are and refrain from those actions. Yep,,, u gotta learn to think like a bird.