GCC Biting Advice

Hello all,

About a month ago I picked up my first bird, a male yellow sided green cheek. In many ways, he's easier than I expected. He bonded to me very quickly and will readily go to my girlfriend, friends or family. He loves playing and cuddling while out of his cage, but he is also very good at independent playtime in his cage, and is generally unbelievably quiet. He's also proven very easy to train to do things; he already knows 3 tricks, is partially potty trained, and has begun to go in his cage when I give the command.

However, I'm finding it very difficult to get him to stop biting and chewing while he's on me or someone else. This type of biting is completely unprovoked. He'll be sitting calmly on my hand, then lean over and grab a chunk of skin. I've tried tapping his beak or firmly grasping it while calmly saying "no," but that will only get him to stop biting in the moment, and hasn't done much to change the behavior as a whole. Does anyone have any advice? He's just under 4 months old, so he's still just a baby. Is this just something you have to wait for young parrots to grow out of? Much like a puppy?




Thanks!
Ryan

You may get differing opinions on this. Most birds don't bite without some sort of provocation. Perhaps you are not reading his body language right. If this is truly unprovoked, I think the ideal response should be to put him in his cage and wait for him to regain control of himself. He may screech and scream for you, but do not give in until he is quiet and calm again.

A video may help to determine the cause of his biting. If you don't get it resolved now as a baby, it has the potential to develop into a major problem later on. It is our job to show our birds what is and what is not acceptable behavior. Putting him in his cage is essentially a 'timeout'.

Green cheeks are known to be very "nippy", I myself have a very loving, affectionate yellow-sided green cheek that is a little over a year old. He has never once bitten anyone hard and has never broken the skin, and he absolutely loves to cuddle and get scritches. He's not really fond of anyone but me, but I live alone so we're very close. That said, when I take him out in public on his harness, like into Petco or Lowe's or Home Depot and someone asks to pet him, I have no fear that he will bite them, and he never has. But he will playing around me while I'm on the couch reading or something, and he will suddenly run up my shoulder and nip my ear. He lives doing it, almost like it's a game. He only seems to do it when he's playing or inna playful, wound up mood. I had a prior female green cheek that was exactly the same. I tell him "no bites" and he knows what I mean, but getting him to stop completely is a struggle that I'm finally winning.

Here's what I know: #1, DO NOT USE PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT LIKE PINCHING HIS BEAK OR FLICKING IT, ETC.! It will do no good, it won't stop the biting and will only stress your relationship. Birds in general pretty much never respond to negative reinforcement at all!

#2 NEVER USE THEIR CAGE AS PUNISHMENT! You want your bird to like his cage and think of it as a safe, fun place that is his. So if you put him in it when he's bad, what do you think will happen?

I have been saying "No bites" firmly and then immediately taking him upstairs and I again say "No bites, Time Out" firmly and I put him in my spare bedroom that I've bird proofed. There is nothing in there fun for him at all, some people use their bathroom. I shut the door and the first time is 5 minutes, then I go get him and it's over, don't talk about it again. The second time is 10 minutes, and so on. After about a month he has gone a few days at a time without a single bite. Yesterday he was going crazy during his early evening play time, talking up a storm, eyes pinning and he was just wailing a wooden toy that hangs in his cage off of the bars, having a ball. He ran up the couch back and got on my arm, started yelling "You're My Baby!!!" and nipped my arm for the first time in days. I almost felt badly ruining his play time as I knew he just got himself all worked up and lost control, lol, and it wasn't at all a hard bite, but you have to be consistent. So I said "No bites! Time out!" and upstairs he went to the bedroom. I shut the door and he screamed, I felt so badly, it was like he was screaming "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

I'm low on good advice, but hopefully high on sympathy and support...
I have reduced biting to almost zero over the decades... not because I've changed the bird, but I have changed me. And a lot of that has involved giving up on a lot of my desires/expectations. After years of battle, I surrendered. I don't do stuff that gets me bitten. I don't scratch his head much, ever... tail is okay. I NEVER do stuff that makes him mad... I don't touch others when he's out; I rarely try to get him to step up onto my hand first. Hand-held perch first, then hand. In some ways, I swallow my disappointment at having such a little monster for a pet, but he is what he is. I ALWAYS wear my hair down when he's on my shoulder, so all he can bite is hair. Really, I don't involve hands much... he doesn't like them. He seems to think the real ME is my head, perched on a weird moveable tree with questionable appendages.
Since he's fully flighted, the ONLY way I get him into the cage is to toss a chile pepper in and he flaps in after it.
But please... listen to and try all the good advice you'll get here. Don't surrender until you know you've done your best. Then just accept and love whatever/whoever your bird turns out to be.
My darling may be kind of a worse-case scenario, but we have it all worked out between the two of us.
Good luck!

I'll get flamed for this maybe, but I have a 6 month old GCC. All this talk about change me not the bird, and don't punish. Listen, a bird is like any other animal, or even a child. They will respond both to the carrot and the stick. Of course he's small so obviously you need to be gentle. But what's worked for me on biting is...gently, but quick enough not to give him a choice...grab the beak between thumb and forefinger and gently say no. I think flicking or tapping is not a good idea because the bird may think this is like...a game back and forth...or like you are trying to provoke...and actually make his behavior worse. Nothing I am talking about uses any kind of force...but in my opinion enforces that you will end up being the one in control by temporarily restricting use of the beak.

Now on the other hand mine has learned that...while he'll always nip around, when he feels he's on skin he will be ever so gentle...and we praise that vigorously. That is to say...I'm not sure a GCC will ever make zero contact with their beak. Remember they don't have hands; they use both their beak and claws for climbing, exploring, etc. So their breaks are part of their contact. So our approach had been to expect that...but to expect extreme gentleness when in contact with skin or the occasion ear nip. To a point now where if baby nips start to get at all harder than they should be, simple voice commands will cause him to lighten up or disengage completely.

But while we...my wife and I...are obviously very careful not to hurt the bird or take any action counter to the goal (ie-something not producing a result)...we didn't just "change us," or pray for 20 years and now he's docile from midlife...or just let the bird do whatever he wants. lol. You train the bird. Like a dog or how you would a child.

-Bill

Sounds very normal. It is a Nip not a BITE. Some people see a nip as a bite but a BITE is when a bird wants to hurt you and a Nip is them just trying to play like a puppy.

My conure will sit on my hand happy then nip my fingers. He nips me when he is bored, tired, hungry, wants attention. You need to figure out what your bird is saying and work with that. I agree you can not change the bird. You can change how you handle the bird by learning what makes it tick. The more time you spend with your bird the more you will be able to read the bird.

Sprinkles will chew on me. He has gotten better with Time and training. I can not stop all his nips and I don't want to. I have been able to teach him not to bite so hard. I also know how to read him and know how not to get bitten. When Sprinkles was first home with us he did draw blood a few times. He has since learned to trust me and learned that when I say "no bites" he needs to stop. He love attention from me so as soon as he does something I don't like he loses me. I give him a verbal warning so he can choose to stop. If he lets go of my ear he can stay on my shoulder. If he keeps biting my ear After being asked "no bites" I lay down on the ground and he hates that and he gets off my ear.

As they get older they do get less nippy. The first year is hard They are toddlers. Training will help a lot. It comes down to finding the right way to train your bird and what his needs are. Try to redirect the bite like you would with a puppy this can work .