How do you punish biting?

Roxy has been biting me a lot lately (drawing blood) and I am assuming it has to do with the hormonal issues that she has been having. But how do you punish biting? I always immediately say "NO" and put her in her cage but it does not seem to work as a punishment. As soon as I put her in there she goes right to eating or playing. What else can I do?

Well Number one is you Don't punish a bird ever now a single finger bumped down on the beak as you say NO or NO Bite. Is allowed but it is best to put the bird up for a few until you've calmed down. Then I'd start Stick Training step-ups also Ask your vet about Hormone Shots to help your birds stress levels.

Molly never bites me but occasionally when Cody nips too hard or bites I give a stern "no bite" then put Cody down and ignore him or walk away for a minute or two. It's must be done immediately or the bird will have not idea what they did wrong. It's not recommended to put the bird into the cage after they bite because the cage will become associated as a bad thing.

We don't punish we ignore. After 2 weeks both my red front Macars found it useless to bite as they received no reaction. No yelling, thumping/hitting in the beak, no nasty look, or even a quick drawback or ouch. Works like a charm.

I havent had an issue with biting. but you also have to consider the possibility that she bites you when she doesnt want to be around you or isnt in the mood for whatever you want her to do, and that by putting her in the cage you may inadvertently be rewarding her... they are crafty little buggers.

A stern (not shouting) "NO MERLIN" with a small, light *conk on beak*. We don't hit, we distract. We tell him no, then give him a tap so he's no longer all defencive and aggressive about biting and being told no. He goes back to playing and being a good boy then

WE DO NOT HIT.

He doesn't bite his daddy who responds like that - if he does bite its because he is way over excited or is slipping (only one good leg so has to use his beak etc)

I am a wuss however, and bite my lip and "mmmmm" until he lets go. This usually ends up with me crying and him wobbling around on the bed like "eh what?"

Yeah, if you do more than bump the beak, say flick it, the bird will never forget. The beak is very sensitive and the last owner of my boy did it once when he was bitten, and the bird never accepted seed from his hand again.

Mango was really nippy when he first came and would threaten us with his beak. Its REALLY hard but we are completely nonreactive and continue to go about our business and he has really cut back with the beak. He does get "moody" on occasion and will just keep biting really hard even when we ignore it. Im not sure what the motive for this is, but during these times hes a real punk. I usually say "no that hurts" with my grumpy voice, roll my fingers out of his beak and put him on his cage. We then ignore him until he seems to be less snotty. Sometimes if he says moody and full of himself we try to distract him with some training. We have been working on some words, some dance moves, and getting him to lift his wings for us (we are working our way up to a flight suit). He is often even more inclined to do stuff like this when he is full of attitude. We are careful, but we make sure we still use our hands to make him step up and take his treats even though we are scared of being bitten. I think this helps to keep him from thinking he can punish us with his beak. This has worked well for us, but he hates being ignored, so he is usually pretty humble by the time we come back to get him. He is used to being with us all the time, so its kind of a punishment, but we dont physically use hands to punish biting because he has only recently allowed us to touch him other than to step up. His previous owner would "assertively" tap his beak and I think this is what cause his wariness of hands. If your birds goal is to get back to her cage though, this might not work for you.

the wrong thing to do is to punish biting. birds are smart but they are also sensative. If you poke, grab thier beak, or spray them with water, they are more than likely to become frightened by you. The best thing to do is to try not to react to it and try to distract them with something else. Eventually they learn that biting gets no response out of you and they will stop doing it.
Biting is a natural response from birds to being fearful, very rarely to they just bite...but if you scream and make a scene when they bite you they will think its fun. JUst show your bird that your hands are not toys, and that if they are bratty and bite, that it doesn't get the response that they want. THIS WILL ONLY WORK THOUGH, if you respect your birds space, if they bite because you are touching them when they don't want to be touched you need to be aware that your bird doesn't want to be touched.

Just so you guys know, punishment is decreasing the frequency of a behavior. It does not necessarily mean hitting. I would never hit my bird. And just to clarify, I am not talking about like a "leave me alone" bite. I'm talking about a full on vicious attack where she hangs on and doesn't let go. It's hard to ignore that. I'm not sure that will work anyway because she is biting me because I am doing something she doesn't like. So, ignoring her biting might actually be reinforcing the behavior. For example, yesterday she jumped off my arm onto the couch and immediately went into a nesting phase and tried to dig behind a pillow. I knelt down to get her to step up and she attacked my finger. If I ignore that, aren't I giving her what she wants?

c3honey84 said:

For example, yesterday she jumped off my arm onto the couch and immediately went into a nesting phase and tried to dig behind a pillow. I knelt down to get her to step up and she attacked my finger. If I ignore that, aren't I giving her what she wants?

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I did not understand everything you wrote, but!
She bite you when she wanted/doing something else?
That's all your fault, just must respect the bird too if she is doing something else, just back off and don't punished her at all is my advice.

How had the other attacks happened?

c3honey84 said:

Roxy has been biting me a lot lately (drawing blood) and I am assuming it has to do with the hormonal issues that she has been having. But how do you punish biting? I always immediately say "NO" and put her in her cage but it does not seem to work as a punishment. As soon as I put her in there she goes right to eating or playing. What else can I do?

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biting sucks, i know that very much. But if she is hormonal and in nesting behavior the best thing you can do is be careful. you don't want to ignore her, but you also can't let her bite you because it hurts, its quite the conundrum. Still give her attention and just be mindful of her beak, don't let her be too bossy with you, if she is being bossy and nippy try to react calmly and walk slowly back to the cage and place her in it. if she is happy being in her cage let her be happy, thats where she wants to be right now.
Once her hormones settle down she will more than likely be cuddly again.

c3honey84 said:

Just so you guys know, punishment is decreasing the frequency of a behavior. It does not necessarily mean hitting. I would never hit my bird. And just to clarify, I am not talking about like a "leave me alone" bite. I'm talking about a full on vicious attack where she hangs on and doesn't let go. It's hard to ignore that. I'm not sure that will work anyway because she is biting me because I am doing something she doesn't like. So, ignoring her biting might actually be reinforcing the behavior. For example, yesterday she jumped off my arm onto the couch and immediately went into a nesting phase and tried to dig behind a pillow. I knelt down to get her to step up and she attacked my finger. If I ignore that, aren't I giving her what she wants?

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Ignoring a bite isnt the same as ignoring your bird. The idea is that you make her do as you asked even if she bites without responding to the bite. She sounds like she is pretty upset though, and very aggressive. Mango likes to chew my glasses, and Im worried he will break a piece off of them and get sick. The other day I took them off because he was driving me nuts and wouldnt leave me alone. He squeaked a couple of times and then grabbed my ear and wouldnt let go. It hurt a LOT, I completely understand not being able to ignore it. You are correct though, that if you let her have her own way whenever she bites you she will learn to do this when she wants her own way. I dont have any experience with hormonal females or nesting behavior, but it sounds like she might need some space. Maybe during hormonal stages you could use a stick for asking her to step up to protect your hands. This way you still have some control over her but you are less at risk for damage. Hopefully when her hormones regulate she will be back to her friendly self.

Karigan said:

Yeah, if you do more than bump the beak, say flick it, the bird will never forget. The beak is very sensitive and the last owner of my boy did it once when he was bitten, and the bird never accepted seed from his hand again.

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Considering the besr way to get Merlin to settle down and sleep is to rub his beak, we're all too aware how sensitive beaks are!

We basically give him a nudge, just more as a distraction, something he can see coming, instead of touching anywhere else on him which he would get defencive about and bite.

We have honestly tried ignoring it, but unfortunately (and especially with my illness making me things more stimulating for me, light, sounds... pain.) means that I just can't handle him biting me, so we do the next best thing that works for us. He doesn't bite unless out of fear (or slipping like I said).

People kinda need to work out what works best for them and their birds. I always recommend ignoring the bite, but myself, can't do that.

Well basically she is punishing YOU for a behaviour SHE doesn't like.
You need to start from the ground up by the sounds of it. Someone mentioned trick training, this is your best bet. She doesn't respect you, you need to gain that respect back. If you teach her to follow your instructions it should curb that biting. In this case distraction is your best bet. She just thinks she can do as she pleases and if you interrupt her its her job to put you in your place She sounds like a bird that will need strict structure and discipline. And maybe dial feeding back to a schedule, no food ALWAYS in the cage.

Most people say never punish a bird, and for the most part, I do agree. However, when it comes to biting (expecially when hormone-related), I do encourage giving a parrot a "time out" immediately after a bite. Please hear me out on this one, because it benefits the bird too. 99% of the time, when a parrot bites you outside of their cage, it is simply because they have gotten WAY too excited, and having a pea brain, they react to mental overload by biting you. When I get a bite, I react as little as possible to it at the moment (no screaming, tossing the bird off your hand, crying ect...) and as calmly as possible put him back in his cage and cover him. I leave him covered until I have cleaned up the wound. Being in the dark and quiet for a few minutes gives him time to calm down a little. When I feel he's calmer, I half uncover him (perhaps this is a bit futile), but I show him what he did and he does seem to kind of understand. I also try to pick him back up within the hour so he A. doesn't learn biting isn't an acceptable form of communication B. that the bite didn't scare me away so he won't use it in the future when he doesn't want to step up. This method has worked wonders with our guy. I don't really look at it a punishment actually, but a lot of people feel it is. When we adopted our BFA, he was completely unsocialized, never been handled really... he wasn't a very nice bird when we got him. Over the past five years we've had him, I have been very consistant about how I react to him biting. I went from getting bitten 2-3 times a month (when we first had him), to he hasn't bitten me once this year. He has really mellowed out, it just took time. Thats a big thing a lot of people don't get about parrots, it takes some time for "bigger concepts" that go against their instinct/natural behavior to sink in. Whatever method you try, just stick with it long enough, and the bird WILL learn. Don't forget, while they may be geniuses for animals, they are still animals. Best of luck!

I don't know if punishing is the right word. The first green cheek conure I had I would put him back in the cage and ignore him when he would bite (probably more of a teething thing since he was a weened young one). It stopped quickly for I turned out to be fun. My conure I have right now was biting at first. I would just sit her on the ground and leave her there for awhile, or if I seen it coming stop her with my other hand, move her whole body and face close to my body so she couldn't move her head to strike or gently wrapped a towle around her and let her bite the towle till she saw biting was not going to get her anywhere. However, if the bird does not clap down but gently warns you with her beak back off some. I advise against flicking the beak. It could make your bird bite even harder. I am no expert but I am telling you what worked with my conures. In other words no and standing your ground is something a bird owner has to do. If you get frusterated or angry walk away because you don't want to do anything rash. In your scenerio sitting her on the ground would probably be better then putting her back in the cage.

Sometimes Puck would go into what I called "demon mode" and he would be vicious and unhandleable. I would have to towel him and put him in his cage, turn off his light, and cover him. He'd throw a fit for a while, and then eventually calm down.

He was very reactive to being overstimulated too, which happened quite easily. If there was too much excitement going on, he'd get his crazy eyes, and I had to be careful!

I discovered that most biting can be avoided by very careful observation of body language and facial expression. Puck would have very subtle changes that weren't immediately obvious to me. There can be a learning curve though! I highly recommend having the bird perch on a stick ("stick training") when she's acting aggressive, and having a towel handy just in case she gets too crazy.

I don't put any of my birds into a situation, where they HAVE to bite... I really think this is much easier than training a bird not to bite. It's not in a parrots nature - they're forced to do it by us, because we don't respect them as parrots... We want to control them, and that's not going to happen without being bitten...

c3honey84 said:

Roxy has been biting me a lot lately (drawing blood) and I am assuming it has to do with the hormonal issues that she has been having. But how do you punish biting? I always immediately say "NO" and put her in her cage but it does not seem to work as a punishment. As soon as I put her in there she goes right to eating or playing. What else can I do?

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I am not going to comment one way or the other. I would like you to read this link from the Land of Vos. You will understand a little better whats going on.

landofvos.com • View topic - PDR - Female hormonal behavior