Ouch! Amazon Beaking - Please Help!

Hello everyone! My husband and I adopted a ~30-year-old Yellow-Naped Amazon (Lenny) about 2 months ago. His previous owner did not have enough time for him - he admitted to not handling Lenny in about a year (which is why he was re-homed), so Lenny was quite skittish when we first met him. Lenny has since come out of his shell; he loves to be pet and wants to hang out with us all the time (right now he is chilling on my knee with one leg tucked in). However, Lenny has developed a bad habit of biting/beaking me when I try to pick him up. He does not do this with my husband, and I fear I have reinforced this behavior with my reaction - although I try to calmly discourage the biting/beaking by telling Lenny "no", putting him back in his cage, and ignoring him for a bit, Lenny's bites hurt and I instinctively react verbally. I don't think Lenny actually means any harm and is just responding to my reaction, so how do I change this behavior (in both myself and Lenny)? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
~kd
aka amazon mom

One trick I tried with a very tiny beak (GCC) was to put sugar on my hands, of course sugar is not best for Parrots, but it worked! It was years ago but I think I did it three times...a weird and wacky one for you to try.. otherwise thanks for the rescue and it sounds like you are doing really great!!! The Amazon peeps will check this thread out and give you great advice!

Laurasea said:

One trick I tried with a very tiny beak (GCC) was to put sugar on my hands, of course sugar is not best for Parrots, but it worked! It was years ago but I think I did it three times...a weird and wacky one for you to try.. otherwise thanks for the rescue and it sounds like you are doing really great!!! The Amazon peeps will check this thread out and give you great advice!

Click to expand...

I find this very interesting...if I did that I'm not sure I'd have a hand left to bite lol.

Anyways I have had my battles with a bird biting. I started putting him in a small time out but not in his cage. Sequence of events:
Bird bites.
I say "no bite" and press my finger lightly on his beak.
I then put him down where ever we are on something like a chair, counter, dresser or sink but never the floor and never the cage or anything associated with fun.
I turn my back for 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on how hard the bite was and the situation.
I retrieve my bird and before i let him step up I repeat pressing my finger on his beak and say "no bite" but quieter.

I was able to break one of my birds biting habit in about 2 weeks.One of my other birds is a hard case and has some cognitive issues but even HE is slowly learning not to bite so I don't doubt it will work for you. If you think your bird will bite you more if you press your finger to his beak then skip that for now.

Lol it works because it changes their mindset so surpriseing, she licked it off, then somehow hands became good things. I didn't make it up I read it in an old book thought ok I'll try it. The parrot forum collective will post lolts of great advice, thought I'd throw this odd ball in, because it did work for me, back in the beginning when hands were BAD..

I can almost never keep my mouth shut when a bite is painfull -> so it goes straight in the "NO!" "do not do that, no biting!".

(I do not believe suffering in silence is a great thing -- of course making it a fun dramashow for the parrot is something you want to avoid, but telling them off while at the same time correcting them in a non-verbal / and no-fun!/ way ... is exactly what they do themselves as well.)

As long as the shunning etc. still works... I do not think it will make a difference if you react/ correct verbally or not -- as long as you get the message across.

(of course I do not mean that hitting is a great non-verbal way of expressing displeasure/ but we are all not doing that anyway, so that needs no saying, right? )

You mentioned that Lenny doesn't do this to your husband when he asks Lenny to step-up, and if that's the case, it may be that Lenny is starting to choose your husband as his "person". It's not uncommon for birds to choose one person in a couple to be their "person", while they may still like the other person but not be as closely bonded with them, or they may just tolerate them, or they may be violent with them to the point that it causes issues with the couple...

I don't have any experience with Amazons personally, and they are a very unique species with behaviors that are all their own, so hopefully an Amazon person can add to this. But what you're describing in his behavior after 2 months of being with you and your husband is not at all uncommon...And a lot of the time the bird doesn't choose the person who is home with them all day, or who feeds them, etc. This often causes issues when one person in a couple wants the bird and gets it, and is totally responsible for the bird, and the other spouse wants nothing to do with the bird, and then the bird chooses the spouse who wants nothing to do with them and does nothing for them...There is no rhyme or reason to why they choose who they choose...

welcome and well done for rescuing 'jaws'


if my CAG goes for me i immediately withdraw a little and glare at her, stoney faced, she know when im not happy with her... i stay very still, and give her 15-20s to calm down or less depending upon her body language, feathers etc.. Ill retry again, if she goes for me again she gets the 'NO!' and another stare down. If she still persists then its the naughty step for her or i will leave the room, closing the door behind me for a few minutes.


Like all kids though, your mileage may vary... the birds need to know the 'pecking order'

one thing to add here, my CAG loves Max my youngest son but she HATES Alex, my eldest son.


Max will not allow Enzo to step up on to him, will not allow Enzo to fly to him etc etc as Enzo bit him once and he will not allow her to do so again. Enzo realised this quite quickly but it hasnt stopped her hanging out with Max A LOT, its just they both keep the distance, Max will give Enzo a beak rub between his fingers and he will carry her around occasionally, but only on a stand so there is no opportunity to bite him.

This works well for both of them and im sure as Max regains the trust in her it will get better.

Amazonmom,

I hope I can chime in and maybe help. So, you said he is biting/beaking. I don't know if I am alone in this, but to me those are two different things. My amazon, for example, has chosen me and I can do anything to him from petting to flipping him upside down, etc. But he will still "beak me". By that I mean like gnawing (not super hard) and beak wrestling. He will sometimes grab my finger with his beak and/or foot and plop on his back and wrestle like a cat. He can sometimes get a bit over stimulated and start gnawing down harder than is comfortable and that's where I give him a break.

However, if your guy is lunging at you that is more like biting with intent or at least warning you to stay away. If THAT'S the case, then I agree with the above that he is letting you know not to get too close since you aren't his chosen person. Not that you can't change that. I have had experiences with people who were not the chosen person and kept trying and the bird does allow them into his or her life at least in some capacity. Sometimes you'll have to accept being 1B, but that's ok.

I hope this helps!

Thank you all for your input and suggestions I have considered that maybe my husband is Lenny's "person" but I don't think that's case. I say that because Lenny is more responsive to me than my husband - Lenny ignores my husband and runs away from him whereas Lenny will come to the edge of jos cage and greet me, climb down from his cage and follow me around the house, and climb up on the furniture to be near me and ask me for pets. My husband can only pick up Lenny from outside his cage, when he really has no other option but to step up. Sometimes I wonder if I have adopted a bi-polar bird - one minute Lenny is excited to see me and wants me to pet him, and the next he wants to eat my arm!

Aww Lenny has a lot if changes! Thanks for adoption!! Penny does this to me some but less all the time, I think she gets frustrated that things aren't the way they used to be or I don't do stuff the right way lol. I hope you guys Jeep making progress !

can you try and analyse what is different each time he acts differently, it may be the slightest change that is upsetting him.

So here's a question - do any of your birds act very excited to see you, but go into "attack mode"? Lenny does that sometimes; after he's alone for awhile, he'll get very excited to see me - he'll quiver and climb to the edge of his cage (whether he's in it or on it) and try to get as close to me as he can, but when I reach out to pet him, he tries to bite. When he climbs down on the floor, sometimes he'll try to lunge at me and eat/attack my feet. Is he really being hostile or is he just over-excited?

most likely over excited, let him have a moment to relax before letting him out maybe. And parrots HATE feet!