Remember my sweet baby Quaker?

Yeah....me too.:09:

Sooooo.... What do I need to do when the little turd bites me? He starts out just nibbling and then suddenly he's got a little chunk of skin he's pinching pretty hard. So far I've been trying no reaction or lightly shaking whatever he's perched on (my hand, shoulder, leg). I just want to make sure I'm doing things right with him.

Here's the little turkey shredding a paper towel.


And here's his cute little growing baby tail feathers.

Just now he was having a fine time ripping up the rubber on my ipad case and when I tried to move him away from it he gave me a couple good bites. I just continued to tell him to step up until he did (and I have the red finger to prove it) and then told him "no bite" and put him up for the night.

I suggest you read the post, Help......biting and frightened Quaker. The answer by cnyguy is filled with helpful information from a long time Quaker owner. Like all birds Quakers are very intelligent but they require a lot of patience.

Allee said:

I suggest you read the post, Help......biting and frightened Quaker. The answer by cnyguy is filled with helpful information from a long time Quaker owner. Like all birds Quakers are very intelligent but they require a lot of patience.

Click to expand...

I did read that but I wasn't sure if it applied to me and my Quaker. Yoshi doesn't seem to be scared at all. We'd be going a huge step back if I just sat next to his cage and talked to him. He LOVES to be out. He steps up really well and loves to be on your shoulder or arm. He lets us pet him and scratch his neck and chin.

It's just that he'll nibble softly and then pinch us hard sometimes. Or sometimes he'll be sitting there just fine while I pet him and then suddenly he'll turn his head and bite (sometimes give a squawk too). It's not hard enough to break the skin but still hurts a little. Also when I tried to take him away from what he was having fun chewing on he gave a little bite and squawk.

But I don't feel like he's scared any of those times.

My crimson bellied conure bites hard sometimes as well. He is fine as long as he is on our hand, but when he gets next to our neck he pinches quite hard. When he does that, we place him back on his cage for a few minutes, saying no, then try again. He is slowly but surely getting better, and most of the time now it's just nibbles. I think babies are testing their boundaries. Phoe is 8 months old now.

Yoshi was supposedly born on 10/10/2013 so he's really young.

If his papers are correct, that is. A little over 3 months is awfully young to have already been rehomed.

a couple of things here:
1/ yoshi is testing boundaries. i find all birds go through this, they can be sweet, then decide they're going to go you if you do something they dont like. my musk lorikeet was really sweet the first few weeks, would stand on my chest, put his head down like a dog and want to be patted. a few weeks of this then he decided he'd bite me if i tried to get him to step up and he didnt want me to.

2/ people will disagree, but i'll tell the bird to stop it when they're biting or something like "oi". this can be seen as a way of reinforcing, but if paired with an unpleasant thing for the bird (such as being put down, or being put back into the cage) then the bird can learn that when you say it, it's time to stop what they're doing

3/ there will times yoshi will be doing something and you'll try and take him away, hence the bite. in these cases unless you really need to move him (time to go back into cage, a dangerous situation etc) i'd leave him be

4. learned helplessness whilst conceptually is bad, can actually be quite helpful (i expect a lot of disagreement on this). the ideal is your bird wants to do something i.e. step up, and you can motivate or encourage that behaviour. there are times this just doesnt happen or theres an urgency which leaves you to "force" the behaviour you want. take yoshi, you really need to get him into his cage for whatever reason. you can ask him a dozen tiems to step up and all he wants to do is bite/try and bite you. eventually you can try and lure him to step up, or you can move your finger closer to him, cop the bite and have him step up. the idea is eventually he learns he's gonna end up on your finger anyway and he'll then hopefully realise that fighting with you over this isnt worth it. i have several birds i've had to do this to and they now are used to getting onto my hand without any fuss. it's not the first option i'd try, but as a last resort can work well. there'll be the argument that you'll end up scaring your bird or making things worse, but if you've developed a good bond with your bird this shouldnt be an issue

Thanks for the replies. We've been working on things and he's getting better. There is still a lot of mouthing but he has gotten better.

How have you been working on it? My quaker (foster, rehomed) is driving me to distraction with the chewing and biting. As soon as he's on me its nibble nibble CHOMP! nibble nibble CHOMP! And yes, breaks the skin. And he chows down once he's got a hold. Otherwise he's the sweetest thing ever, kisses, fluffiness, muttering to himself around his playpen. But he is just not able to be close to me or anyone else with this behavior.

i was reminded of this post yesterday. Chuckles my quaker did this in the morning

he also did it again last night, as well as taking a hard bite at my neck. he's in angry mode atm. not sure why. occassionally he gets really angry, flies to me then bites me. when he does i put him back in his cage and a few hours later he's back to normal. last few days though he's just been angry

right now my plan is to leave him in his cage and interact with him that way and see if he calms down. if he seems fine and doesnt lunge at me through the bars (which he's been doing) i'll let him out. if he keeps lunging i think i'll leave him in. he isnt biting in direct retaliation to anything, he's just angry about something and taking it out on me