Finley started yelling when asked to step up and sometimes bites (not hard) help!

[Sunnyclover]

I've been trying these new techniques to help Finley to stop biting. He seems to not be responding at all except with more biting. I tried putting him in the bathroom and that seemed to traumatize him even more because he'd often bite while I was retrieving him and then shortly afterwards landing him in the bathroom again... So then I just started holding his beak again when he bit and he allows me to do that without biting me more but does not seem to connect to biting with beak holding. I hold the beak for a little while so he really gets it but he isn't. He no longer bites when stepping up but more when I'm holding him or playing with him or interrupted him doing something he wants to do. He screams at me quickly and fastly and then bites bunch of times quickly and fastly and makes a weird snorting noise while doing it. It usually doesn't hurt at all but sometimes when he's ready upset it does. I'm not sure what his issue is... He doesn't seem scared of me at all...like not even a little and he seems to long to be with me but then bites me when he's on me. We're still able to get playing time in though because he bites and I tell him "no bite" then hold his beak and then we continue our activities. It blows my mind because he seems very happy and loves me. He doesn't really even seem like he's trying to be aggressive either. It's really weird! I hate it because it just feels like I'm repremanding him so much when we're together I can't imagine why he'd still want to be with me. Part of me thinks to ignore it? I'm not really sure...

 

[Carl_Power]

Sounds like he has put some boundries up. Try give him some space for a few days without repremanding him but still be vocal and loving. If he doesnt wanna do something then dont make him for a while or put him in a position to bite. I dont think your going through anything most Parronts havent. You will get your lovely birdy back with time and patience. Mines being moody of late too. Its a hormonal time of year too for birds. It will be ok. Dont take it to heart it just comes with the territory x

 

[LordTriggs]

agreed with carl. What I would probably do is instead of using the bathroom as useful as it is and instead place him just out of arms reach of you when he does then focus on Ollie for a little bit. He may be forgetting the bite by the time you get to the bathroom so may think you're just being mean to him which may explain why he goes back to biting immediately. Plus seeing that Ollie not biting gets play time may make him understand how things work. Also seeing if Ollie does bite that he gets put in timeout may help him connect the dots too

 

[Sunnyclover]

Operation don't touch Finley (too much) is in full effect. He seems to want me to touch him... Everytime I come near his cage play top he rolls onto his back to initiate play. This is hard! Darn it Finn just stop biting!!

 

[itzjbean]

I like the new tactic hopefully it does the trick!!

 

[Sunnyclover]

So far so good with the biting it's been an hour since I've been home. My only real interaction with him so.far was this: [ame="https://youtu.be/MQtLJ_-S2iI"]Finley being playful! - YouTube[/ame]

He was too cute to resist...I know I accidentally touched his vent once... it's not common because he's usually on my lap when we play. How can this loving playful little boy be biting his Mommy! Lol.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Ugggg! Now that I've been a bit more hands off he's taken to screaming like he's terrified of me and then trying to bite me 2/3 of the time I ask him to step up. I just really don't get it. I really don't. Other than maybe me scaring him by holding his beak when he bites(which he turns I to a huge ordeal by flailing around half the time) I can't think of anything that would cause this. Not to mention he started the biting and screaming at me out of no where. I did interact with him last night a couple of times when he flew to me(he's clipped but can still fly) from the tree stand. He flew off and ran to the couch and I let him step up to me on the couch and he immediately hopped on my hand and started mating with it. I ofc interrupted him and gave him a small cool down on the top of the couch then he played as normal for about 10 mins and started to get a bit bite and I returned him to the stand until bedtime. Today I took a few minutes in the morning to hang out and he bit me when I asked him to step up from my shoulder but 1st let out a scream like he was being murdered. I just told him "no bite" and touched his beak and he stepped up. I then ignored him for a good while and left for my workout. I returned and gave Ollie and him some veg and fruit while I had lunch and we were all happily eating and enjoying each other on our respective areas. I then go to have Finn step up multiple times and he screams when I'm lowering my hand to him and bites frantically like he's scared to death but then out of no where he turns on his back (like above video) and begs to play. Hopping around and playing and going on his back for scratches which I encouraged. But then while on his back he all of a sudden screams like he's scared and clamps down on my finger while on his back and keeps biting hard almost breaking the skin while he's on his back! I of course yell "No" and frantically put him in his cage and close the door because I'm hurt and my heart hurts and I'm not sure what just happened. He's clearly scared now of me because he screams Everytime I ask him to step up and bites when I try to pet him. /Sigh. I'm not sure how this went downhill so fast. Maybe it was because he was week when I got him and needed to be fed formula and then developed a sinus infection and he was docile from being sick that he was so sweet and gentle. Now he bites non stop and seems to hate me... Except when he wants to mate with my hand? So weird. I feel bad for him...I do t know what to do...I think I maybe ruined things with Finley and I thinking he'd be easy to teach like Ollie. I thought the same methods would work but instead he's just scared of me. Do I just start over on trust? He does seem to be normal sometimes and just plays on my lap and gives kisses. I really don't know what to think...

 

[itzjbean]

Aw, I'm sorry to hear Finley is still being a jerk and acting all goofy.

The trying to mate with your hand thing is strange, as he's not even 6 months old and exhibiting sexual behaviors already. Strange but it sounds like he is being hit with hormones -- the biting, the screaming for you, the mating to your hand, frustrated behavior, though that doesn't make much sense since he's so young... molting maybe??

I do know that many parrots (especially the larger species) are practically incapable of being handled during this time of year, either in fear of getting bit or attacked. Birds are weird like that, they have the instinct bad to reproduce. I follow someone on Insagram (adventures_of_roku) who keeps two macaws and from his videos and what he explained I learned quite a lot -- he would get attacked if he tried to pick one of them up, when they are 'in the mood' you don't try to touch them unless you want a finger ripped off.

That is my best guess...I hope he is just going through a phase of initial hormones or he is just itchy from an upcoming molt... hang in there!!

 

[Sunnyclover]

Yeah.. it's super weird. Ollie as far as I know still hasn't went through puberty or if he did it was very mild. At 5 months I wasn't expecting this at ALL. Honestly, I hope that's what it is. He is not moulting at all so that's definitely not it. /Sigh I feel very sad about this...I think if Finn was my only bird I'd be very very depressed right now but I have my little orange beam of sunlight so I can make it through. With Finn one minute he's hot (too hot) the next minute he's cold, figuratively speaking of course. I'm just really worried. I might even call the vet and ask some questions of I can't fix this in a couple of weeks.

 

[LordTriggs]

okay right now you need to calm down because he's picking up on it.

With the mating and that video I noticed something. There's an awful lot of touching in "CERTAIN" areas of his body (you actually touched his vent early on in the video) which could be giving him the wrong idea of what you want from him. Plus the chasing he very quickly slapped his feathers down to his body with his head as high up as possible. I think their may be 3 things going on right here which makes sense with what you describe.

1. He may think you want him to get jiggy with it.

2. The chasing tickling play may actually be a bit scary to him and you're not quite seeing it because of how Ollie plays.

3. you hold his beak for both naughty behavior and for play time so he could well be confused and thinking biting is part of playing right now.

4. when you tell him off you say you "yell" which of course for different people means different things. But he could be actually finding your telling off's to be funny to him making him screech and bite more.

Try to take a moment to de-stress and relax yourself for the evening and possibly leave him in his cage for tonight to avoid biting happening. He'll be fine for an evening. Now I'm sure you've seen mine and Clark's shunning method of correction posted numerous times by now, but if/when he bites you sternly tell him (in a calm but stern voice, I tend to use a deeper voice) "no" then immediately place him away from you and then completely ignore him for a minute or so, even show Ollie some extra love. Then once he has shown himself to calm down you go back to him as if nothing happened and continue. Repeat as many times as he bites, if he wants to be included then he can behave like a good bird

 

[Sunnyclover]

Okay well I did leave him completely alone tonight so that's a good start. I will try to quit the chasing play, he actually starts it when he's on the top of his cage but I can easily not engage him. It's hard to not touch him all over when doing that anyways so I'd better just not do it to be safe. He is just sooo confusing because he seems to want me to play because he rolls on his back. What kind of scared bird rolls on their back? I usually don't yell at him with the acception of the last couple of times because I'm definitely very frustrated at this point. I will go fourth and use a Stern calm voice from now on. I think I'm going to (as you say) just put him in a spot to calm down when he bites after telling him "no" because nothing else is working and he's clearly went from 0 to 60 in about a week and I'm not sure he's picking up on the other methods. Also, I'm not sure he thinks biting is part of playing which would make sense but I can tell that he's defensively biting me because he looks scared when he does it and does it when I'm about to have him step up if if I move him from a task he wants to finish (like chew on something). Hmm well I'm going to take a breather and start fresh and leave past frustrations behind me and start slow. Thanks guys! I will update again after I give the little guy some time.

 

[Sunnyclover]

So I think I figured out why Finley was biting most of the time. He seemed to be biting when he is on top of his play top higher than I am or on top of the tree which is higher than my head and he seems to think that he's the boss when he's up there. I know this is not uncommon among you get parrots trying to feel out their territory and decide the pecking order. I'm first going to work with him to see if we can eliminate The Binding without taking his play top down or not putting him on it but if it doesn't work I'm going to try taking his play top part down and not putting them on the tree as much. We have made a little progress on the biting this weekend but then today he seems to be back to biting me quite often so hopefully we can figure it out.