Conure biting sometimes

So I have a 3 month old Conure, he's a sweet sweet boy, he is extremely smart learning pretty quickly some tricks like if "I go in my cage I can get a few bites of a treat". The problem I am having recently is he has just been biting me only which is a good thing and bad thing. My parents he does not bite and my grandparents he doesn't bite either (again all great things). My dad who handles him more then the rest but not more than me gets a few bites but he is told "no biting" immediately and he gets the picture and stops biting.
With me however recently he has been on a bite attack biting my hands to my neck when he snuggles next to me. I do tell him "no biting" but I do not know what could be triggering this. I usually would say oh I am spoiling him since I spoiled my last bird but I can honestly say I've done the opposite. I don't give him special treatment, me and my dad mirror each other in terms of letting him roam around the house while being with him. Now the biting isn't always there, he does snuggle with me no biting and gets massages and no biting so he's not doing it at all times but I do want to correct this behavior.
Ive seen some other threads addressing this but I want to know if its something I am doing wrong individually so I can correct it. Any advice I'll happily take it.

That's the problem with biting- when you don't know what is causing it, and you know he is old enough to know better...so you have to assume something you are doing it is reinforcing the behavior.

You also need to consider the role of touch--- touching and cuddling places other than the head and neck can cause you to be viewed in a sexual way and your bird is getting older. Being a sexual object to a bird who can never actually have you for its mate can lead to all sorts of unwanted behaviors.

If you have any tents/huts/boxes/ bedding/teepees/hammocks etc (in or outside the cage) make sure you get rid of them when your bird is not looking. They can sleep on a perch just fine and they tend to seek out shadowy spaces due to nesting instincts etc. You want to minimize access.

How much sleep is he getting nightly, and is it on a schedule?


Saying "no bite" is attending to the behavior and reacting to it. You are seeing biting increase, which means that the behavior is being rewarded or at least triggered.

The 4 main reasons for any behavior (human or animal) = escape (to get out of a situation, away from a person or object or out of a task), attention (touching, closeness, eye contact, vocal response---yelling, mad, happy, sad--- it's all attention for an attention seeker, tangibles (to get access to a physical reward/item/object of value) and sensory/automatic-- scratching an itch, blinking if an object flashes in front of your face etc...

This is the basic framework for ABA -Applied Behavior Analysis.

First, make sure that your bird's behavioral and husbandry needs are met and minimize hormones (solid diet, 10 hours uninterrupted sleep on a schedule, head and neck petting only..

From there, look at your reactions to the behavior. I will post more in a minute because I know I have already posted this and didn't want to re-post.


You shouldn't massage a bird- def sends the wrong message --it's like making out with them...plus...
Although yours is still young, you are setting a problematic pattern of interaction and so you need to consider what will be inappropriate later when you make choices now (because they expect routines to continue).

noodles123 said:

That's the problem with biting- when you don't know what is causing it, and you know he is old enough to know better...so you have to assume something you are doing it is reinforcing the behavior.

You also need to consider the role of touch--- touching and cuddling places other than the head and neck can cause you to be viewed in a sexual way and your bird is getting older. Being a sexual object to a bird who can never actually have you for its mate can lead to all sorts of unwanted behaviors.

If you have any tents/huts/boxes/ bedding/teepees/hammocks etc (in or outside the cage) make sure you get rid of them when your bird is not looking. They can sleep on a perch just fine and they tend to seek out shadowy spaces due to nesting instincts etc. You want to minimize access.

How much sleep is he getting nightly, and is it on a schedule?


Saying "no bite" is attending to the behavior and reacting to it. You are seeing biting increase, which means that the behavior is being rewarded or at least triggered.

The 4 main reasons for any behavior (human or animal) = escape (to get out of a situation, away from a person or object or out of a task), attention (touching, closeness, eye contact, vocal response---yelling, mad, happy, sad--- it's all attention for an attention seeker, tangibles (to get access to a physical reward/item/object of value) and sensory/automatic-- scratching an itch, blinking if an object flashes in front of your face etc...

This is the basic framework for ABA -Applied Behavior Analysis.

First, make sure that your bird's behavioral and husbandry needs are met and minimize hormones (solid diet, 10 hours uninterrupted sleep on a schedule, head and neck petting only..

From there, look at your reactions to the behavior. I will post more in a minute because I know I have already posted this and didn't want to re-post.


You shouldn't massage a bird- def sends the wrong message --it's like making out with them...plus...
Although yours is still young, you are setting a problematic pattern of interaction and so you need to consider what will be inappropriate later when you make choices now (because they expect routines to continue).

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for your answer, we def. only massage his head and neck area, and he is on a scheduled sleep as we cover him at 10:00pm. If the no biting isn’t recommended what are some other things I can try. I will look through the forum some more since I believe you said you’ve written it before to someone else. I will do my best to continue to learn through here and with your advice.

You have to figure out the reason/function before knowing what to try- here is my ABA post- kay--- here is the ABA post --it was written for a member whose bird was biting her kid, but because you don't know if your bird is biting for attention, you have to determine the "why" before you know the "how":

"First--- mitigate hormonal influences and get rid of triggers--In the short-term, things that impact behavior outside of you or the bird are sometimes called "setting events" :
1. remove all snuggle huts, tents, caves and hammocks from his cage and don't let him hang out in bedding, under cloths, in boxes etc.
2. Pet on the head and neck only.
3. 10-12 hours of sleep on a schedule each night.
4. Make sure he is getting plenty of activity and enrichment/ things to do

From there, I would recommend Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Start by making what they call an ABC chart (antecedent= what happens right before the bird's behavior, behavior=what the bird does, c= consequence =what happens right after the behavior (good or bad---consequence is just the RESULT and it doesn't mean consequence in the same way that we sometimes think of a consequence).

In the scenario you gave above:

Antecedent= Son laughed while you were playing with him and bird was on you.
behavior= bird flew off and bit son on lip.....You didn't say what happened next, but that would be the consequence.
consequence= WHATEVER YOU AND YOUR SON DID=== did he cry? Did you yell? Did your son leave the room? Did you put the bird back on the cage? Did you stop playing Monopoly? All of these things are really important because all behaviors serves a purpose. People and animals only do things because we are rewarded in some conscious or subconscious way by the results of the behavior. This is called the "function" of a behavior (the reason we do it). A behavior can have more than one function, but all behaviors fall into 1 of 4 categories:

1. Escape (to get out of a location, get away from a person, avoid a task/activity etc)
2. Attention (to get attention from humans or animals which may include eye contact, yelling, laughter, increased proximity, scolding etc)
3.Tangibles- to obtain a physical item---e.g., a kid throwing a fit to get candy at the grocery store or hitting another kid to take their toy. Heck---working for a paycheck also falls into this realm.
4. Sensory= eating when hungry (to stop the hunger), taking a pill for a headache, scratching your skin because it itches, crying as a response to legitimate pain.

I would say that this behavior, while rooted in a sudden change in hormones/ drive, can be shaped if you start to understand how everyone's reactions are likely feeding into it.

By charting ABC's of a behavior, you start to see a pattern. When you look at the "c" column (consequences) you will find a general pattern. Without knowing more about this pattern of behavior and consequences (e.g., charting it) I cannot say with certainty what the function/reason is, but just based on what you said and based on my experiences, I am going to guess that after you do the charting, you will probably notice that the majority of the "consequences" will be linked to the theme/"function" of attention ---but when you look at the chart, you will want to ask yourself, is this consequence creating an opportunity for attention, escape, tangibles or sensory. You may have a combination, but you are looking for the once you see most frequently across the board in relation to this behavior.

This is how you determine the function (reason for doing) a behavior. When you know the function, you can then manipulate the behavior by A) NOT gratifying/rewarding the behavior with consequences that serve the function and B) providing more appropriate ways for the function of that behavior to be met without doing it in an inappropriate way. These are socially acceptable alternatives to the undesirable location--- they allow the same function to be met/gratified, but in a more appropriate way.

From the sounds of it, your bird is likely motivated by 1. primarily attention from you and 2. Escape/avoidance of your son (because he is an attention-blocker/associated with lack of attention from you).--I AM JUST GUESSING--- IF I AM WRONG ABOUT ATTENTION BEING THE FUNCTION THEN YOU WILL NEED TO DO A DIFFERENT INTERVENTION---

I can't say for sure without knowing how you react when this stuff happens, but if he is like most 7 year-olds, here's what I imagine:

Playing game with you (attention is on game and kid) , Kid laughs, bird bites.
Kid screams, you stop paying attention to the game , you yell/scold/react while looking at bird-- if this happens, so far, the bird has learned that biting gets attention from you and your kid (if what happens is anything like what I just described)--if your kid leaves, then your bird no longer sees you giving him that attention and all is right in the world again (the "threat" has been removed). He wants your attention because he is a flock creature, but also because he is reaching sexual maturity and likely views you as a mate and in the wild, conures do not share mates. Your kid is a potential threat as long as you are a sexual object. This doesn't mean withdrawing all attention from your bird, but it does mean that you will have to be EXTRA mindful about how you interact with him in order to set the bird up for success (before the behavior occurs and in situations where the behavior is likely to occur).

In an attention seeking behavior, the bigger your reaction, the more you are rewarding the bird. In this case, 2 people reacting with urgency could be quite gratifying!
Assuming the bird really wants attention from you, instead of making a big thing of it, my suggestion would be to firmly say No (NOT loudly, one time) and use something like a time-out cage to isolate the bird immediately following the bite. If you are the object of the bird's attention seeking then you need to accomplish this as quickly as possible with as little eye-contact/reaction as possible. This will only work if you are absolutely certain that your bird is biting for attention--- by doing a short time-out away from you and your son, his attention seeking behavior cannot be reinforced.

At the same time, after a short time-out, you need to show him positive ways that he can get attention from you while your son is around WITHOUT biting. This is that socially acceptable equivalent I discussed earlier-- if he bites for attention, maybe you teach him to ring a bell for attention, say a word word for attention, take a treat for attention etc. Something that gets him the same type of reward without upsetting the household.

Because this involves a kid, it IS more complicated though because it's going to be really hard for your son to control his reactions. If he cannot control his reactions, then you need to consider avoiding situations in which things like this can occur, because if you are trying to stick with the "ignoring" program, but he keeps reacting, then you will likely make the behavior even worse...so it's important to be as consistent as possible once you start an intervention.

I would definitely try to pair your son with positives for the bird. It is likely that you pay attention to your child more than the bird when he is around, and that is no fun for the bird. Try to make a consious effort of giving your bird MORE attention (for positives) when your son is around and pair him with as many positives as possible. In an attention seeker, attention will always be the most important reward, but you can tack on other incentives too (like a favorite treat whenever he is with you and your son). The thing is, the treat MUST be secondary to the main reward (attention ). While it can help strengthen positive associations, an attention-seeker's behavior is never going to be impacted by food alone (unless getting that food is accompanied by the attention it desires)."

Here is a link to another reply I posted-- see my reply for more links to ABA resources there:
http://www.parrotforums.com/quakers/85621-casey-acting-increasingly-hostile-towards-fiance.html


Ignoring a biting bird will only work if the bird is doing it to get attention/a reaction.

Some birds bite to get away from people, so ignoring an "escape" seeker is also like a reward because they did it to get out of the situation, so ignoring them is what they want.


If a bird bites to keep an object (tangible), ignoring that bird will not work either, as the tangible object is what they want. The tangible item is what they find most reinforcing.

If a bird wants attention, cut off attention for bad and give for preferred behaviors-- also consider giving bird a treat before any biting happens (can't eat and bit at same time)

If a bird wants to avoid a situation (escape), do your best to keep that bird from being in the situation, allow appropriate means of "escape" by reading signals and giving break before biting (you can also pair preferred activities with favorite foods or people as long as you still keep in mind that your reinforcement must match the function of the behavior.


https://www.abadegreeprograms.net/faq/what-is-applied-behavior-analysis-in-simple-terms/



http://theautismhelper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ABA-101-Handouts-The-Autism-Helper.pdf


https://www.autismspeaks.org/applied-behavior-analysis-aba-autism-treatment

noodles123 said:

Here is a link to another reply I posted-- see my reply for more links to ABA resources there:
http://www.parrotforums.com/quakers/85621-casey-acting-increasingly-hostile-towards-fiance.html


Ignoring a biting bird will only work if the bird is doing it to get attention/a reaction.

Some birds bite to get away from people, so ignoring an "escape" seeker is also like a reward because they did it to get out of the situation, so ignoring them is what they want.


If a bird bites to keep an object (tangible), ignoring that bird will not work either, as the tangible object is what they want. The tangible item is what they find most reinforcing.

If a bird wants attention, cut off attention for bad and give for preferred behaviors-- also consider giving bird a treat before any biting happens (can't eat and bit at same time)

If a bird wants to avoid a situation (escape), do your best to keep that bird from being in the situation, allow appropriate means of "escape" by reading signals and giving break before biting (you can also pair preferred activities with favorite foods or people as long as you still keep in mind that your reinforcement must match the function of the behavior.


https://www.abadegreeprograms.net/faq/what-is-applied-behavior-analysis-in-simple-terms/



http://theautismhelper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ABA-101-Handouts-The-Autism-Helper.pdf


https://www.autismspeaks.org/applied-behavior-analysis-aba-autism-treatment

Click to expand...

Thank you so much Noodles for all the links and advice. We’ve only had him for a month so better to get this all sorted now especially since he’s young. Today he actually has not bitten me at all while he has been outside with me. I will be taking notes and see what I have done today compared to what I did the other day when he did indeed bite me.

also, pay attention to everyone else, as well as the time of day etc--- if you get chased and someone he loves enters to help, pay attention..If he chases you and you run or make noise, if a certain person is around every time you get bitten etc...


That was sloppy wording on my part, but look at what everyone (pets, family,friends etc) does before and after (and "nothing" is never an option lol-- because even silence is something)--also note any changes to schedule, time out of cage and sleep the night before

If you've only had him a month, you could be getting bitten due to escape-type behavior, although chasing feet seems less escape oriented.


Just make sure you keep building trust as much as you can.