"Beaking" baby-- tips?

[PipsAmber]

I have a nearly four month old male Lovebird. He was hand-raised and has been handled daily since I got him. He's very sweet. He enjoys cuddling with me, he likes to climb on me (I am jungle gym!), he dances and tries to get my attention from his cave, and he is learning to give gentle kisses. Also, he's cultivating a malicious chuckle. He likes to eat with me and play with me with the fanciest toys (Like pop tabs and tissue paper) and is overall extremely sweet, lovable, and tolerant.

But he seem to be teething. Is that a Lovebird thing? Everything goes in his mouth. Everything needs to be pinched, poked, licked, and bitten. It's worse when he's bored. If I take him out of the cage and have a whole set up of cheerios and aluminum foil and yarn for him, he is 90% less likely to try and bite me or my clothes. If I take him out to chill while I use my computer, my keyboard gets it, my fingers get it, my buttons get it, my earrings, ears, nose, and lips get it.

It hurts!

Normally what I do when he bites a finger is make a fist, then give him an earthquake. It dislodges him (Sometimes) but he goes right back to biting. If he's biting anything he reaches from my hair (Ears, nose, lips) I'll either move my head away from him, or reach up and have to pry him off (Ouch) I don't mind the button biting, but the skin biting needs to stop.

Will dog bitter apple be safe for him? Will it work? I can try to get the bird kind, but my Petsmart doesn't carry it. I tried vaseline briefly on my ears and it really deterred him from chewing them as much, but I don't want to cover myself in vaseline. He won't be able to hang on to me!

Halp me! He's such a sweetie and I'm about to get his brother and if this is a teething problem, I imagine I'll be filled with twice as many holes soon.

 

[WendyM]

Hello PipsAmber,

Im not one of the more experienced members, but I noticed you hadn't had any replies, so thought I could share my experience. I have had a lorikeet and now have a green-cheeked conure. My GCC is 4 months old.

With both birds I started putting them back in their cage when they bite, but this didn't change their behaviour much. Then I tried putting them back in their cage and either covering the cage or moving it to another room and shutting the door where I would leave them for five to ten minutes. I would pick them up and hold their head gently between my fingers so that they couldn't bite my hand and say "you have to go back in your cage" in a stern voice when I put them back in their cage. I found that this worked, especially being put in another room. I think they may see as a kind of rejection from the flock for bad behaviour.

With my lorikeet who I had for five years, when she was being naughty I only had to say "do you want to go back into your cage" in a stern voice and she would stop being naughty.

Another thing I do is talk gently and encouragingly (oh this is nice. oh I like this little bird) when the sit on my shoulder and do not bite.

Good luck. I can see you love your little lovebird. I do hope it works out for you.

Do you think you should put off getting a second bird till you get the first one under control?

 

[WendyM]

I forgot to ask if you have tried clicker training, starting with touch training. A good way to have fun with your bird and get him used to obeying your commands. There is a good book "Clicker training for birds" by Melanie Johnson and also a Yahoo forum. Check out YouTube videos too.

 

[WendyM]

Back again!

Be wary of using aluminium foil as a toy. I think he would only need to invest a small piece of foil to develop metal poisoning, which is usually fatal.