Face bitten :(

[lahnnerose]

Lilo is STILL biting . I think she is a lot better but she just bit my face .
Ughhhh its so emotionally hard to deal with as well as the fact it absolutely KILLS. 2 weeks ago she bit my lip right under my nose so hard it bled & bled
& left two big scabs that have only just gone away .
I got to a point with Lilo where I was going to sell her , I even took her to
Someone's house to meet the lady , but I just couldn't commit .
Very upset at the moment

 

[kc_y0]

How do you react when she bites? She might be looking for a reaction. I know its a bit of a distance from you, but there is a pet shop here called Kellyville pets and I am pretty sure they have parrot behavioural classes. Maybe you could find someone closer to you to help with Lilo's biting As its just not fun having a nippy girl, you should be able to hold her without worrying about her biting you.

 

[lahnnerose]

If she goes to bite me , I usually say short sharp ah ! And she will stop and look at me , but sometimes obviously its too late for that .
When she does bite me , I usually yelp , just cause it hurts so bad . Then I put her on her cage and ignore her (go and tend to my wound).
Just before she was on my shoulder & bit the side of my face/temple and I yelled from the pain & just clutched my head . My mum then came over and said NO and I walked her over to the cage , an she didn't want to get off but mum sort of made her by motioning behind her back . I think mum ushered her into her cage rather than on it and shut the door and put her sheet over it . I should look for classes or something , but doubt there would be anything in canberra . And it would be so embarrassing if lilo bit me & I started crying in front of strangers haha ! Sighhh

 

[kc_y0]

I know its really hard because it hurts, but try not to make any loud sound when she bites, as she might like this and it might excite her and encourage the biting. Easier said than done of course, I know I have said my fair share of "Ouches!" when bitten lol. Definitely tell her a loud NO though and put her into the cage.
And don't be embarrassed about it! Birds can hurt! If other people are in the classes, they'd probably know the pain all too well!
I think the main thing is to get to the reason of the biting and then hopefully eliminate it. When and where does she usually bite? Does she fluff up before its happening, or any other signs? (If she is showing aggression I'd put her into the cage right away before letting a bite happen, but as you said sometimes its too late). Do you wear rings, or any bright jewelry? My girl automatically bites fingers that have rings up them, so I know never to wear rings when picking her up lol. Do you find that when she is more aggressive you are wearing a certain colour clothing?

 

[kc_y0]

I think other things to take into account as well which could cause a grumpy bird, is she getting enough sleep? How's her diet? How much out of cage time does she get? Are people from the house away most of the time? Does she have enough toys to stop boredom? Just trying to look at every possible angle lol!

 

[Trina]

Ohhh please don't rehome her. My girl when i got her was described as a mean bird that bites and must be removed from cage by toweling.. The man i got her from I wanted to smack him silly he did keep good records of her past she is about to turn 5 and according to him i am her 4th owner if you count the breeder. This is sad. She was passed around because of biting & she was deemed as a bird that could not be handled. Because she bit the owner put her cage outside the house that caused more issues plucking, boredom, she had no toys and was fed seed.

There is an underlying reason as why she is biting, Try journaling everytime you interact with her. It helps. So if you do get bitten you can go back and read what happened before the bite was she scared, or rushed to come out of her cage etc. We tend to forget what we might have done before the bite.

My girl will bite if your hand is unsteady or if she is scared. A biting bird takes alot of work there is a root cause try to find this cause.

I also do not allow shoulder riding with my girl because i know she will bite if she feels the perch is unsteady. I have gotten bit 3 times by her and it hurt badly 2 times she made me bleed. However she does not bite anymore and is a very good bird. I had to give her alot of space I used wooden perches instead of offering my hand.

My birds main reason she bites is if i push her to do something to quickly or if she feels scared. She will also be nippy with me if i let her walk on my floor so dont allow walking on floors.

It took alot of work but they will come around i havent been bitten in a long time just work slowly with her give her her space and try to think about what happened right before the bites.

 

[MaraWentz]

Ignoring the biting works wonders. By giving no reaction consistently they realize it has no effect and stop. My Erin was not tame and did nothing but bite and flutter. Now we just ignore any bad behaviors like the biting and screaming and they disappeared. She is so sweet and loves to be held and loves head scratches and is so easy friendly.

 

[friedsoup]

Okay I know it might be hard but for now no face time and no shoulder time from anyone just training and hand perching no kisses, or tidbits from the corner of you mouth. Follow the above advice and I'm sure you'll get thru this stage.

 

[RescueMe]

I second the no face or shoulder interaction for a bird that is biting. The best way to deal with a biting bird is to prevent bites. Good luck with your girl.

 

[Boysmom]

My girl was a bit nippy when I first got her. I took quite a few hard bites from Ruby before I learned how to read her body language and counteract a bite. She has broken the skin on my fingers and hand a few times and left me bleeding. Now we catch her talking to herself and have heard her say " NO Ruby that hurts". I learned to roll my finger towards the back of her beak during a bite, and also the earthquake, where if you see a bite coming give her a small jostle or drop the hand a bit down and it unstables them and diverts their attention. Note that when I say No Ruby that hurts it is in the same calm voice as usual, nothing loud and alarming. I can tell when Ruby is just in a grumpy mood, and I dont pick her up. At those grumpy times I will calmly speak to her on her cage and let her be. Ruby loves the play fight with the Hubby and she gets quite aggressive with him, but she has learned mommy doesnt play rough, if she gets rough with me I simply place her back on her cage. When she doesnt want to go back to her cage I simply lean my hand so that she is leaning more forward and my hands are further back and under her and away from her beak grasp and approach her perch with her beak out front. I will keep her in that position till she decides to step onto the perch. I agree with all the others : KEEP HER AWAY FROM YOUR FACE AND SHOULDERS, until she has learned not to bite you. I never allow Ruby on shoulders, she has a tendancy to want to nibble ( not bite) ears and that tickles which garners a response and she sees it as positive reinforcement to be nippy.

 

[brianlinkles]

Okay I know it might be hard but for now no face time and no shoulder time from anyone just training and hand perching no kisses, or tidbits from the corner of you mouth. Follow the above advice and I'm sure you'll get thru this stage.

I second this. Shoulder time needs to be earned! A bird should never be up on your shoulders or placed anywhere near your face until you are very confident that they will not bite. (some birds should never ever be there) As for eating out of the mouth, never! There are lots of bacteria that we have in our mouth that could pose many problems for our birds.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

try keeping your face away from hers, it's painful to be bitten. When she bites don't put her back in her cage, birds then learn that when they want to go back biting you will take them there. Plus a cage is a good place and shouldn't be used as punishment.

 

[mtdoramike]

If you handle a bird, there is no way to prevent a bite. I agree, no shoulder time for a bird who bites. But the problem is, you can have her on your shoulder 30-40 times without and issue and one day, the planets align, the moon is full, you wear the wrong colored shirt or she see's you interact with someone else and desides to bite. They are animals and there's really no ryme or reason. They could just be in a bad mood.

But with your bird, I'm thinking there may not be a compatability between the two of you. Some times, no matter how hard we try, we can't make people like us and it's the same thing with animal. I know my Eclectus is that way. I can have people over to the house visiting and Mac will go to all of them except a couple of folks. If I place Mac on their arm, he will jump off or start flapping his wings until I remove him. Thefolks feel bad about it and I alway make excuses like well, he doesn't care for the color of your shirt, or he doesn't care for red headed people with beards hahahahahah. But I know Mac just doesn't care for those few people and there's no way I can change that.

I'm not one of these people who will tell you "DON'T REHOME HER". I'm a realist and believe that sometimes it's for the best for both of you. I can tell you right now, If I have a bird that is constantly biting me, I will rehome them quick, fast and in a hurry because that shows me that you either don't like me or don't want to live here.

Mac bit my left ear pretty severely a couple of weeks ago and fortunately for him there were no stitches or hospital bills involved because if there had been, he would most likely be living someplace else right now. I knwo why he did it, I took him off of my wife's shoulder and he was trying to get frisky with her and she wanted him removed. But it still doesn't excuse what he did. His only saving grace is that I didn't have to go to the hospital. But his beak did puncture my ear above the earlobe piercing it through. It's still a tad sore to this day.

 

[terry52449]

I also agree with the no face time etc. It is training time til she knows how to act. Sometimes we forget they are wild animals and have some issues to deal with.

 

[kimmyj]

a firm NO! place her down and walk away. dont say anything else and just leave her for about 10 min or so. clean urself up and take a few moments to calm down then go back in and play with her.
on a web site i was on before i got zig said that they use there beaks like hand and sometimes they dont bite hard as such but they are just feeling u, when and if she does it just say gentle if she does bite hard then say NO, she will eventually learn when it hurts u and when she can just kinda nibble.
i did this with zig and i feel it worked for me.
dont give her up!
it may be worth emailing Kellyville pet like Kc_yo said. I talked to a guy for ages in there once so helpful.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Lip bites hurt ! And really hard ones are virtually impossible to react to. But keep reaction as calm and quiet as possible. Put her back in cage.

Whenever I have had a bad blood-drawing lip bite, it was always when I was initiated a sudden movement that caught Pritti off guard while he was spacing out and relaxing. I.e. I suddenly called out to someone in the room, or moved my head fast from stillness and startled him. I have now (after about 5 bad lip bites in two decades) trained myself (lol -- him training me) to get him alert using a hand nearby for him to see and snuggle to and for me to look him in the eye, or to just really quietly purr or hum to make sure he is awake before any sudden movements or sounds.

If he's close to my mouth but I've been active and talking the whole time, it's not an issue.

Stick with it. Keep yourself out of harms way. And, remember it isn't a personal attack -- it's something that you may figure out or never figure out and will likely go away.

 

[MollyGreenCheeks]

Agree that shoulder time should not be allowed for a while. Remember that now matter how much you love her and she loves you that shes a bird and just like people, they too have bad days. Sometimes, sadly, we all lash out at people we care about. Here's a new blog posted today via the birdtricks people. Give it a read, you may see something helpful.
Parrot Biting | How To Stop It Quick


Good luck!