Got bitten the other day.

[Talaya]

Finally got a proper bite from my boy that drew blood. He can be a bit territorial when I sit on the floor and clean. Usually he goes for the cloth and tries to bite and chew it. But Wednesday, he was as good as gold. He just Sat there and ignored it. But.. when I went to get up, everytime I put my hand down on the floor he would growl, make himself big and lunge at my fingers. After managing to avoid about 3 attempts, he was walking away, about a foot away, so I thought yes now I can get up…. Ha, no.. I put my hand down, as soon as I had my weight through my hand so I couldn’t move it away, he spun round, ran at speed past my right hand and lunged at my finger on my left hand..it was A hard deliberate quick bite. I can’t believe I managed not to make a noise 🤣. He also has quickly grabbed my toe on occasion but never really hard.. He is two years old.
Does anyone else Ekkie do this?

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Finally got a proper bite from my boy that drew blood. He can be a bit territorial when I sit on the floor and clean. Usually he goes for the cloth and tries to bite and chew it. But Wednesday, he was as good as gold. He just Sat there and ignored it. But.. when I went to get up, everytime I put my hand down on the floor he would growl, make himself big and lunge at my fingers. After managing to avoid about 3 attempts, he was walking away, about a foot away, so I thought yes now I can get up…. Ha, no.. I put my hand down, as soon as I had my weight through my hand so I couldn’t move it away, he spun round, ran at speed past my right hand and lunged at my finger on my left hand..it was A hard deliberate quick bite. I can’t believe I managed not to make a noise 🤣. He also has quickly grabbed my toe on occasion but never really hard.. He is two years old.
Does anyone else Ekkie do this?

Wow! That's quite a bite! Make sure you take care of it so you don't get infected.

I wonder if any other PF members have taken good photos of their parrots bite wounds. Might make a good thread. Any thoughts?

 

[hiriki]

I have smaller/medium sized birds myself, but I've known acquaintances who warned me not to take my shoes off because their macaws or other large birds would go for toes. Idk, I feel like with my smaller birds I've always enforced a NO FLOOR rule out of fear of stepping on them (with the exception of the doves who I more or less consider to be ground birds, so I let them enjoy their floor time). Since they're not even allowed on the floor, they naturally don't develop territorial feelings about the floor. I'm wondering how feasible it would be to discourage your bird from being on the floor at all?

Sorry about your battle scar, hope it's healing nicely!

 

[wrench13]

LOL, I am of 2 minds on that! One side says yes, and I have got some real doozies to show - Salty gives me a warning nudge most times, but nothing substitutes for really observing his whole being before I pick him up; and the other side says posting pictures like that will scare some folks off from getting or taking in a parrot.

Look - getting bitten is part and parcel of owning a parrot. Yes there are the rare persons who say 'My parrot never bit or tried to bite me', but most have been nailed at least once, and nailed pretty good. But I would hate to scare anyone off from owning one. Closely observing your bird and knowing their body language and temperament, and respecting that, is the best way to avoid bites. The best bite is the one that didn't happen.

My worst bite was from a double yellow head amazon (A species that I love but who uniformly as a species hate me on sight), in a large parrot only pet store. Like a fool, I went in to give him a scratch without knowing the bird or having taken time to observe him. He took a nice mellon-baller size chunk of meat out of my fat forefinger! Pictures of that, you don't want to see !!

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

YEOUCH! That looks like it is a doozy! Believe it or not, worst bite i ever got was from a budgie. and I've been dinged by conures, budgies, cockatiels and a chicken, LOL!

 

[Free as a bird]

He took a nice mellon-baller size chunk of meat out of my fat forefinger! Pictures of that, you don't want to see !!

Oh yes we do my friend...
Yes we do... 🙂

I was handling a very tame umbrella cockatoo recently and I just kept thinking about the damage that huge beak could do. Lucky the bird didn't read my fear as my excitement at the time probably overshadowed it

 

[Talaya]

Wow! That's quite a bite! Make sure you take care of it so you don't get infected.

I wonder if any other PF members have taken good photos of their parrots bite wounds. Might make a good thread. Any thoughts?

its healing nicely. his beak is sooo sharp, the one that bled stopped hurting just a day later and looked virtually healed. The other one more like a pressure graze, didn’t bleed too much that one is still sore!

 

[Talaya]

Fortunately the bite was more like a cut and a squash graze. not an actual chunk out ! Poor you Wrench.
Gosh I couldnt do a no floor rule, he’s in the lounge with us in the day. he just loves throwing his toys on the floor then spends the Playing with them. He is fairly easy to see when he is up to no good. He Is also quite beaky ever since he arrived, rarely hurts but always happy to just his beak around us to say when he doesn’t like something. I do my best to try and train him that’s not really acceptable but it’s obviously something I’m not too good at. His signs are very subtle. He is a very stubborn strong willed boy Lol.
EG: Like he loves our cleaner and will sit on her as she cleans, often Chattering away to her. It’s like I don’t exist , he absolutely refuses to step off her - goes like a statue And stares at me.
the worst bite I had was from a cockatiel Who got my nail bed.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

LOL, I am of 2 minds on that! One side says yes, and I have got some real doozies to show - Salty gives me a warning nudge most times, but nothing substitutes for really observing his whole being before I pick him up; and the other side says posting pictures like that will scare some folks off from getting or taking in a parrot.

Look - getting bitten is part and parcel of owning a parrot. Yes there are the rare persons who say 'My parrot never bit or tried to bite me', but most have been nailed at least once, and nailed pretty good. But I would hate to scare anyone off from owning one. Closely observing your bird and knowing their body language and temperament, and respecting that, is the best way to avoid bites. The best bite is the one that didn't happen.

My worst bite was from a double yellow head amazon (A species that I love but who uniformly as a species hate me on sight), in a large parrot only pet store. Like a fool, I went in to give him a scratch without knowing the bird or having taken time to observe him. He took a nice mellon-baller size chunk of meat out of my fat forefinger! Pictures of that, you don't want to see !!

Yeah, gory pictures are probably not good for public consumption.

 

[WingDing]

Talaya, sorry to see your pain.

Our 5 year old Eclectus, Toby, is very territorial and bites hands and feet and sometimes forearms. I've worked with two avian behaviorists over the last 3 years on this issue and the best we have come up with is to avoid the situations where the bird gets aroused to aggression. That's just the what I've learned to accept. He will only ride on my shoulder. No hands allowed. No petting, no playing, no letting him run around on the back of the sofa when we're sitting on it. No getting too close to his cage when he's in it or on it. When changing his food or water, he has to be on his play stand.

My wife loves Toby from afar because of the nasty bites he has given her. I rarely get bitten because I know what his limits are and what triggers him, but sometimes I get caught off guard.

Oh, and don't forget about them hormones! During the times of the year when the hormones kick in, a male Eclectus can be a real little monster. That might be happening to your bird right now.

Best wishes for y'all.

 

[4 way borbs]

Weird, only one had Andy ever draw blood and it was just a teesy drop from a teesy bird. Im not an expert on birds but its probalby just him being sus about it (sus cause I don't know how to spell real words)