Help! :(

[Sanfox87]

Hello everyone. I have recently purchased a jenday conure. Its about 4 months old now. When i brought it home(dont know sex yet) it was such a sweetheart!! I played with it for hours, it would lay on its back and let me cuddle with it. Just recently it has started to bite really hard! Im afraid of even letting it go on my hand. I love my baby But i just dont know what to do. I havent neglected it nor kept it in its cage. Its out for most of the day. Anyone know why it may be doing this? And what training methods should i use to correct this?

 

[Sanfox87]

Anybody????

 

[Riio]

Hey there. Sorry this is happening, Im fairly new to this bird thing, well about a year or so. Anyway, the lil gcc Ive had for about a month has started to be a bit more nippy than he was in the begining. I have to wonder if in the begining they were a bit scared and timid so they were a little nicer and now they are more comfortable with us and in turn are more comfortable with testing the waters. Good luck to you and I know its hard but sit tight, Im sure more people will chime in with their thoughts, it is Monday after all and uugghh you know how mondays can be.
Stick with your lil bird, things are bound to get good again!

 

[tab_xo]

what riio said is correct.. it may just be testing you to see who is the leader of your little group!
hahaha being monday might have something to do with it

you are doing what is right so far by not locking it away because you are scared.. this is just something you will have to work through

when is it biting you? while it is on your hand... when you ask it to step up.. when you try and pat it?

 

[Sanfox87]

Its biting when its in my hand, sometimes when its on my shoulder and i want to bring it down from there. Its frustrating!! But im going to try hard in being patient and hope for the best. I just dont know how to go about things right now...and yeah you 2 are right, it is monday after all lol... Hopefully someone will know what i should do.

 

[tab_xo]

so its when he/she is on you, but doesnt want to leave you, so bites your hand because its trying to take him away?

fargo started testing me just at the end of my first week of having him, he would bite down on my wrist if i tried to get him off me onto another perch.. no blood and wasnt that hard,, but still! now he doesnt bite at all after only 2 weeks of teaching him no! when he has your finger/hand in his mouth.. push towards him.. for some reason they let go.. dont pull away! when he does it just do a stern no! and ignore him.. he will learn that no is a bad thing... if he is on you and maybe is just being a bit too hard, just say gentlleeee

also before he bites you, give him a foot toy, he will then be biting on this, not you!

im not sure if its the same for little birds, but you shouldnt have them on your shoulder for the first few months... they are a little untrustworthy and who knows what they could do

i am in no way an expert, this is just what i have read, and this worked for me..
just remember, dont spray with water or put them in their cage for punishment good luck!

 

[Remy]

I would wait until you two have built up more trust (and he knows that he is not supposed to bite), before letting him on your shoulder. If he bites while on you, immediately put him down. He needs to know that it's not okay to bite you. Also, reward good behavior.

I am assuming that he's biting aggressively, and not just using too much pressure to be playful.

 

[lene1949]

For how long have you had him? Does he break the skin?

If he's only 4 months old, he's still a baby, and will need to be redirected.. Sometimes AH AH! will do, other times a squeak will work - using a toy to distract him might also work.

 

[tab_xo]

lene I read in another post how you mentioned the little squeak. I did it one day and Fargo stopped and was like what happened

 

[JonnyG]

I got my persie when he was very young (I had to spoon fed him for a week), he never use to bite at all but after about 4 months he started to, I think he was begining to grow and wanted to find his place. What I done was to flick him on his beak (not hard, just enough to get his attention) and give him a stern no, if he continued then he would get pushed onto the floor, I didnt place but got my hand under his body and pushed him so he had to fly down to the floor. After a few weeks he soon realised he doesn't get his way with me at all. He still nips at other people and he runs all over my house mate but when it comes to me he is very obedient and will alwasy do whats expected (although he does fly off sometimes when he knows its away time)

 

[momto3]

We have a sweet, sweet quaker who started testing the waters with "biting" about a month after we got her as a baby. She never broke the skin, but was definitely letting us know that she was trying to get her way. We didn't allow her to get her way and when she bit too hard we did the "earthquake" shake and said a stern "no" and also gave her the "evil eye." The evil eye works particularly well with her. After she was reprimanded and stopped we just went on with playing or cuddling--didn't want her to associate negatives with us, only the behavior. She was not allowed on our shoulders during this time. Occasionally now she will do a little angry squak when she doesn't want to be taken off her favorite perch or shoulder but we just ignore it and tell her to step up and then reward her with a treat, a "good bird" and a bit of attention. I think your baby is just testing the waters and you need to stay on top as flock leader. It can be really stressful thinking that your baby might be getting "mean" or out of control. Try not to take it personally and make sure that you have lots of positive sessions with your bird.

 

[Sanfox87]

Riio- i hope things do get good again!!!
Tab- ok im gonna try exactly what u said. Thank you!
Lene- yes it breaks skin, and bad!

Nibby bites at any given time!! And the sad part about it is that since it does break skin and draw blood, i cant help but to be afraid of perching it on my hand sometimes. What i was doing earlier was giving it a treat everytime it stepped up to my finger, everything seemed to be working. Then few hours later its playing on my stomach, i tell it to step up and it bit HARD again.

 

[MonicaMc]

Birds bite for a reason. I wouldn't punish the bird or ignore the bite, but rather try not to get bitten.

If he's on your hand and biting, try distracting him with a toy. He may be bored and he's just exploring.

If he's on your shoulder and he bites, give him a reason to come down. Birds enjoy being up on shoulders because it's a safe place and it's close to you. If you want him down, give him a reason to come down that he'll enjoy. That is, have him come down for a treat, a favorite toy, a place he enjoys, etc.

RP - Biting


In short, find out why your bird is biting, then try and avoid getting bit in the first place. That is, don't put your bird into a situation that will result in a bite.