Lovebird bites only me actually attacks me

[Sandramoses]

She’s 11 months and I took a mirror out of her cage because she has increased her biting. I have read and do everything I’m told to do to no avail. I’m her primary caregiver she seems to have gotten worse since I removed the mirror now she’s protecting all her toys and attacking me when I go near the cage she doesn’t bite my husband she just moves away from him When I let her out of the cage she flies on me and seems to want to be on me but she always wants to bite my fingers or my hand I’m at the end of my rope help! I love her and want to keep this bird. I have 2 littler dogs that she can see but she’s not afraid of them

 

[Kitekeeper]

Welcome Sandra,

What you are experiencing is entirely normal, even predictable. The good news is that is something already knew and there are many ways to overcome this.

Parrots are highly intelligent among birds, the bigger the parrot the more demanding their intelligence is. Lovebirds are an exception among the small parrots however, they have an intelligence/sensitivity more similar to medium parrots than to small parrots or parakeets.

Intelligence and sensitivity are much linked and both are traits related to animals with a long life span and a complex social arrangement respectively.

Scientific experiments with African Grey Parrots (particularly one AG named Alex) demonstrated that medium size parrots can express the intelligence of a five to six years old child. I would take lovebirds for a species with a three years old child cognitive system. That said, do not underestimate your bird.

It seems to me that your 11 months old lovebird is going through puberty. It is right on this age that puberty happens and the side effect of an hormonal lovebird is aggressiveness. After sexual hormones go down, she will be a lot more receptive.

Another important aspect you night to considerate is that you have a female. Lovebird females are way more territorial and aggressive than males. Also, in her point of view, when you took out her mirror, you eliminated her partner. It would have been better to do that out of her view. Even so, the absence of the mirror frustrates her sexual impulse, so even if it was done in disguise she would miss the mirror.

I´ve never put mirrors to my lovebirds and budgies so I don´t know the best approach right now, if it is better to put it back or just keep her without the mirror. Maybe some other members can help.

Regarding the biting issue, you might have to be a lot more patient with her during puberty and there are several threads on the forum that address how to interact with biting birds in an efficient and healthy way for both birds and humans

 

[johnbirds]

Clip her wings and let her out of the cage before you try and handle the bird. How do you know it's a female?Males bite also and without DNA it is very hard to know what sex the bird is.If you want a pet bird you need to buy a real hand feed baby and if you can not handle the bird from the very first time you may never have the pet you want.The bird acts different with your husband cause he reacts different. A mirror is almost like having another bird, most will bond with another bird and just may not let you handle them at all.I have a male who I hand fed at about 3 weeks old he does bite me and does not like to be handled some birds are like that and I think it has to do with hand feeding a late age. If you react out of fear of being bitten that's a problem.

 

[Sandramoses]

Clip her wings and let her out of the cage before you try and handle the bird. How do you know it's a female?Males bite also and without DNA it is very hard to know what sex the bird is.If you want a pet bird you need to buy a real hand feed baby and if you can not handle the bird from the very first time you may never have the pet you want.The bird acts different with your husband cause he reacts different. A mirror is almost like having another bird, most will bond with another bird and just may not let you handle them at all.I have a male who I hand fed at about 3 weeks old he does bite me and does not like to be handled some birds are like that and I think he has to do with hand feeding a late age. If you react out of fear of being bitten that's a problem.

I think you are right about reacting out of fear. I do have anxiety when Molly flies onto me and I’m sure she knows I’m afraid of her biting me. She’s always wants to be on me. Just doesn’t want to be touched and wants to bite ears fingers etc unprovoked.