My Green Cheek won’t stop biting

[funnyfish]

Hi! I’ve had my green cheek for about 6 months now and she is lovely. She cuddles up to me and will let me give her scratches on her head. But when I bring my hand close to her, her first instinct is to latch on to my finger and start chewing. Hard. It is incredibly painful, and she doesn’t let go. Also if she’s on my finger and there is mirror in front of her, when I try to move my hand she bites and tears at my fingers. She just ripped off a layer of skin on my pointer, and it is extremely painful. Is there any way to make her stops biting, or at least, not as much?

 

[LaManuka]

Funnyfish, if I understand from your previous posts, your GCC is around 8 or 9 months old, is that correct? GCCs do, unfortunately, have a bit of a reputation of being bitey, as well as highly intelligent. They are also not above a bit of emotional manipulation. Many GCC owners employ the "shunning" method with a bitey young bird. EVERY time your bird bites you, pop her gently down somewhere neutral like the floor (provided you don't have any dogs or cats and that it's safe to do so!), or the back of a chair, and simply walk away with zero eye contact, and leave her for about 2 or 3 minutes or so. Do not take her back to her cage or playstand as this may be exactly what she wants, but if she makes her own way back there that's fine. You and any other member of your household must be 100% consistent in this in order for it to work. After a few minutes you can try to interact with her again, but try to end your interaction on a positive note and before any biting starts, as you do not want to reinforce or reward bad behaviour. Also, consider that your bird may simply not always necessarily be in the mood to interact with you.

A biting young bird in a wild setting would risk being ostracised by her flock, and that would have very serious ramifications for safety. Conures are very smart and yours should soon get the message that fun with her flock stops when the biting starts!

 

[T00tsyd]

Great advice. Having lived through this myself with Syd I would add a firm 'NO' into the mix. The ignoring technique works but you need to be consistent and almost one step ahead. Learn the body language that precedes it. I used to think that there was no rhyme or reason for the bite in the early days, but have since realised that there is usually a sign that it's coming. It can be very subtle, a certain look, a flattening of feathers, a head position, it took some recognising but now I try and get 'NO' in at the appropriate moment and most of the time it works. Syd no longer bites - perhaps I should touch wood there - but all sorts of other behaviours have benefited from him recognising 'NO'.
I agree with La Manuka that they are very bright and adept at controlling our behaviour, Syd uses every scheme in the book as far as I can see. It makes me laugh that I have to really use my wits to stay one step ahead.

 

[Laurasea]

Hi,
As GCC become adults, the become cautious of hands, and become sensitive to slights to their dignity.

You really have to pay attention to their body language like you never had to as a baby. Do not force a pet if you see their body language change. My GCC can change from letting me pet her , to I will bite you back and forth within seconds....... sometimes she gets upset cuz I bump a pin feather or because suddenly my fingers might kill her.... I apologize if it’s the first sbd explain if it’s the second... it’s like talking her down from the ledge.... but it works and we go back to cuddles.

you have to build and work on maintaining trust. Talk through and explain stuff to them. Pay attention to body language!!!! It changes constantly, if yiu are getting bit yiu aren’t paying attention. Because green checks will warn you, they flare or crouch , do that snake sway, or the stormy march ... don’t firce interactions when they are telling you to back off, understand that this can happen in the middle of petting them. The great thing is that a few seconds later they are usually over it. Take time every day to hand feed seeds or other treat...

All parrots change when going from a baby who is sweet and puts up with us stupid humans to an adult that wants respect and is less tolerant humans mistakes. As adults they want us to be respectful of their personal space, respect that they are individual. Like when human teenagers want to start asserting , you can’t boss me , I’m my own person , I know what I want or like,! Kinda like that

With parrots it’s cooperating with an individual .

Don’t get frustrated or blame the parrot. This is a time to improve your ability to read body language, to see things from another intelligent being perspective. Be zen be in the moment be fluid

Most of us here work from all bites are our fault. It’s uo to us to figure out what we are doing wrong

 

[Laurasea]

If you follow this link and go to page 10 , I’ve placed a bunch of links on behavior. One even talks about how good parrots are at reading us, our pupil size etc
http://www.parrotforums.com/general...hare-discuss-scientific-articles-parrots.html

https://www.thefacebeak.com/blog/howtotameascaredbird

 

[birdiemama]

Ignoring my bird doesn't seem to work for me. Doobie is definitely a velcro bird (I should have named him Velcro!). After he is insistent on biting after repeated "No Bite!" from me, I place him somewhere away from me, and he simply just flies back to the top of my head, or my shoulder, or the back of my chair - and so it repeats ad infinitum. He is more like a pesky fly! I have resorted to lightly tapping his beak when saying "No Bite". Most of the time he will respond to me just saying No Bite, but sometimes he's just in a mood! He is looking for different ways to bite me by surprise! There is one little teeny-inchy-pinchy-bitey thing he does just to see if I will react.
Sometimes I will have to play ball with him. He's just full of it and if he can throw the little cat ball around it helps get the feisty-ness toned down and he's not quite so assertive. But I must say, conures are very headstrong, insistent, demanding and persistent! If you prayed for patience be prepared to use them!