The issue is, you have tried a bunch of responses to his biting, which means you are getting bitten often, which means you are not reading his cues (because if you were, the bite would not occur).
I am not saying that anyone is perfect at it, but for the most part, paying close attention to birds' body language, and the situation should be enough to prevent giving your bird added biting practice. A bite is always the human's fault *no worries-- that stands for all of us, and we have all been bitten*) but you really must KNOW your bird because body language is not as important as your specific awareness of your relationship and the way your bird is acting vs how it normally acts. If your bird is already showing defensive/upset/aggressive body language though, you've already upset your bird, and that is the problem. You want to prevent the agitation altogether. So, you want to be less handsy--- and look for positive/consenting body language that your parrot shows you when it is cooperative. If you wait until you are seeing frustration, you are setting yourself up to fail. Look for "yes" cues from your bird (too many people focus on agitation).
Some birds are weird about hands, but based on what you have said and the short period you have had your bird, I am not sure we can jump to that conclusion yet, as it sounds like you have been bitten a lot and that means you may need to slow way down and repair trust. Your bird hardly know you, so it may be your hands specifically that he fears because he doesn't know what they will do. You need to work at your bird's pace. Biting is a last resort for them in the wild when they tried everything else to communicate and are still being misunderstood. That is how it starts anyway. In captivity, its crucial to give them as little experience biting as possible because, even though it starts as a last resort when body language is ignored, it can quickly escalate to a form of manipulation.
IF you get bitten and you truly had NO idea it was coming and studied body language etc but got nailed anyway, that is when you must ignore (because any other response could accidentally reward the behavior, whose function is unknown). You only ignore in such instances because it is the most neutral response to a behavior whose motivation is unclear. Any response (other than ignoring) when the function/motivation behind the bite is unknown, runs the risk of reinforcing the bite **again, this is only when you have no clue what you did wrong**and you must have trust established before trying to touch your bird etc...So don't just assume it's a fear of hands without considering it could be a fear of yours in particular.
All behaviors are rooted in 4 categories--- 1. Attention (eye contact, proximity, touch, verbal, entering the room etc) 2. escape (to avoid a situation, task, person, physical touch, location, routine or object), 3. Tangibles (to obtain a physical object, toy, treat etc) and 4. sensory (as a result of a natural reaction or bodily process--e.g., limping when injured, tail-bobbing when sick etc).
No bird or animal does anything for any reason other than those 4 things. Granted, there is sometimes overlap etc. This is based on behavioral theory called ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) and it works. ABA is about finding patterns in behaviors based on antecedents (the thing that happens right before a behavior) and consequences ***NOT PUNISHMENTS---Consequences are just whatever happens right after the behavior. people tend to think of punishment erroneously when they hear "consequence" but it is just whatever occurs immediately after the behavior that will either increase of decrease the likelihood that the behavior will reoccur.
A consequence that INCREASES a behavior's likelihood is called a reinforcer and the 4 reinforces are 1. attention, 2, escape, 3/ tangibles and 4 sensory. A reinforcer (positive or negative) can only be deemed a reinforcer if it increases a behavior. For instance, a dog isn't going to "sit" for a hundred dollar bill. Why? It has no value to the dog.
People and animals do everything they do because of these reinforcers. When you do something called ABC charting (antecedent, behavior, consequence) it allows you to find trends in behavior and therefore isolate the likely driving factor (reinforcer) that is motivating the behavior. Once you know what the motivation is rooted in (aka, one of the 4 reiforcers) then you can manipulate it by providing more acceptable means for them to gratify that need.
If a bird bites whenever you go to touch it, it is likely some form of escape or avoidance behavior (biting out of fear also falls into the category of escape because it's like, "HEY DON'T TOUCH ME".
Here's another example set with a different function:
antecedent- playing checkers with my son with parrot on my shoulder
behavior- parrot starts talking to me
consequence- I keep looking at the board and talking to son *this becomes the antecedent in a chain, remember)
behavior- bird lunges and bites son on the arm
consequence- I yell and pick up bird, son runs out of the room crying
behavior- bird sits on my arm and
Consequence-I carry him to his cage and tell him he was naughty
This one could also be a slight combo-platter, but attention is the motivator here--- with a hint of escape in that the son (the object of jealousy) does get removed from the room as a result of his reaction to the bite. Notice how the bird tried talking first and that didn't get him any attention, so instead, he decides to bite because he knows that gets everyone's attention. If the biting doesn't happen when the bird is getting the mom's full attention, but happens in situations where bird is getting less attention, then we can assume that attention is the driving factor. Therefore, we must find a way to give attention when more desirable behaviors are occurring and make certain not to give any form of attention when undesirable behaviors are occurring. Attention can come in many forms--- you may think that yelling, screaming, scolding, etc etc are bad things, but attention seekers are like addicts and will take that attention in any form (whether or not you perceive your attention as positive or negative).
You basically will want to create an ABC chart (column 1=antecedent, 2= behavior, 3= consequence (which will also become the antecedent for the next behavior in a chain*.
I know that is a lot but if you change your mindset, I think you will start to see that you have more power than you think.
Here are some examples:
Antecedent- "said, it's bedtime" and told to step up
behavior: bird bit hand
consequence: left bird out of cage to go get bandaid
Another:
Antecedent: Put on my work shoes and reached for bird to step up
behavior- bird ran away
consequence: reached for bird again *Note- the consequence becomes the antecedence in a chain of related behaviors*
behavior- bird bit hand
consequence- Asked husband to deal with putting the bird up instead.
behavior- bird continues to play on playstand
consequence- I go to work and husband puts bird up an hour later
Looking at these examples, can you guess the function of the behavior?
In this example, the function (or motivation) behind the bite is likely escape, as all 3 examples involve AVOIDING a specific situation (going back in the cage). The only one that could possibly be considered "attention" as well might be the last example in which the person asks her husband to deal with the bird because she has to go to work. Theoretically, that once could be a combo platter, especially if the husband is a preferred person, but either way, all of the consequences relate to escape. In the examples above, when the bird bites, she is getting rewarded by NOT getting put in the cage (bird has figured out, when I bite, I stay out longer so when I don't want to go in my cage, I will bite because it works). This also means that when a bad behavior rooted in attention occurs, your response should be one that provides no reaction or actively removes your attention. So, you want to teach acceptable ways to get attention, but actively remove attention if an undesired attention-seeking behavior occurs.
In your specific case- I think that the bites are likely rooted in escape (which may be rooted in lack of trust/fear of YOUR hands etc). To fix this, make sure that you are reading cues and not moving too fast. Make sure that your hands are as positive and stress free as possible. If the only time you try to pick him up is when you have to leave the house and lock him up, that could also play a role. Another important thing- if you are not getting bitten away from the cage, then it could have to do with cage territory issues which are also rooted in escape (get away from my house/stop cornering me).
Please note, while you can reward behaviors with treats, you must always ensure that your reaction/consequence is targeting the reinforcer for a specific behavior. If someone is screaming for attention, giving them candy when they are good isn't really addressing their need for appropriate attention. Consequently, while it doesn't hurt to layer rewards (treat+ attention) a treat alone would be inadequate "reward" by itself for a that bird craves attention. Now, you could go pile on the attention and give a treat at the same time-- that is fine-- but I just want you to understand that the consequence needs to match the function of a behavior if you want a behavior to increase. If you want to decrease a behavior, make sure your reaction DOES NOT feed into the function of that behavior.
Your reactions must always account for the behavior's function, because the same exact reaction (for instance, you walking away) could be undesirable for an attention-seeker but the jackpot for an escape seeker.
