Stop the biting!!!

[pet3graphics]

Kermit, our Chestnut-Fronted Macaw, has a biting issue... we were going to sell her partially due to this issue, but we love her too much to let her go.

She is 19 years old and we have had her for about 2 years now. She belonged to an elderly lady for most of her life and when the woman died, her husband just couldn't bare to have her around.

When she came to us, we were told that were all kinds of things we wouldn't be able to do with her... for instance: she won't come out of cage with using a glove, she won't go to more than one person, etc.

Well within the first few days, she was coming out of the cage without a glove (only to Rik, my spouse) and started calling his name after only 5 days!

Now there are 3 people in our household who handle her on a regular basis and she can be very sweet and playful with us, however, she still bites... HARD... for no apparent reason!

When she bites, she gets a good flick on the beak and punishment in the cage... sometimes when she gets a good hold on a finger, we have to smack her to get her to release. There's 800 pounds of pressure in that beak and can bite all the way to the bone and has (not to us, but to other people when she was with her previous owners). It's scary sometimes.

You could be playing with her or just holding her, giving her head scratches and such and something just snaps and she'll grab a finger or any other skin that she can get a hold of and bite down HARD. After she bites and gets flicked or smacked, her whole attitude changes becoming docile and she gets apologetic saying "OK?", "OK?".

Now that we are certain that we are keeping her, I need advice on how to STOP THE BITING!

Is it possible that she has a mental issue or is there some other technique that we can use to break her of this habit? We can't trust her to be out of her cage without close supervision. We're afraid that she might saddle up next to someone and grab a cheek or an earlobe or even worse, take out an eye! She has bitten a few unattended toes when she's been out an about.

Kermit loves to play "blanket monster"... burrowing under blankets and sheets, giggling and chattering the whole time. I discovered this last summer... she never liked me unless she needed me for something, but since the "blanket monster" discovery, I'm one of her best pals. She can play like this for long periods of time, but if left unsupervised, she often will pop out from under the covers and if someone is close by, she will lunge and bite! It's like she's bi-polar.

I made HUGE strides with trust and friendliness while playing with her over the summer, even to the point of being able to clip her talons without having someone else hold her down (with a glove). It was a beautiful moment, while she had her beak around my finger while I clipped each talon... if she felt pressure, she would put pressure on my finger WITHOUT biting me. But then a little later, we were playing and she bit me and drew blood! WTF?!?!

PLEASE HELP!

 

[suebee]

lol she sounds like a stronger version of my nut and thank you for keeping her!

i don't think its a mental issue or anything personal! although at time it feels like it!

i see it as instead of stopping the bitting more avoiding the biting lol

when ever i give nut a head scratch i watch her body and eyes closely, unless her eyes are doing the flashy thing, she gets a brief head touch, any longer an that beak is around my finger, never hard, but way i see it is, she didn't want one. so watch kermits body signals closely!!

another tactic for when nut bites me, i squeel like a baby, especially when it hurts alot of ppl are going to say this don't work, but it does for me and nut as when she gets on a bitting spree its, chomp, chomp, chomp chomnp........... but since i've started yelping and pullin faces shes chomped max of twice

and nut loves toes sock or no sock lol

try not to flick her beak, smack kermit etc if you hurt her it will break the trust

if she bites you pull a pained face walk away, turn your back, give kermit a very strong signal of not interested in you! nut always flies to my shoulder when i do this tactic, and yes canbe alarming as sometimes it feels like she's looking at my ear!! but she never bites after that, well not till later lol

kermit may just be bitting cos she gets overly excited when you play, so just keep the play intervals short???

also put some toys under the blanket and lots of chew toys for her to shred when she is out and about, nuts latest is un hooking curtains and small building blocks, that she likes to throw over ledge, i stack them and she will pick top one off an throw it away! or walk the round ones to other end of window ledge

 

[Pedro]

RP - Biting

Rather than go into detail again about why parrots bite & why we make mistakes & don't listen & watch their body language. They usually give a warning before they bite. My male Hahn's does the same & it's always something i have done like when he has had enough play & i keep going.

I can tell you for sure though Parrots do not understand punishment. She could even be biting so she knows you'll put her back into the cage because that's where she wants to be. I think at her age you need to respect her, lets face it she is an adult bird.

I hope you can get some understanding from this link.

 

[pet3graphics]

It's weird... most of the time I can see the signals. It's VERY apparent when she "wants" to bite. I can tell her "NO BITES!" and she calms down... it might take several times telling her that before she calms down, but it works and then I can pet her or pick her up.

It's the "other" times when for no reason and warning, she just chomps down... she can be in a good mood, come right out of the cage on to my hand, sit there for a sec and them CHOMP - OUCH!

Screaming in pain, yelling "NO" or "STOP"... doesn't help.

It's really like she just snaps.

 

[Pedro]

Or she likes to watch you dance around in pain. LOL. Sometimes the reaction to the bite is funny to a bird so they keep doing it. It can be like a game to them.

 

[wildheart]

I am sure in the 2 years that you've had her that you have already tried EVERYTHING in the book to cure the biting. Like you said, it happens any time, anywhere, during whatever activity or no activity. There is a HUGE difference between a bite that has signals first and those ones that just come as a snap and she goes straight back to being normal afterwords. Funny you mention Bipolar cause it really seems that way!

I do not get bites from my girl without slight signals and when she gives the signal (she turns her head down for a slight moment) I turn super sweet, talking in the softest voice possible, telling her just HOW MUCH I love her and after a while of lots of whooing she calms down. Everybody else in our household get bitten without signals. She will happily eat the nectar from a flower that my husband holds for her and then WHAM she will in the blink of an eye bite right around the flower onto his finger and then eat from the flower again? I have SEVERAL examples like that. But my girl was abused and yours not.

Shaking the beak and putting her in the cage is really not the solution and actually makes the behaviour worse. Ignoring these type of 'no signal bites' also does not work - been there done that - NOT WORKING. Making a fuss saying NO etc. does not work either.

From your writing I would suggest that you must follow a STRICT routine with her - she must know what is coming and when it is coming. The time that she bit you just after taking her out of the cage was most probably done because you left her in the cage too long or you took her at a time that she did not want to come out.

She can play like this for long periods of time, but if left unsupervised, she often will pop out from under the covers and if someone is close by, she will lunge and bite!

This is a personal game between you and her and if you leave for whatever short reason then it will anger her and she will show it.

You need to really study ALL her signals, her eye movement, breathing, feathers up - down or just the way she moves. You will in time learn to read her and when you see that she is going to go into the bite mode then distract her super fast - push a toy under her nose - get up and walk - whatever you can think of - and IT DOES WORK. During the distraction talk very calming and loving to her for as long as needed. Never talk loud to her or cage her after doing wrong - it works for some birds but clearly not yours or mine and lots others.

Lastly, when you get to know her signals then start listening to her, do as she asks. My girl climbs up my arm and push her beak against my face to tell me she wants to go to her cage and I immediately get up and do as she asked. If I dont then she bites - my fault not hers.

Most of all FOLLOW A ROUTINE - observe her and learn her language.

 

[pet3graphics]

@Wildheart:

I've been making more progress with her in the past few days... NO BITES! There have been MANY instances when she was signaling "I'm gonna bite you" and have been quite able to simply "talk" her out of it. And she hasn't had any of her bipolar biting episodes... but time will tell (or hurt).

I was checking out the "Shoot her..." thread and I think a water gun will help with her aggressive attitudes that she can have when she's out of her cage and doesn't want to listen/cooperate.

Also, regarding TOYS... she could care less. She never plays with toys and anything that even remotely looks like a stick... forget it... if it's longer than 3" and cylindrical, it's a stick to her and she hates it. She likes blankets. She likes red napkins, "tug-o-war time". And she plays with peanuts... she loves to eat them, of course, but first she'll play with the peanut and you (if she trusts you).

Like I said, she used to hate me... for the first year and a half until I found out about the "blanket monster". She now let's me play the peanut game... give her a whole peanut, grab it, shake it, pull it away, give it back, repeat until one of you is tired of the game, then the peanut gets DEMOLISHED and eaten in seconds. She would do this with my spouse, but if anyone else tried, it usually involved large amounts of blood. LOL!

Since figuring out how to literally just talk her out of biting when she's giving the signals, the 3 of us who interact with her regularly are hoping that she will stop the "bipolar" biting... we'll see.

THANKS

 

[wildheart]

I was checking out the "Shoot her..." thread and I think a water gun will help with her aggressive attitudes that she can have when she's out of her cage and doesn't want to listen/cooperate.

I REALLY - REALLY do NOT recommend a water gun for your girl. She trusts all of you, she does not hate you, you will destroy her trust in you. Just because you do not see the signals at certain times does not mean she did not give it. You cant use the water sometimes and sometimes not - really that will do nothing good for your relationship with her.

Study her closer, I really think there is more for you to learn.

She also sound to depended on you to play with her and keep her busy and that can be part of her frustration. My girl also does not play with anything but foraging toys and I had to teach her how to solve the problem of getting the treat. Infest in that, although it cost a lot the treat inside really makes them 'work' for it and keeps them busy for hours.