parrot keeps biting me!?

Question

okay so i bought this parrot like 1 year ago.
and he STILL bites
everytime i get my hand to get him he bites me!
is there anyway to stop
ur african grey parrot to stop biting you?

Answer 1

You can NOT punish a parrot!

Please read the articles I've got linked below for help.

http://www.companionparrot.com/agression-and-biting.htm
http://www.companionparrot.com/Basics%20Of%20Nurturing.htm
http://www.companionparrot.com/Why%20You%20Can't%20Punish.htm
http://www.realmacaw.com/pages/underbird.html
http://www.naturalencounters.com/faqnew.html#FrequentlyAsked%20Quest
http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/biting2.html

This is a good start to trying to understand why a bird bites and how you can win it's trust. You have to learn bird body language etc.

don't give up - patience and knowledge will help you.

Search for bird boards, clubs etc for help from people with experience.

For example:

http://groups.msn.com/BirdBrainz/birdbrainznest1.msnw

Answer 2

Sure there is a way to stop him from Wanting to bite you.

Get a bath towel, preferably a beach towel to make sure you can wrap your hand, and arm really good. Now go talk to the bird putting it on right in front of him. Let him see you do it so he isn't scared of it in a bad way. Ok if he is out of his cage, go lay your arm on top of somewhere, where you know he will come down to bite at you. When he comes down and goes to bite you, push into his mouth with the part of you he thinks he is biting, causing him to hang on to what ever he is standing on. Turning his biting, into a NEED to hang on, completely changing his purpose for putting his mouth on you. Do this every time you have anything to do with him. Eventually, he will figure out, if he tries to bite you, he may fall and begin changing his mind about putting his mouth on you. After a while, do the same thing, only without the towel and when he comes near you trying to bite at you, he won't bite you, he will taste you.Only putting his toung on you, but use your common sense to keep from getting bitten too soon ,depending on how he changes his mind. Because you will be teaching him, if he wants to bite you he will be treated and handled with the towel, and if he doesn't bite you, he realises he may gain your trust. But when you use the towel you are telling your bird, that behavior is not acceptable and this is the result of his putting his mouth on you. Eventually he will realise he is not allowed to bite you, and you will have to over come some fear to establish a TRUSTING relationship with your bird. And I'm talking about YOU TRUSTING HIM after this behavior. Now I did this same thing with my blue and gold macaw without advice from anyone and it woeks for me and now my macaw is allowing me to handle him. Yes he allows me to handle him, because if I had my own way, I'd handle him all the time, but he sets the rules even he knows he is not allowed to bite ME. I also remind him by saying, I LOVE YOU, before I try putting my hands on him, and I say to him if he tries biting AT me, NO BITE MAMA remember? NO BITE MAMA. Now you say what you want to, to your bird! LOL! GOOD LUCK!

Answer 3

DO Not Punish the bird and under no circumstances do you"tap' the bird on the beak. tame him up by spending quility time with him. do not reach in his cage, instead open it and wait for him tocome out and then have him step up on your hand. maybe he is not in the mood to comeout and you are invading his space, could put one in a bad mood you know. good luck

Answer 4

You can try punishing him. Remember, punishing is not the same as physical abuse. When he bites, tap him on the beak or something. Also, when he ISN'T biting (assuming such a time exists), stroke him and try to make him as tame as possible so he won't be nervous around people.

Answer 5

Punishment is no way to teach a bird. It's not the same as punishing and showing dominance over dogs and cats. Birds take a flock mentality and will gladly befriend you if you treat them properly. They do not learn efficiently through negative reinforcement; rather, they do much better with positive reinforcement. There are a variety of reasons birds decide to bite, and it's up to you to find out why and what you're doing wrong or what may be wrong.

1) "I'm sick". If a bird is not feeling well, it will not be feeling up to stepping up for you or taking well to this hand it doesn't like. Especially with vulnerable birds when they're ill, the first thing they think to do is self defense. Take him for an avian vet check to rule out this possibility. http://aav.org/vet-lookup

2) "You're on my property". Cage territoriality is common in certain species of parrot, but it's not too often mentioned with Greys. If he doesn't come out of his cage often, he'll consider that space his and his only and will not allow "intruders" because that's where he's lived for so long. It also depends on the age of your bird. Around 3 to 5 years old, they hit sexual maturity and with this comes a plethora of new problems that will be mentioned later. Territoriality is one of them. To reduce this, remove him from his cage, occupy him, and change his cage around completely so that not one thing remains the same, including the placement of food dishes if at all possible.

3) "I'm hormonal". Hormonal encompasses a long list of possibilities. If a bird is sexually frustrated, they'll obviously be irate. If a bird is so excited or afraid, hormones rage in their body and cause them to feel this sort of "high" where they're not 100% aware of their actions. If you want to reduce sexual frustration, limit daylight and cover the cage for at least 12 hours at night along with total silence, feed only what the bird can eat for that day until the next time the food is refilled, provide zero nesting materials or nooks to hide in, do not pet anywhere but the head, rearrange the cage totally regularly.

4) "No means no". You can't force your bird to do anything, and a bird will definitely let you know that with a swift, hard bite. Many people will try to force birds to step up or allow them to pet them (BIG mistake - petting requires a strong trust bond so the bird has to feel VERY comfortable with you to allow you to touch it where it can't see and in a vulnerable area) and wonder why they get bitten! It's ridiculous! Watch for your bird's body language, like cowering back, feathers going flat down on the body, or looking like he's going to lunge and slowly back away - he's feeling intimidated and if you push him, you WILL get bitten.

5) "Biting gets me what I want". By withdrawing quickly, you show that you're afraid and that when the bird does something threatening, he can get what he wants. For example, you reach your hand in the cage, he lunges, you pull out quickly, he's happy that you're gone. What has he learned from it? By coming to bite or by biting you, he makes you go away. Therefore he gets what he wants. Don't give him that satisfaction! If he bites, don't move. Sit there and take it; don't make any noises or movements. When he stops biting and has calmed down, slowly withdraw your hand. Besides, by pulling away during a bite, you tear your own skin and make the entire ordeal 4732947389245638% more painful. If needed, leave the bird in a safe place, go nurse your wounds, and return feeling confident. Birds, especially Greys, can pick up on emotions very easily and mirror it onto us. If you're feeling stressed, so will your bird.

6) "Biting makes my person do fun things". Like I said above, do not give the bird the satisfaction of withdrawing right away and do NOT make any noise or movements. Why, you ask? Because birds love drama. It's highly amusing and they love the exaggerations of our yellings of "OUCH!" and pulling back in pain while we dance around, gripping our very sore fingers. They think it's funny and very fun to watch, so they'll do it to evoke such actions from us. DON'T LET HIM HAVE FUN WITH IT!

7) "Scary!" If you make any quick or sudden movements toward the bird, he'll be intimidated and feel the need to protect himself because you've basically jumped out at him. Be predictable in your movements, always approach him where he can see you, and try to keep eye contact when interacting. It allows him to feel more engaged and he can watch what you're doing without freaking out and, as a first instinct, biting.

Have you been consistent with his interaction routine? Birds need consistency and you should be allowing him to get used to the sight of your hands, and having hands in close proximity, everyday. If you haven't been doing this already, start now. Put your hand in his cage at least once a day for at least a minute. Follow the instructions above of not pulling back, giving any reaction, stay calm, and let him know that your hand is not a threat to him. Use bribery, too. Hold a seed, fruit, vegetable, whatever he likes just out of his reach. You could try placing it in the palm of your hand so he learns that your hand can be associated with good things, then graduate to holding it above your hand so he has to step up onto you to get it. He'll start getting it sooner or later.

Be VERY patient. Taming + physical interaction are very long, arduous processes that require an extreme amount of dedication, consistency, and PATIENCE!

I may have missed a few points, so I'll direct you to an awesome website that has a few essays; one of them is all about biting and each page goes into much higher detail than I can: http://www.rationalparrot.com

As an addendum, you should not teach a parrot how to use its beak. It knows exactly how and what it's doing. By throwing it off balance and forcing it to use your hand as assistance by grabbing onto you, you not only teach it that your hand can catch it, but you teach it that you're an unreliable perch. Birds will not choose to step up to you and perch on you if you've proven yourself to be an unsteady perch to get comfortable on.

Answer 6

hahahahahahaha! Maybe he doesn't like you.