Nasty Biting

[iluvringnecks]

I own ringneck parrots and haven't had a biter till my new baby arrived. He is a handraised 13 week old. He loves to follow me
everywhere , comes up on my hands no problems, but while he is sitting on my arm he will suddenly just start biting my
arm very hard, I have deep gouges up and down both arms and I make sure I do not react to the biting, I just let
him do it, but it has been 3 weeks already and the biting is getting worse. He will randomly run up to me with his eyes pinned
and take a chunk from my hand too, it isn't just nipping he takes flesh off my arms, very deep and enjoys chewing
my skin. I can't take much more of the biting, any advice out there would be great. My other IRNS never acted like this.

[bec]

sound like bluffing read the posts on the subject theres heaps of help for this

[Echos mom]

I have a 5 month old IRN was hand fed I got him/her 3 months ago and he/she is doing the same thing. My hands are all chewed up. I ignor it but it is getting realy painful. My hands are covered in bandaids. When he or she bites you can here the skin pop as his or her beek perces the skin. If you have any sucses please let me know.
Thanks

[Joanie]

this sounds insane to me to just sit there and let a bird, any bird bite you and take chunks of flesh! i can't believe it! this is not what parrot ownership should be about.
i no longer have my IRNS but i admire their beauty and they are still my favorite bird.
no way would i let them bite me. that is unacceptable behavior and they would be back in their cage so fast their heard would spin, every time.
how do you get any enjoyment out of owning a bird who does this???

[JimHcctx]

I hate to say it, but I read an article once that said "let em bite you," so I tamed a few birds by simply watching TV every night holding onto a bird and just let them chew on me till they got tired of it. I am a pretty big guy, so the pain of them biting wasnt that bad, until I got a bird that just bit harder than the previous few I had forced through the bluffing stage. She did take flesh and I had a full circle of scabs from my index finger all the way around to my thumb. I don’t recommend it, it hurt!

Right now I am working with a violet female who was wild, scared of hands and just a bit on the mean side. Rather than the previous method, I am just patiently working with her. Two months have gone by, the bites are still near daily, but they are only a fraction in frequency and intensity. She is still nervous of my hand, but will step up and prefers to be stroked/petted. She is even beginning to attempt to mimic my voice and has twice flown to me and climbed up on my shoulder to hang-out.

I also have been working with a male lutino, he is 6 months now, I hand raised him and he bypassed the entire bluffing stage.

Patience seems to be working. -Jim

[ringneck]

Wow! So sorry you are getting bitten, it's no fun..huh? I think it's important to note that biting and bluffing often get mixed up. Bluffing is the act of the ringneck pretending to bite with an occasional nip here and there. Biting is when the bird physically bites and draws blood—this is bad. In fact, you should not keep your hand there and take that. When the bird bites, move your hand back. No need to react vocally—simply move your hand and ignore you got bitten. Once the bird is acting as it should, then you can praise him/her. Until the biting is corrected, do not keep the parrot by your face! Distract the bird before getting bitten such as asking it to step up or move him around. This distraction method only works for ringnecks who seek human interaction and are bonded.

If the bird is in the process of being tamed, he is not bluffing but reacting out of fear. This is fearful biting and a positive reinforcement program should be used .

Hope this helps !

Best Wishes,

IMRAN-C

[PythonzEve]

I'm having the same problem with my 5month old male but am confused. He bites more often than not when I do step up, but because he uses his beak to step up I can't tell whether he's going to step up or chomp down. He has broken the skin but the only bleeding I've gotten is blood blisters from his bites, which is still painful!!!

The thing I've read so many different methods that I'm not sure which is the best. I've read to ignore it, which I agree that this sounds really ludicrous to submit to such abuse but do not agree to put the bird in the cage, as they may learn that if they want back in the cage they just bite the nearest human. Several sites say to push into the bite and I was wondering how valid or effective that tactic is? Would he learn that biting causes that or just learn not to trust my hand? I've also read about blowing into their face when they bite which I've tried and it stops the bite right then, but if I offer the hand again after a few seconds I merely receive more punishment. Now I'm not chasing him down in his cage or anything, he has a couple perches that he can come down to if he wants to interact with me and is fine when I have my hands and arms all over his cage to change out toys, perches and whatnot. He usually just goes to his roost perch and watches as I do this.

What stumps me is that he comes down for interaction, but more often than not on step ups I come away with a few indents if not missing skin. He doesn't do it quickly like lunging either and never bites the fingers holding the treat, though he does lunge and those nips are hardly anything to worry about, in fact I'd be glad if that was the worst of it. I've also heard of those who say do not allow them to touch you with their beak at all, but I see this as a sensory deprivation as this is how they touch and interact with the world as well as their third limb, like a hand. I've been teaching him "gentle" so that when he does bite I say "no" in a low, firm tone with an evil eye then say "gentle" and if he is gentle with his beak he gets a treat. I'm also wondering if putting yogurt or something lick-able on my fingers to work on gentle a bit more will help or hinder? So that when he licks and gently touches and I say "gentle" he may get the idea?

What do you think?

[Melika]

I don't really know if there's any right way. For me it all comes down to instinct.

If he's biting because he's throwing attitude, back into the cage he goes- he wants to be out but he's just having a terrible-two's moment (they're like perpetual two year olds). When he's having attitude it usually accompanies a lot of eye-pinning and bobbing of the head or growls/hisses. Sometimes this is compounded during breeding season by his hormones.

If he simply bit down a little too hard while stepping up, I will push into his lower belly and force him to step up, which also makes him stop biting since now he has to hurry and get his balance lest he be pushed off his perch (that's his thinking anyway).

If he's nibbling on my hand and bites down too hard, I "drop" my hand a fraction and he lets go immediately. Sometimes they try more than once, just repeat what you did and he'll give up. Or I switch to repeated step-ups.

I used to practice step-ups with him when he was younger, just make him step up over and over from finger to finger pretty quickly. No time to bite, just step up like a constant ladder. I still do it sometimes when he throws a sudden attitude while on my hand. It works for us.