Baby biting absolutely everything for seemingly no reason

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Jennbird
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 7:33 am

Baby biting absolutely everything for seemingly no reason

Post by Jennbird »

Hi there! Last week I adopted my first lil indian ringneck, Eo. He's four months old and is such a character, wanting to come out immediately and begging to be picked up all the time. I love spending time with him and letting him hang out with me on my shoulder, hand, or surface nearby.

Here's the issue: he will bite unexpectedly, without warning, anywhere. He could be begging to come sit on me and the second he gets to my shoulder, he bites my neck. Hard. Or I'll pick him up (he knows how to step up and is very good at it) and once he has been sitting for a second or when he sees my thumb sticking out he'll bite down hard enough for me to bleed.

He's always climbing up me to get to my shoulder rather than stay on my hand but will bite my ear if he sees it or my neck sometimes. I have taken to wearing a towel around my neck so he can't see the skin but he burrows his head in if he's looking for a necklace and will bite then too. He also has just found out he can climb my hair to get to my head... Oh my gosh.

I guess my question is: do baby ringnecks just bite everything all the time? I'm trying to detect a pattern or something I'm doing to upset him but there doesn't seem to be one. I can't find a common body language that says he's upset or wants to bite.

I feel as though I should also mention that I try very hard to ignore his biting but it hurts beyond my ability to do so--what is the most effective method for dealing with this? I have tried having a towel on my hand to lessen the pain but I'm not sure if this is the most effective method.

Thank you in advance for the expertise, I just want to to do right by Eo and make sure I can be someone he can love and trust in return for fingers without a million bite marks.
Dishy
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2016 7:21 pm

Re: Baby biting absolutely everything for seemingly no reason

Post by Dishy »

Hey Jennbird,

That is definitely a tough situation. Maybe try some chewing/grinding toys? a beak is basically a birds communication and main hand, as well as the feet are, so providing a lot of chew-able toys (if you cannot afford them, toilet paper roll cardboard insert -after roll is finished- is a great alternative toy, chew-able and safe (NO ink printing on it and NO scented ones - both can be toxic to your birdies). Otherwise if you have the money, ebay has a variety of time-consuming toys that birds will destroy, instead of the house and your belongings.
He may just be trying to play? I don't think it's fear or aggressive/dominant behavior. He is at the point where he's getting overly confident in everything and really having a good go at everything, my boy went through this too but he had a female adult as his play mate and he tested her one too many times by going too rough and she put him in his place. You will be able to tell if its aggression or fear. Which it doesn't seem to be either, hence my thought it's just rough play. Toys will 'wear him out' or 'get the frustration out' hopefully so your neck is safe.
This is just my personal experience, birds need constant mental stimulation because they are an intelligent species, the more time consuming the toy, the more the bird should not want to use his beak on you ;) When your a kid: you get snarky and grumpy if you are sitting there waiting for your favorite person to come over to play with you and they are taking forever and there is nothing to occupy your mind with.( I'm not saying your inattentive or don't provide or anything, I've also been guilty of this... life IS busy I'm sure you know) But if your frustrated before that person is there, sometimes conflict arises when they do arrive (IE 'what took you so long?!?! I've been waiting forever! HMMMPH!").
However, say you occupy yourself by cleaning, prepping snacks, preening yourself, setting up games to play or whatever, time passes by and the doorbell rings while your busy fiddling with something and you rush over to see your friend and your super excited.. and then you have a nice time together. Same kinda mentality for birds, if you understand where I am coming for with that weird analogy. :)) =)) :D


Hope this helps. or hope others have successful suggestions for you.

Regards,
Dish.
nicolem
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri May 06, 2016 3:46 pm

Re: Baby biting absolutely everything for seemingly no reason

Post by nicolem »

I totally sympathize with this. My boys weren't really tame when I got them at 4 months and it took a while to build trust with them. They also have both always been "nibblers"...sometimes it would really just be harmless nibbles (I've been observing that this behavior tends to be connected with the bowing and cooing they do with their displays), but other times, the nibbling can quickly escalate to a bite. Ollie bites more more frequently and harder than Marcel.

I kind of hesitate to write this because I've read about all the different ways to handle bites and I know everyone has very strong opinions. When my boys were getting to know me, I dealt with a LOT of bites, and I still do here and there. However, they are DECIDEDLY less frequent and MUCH less severe than they were when I first got them though. I decided that since I am a musician and therefore NEED my hands and fingers, I will not just tolerate a bird chomping down onto one of the appendages (fingers) that I need for my career and pretend that it doesn't hurt while it could be damaging my nerves. Since my birds are flighted, I was never cornering them or forcing them either. Ollie would literally fly to my forearm on his own choice, and as soon as he landed, put his head down and chomp. It was so frustrating!

Long story short, I have kind of worked out the following: if they bite, I will shake them off. I don't hit them, and I don't throw them to the floor or anything, but I do get them off me, and they fly away unharmed. It's not uncommon get a displeased squawk :P If there are lots of bites happening in a short period of time, or one disproportionately harder bite (most likely from Ollie), I will make a dramatic noise of sorts and leave the room (only for a minute or so) where they can't follow. Since they are bonded to me, this upsets them because they want to be with me. I think the separation has conditioned them to realize that if they're jerks, I will leave, and they don't want that to happen. This only works though if you already have built a relationship with the bird(s). Finally, I have observed the two of THEM together. My boys share a cage (they have since they hatched), and they often bicker, posture, and have little spats. The most I've seen between them are just nips here and there, but more often, there is a warning growl of sorts and a threatening open beak. There is generally a lunge of defense or attack and one usually backs off or flutters away. Therefore, if I see them coming over and trying to dominate/be aggressive, I will try to emulate the "back off" behavior I've seen between them and put a bit more edge to my voice and scold them as I see their beaks getting in a position to bite. (To be honest, there were a few times where I had had it and would just make sure to have most of my skin (arms/legs) covered because they would just want to chomp) Other times, I try to distract them with a training session (with sunflower seeds as a reward), or something else. I don't know that I have an official system for which method I employ when...it depends on my mood.

For me at least, my relationship with the two boys has gotten MUCH better. They clearly trust and like me as they will eagerly come out of the cage and love to be on my shoulders (although sometimes Ollie is temporarily banned from my shoulder if he's being too aggressive). While the biting is not completely gone, Marcel really only nibbles my hands or my ears and it's not painful. Even Ollie will still nip, but his "hard" bites are not nearly as hard/damaging as they once were. I will admit that we're still working on the whole "fascination with earlobes" thing.... luckily, I have long hair, so I can cover them up if the boys are being too feisty :P

I wish you luck. In my first few months, I was at my wits end with my birds sometimes because it was so frustrating when they would bite for no reason, and I didn't really have anyone to talk to who had experience with IRNs. Even the books I read about parrot training and even specific to IRNs didn't really help as much because the biting they talked about was always connected to aggression, while in my situation, I couldn't imagine how I could be provoking aggressive behavior when they were the ones flying to me!! All I can advise is observation and patience, and keep trying different things, or maybe even rotate through different responses.

I think it's important to clarify that these methods seem to work for flighted birds. Obviously, if your bird is clipped, they might not be able to get away as harmlessly from being "shaken off" and I would never want to advocate for any sort of harmful punishment of a bird.
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