Does it Hurt When They Bite?

[LoveBird]

geese. Does it really hurt when they bite? I have been biten but a Budgie once. Does it hurt that bad?
Regards,
Taylor

[Sparkette65]

That all depends on why thier biteing...if your doing something that scares them or hurts them,,,,well....yea its gonna hurt when they bite! :eek: I have a couple of hens that would take my finger off if I got close enough to let them!

But then I have a few that nibble or taste as if testing the waters....I give no reaction to them and they dont hurt me,,,I give my birds respect and the space that they seem to ask for ...and they are mostly nice.

I have two lovies that are just starting their 4 month molt and although they have not bitten me,,,,,im sure if they have a mind that im messing with thier feather, they will

good luck,
Lori

[Mummieeva]

Yes at times they can hurt. Baggy has gone from a nibble which does not hurt to a full beak clamped hanging onto skin one. They do have sharp little beaks. But not all will bite hard.


Steph

[Janie]

Taylor, my lovie does not bite so for now, I've not been bitten. I am planning to add a couple more and I expect that at some point I will get a bite or two (or more) but I think you should always expect that will happen eventually with a pet bird. Especially with young birds, going through different stages. And REALLY especially with a nesting hen! My lovebird is a male, about 9 years old, and just doesn't happen to be a bitter. Lucky me! :D

[butterfly1061]

Yep, sometimes it does hurt. I get bit by Molly every once in a while, but Daisy (my hen) can be the sweetest baby and then something might upset her and WHAM! She's not a hard bitter, but just shows me that she got too excited or upset. Molly never bites unless I'm picking up food off the counter and he's trying to eat. Then he runs after me to put it down cause it's his! I have learned my lessons and I know what upsets them and try to stay clear of that. :D But just remember, they are wild by nature so I always forgive them. :)

[LoveBird]

ouch. Somtimes when I am at my friends house we play with her Budgies, they bite. Like I am playing and rubbing it's belly and all of the sudden CHOMP!!!

[BarbieH]

Apparently the bird doesn't like that. :) If a person does something a bird doesn't like, it will bite. That's not just lovebirds, like you pointed out. If a person keeps doing that thing the bird doesn't like, they will keep getting bit, and that's how the relationship grows. It's not good.

We like to tell people how to avoid getting bit. :) In the case with your friend's bird, I would say, stop rubbing its belly.

There was an old-time comedian named Henny Youngman who made very corny jokes. He said that one time he went to the dr and told him, "Doc, it hurts when I do that!" And the dr said, "Don't do that!"

With biting, if the bird bites when you do that, don't do that. ;)

[sdgilley]

Peter will draw BLOOD when he bites. It's not even a little funny if he bites you. Luckily I avoid getting bitten, and that works for both of us.

Luka bites half-heartedly, it's just something he learned from Peter as a fun thing to do to me. >:

Peepo nibbles to get me to do things for her, so I do as I'm told to keep the nibbles down. Lucky for me, she's sweet and cuddly. Her favorite pasttime is giving kisses (especially to her coconut inside her cage).

[Buy A Paper Doll]

Does it hurt? Yes. Yes, it does. Does it hurt more than a budgie? Well, it probably depends on the budgie. My sister had one named Offspring who was a vicious little hen if ever there was one. She'd get you right on the cuticle and hold on tight. But she never drew blood. Both of my lovebirds can and do bite hard enough to draw blood.

Melody got me on the back of the arm last week when I was changing out the water dish in *her* cage. Milo clamped onto my nose a few days ago because we had visitors and things got too exciting for him.

[Cooper]

Milo really doesn't like your nose!

I'm giggling right now cause I remembered that "beep-beep" story :rofl:

[Buy A Paper Doll]

LOL! He gets me on the nose because when he's perched on my finger, I usually hold him very close to my face, his beak touching my nose. We have some of our Very Best Talks that way. :) If he gets over excited, my nose is the first thing in the line of fire. I have learned, though, not to say 'beep-beep' when that bird is close to my face. :lol

[LauraO]

Too bad you didn't live closer. I would let you come over and stick your hand in my hen Spike's cozie then you could find out for yourself if it hurts :omg:.

[bellarains]

Hmmm,

We have this biting discussion allot. The thing is, there is a nip, and there is a bite. Anything that doesn't draw blood, I call a nip. If it breaks skin and you need a band-aid, then I call that a bite, and yup, it hurts a bit. Kinda like stumping your toe, it hurts, but you do it every so often anyway, and you always get over it ;)

I guess what I'm saying is there are different degrees of a bite. Parrots bite, that's just a fact. Some bite harder than others, some bite more often than others, and some just nip. That's their way of communicating at times, and we have to respect that, and if we pay close enough attention to what they are trying to tell us, we do avoid most of those.

[butterfly1061]

Jennifer,

That's funny that you hold Milo close to your nose when you talk to him. I do the same thing with Molly & Daisy. They sit on my finger and puff a bit and we have the best conversations :happy: They chrip, chirp, chipr amd I just talk sweet to them. It can last for quite a while too. I like to think that they consider this a "Mommy & Me" time sort of thing. I can tell they enjoy it. :D

[LauraO]

Lori: How you distinguish nips and bites is interesting because I think some of what you call nips that don't break the skin are more painful than the breaking of skin. CuddleBunny is the worst. She gives these bites just hard enough not to break the skin and she either holds them for a long time or give me a whole bunch where I have all these indentions on my hand. Sometimes I just wish she'd take a quick chunk of my finger and move on :x.

I hold all 18 of my lovies close to my face. It's a great way to have those special birdy moments and beaker kisses. I trust Zimber so much where we have this bitey game where he sits on my chest and bites my face and I squeal for him. He's very gently and it makes him so happy :D .

[bellarains]

Laura,

I guess what I didn't say was that they all hurt a bit, the bite pain just lasts longer than the nip pain :lol

Now, Cappie on the other hand, he likes to "nip" and "twist" :eek: He doesn't really draw blood, but he gives one heck of a hickey :rolleyes:

[sdgilley]

Lori gets hickies from her birds? :rofl: :rofl: I think I've heard it all now! :rofl:

[LoveBugs]

lol

Of all the bites.. I think the one where they grab a part of your nostril the most painful!!!! That always bring tears to my eyes!! You get mad.. then realize you can't get mad cause as ALWAYS that bite was YOUR fault!!! lol

Then there's the "manicure" bite.... You know... when they grab that skin around your nail and give you a manicure....They rip a chunk of that harder than normal skin right off.... and along with it... some blood! lol

[Z28Taxman]

lol

Of all the bites.. I think the one where they grab a part of your nostril the most painful!!!! That always bring tears to my eyes!! You get mad.. then realize you can't get mad cause as ALWAYS that bite was YOUR fault!!! lol

Then there's the "manicure" bite.... You know... when they grab that skin around your nail and give you a manicure....They rip a chunk of that harder than normal skin right off.... and along with it... some blood! lol

Ditto gives me manicures all the time. Never any blood though, he's really good at it.

What really hurts though is when they just give a little pinch. Ditto manages to grab just a tiny bit of skin and even a little pressure from the beak hurts like crazy. :eek:

[shylevon]

As somone said, it depends on the birds. They don't bite as hard when they are young, but when they become adults, and they take to biting, they will bite a lot harder than a budgie. If you get a biter, expect bruises, and quite frequent blood letting. If you get a non-biter, don't do anything that he doesn't like for any length of time or you run the risk of turning him into a biter.

Birds have a certain body language that they display when they want you to stop doing something. If you ignore that body language signal, they will turn to their last resort, and that is to bite. If they begin to feel that the only language you understand is to be bitten, they will bite more often. You will have a very hard time teaching a bird that has learned to bite not to. You have trained him to believe that he must bite you in order to be heard, so don't go to that extreme if you don't want to raise a bird that bites.

[bellarains]

Yep,

Listen to Shy. She knows, she's a biter :lol

[shylevon]

I am a biter. No one listens to me unless I bite them. And I bite them good. They listen good the next time, that's for sure.

[sdgilley]

Shy is exactly right. My husband insisted on putting his hand in Peepo's cage. She bit him. I told him "don't put your hand in her cage, she doesn't like that." The next day, he put his hand in her cage, and BAM, she bit him. I said, "dont put your hand in her cage, she doesn't like that." The next day, :rofl: yes, you got it, he put his hand in her cage and she bit him hard enough to draw blood. Then he comes to ME for sympathy! I asked him, "how many times does she have to tell you not to put your hand in her cage before you listen?"

Moral of the story, don't put them in that position. Now, if Peepo gets a chance to be near my husband, she lunges at him! Thankfully she hasn't taken that approach to my children, but she won't let anyone but me handle her.

If you can focus on your bird's body language, you can communicate much better with the bird.

[Cooper]

I have the same problem, but it's with guests. Don't put your fingers near the cage, I tell them. What do they do? Then CHOMP! Cooper drew blood on my friend's husband's finger. Luckily he's a mechanic and has tough fingers. I'm thinking of making a "Beware of bird" sign. Maybe I can market it to other lovebird owners :D

[shylevon]

It's like the birds are just sitting there saying, "Here finger, finger, finger." And you just know someone is gonna have to stick their finger in there. The whole temptation thing is funny to watch and the whole "I told you so" thing is impossible to avoid.

I hate the birdie bite where they clamp on and don't let go. I have been bitten clean to the bone with that one.

[Buy A Paper Doll]

I had a pair of little boys visit the house last weekend. I specifically told them, if you want to hold the birds, do NOT put your hands in or near the cage, let me get them out for you because they bite if they're in their cage. An hour later one of them came to me with index finger extended. "The bird BIT me!" I said, "Did you stick your finger in the cage?" The dad just laughed and told his boy, "Next time maybe you won't put your fingers where they don't belong."

[LOVIEnMILO]

I wouldn't put my fingers up to the cage, let the bird come out to you on it's own. the cage is their safe territory.

Remember not to encourage biting by making a fuss when you get bit. I used to scream and scold Milo when she bit me. And she loved the attention! I taught her to bite me!!! So now, when I start to get bit, I distract them, give them a toy to chew on instead or a piece of paper to shred. It works, I rarely get bit by my three birds now.

If you get bit, it is your fault. Think about how big we are to a tiny little lovebird, and they still sit on our fingers and fly to us. They put a lot of trust into us. Be sweet to them and they will reciprocate! :wink:

[LoveBird]

I tought my Martha Kisses kisses and she kisses me back when I kiss her. This is her first day with me and she has already learned a trick!

[LoveBird]

My Martha hasn't bitn me yet and I hope to keep it that way.
Taylor

[Janie]

Taylor, my two new boys haven't bitten me yet either and like you, I'm hopin' to keep it that way! :D I figure I will get a bite here and there but the fewer, the better! Just remember to stay very patience and spend lots of time talking to Martha. She'll get to know you and trust you. The kisses are great but remember that your saliva can be deadly to her. It's okay to share kisses, I do with mine, but don't let her actually touch the inside of your mouth. Keep up the good work! :)

[LoveBird]

Oh I will be carefull. Martha loves to sit with me on the computer when I type. She doesn't bite she just nibbles when she gets upset or excited.
Taylor

[Kaye]

My Aleda- she does not nibble, she does not nip. She bites. She will clamp down on my finger and actually grind her beak to make it dig in, CHOMP CHOMP! Yes. IT HURTS. I have scars from her!

Of course, her biting is hormonal, so it is bad. I get to occasional startled bite from Oliver, and he like to nip on my lips and try to chew them (which hurts sometimes too..), but that's it. And Dominick.. he just likes to preen me.