%#$& That HURTS!

[Joanie Noel]

I wish I could read this little birdie's mind, because Squeaks is making me more and more angry as the days go by. When I first got him around 3 months old, we had issues with biting then too, but he never bit THAT hard. Then he stopped for about 4 months and now he's back with a vengeance! I've been trying to just accept it and hope it passes, but it is just getting worse. I have absolutely no idea what he's trying to tell me, that's the hard part. I think the bruise on my finger and the skin torn off of my knuckle this morning says that he is madder than ever? I have never yelled so loud from a bird bite -- he would NOT LET GO. :eek: He's so tame, I want my sweet little Squeaks back. He doesn't bite anyone but me. Not even my boyfriend, who has much juicier fingers. >o Squeaks is close to 10 months old now, does that mean anything?

- Joanie

[BarbieH]

Hey Joanie;

Sounds like you've got a Gracie-level biter. Some birds are just like that. The first thing you need to do is figure out when and where specifically the biting occurs. (For example, on my hand, any time of day, whenever Squeaks sees it. It's kind of like playing Clue -- Colonel Mustard in the study with the candlestick.) The things that Squeaks bites are his triggers.

What you will need to do is either a) remove the triggers or b) make them less attractive to bite. Some people also are able to distract their biting birds with a toy or food, but I have not found this to be successful for my hard biter.

The hardest part is not to take it personally. This was *very* hard for me. Try to remember that yelling gives the bird a reward. Putting the bird back in its cage is a reward. Punishment is not an option with parrots; the best response is no reaction. With Gracie, I would scoop her up on her stick and hold her at arm's length from me, not saying a word. Always calmed her right down.

Please let us know how this sounds to you. It is frustrating, but I know from personal experience that it can be worked through. :)

Best wishes,

[Mummieeva]

Joanie I know that feelign very well. Baggy was sweet and never bite for longest time. But then she did and it hurt bad. it got to point I was close to finding her a new home. But the ladies here gave me great advice and it has gotten better. I learned Baggy now hates hands(i think me being one to remove her mate with my hands might of triggered this). If I do not try touching her with hands she is fine. I hope you cna find the trigger for Squeaks and get it working better.


Steph

[mjm8321]

Joanie, Is Squeaks a male? I've got a couple of males that will bite a bit, but not the hen-type hard biting you are referring to. At ten months, hormones are in full swing.

[Joanie Noel]

Yep, Squeaks is a male, unless his DNA sexing test had been wrong. But I always have believed him to be male because of how sweet he has been from day 1. (And he gets along with Aruba.) Weird that he had a whole few months of no biting. He's so different from my other birds in literally every way, lol. He always bites my fingers if he does bite. I'll have to do some more investigating to figure out this little bugger's problem. 8o I don't really yell at him at least, I think my neighbors just hear me swear through the walls. :rofl: I try to be quiet. *la la la*

- Joanie

[BarbieH]

I think my neighbors just hear me swear through the walls.

If they ask about it, tell 'em you've got Tourette's. :D

[KarynCandy]

If they ask about it, tell 'em you've got Tourette's. :D :2cents: I'm new to this board ..I've enjoyed reading and learning..we have 4 budgies and will be getting a pair of lovebirds soon.... well the four budgies are mine..
The lovebirds will be my hubby's ..
I am having trouble with one of my budgies before I got sick and went into the hospital for a while she was so sweet and even starting to just talk...now she bites me and won't step up from her cage...
and has stopped talking...how can I fix this ??
Thank you for any help you can give me...

P.S BarbieH..Just so you know.. my son has Tourette's and he does not swear .. :D


Karyn

[Mummieeva]

Karyn I am sending you a private message. They appear at the top right side under your name..lol.


Steph

[Paulette]

Hi Karyn.....Lucky, my babie budgie is now 8 weeks old....I took him out of the next box every day or every other day and talked to him while he was growing and getting feathers. He learned the step up command, but I hadn't played with him in a week or so and he's already afraid of me. I think for budgies they need handling every day to keep the tameness. My tame lovebird, Jake, however will come to me most of the time, only his mate Hope is on eggs right now so he's in protective mode, but he did come out and ride around on my shoulder today....only because he saw me trying to play with Lucky and he insisted on my attention so I let him out. The tiels seem to keep their tameness also....but a little less than the lovebirds....it may just be the difference in species or personality of each individual bird.....All of my birds, with the exception of a couple, were becoming really tame until eggs started being layed....and then there was a lot of harrassment going on and I've had to keep everybirdie in their cages.....occasionally I still let the cockatiels out because they tend to pace and get antsy. And I have different species and the lovebirds bite any birdie that steps onto their cage.

Joanie....your biter sounds just like Tweety....I have to dangle a glove or rag into the nest box for her to chomp onto and dangle from, then I use it to put her back into the cage while blocking the opening of the box so I can take the babies out to play with them.....she has bitten me HARD 3 times and doesn't let go until I shake her off my bloody finger....so it sounds to me like you just might have a hen on your hands....and she gives me no warning whatsoever....she strikes like lightening or a snake and I never see her coming! :x And I have to be extremely careful where I hold onto the food cup that I'm trying to put in the cage....she has bitten me a couple of times and made me spill the whole cup into the bottom tray. :x

[Joanie Noel]

Yikes, Paulette. :eek: It would suck if Squeaks were really female. He is DNA sexed male, but you never know! Everything about him screams "male". I guess if I find a double batch of lovie eggs in his and Aruba's cage in a year or so, I'll know for sure. Haha.

- Joanie

[KarynCandy]

Hi Karyn.....Lucky, my babie budgie is now 8 weeks old....I took him out of the next box every day or every other day and talked to him while he was growing and getting feathers. He learned the step up command, but I hadn't played with him in a week or so and he's already afraid of me. I think for budgies they need handling every day to keep the tameness. My tame lovebird, Jake, however will come to me most of the time, only his mate Hope is on eggs right now so he's in protective mode, but he did come out and ride around on my shoulder today....only because he saw me trying to play with Lucky and he insisted on my attention so I let him out. The tiels seem to keep their tameness also....but a little less than the lovebirds....it may just be the difference in species or personality of each individual bird.....All of my birds, with the exception of a couple, were becoming really tame until eggs started being layed....and then there was a lot of harrassment going on and I've had to keep everybirdie in their cages.....occasionally I still let the cockatiels out because they tend to pace and get antsy. And I have different species and the lovebirds bite any birdie that steps onto their cage.

Joanie....your biter sounds just like Tweety....I have to dangle a glove or rag into the nest box for her to chomp onto and dangle from, then I use it to put her back into the cage while blocking the opening of the box so I can take the babies out to play with them.....she has bitten me HARD 3 times and doesn't let go until I shake her off my bloody finger....so it sounds to me like you just might have a hen on your hands....and she gives me no warning whatsoever....she strikes like lightening or a snake and I never see her coming! :x And I have to be extremely careful where I hold onto the food cup that I'm trying to put in the cage....she has bitten me a couple of times and made me spill the whole cup into the bottom tray. :x

Hi Paulette,
My budgies are now about 4 months old...they are molting ...
I seem to remember reading here that birds might become very upset and being grouchy already from the discomfort of molting, may choose to nip ..
one of my budgies is almost 4 years old he's mate died and I went to get him another mate..came home with two that day..then two weeks later..went to get more bird food and looked in the cage and fell in love with another one ..
gave my hubby the "please please please" look and came home with the little sweetie,food,toys and new cage..LOL
Thay are such a joy to have.. :happy:

Do you breed Lovebirds ?
I can't wait for our two to come home...They seem to be playful..and loving..

Karyn

[Janie]

Joanie, one of my younger birds, Big Boi, is a biter. I don't think he does it for any reason except beak exercise! He is the sweetest little bird and loves human interaction. If he's alone on my shoulder or even with Oliver (I can put them together because Big Boi backs down from Oliver....Shy does not) he is fine but if I have both Big Boi and Shy together on my shoulder, Big Boi goes for my neck and ears. :eek: It smarts! :D I think Big Boi does this when he's on me with Shy because he's letting Shy know that HE can preen me and that Shy can not. Funny thing is that Shy does preen me but never bites at all and Shy is the birdie that doesn't really care about me one way or the other. I do remove Big Boi and put him back in his cage, which he hates, when he bites hard but I just can't get mad at him because I don't think that little bird has a mean "feather" in his body. Just a fun loving little toddler with a powerful beak. I am hoping he'll out grow this stage, especially with time out in his cage, but, I'm not counting on it! :D I bought a large box of Band-Aids last week! :lol

[Paulette]

Oh Karyn....you sound like me.....see a bird....buy a bird. LOL :rofl:
Lucky was my first baby birdie ever.....and I have acquired quite a few fids....I pair my birds up just because it seems more natural to me to do so....in the past I've never had birds long enough to experience eggs/babies because I didn't know any better than to feed a seed only diet. So I guess this is my new hobby. I have always loved birds, wild birds and budgies to be more specific. In April my son brought me a tiel (Blanco) an Albino and she was so sad and lonely that I went on the internet to see if I could find information about what other people feed or do for their birds....and lo and behold, I found a wealth of information....including bird shelters. I'd never heard of such a thing before and so I adopted a tiel (Bam-Bam) a Cinnamon Pied female that I thought was a male. The same shelter had a pair of tame lovebirds, (Sara & Jake) so I adopted them too. A lady in a town over was selling her tiel pair (Jack and Zazu) with 2 large cages, so I begged my hubby for them knowing I would put them together and use the other cage for my growing flock. Went to my first bird fair end July and bought a Lutino and a Seagreen Creamino (Sunny & Peaches). Made my 20 yr old son buy me 2 Zebra finches for my Bday early Aug, both males because I didn't know any better. Accidentally killed lovie Sara with her blood feathers. Found Hope and couldn't make a decision on the other 2 (Tweety & Violet) so my husband bought all 3, they came with a breeder cage & nest box which I promptly set up (thus the 5 babies I have now that are 3 1/2 wks old)+ budgie nest box. So I set up the budgie nest box for my original budgies Amarillo & Verde who never fed their babies and the rest of the eggs rotted. Went to my 2nd bird fair early Oct. came home with 2 male tiels (Tonto) Lutino & (Buck) a Cinnamon who just might be female, but whistles so I'll just have to wait and see. Begged hubby to stop at Pet Warehouse so I could get 2 female Zebra finches....and Hubby recently built me 2 lovebird nest boxes and one tiel box for Jack & Zazu who have been desperately searching for a box, but won't go inside it. Hope is in love with Jake and has layed 5 eggs in her new nestbox.

So, as you can see the bird situation at my house is TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL!!!.....BUT I LOVE Them. I decided that if they had babies I could just sell them and possibly recoop some of the expence, but I'm not sure you can ever recoop that :confused: . I don't remember how I found this board, but I'm sure glad I did. :D

We are just beginning to make some additions onto our small house. I love stuff.....old stuff, used stuff, new stuff, free stuff.....I have too much stuff...I love to drag stuff home that my neighbors throw out and rework or repurpose it, so many times it is just something that needed to be cleaned.....which drives my husband crazy because he is a neat freak (Mr. Clean).....I don't like to give my stuff up.....I love to craft, paint, build tables/furniture/shelves/cabinets, sew, make wire or polymer clay jewelry, photography, gardening....holiday gifts for the moms/grandmas/an elderly lady I grew up next door to....I have 2 motherinlaws.....etc. I am a stay at home mom. People always ask me if I get bored. Well NO! and if I did there's always house cleaning. :x

So, my birds are breeding, but I am not an experienced breeder. I think I found this board in June....I have learned much....and experienced much. I am 42, I have been married for 23 years, I have a 20 yr old and a 16 year old. We are very active. I have experienced many heartbreaking things in the last 6 months, averaging one per month. I almost lost both of my children this summer and watched someone else loose one of theirs (my daughter's best friend). If I didn't have these birds to get up and take care of every day, I think I would have stayed in bed. I'm always wondering what is the meaning of life?....why this?.....why that?.....for me, I have discovered, it is the journey.....no matter what I'm interested in it is the chase (the learning part) (the gathering part) not the completion of the task.

And I don't know why I keep getting off on these tangents where I am compelled to share so much on what ever topic we are discussing. It must be the attention deficeit hyperactive disorder, but if it weren't for that I wouldn't be a creative girl.

AND... I...... DONOTNEEDANOTHERPARROT :whistle: ....but....there will be others. :blush: :D :confused: :cool: :wink: :rolleyes: :whistle:

[KarynCandy]

Paulette :)

Wow you sure do have alot of birds!!! Your hubby sounds like mine
we're lucky to have such good men..
I love birds this may sound a little strange but my birds help me relax.. I just
love sitting and watching them..I have one American budgie.
his name is (Kissinger )
he will be 4 years old soon ..his mate Holly passed away and this is how we ended up with 3 more budgies..I have a Lutino Parakeet with red eyes..her name is (Currio) my hubby named her... :D soon to be 5 months..
one pure yellow parakeet s/he is so small we called s/he Tiny Tim -(TT) for short..not sure what sex it is if it is a she I will keep her nickname (TT)...but she will be known as the Tiny Terror ...TT is in the cage with Kissinger they both made it clear they wanted to be together..I've never seen Kissinger as lively as he is now..he's like a baby bird again..so maybe TT is a girl...
I have another one I think it's a male .. I am not sure if it's a pied..As you can see I'm not very good at telling what they are..his name is Peepers also
5 months old..as soon as I can I post pictures..maybe you can all help me with the sex and kind of budgies I have for sure.. :eek:
I really do like this forum and the members..I'm enjoying reading the post..sure do learn alot here..I best stop here for now it's getting late here..
I will be back...nice meeting you~ :)

Karyn