Help! I have an attack bird!

[Wheeliegirl]

What's the best way to get Peachie to STOP attacking my hands. She does this while I'm at the computer, reading the newspaper, eating.....just about anytime she's allowed to wander freely if I'm doing something. "No!" doesn't work, grasping her beak just makes her angrier.

I tried just letting her go at me the other day, and now my hands are extremely sore and red. This didn't work either.

I try to keep her occupied with other things, but she is just insistant on attacking my hands if she sees them even touching the table, the papter, the keyboard, mouse, etc.

The other day she got onto the floor, I didn't have a perch with me at the time, and she attacked my hands when I tried to get her to step-up! Sometimes she won't even get ont a perch, she lowers her head and butts the perch, so it can't get near her feet. She's learned to run under my wheelchair, and runs along with it so that I can't reach her. This is rather funny, and intelligent, but unnerving at the same time because I'm afraid I'll roll over her!

What to do? I certainly want her out of the cage as much as possible, but it's getting hard to have her with me while I do my activities because of this. Please help us.

[LauraO]

Holly: Have you ever thought of putting finger puppets on all five of your fingers and then setting them on the table in front of Peachie :eek:. This may deter her from coming anywhere near your hands or fingers with that BEAK.

It's funny that you mention that Peachie runs under your wheelchair, because I was just telling someone, as I was chasing a lovie around the ceiling fan and it would move two inches away so I couldn't grab it, that tame lovebirds move just enough so you can't catch them and wild lovies scattered to the other side of the room when you move a finger :rolleyes:.

As for the perch problem, a good thing to do is swing it down and under her, close to her feat, touching her chest, before she even has a chance to think about whether she wants to get on the perch or not. Some of my birds who are stick trained will do the same as Peachie and it's very maddening, but if you get the right angle their only choice is to step up or get tripped up.

Good Luck. Peachie is lucky to have you because she sounds like a handful :D.

[Wheeliegirl]

Finger puppets. Good, and imaginative idea! I've tried to distract her with toys, food, paper, anything I can thing of.....she only wants to keep me from her "territory" :mad: at all costs. I wonder where I could find finger puppets. I've even tried to use my computer with gloves, but it's really hard to type that way. ;)

For now, I've been keeping a cutting board on my lap, and using the mouse from there. Takes some getting used to.

Yes, she moves along with my chair just so that she stays out of reach, but it's really frustrating, especially when I think of a time when it might be an emergency and I have to pick her up real fast. She's so smart. Even though she bites like Cujo I love her so much. I can watch her anticks for hours. It is better than TV!

Oh, on a funny/cute note....when she goes for my mouse (wireless mouse won't work with my Del computer - don't know why), I say to her "Peachie! No!" She runs away and yells her name "Peeeeaaachie!" I think she's laughing at me! :p :p

[Elle]

Holly, you shouldn't have to go through that. there are a lot of things you can do to take control back. The main thing is to be consistent about it. Are Peachie's wings clipped and does she knows the up cpmmand?
Trying to grab their beak and shake it when they bite only makes them more aggressive. their beak is very sensitive. Right now Peachie is the Alpha in the house. If her wings are not clipped you should consider getting it done. there are a lot of advantage to it and it doesn't need to be permanent. they grow back.

I sent you a pm with my email in it. I'll leave it at that and wish you luck for now.

Elle

[Wheeliegirl]

Hi there. Yes, her wings are trimmed. When I say "wander freely", I mean, at the dinner table, on my desk, etc. Not really wandering all over the house. She's basically just spending time being near me, doing her own thing, like grazing from my plate, playing inside my printer, playing with something while I'm reading at the table, etc.

Sometimes she sees me picking something up from the table, countertop, using the mouse or keyboard and decides that I should be severely punished for doing that! So, she rushes at me with her beak open and head lowered. Now, this doesn't happen ALL the time, but too frequently for me to be comfortable enough to not keep at least one eye on her whereabouts while I'm trying to read or eat (talk about multi-tasking!)

She knows the "up, up" command, and "come on!" quite well, though she doesn't always agree to what I want. That's when I get the stick out. If her cage is even open, I keep that perch with me all the time.

You're right Elle, grasping her beak does nothing but make her angrier. She is a "fighter", that's for sure. She enjoyes rough play as well (I did not teach her this!). If there is anything she can find that makes noise, or can be moved or pushed, she either "fights" with it, or finds a way to use it to scratch her head (she won't let me do this for her).

I know I have to get this under control before too long. I'll check out the book you recommended, and e-mail you. Thanks for your support. :-)

[BarbieH]

Hi Holly;

Sounds like your bird is quite territorial. She thinks she owns everything she sees, and she is willing to defend it!

I have a few questions. Is this happening mainly in one room of the house, at that one table? Can you interact with her for shorter periods of time in a different location?

With my finger-biter Gracie, I have used her hatred of fingers to get her to do things, like go down a little ladder to the bottom of the sink to her bath, or to get her back into her cage, or to show her some food. She now associates the fingers with pleasant things, and although she doesn't trust them enough to actually let them touch her, she doesn't go for the full-out attack anymore.

Hope this helps,

[yellowbird]

Holly,

Have you had an luck finding something that works with Peachie? My four month old creamino, Yellow, is the same way. I can't have her out and about just being with me, because she bites everything in her sight, including me. And if I push her away to make her stop, she just gets madder. I have tried, and I don't know how well you could do this with a wheelchair, but sometimes I can get her attention and make her stop. This doesn't work all the time, but sometimes I can call her name (over and over again till she pays attention) and then tell her to be a nice girl and she'll step up easily. Not to say that I haven't had a bunches of bites from her or lunges. I've also noticed that when she's in her biting mode, there is no stopping her till she gets it all out. It's quite frustrating, because if you need to move her or put her back in the cage for some reason, here she is biting and lunging at you fiercely. That's when I get the stick out. Sometimes she'll just hop up, other times you have to chase her a little. I'm wondering if you can try to get her attention and then give her the "come" command and then pick her up with the stick. It's just enough of a distraction. The other thing I read was having another object in your hand...so that when she's trying to bite you distract her with the other object, it being close to her, and then take the stick and put in under their belly to make them step up. That has worked for me as well. Like I said, not all the time, but we're working on things ;) !

[linda040899]

Holly,
I agree with Laura about acting quickly when you ask Peaches to step up. If she doesn't have time to think about the fact that she wants to defend her territory or that she may have another option, chances are she will do what you want her to do. I do this with my larger parrots all the time. Now, I will admit that there are times when my parrots are more interested in doing what they are doing and they are grouchy if I interrupt. As long as what they are doing is not destructive, I can appreciate the fact that they are preoccupied. People are the same way. However, if one of them is busy trying to chew up my baseboard, I'm inclined to be a bit more insistent, like "Step up now!"

[Wheeliegirl]

Hi All. Nope, Peachie is still pretty much the same. I mostly get through it by keeping a close eye on her all the time. Even this evening, trying to play with her with a toy, and she got very agitated over it and began getting nippy and nasty. I figure it's all par for the course with her. She just wants her own way, and I admit, most of the time she gets it! :blush:

I've tried numerous things to distract her, toothpicks, other things, toys. The only thing that really holds her attention for more than 30 seconds is paper, and I hear that's bad and promotes nesty behavior, so I've cut back on that. I've also come to the conclusion that I can no longer have her at the computer with me because she refuses to stop attacking my mouse hand. Using it on my lap was making my wrist sore, and I don't need something else to worry about when it comes to my hands and arms.

I guess it's okay that she acts this way, if it's just her nature. I admit, I have been bad and haven't gone to the library to find the parrot training book yet, though I truly intend to!

The other morning I had to put her back into her cage before getting dressed for work. She was on my lap, when I tried to get her to get up onto her stick "up, up!" She faught the stick and bit at it, and instead bit my stomach! No, I don't feel it, but still, when she bites me, other parts of my body react, for example, my legs jerk badly, almost throwing me out of the chair. And, on that note, she likes to hang out on the backpack that I hang on the back of my chair, and on a few occastions has bit me on the butt while she was playing! Sometimes I think she has a grudge against human flesh of any kind, not just hands! :evil: Anyway, I think she realized what she had done, and then immediately behaved and hopped up onto her stick and went into her cage. I didn't say anything to her when I closed it. My feelings were hurt and I was frustrated, but I know it's really not her fault. She has learned how to get very low so the perch can't get under her, and I end up chasing her all over. More often, though she does go up onto her perch when asked. It's only when she doesn't want to stop doing whatever fun thing she is doing that she acts this way.

What worries me now, is that she's discovered that she can get up under my shirts.......when she is inside anything she nips and bites at the surface to "test" it, and I'm afraid she'll go up there and nip and bite my flesh and......*****! Yikes!

My problem is that I keep trying to get into the psychology of the whole thing....if she hates me so much, then why does she make such a fuss when I come home in the evenings? Why does she want to hang on me like a fashionable broach? On the other hand (no punn intended) if she LOVES me so much, then why does she bite me everywhere?

Regardles, she's a pretty, funny, crazy little bird, and I love her even though she has her moods. Afterall, I've certainly been known to have mine!

[LauraO]

Holly: I just wanted to say Peachie DOES NOT hate you. In fact, it sounds as if she loves you very much. It sounds to me like there is either a power issue and Peachie thinks she rules the roost or she is just going through a stage. I wish I were informed enough to give you some good advice but I struggle with the biters too. I currently have a four month old lovie I call Chewy because all he does is bite gnaw, and YEP, he loves to chew on my hands when I'm using the mouse. It's worse when I'm typing, he likes to bite my hand while trying to hump it at the same time :omg:.

[sdgilley]

Hi Holly,
I agree with Laura, Peachie loves you. I have a biter who bites HARD and will draw blood. He's not mean, but it's like a sport to him and is fairly compelled to bite without notice. On the other hand (really) I have a female who tests everything with her beak. She is very lovable, but when she's crawling around under my shirt, she nibbles under my arms and sometimes pinches. If she gets too bitey, I put her in her cage. We've both learned: If she wants to return to her cage she can let me know with progressively harder bites, but if she wants to stay out and play with me - she's not allowed to hurt me. Sometimes they learn, mostly we do. :)

[yellowbird]

Wheeliegirl,

I have to agree with LauraO and with sdgilley and say that Peaches doesn't hate you. My lovie, Yellow, is exactly like your Peachie. She bites everything. I can't have her with me when I am typing on the computer, because she bites my hands, my mouse, my keyboard, etc. and then when I try to make her stop, she gets mad at me. Actually any time I try to make her stop biting she gets mad at me. I have stick trained her, but she hates the stick. You can read my post on that. http://www.lovebirdsplus.com/community/showthread.php?t=900 She's gotten quite nippy and bitey since she turned three months and I'm hoping that this is a stage and that, as they say, that once she turns 6 months she'll be my the loving little bird I know is under there somewhere...the little bird I brought home. This morning I was petting her like I usually do and all of a sudden she attacked my finger. She's been a little more nasty about it and not even giving me warning plunges. She is going through her first molt, which I think has a lot to do with it. Those new feathers look painful. I am sure she's trying to push things as well, like a two year old, but I'm trying to stay on top of it and not allow her to do things she shouldn't. It's quite trying at times, to say the least. I know she loves me still, even though she can be quite the pickle, because every morning she is dying to come out of her cage and see me. If she didn't want anything to do with me and hated me so much (like it seems at times with how much she bites), she wouldn't want nothing to do with me. I had birds like that when I was younger.

How old is Peachie? Maybe she's going through the same thing Yellow is. I have been told by others on this website that the biting everything and me will pass. I'm praying so. Hopefully with Peachie it's just a stage as well.