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aggressive biting parrotlet

6K views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  ACochinchick 
#1 ·
Hi everybody! Im wondering what I can do about my 4 month old male parrotlet Cash.He is very outgoing and loves to come out of his cage.He will step up and as soon as hes on your hand the free for all biting starts.He will climb up to your shoulder and then proceeds to biting your neck,ears and what ever else he can reach.have tried blowing on him stern no bites and putting him back in his cage and nothing seems to help.What else can we do?
 
#2 ·
I have a parrotlet for 8 yrs. After being on my hand or shoulder he's start to bite too. What are you wearing sometimes its certain colors that will set my birds off. For Jelly Bean like you I blow in his face say no and return him to the cage, but I only wait a couple minutes and start all over. Sometimes even at this age if he gets to biting I grab him with one hand and with the other grab his beak and rub it. He likes it so much sometimes I just rub his beak. I hold him and gently rub his feet which he enjoys.He use to fly out of his cage like a wild boy. I stopped that by putting him back in his cage in the same spot! close the door. Open it offer my finger if he gets on he comes out if not it's back in the cage, same spot, close the door, wait open it offer my finger etc. Soon I have been able to leave the door open but he waits for my finger to come out. It didn't happen over night but he learned quick! I love him dearly and he is a very sweet boy. Actually at the age of 8 yrs he just laid his first egg!!! So hard to think of him as a GIRL LOL!
 
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#3 ·
I also have a parrotlet that is 3.5 years/male. I find that they do this when they want something or are feeling anxious about something. I give him a warning and then if he keeps doing it, I will not let him on my shoulder. Sometimes I ignore the biting. This is usually if I can determine that the reason he is biting is because he wants me to stop doing something or wants something in general-then I ignore it (don't give him what he wants) because I don't want to reinforce: "If I bite to get what I want than, I get what I want". I don't know if that helps, but it has a lot to do with learning why they are biting. With parrotlets, my experience has been that they nip more in the beginning because it takes them sometime to fully trust and be less anxious in their environment, along with learning the rules and boundaries. The longer you have him, and the more consistent you are, you will find the biting will get less and less. But all birds bite sometimes. BTW, when I do correct it, I too (like gemini1) gently hold his beak and say "no biting, be a nice boy". You can see in his eyes he calms down and then, I ask him to do something (like step up) and then I kiss his little beak. I find parrotlet's body language and facial expressions very easy to read.
 
#4 ·
Like 4thebirds said learn to read your bird's behavior. Sometimes he bites to tell me "Hey I'm sitting here on your shoulder and you have your face into the computer!" Or he is hungry even at mature age I need to direct him back to his food source. Having a parrotlet has been very rewarding for me. Good luck and have FUN :)
 
#6 ·
I have never met a plet that didn't bite. Except maybe a few handfed ones. Which are hard to find around here.
Last little male I had was not hand fed and would not stop biting so he was sold as a breeder. Not just annoyed biting but I am going to kill you bring blood kind of biting.
Sure hope you find a solution.
 
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#7 · (Edited)
Tico

I have had my plet for over a full year now and he is wonderful... To stop the biting I do the same move consistently and I ignore bad behaviour. So to start when he would bite I would literally turn my head away (No eye contact) from him to ignore him for 5 seconds if he did it again I would proceed, when he didn't bite I would say very nicely and happily "Good Bird". I then moved from ignoring him to using my pointing finger and would hold my pointing finger up in a 1 second way in front of his beak sating "No Bite". If he bites I ignored him yet again by turning my head away. I would reinforce this every single time to be consistent to the point where now all I have to do is raise my finger and he stops immediately. There has been a lot of research into the ignoring behaviour and how in birds it is what they do socially. If one of them is being annoying they will fly away and ignore them. So when you ignore your bird they understand that if this keeps on happening that you probably don't like this and they don't want to continue to do it. My birds are voice motivated so as long as I say good bird with excitement they are easy to work with. Other birds I have heard work better with treats so when he does something you like you give a treat when training and always reward for doing simple thing like stepping up and just hanging out with no biting.

I hope this helps... :)
 
#8 ·
My parrotlet is about 15 months old and he's an angel now. He hasn't bitten me hard for a really long time. Occasionally if something gets him over excited though he will give a light nip or try to act aggressive. I discourage this by picking him up and turning him onto his back in my hand and then putting my finger on his beak and saying "no" firmly. Works like a charm everytime for me. Then he just gives me an innocent look and I rub his beak and give him scritches! He did the most biting when he was about 4-5 mths old, then sort of mellowed out from there. That being said though...Wingnut was more of a fear-biter when he was a baby...he never tried to "attack" and would prefer to run away.
 
#9 ·
I got a great tip from Parrotletsrock and that was to put the bird on the floor and turn away. They do NOT like being ignored. Worked fantastic, especially with my conures and black capped lory
 
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