# Scritches and biting



## Alykins

I've finally gotten Gizmo to step up without biting as much as he used to. While I'm holding him, he'll sort of lunge at me or attack my hands extremely fast, then bow his head. Am I right by thinking he wants head scritches? After a minute or two of him not attacking my hand, I'll ask him if he wants some loving and slowly move my finger to his head. He'll let me give him some scritches but after a while he'll attack my hand out of nowhere. Should I stop trying to pet him? If not, how do I get him to stop biting? He doesn't seem to get the comcept of 'No bite!'..


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## sweetrsue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh8OTrRRSk8&feature=related Here's a site I found today! I think this guy has some good ideas.


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## sweetrsue

And Ironically I signed up to watch the videos on line and they sent me this: 
http://www.birdtricks.com/PowerPause/


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## Birdie21

Is he actually biting, or a light nip? Maybe he is asking for scritches, but in a while is saying, "ok that's enough for now". Maybe just a couple scritches and let him ask for more then. Those YouTube video's Sweetrsue mentioned sound like they are pretty good.


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## tielfan

I watched about half of that video, and I'd say that this is one of Chet's iffy techniques. He's outright provoking that cockatiel, and the "reward" of stopping the provocation isn't actually a reward. He's trying to make the process look like positive reinforcement but in reality I'd say it's aversive. You're better off using true positive reinforcement techniques.

The promise of a 5-minute cure doesn't earn him any brownie points with me either. He gets part of his reputation problem from promising instant cures to longterm problems. In the real world it usually takes time for new behavior patterns to be learned.


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## Alykins

Birdie, that may be it. He usually doesn't bite hard before he bows his head for me, but after a while he will attack my hand.


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## atvchick95

I only have one tiel that I can touch at all (other then my hand fed babies) She will bow her head for scratches and when she has had enough she will turn fast and peck or just walk away ( i keep telling her when you don't want any more seriously just walk away no reason to peck - because most of the time i'm out in my own world because there are times she has me do it for hours, other times its just a min or 2 and she pecks me and I jump - back in to reality - not only is the head scratches relaxing for her But it calms me as well and puts me on a entire different planet - so when she's done and pecks me I jump because well i'm not paying attention lol 


And I agree with Tiel Fan - about that Chet guy, I got a pop up of his "miracle plan" one day when i was searching bird related things and just in that short clip All i could say is "this guy is a total joke and people pay him money for this crap?" But thats just my opinion


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## Zwiekira

When Cheeko is nibbling my fingers lightly (meaning it doesn't hurt) while I'm petting him, I think he's just playing with us and even that he's showing his affection. (Like how puppies bite a lot to explore their world because they don't have hands like we do). But when he bites sharper or makes his bratty "squealch!" noise, we know he's annoyed and stop all cuddling operations STAT. Is your guy just messing around or getting mad? 
This is just a theory, but sometimes Cheeko will be kind of aggressive when I begin to scritch his head, and he will lower his head and occassionally will bang his beak on our arm! I interpret this as Cheeko saying, "This is my turf, *YOU pet ME*!" I don't know if that's how cockatiels are in the wild, but the way he sometimes displays his wings when he's on top of his cage, it's like an instinctual claim on his space. I think the biting might be territorial. I don't think Cheeko even knows that my hands are controlled by me. I think sometimes Cheeko thinks that my hands are other birds. Not that they _look_ like birds, but my clumsy human body language has broken one of the avian rules of personal space...know what I mean? Cheeko thinks, "Alright, buddy, back off!"


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## tielfan

> He doesn't seem to get the comcept of 'No bite!'


And Gizmo is thinking "My owner doesn't seem to get the concept that I bite when I'm displeased!"  Birds bite for a reason, in reaction to something you did or to something else that's going on in the area. If you want them to stop biting you have to figure out what got the bird upset enough to bite and then make adjustments so it doesn't happen again. Or at least doesn't happen so often.

In the case of head scritches, birds will nip each other as a "stop head-preening" signal, so Gizmo is treating you the same way he'd treat another bird. The question is, why does he want you to stop the scritching? Sometimes it might be due to discomfort, for instance if you hit a pinfeather the wrong way or if he's tired of being scritched. But with my birds, most of the time it's because something happened to make them nervous. A bird that's nervous wants to be ready for action and not distracted by lovely headscritches, so they tell you to stop in no uncertain terms. 

Mostly what makes them nervous is the approach of another cockatiel who is highly likely to start an argument over whose turn it is to be scritched. Or maybe a bird flew by outside the window and they want to make sure it's not a hawk. When your bird bites you, try to remember exactly what happened right before the bite that might have disturbed or upset him. Once you figure out what's making him unhappy you can work on preventing it from happening.


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## Alykins

Well, whenever Gizmo bites me when I'm giving him scritches, I do stop. I understand that he doesn't like something I did, or he's had enough. I'll just leave him perched on my finger and talk nicely to him, he'll usually start preening after a while. Then he'll turn real fast, attack my hand and bow his head. I'm pretty sure I've done nothing to displease him at that time.


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## Lola's_mommy

Lola went through a period of this, especially during a heavy molt. I finally solved the biting issue by trial and accident. At first, I would tell her NO and put her back in her cage, and then take her out after a couple of minutes. Then I tried scritching her for very short periods of time. It would seem like she really wanted me to scritch her head and neck, but after I started, she would violently bite at me. I finally realized I was making her uncomfortable in the way I was scritching her. I make sure I only pet her from the head down, going with the way the feathers lie, and now she never bites me. I use my fingernail to just barely get through the top feathers and get a little bit of contact underneath, and she closes her eyes and sticks out her tongue. It is very obvious when you are doing a good job. So maybe an option for you is to try different methods of scritches, in my case petting downward with the feather, like a cat or dog, and see if this helps improve your tiel's attitude. Good luck!


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## tielfan

> Then he'll turn real fast, attack my hand and bow his head. I'm pretty sure I've done nothing to displease him at that time.


OK, now that sounds like he's accidentally been taught that biting leads to head scritches so he thinks that biting is an appropriate way to ask for them! The way to break him of this habit is to NOT scritch him when he uses a bite to request it. Move your hand away instead, and come back and scritch him when he's being nice.


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## Alykins

I'll give it all a try. Thanks everyone.


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## Bea

The nipping to get head scratches could just be a natural behaviour. I watch Cookie and Bailee smooching up to one another and they usually nip, tilt their head, head butt each other, and if they haven't got what they want they nip again. And then they nip to put an end to scratches as well.


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## xxxSpikexxx

Spike likes to nibble on my finger nails, when Iam using the mouse. I guess he thinks I need a manicure  Spike will also peck me and than bow his head for scritches sometimes.


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## lovinbirdies

What worked for me with Hedwig was click training like Chet does ... I use a stick and ask him to touch it and when he does I click and immediatly give a treat (millet). Hedwig absolutly loves his game of chase the stick ... he talks to me and is so eager to get to the stick as fast as you can. That's how I was able to train him to get up on my hand and to come out of his cage. Now I don't by any means use that training diet I know Chet advertises ... what I do is only use the millet for when I work with Hedwig. Also with this method I have been able to get him used to my hands, and he is finnaly willing to let me give him scritches. I highly reccommed this approach because it has worked so well for me first hand with Hedwig and not to mention also with Joey and Albus. You don't even really have to purchase a clicker you could always just make the clicking noises with your mouth. It can't hurt to try it out and who knows what may happen.


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## tielfan

> I use a stick and ask him to touch it and when he does I click and immediatly give a treat (millet)


This is called targeting. It's standard in clicker training and is often the very first behavior a bird is taught. It's very easy for birds to learn and also very easy for newbie trainers to teach. That last bit is important, because when you first start clicker training the human has more to learn than the bird does!


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