# Non-aggressive biting... ouch.



## Shayla Fortune

As Molly and I's bond grows she becomes more and more affectionate... painfully so. She has started to bite me in a non-agressive way (I know this for a fact) when she is on me. She likes to preen and climb all over me and my friends, but then it leads to a painful pinch. She likes to pick at just about anything; freckles, scabs, etc. which I expect and don't mind, but it's the biting when she is preening/exploring that bothers me (and my friends). I was fully prepared to use the 'soft beak' technique for if she had aggressive biting... but this I don't know what to do about this kind of biting. She will do it to just about any loose piece of skin, her favorites being ears, neck, between fingers, lips, and chin. She doesn't do it every chance she gets either, it's just when she does this preen/beaking kinda thing. When I'm home, her cage door is always open and she is always on me during that time. When I'm on my computer I give her a dandelion green which will keep her busy for hours (her current one is in two pieces and she is happily chewing on the stalk part). I'm also near her cage so if she gets bored she is able to go to that and play with toys. I want to buy a bird toy necklace, or maybe make one to help keep her entertained as well.

This article explains it pretty well: 

_"Positive Beak Behaviors

Friendly “beaking” behavior is not aggressive although it can be a bit pinchy from time to time. Baby parrots love to chew on our fingers and hands and often this behavior continues, usually as a sign of affection and playfulness. Some parrots have very sharp beaks and allowing this behavior as the parrot matures can create problems. With a baby parrot, I recommend having a foot toy nearby and sticking it in the bird’s beak so it has something else to chew on besides your fingers. The best toys for this purpose are knots made of leather strips or cotton rope. Larger parrots might enjoy a wash rag tied into knots. Wiggling the toy around while your parrot chews on it is a positive form of interactive play. Using the word “gentle” when the young parrot exerts too much pressure with his beak can help teach him the acceptable use of his beak in play."_

Source: https://companionparrotonline.com/beakiness.html

I don't really see how saying "gentle" can actually teach her to not bite so hard... and I don't think Molly would be interested in a foot toy... or if I could find one small enough for her. :/

What I've been doing to help stop it is if I expect her to bite me I move whatever she's about to get, closer to her. If she gets my ears or face before I can stop her (sometimes she'll wonder behind me and I won't see that she is so close until it's too late) I've been blowing a puff of air at her. I'm not sure what else to do because I don't want to punish her because she doesn't mean harm and I've read that punishment doesn't work for birds. Has anyone else ran into this issue and been able to stop or at least decrease it's occurrence though training?


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## eduardo

Yes, my female Candy has always been like that. She loves being with me, and is the happiest when she is perching on my shoulder, but she has this bad habit of nibbling on my skin, especially my hands and chest area It's not an angry bite, it's actually like preening, but in the process, she manages to nibble on my skin to the point of creating little dots of blood sometimes. She has been like that from the day I brought her home, and she also overpreens her self
I usually just move her away from those areas where she gets obsessed, and she just starts preening herself. What I really want her to do is play with her toys more, but she has no interest She will shred some wood and that's about it.


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## Shayla Fortune

Molly just bit me the worst she ever has. This time it wasn't a preening kind of bite, more so just to chew on me. There wasn't any aggression at all, but it hurt... a lot. I have three small punctures on my finger that are bleeding a bit. I ignored the biting the best I could, but after the third I couldn't take the pain anymore so I picked her up and forcefully moved her away to her dandelion greens to chew on. I worry that if I give her greens or toys to chew on when she tries to chew on me, she will think I'm praising her or something. :/


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## hanna

Joe loves to nibble too but it never was a painfull nibble ( yet ) hope it stays this way as I love his gentle nibbles, he's so gentle that sometimes I can feel his little tongue    
Yesterday he even stuck his little head behind my glasses ( moved them off me, lol ) and preened my eyelashes


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## tielfan

Make all the fun stop for a few seconds when non-aggressive beaking gets too rough or painful. If she's on you, take her off while paying as little attention to her as possible and put her down in the most boring safe spot within reach, and turn your back on her for a few seconds. Then you can go back to playing with her if you want to, or give her something else to do that's fun. You need the few seconds of no-fun to send the message that excessive beaking leads to undesirable results. She should get the message eventually. It's OK to say "no" in a calm voice when she nips, and then move her to the time-out spot. 

You didn't mention her age, but if she's a fairly young baby she will have an instinctive desire to explore the world with her beak to a much greater extent than an adult bird does. It's still OK to set sensible limits.


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## Shayla Fortune

tielfan said:


> Make all the fun stop for a few seconds when non-aggressive beaking gets too rough or painful. If she's on you, take her off while paying as little attention to her as possible and put her down in the most boring safe spot within reach, and turn your back on her for a few seconds. Then you can go back to playing with her if you want to, or give her something else to do that's fun. You need the few seconds of no-fun to send the message that excessive beaking leads to undesirable results. She should get the message eventually. It's OK to say "no" in a calm voice when she nips, and then move her to the time-out spot.
> 
> You didn't mention her age, but if she's a fairly young baby she will have an instinctive desire to explore the world with her beak to a much greater extent than an adult bird does. It's still OK to set sensible limits.


She's pretty young, she was hatched on October 18th and I only got her a few weeks about from the breeder. Should I put her in the same spot every time, or just where ever?


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## tielfan

Just wherever. Birds have short attention spans so the consequences for the rough beaking have to be delivered right away for her to make the connection. If the time-out spot is some special place across the room, she will have forgotten about the beak incident by the time you get her over there. 

She's less than 3 months old so she's definitely in the "I want to chew on everything including you" stage. She will outgrow it eventually.


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## Shayla Fortune

tielfan said:


> Just wherever. Birds have short attention spans so the consequences for the rough beaking have to be delivered right away for her to make the connection. If the time-out spot is some special place across the room, she will have forgotten about the beak incident by the time you get her over there.
> 
> She's less than 3 months old so she's definitely in the "I want to chew on everything including you" stage. She will outgrow it eventually.


That makes me feel a bit better. I put a new toy in her cage that she seems to love. It's a "Mini Hoopla" and consists of a plastic chain with plastic spring thing-y's and paper rings with a bell on the bottom. She was climbing and chewing on it a lot. Hopefully that will help curb the biting because the chew toy I had in there before didn't seem to interest her. She only has a ball bell toy, the Mini Hoopla, and a Cozy Corner (along with perches and dishes obviously) because this is only her temporary cage (and it's kinda small) until I can get her a flight cage sometime in the very near future; I have a nice and hefty paycheck coming in with lots of overtime pretty soon (either this coming paycheck, or the next) that I plan on getting her a new cage along with more toys and perches! As it is, I don't have enough room in her cage to fulfil my cage decorating needs hehe... I'm hoping the larger cage/more toys will help with biting as well. 

Oh, I was also on mysafebirdstore.com and put a shopping cart together to make a toy necklace to keep my ears, face and computer a little safer. I'm thinking about making an extra necklace for my friend who has a nippy Quaker who loves ears.


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## moonchild

I'm sure she doesn't know she is hurting you, and it may sound silly but you might just have to help her understand this. I read elsewhere that if you make a displeased noise -- for instance, say "Ouch!" -- and look and act as hurt as possible, she may get it. They are capable of reading our emotions and body language, as we are theirs. Giving her a short "time out" may work too, so she understands that she did something to upset you. I'm sure when a young parrot is growing up and crosses a line with another bird, be it a sibling, parent, or other flock member, the other bird lets them know. And that's how they learn what is acceptable, and what isn't.


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## tielfan

> I was also on mysafebirdstore.com and put a shopping cart together to make a toy necklace to keep my ears, face and computer a little safer.


Sometimes toy necklaces work and sometimes they don't. Shodu has never yet met a toy that was more interesting to chew on than a human ear.


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## Korvia

Crash Does this too, he's 2 years old though. When he bites too hard I just move him away, over time he's gotten better about how hard he nibbles.


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## Shayla Fortune

tielfan said:


> Sometimes toy necklaces work and sometimes they don't. Shodu has never yet met a toy that was more interesting to chew on than a human ear.


lets hope it does work. She is big on toys and I have a lot of things similar to her favorite toy in the cart so I'd be surprised if she wasn't at least a little interested!


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## Shayla Fortune

echolalia said:


> I'm sure she doesn't know she is hurting you, and it may sound silly but you might just have to help her understand this. I read elsewhere that if you make a displeased noise -- for instance, say "Ouch!" -- and look and act as hurt as possible, she may get it. They are capable of reading our emotions and body language, as we are theirs. Giving her a short "time out" may work too, so she understands that she did something to upset you. I'm sure when a young parrot is growing up and crosses a line with another bird, be it a sibling, parent, or other flock member, the other bird lets them know. And that's how they learn what is acceptable, and what isn't.


That's a really good way to put it!


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## moonchild

Freya and Moon do like my toy necklace, for what it's worth. Even Storm plays with it sometimes, because he must copy everything Freya does.




























The vine balls are her favorite, so I have to replace them frequently as they are shredded to bits. She does still like to go after my earrings, and if I let her she will "preen" my lips. It's super-sweet, though sometimes she nibbles a little too hard, and I don't let her do it often because of bacteria concerns (for her).


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## debra150

mine used to do the same but I trained him well the words"ah,ah,ah" or a single"uh",in a deep dfferent voice..so everytime i knew he was going for an earring i would just say 'AH' and would know not to do it,worked with anything.all in good time.


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## Shayla Fortune

echolalia said:


> The vine balls are her favorite, so I have to replace them frequently as they are shredded to bits. She does still like to go after my earrings, and if I let her she will "preen" my lips. It's super-sweet, though sometimes she nibbles a little too hard, and I don't let her do it often because of bacteria concerns (for her).


Yeah I'm going to order a pack of like 12 to see if she's interested in them or not.  I try to keep her away from my face (not only because of the bacteria but because of biteing/preening as well)


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