# Biting



## thecrabbykeet (Mar 24, 2008)

So as both our tiels are in quarantine we have been bringing them out in their room, working with them bit by bit. The lighter one is very timid of the hand but will eventually step up,etc. The darker on though has quite a nipping problem though all the time, he will step up and just sit there gnawing on your finger until you tell him to step up to another hand. And even then he will nip at the new finger for about 30 seconds and then finally step up. Any tips/tricks on helping curb this problem would be appreciated. Oh and is there anyway to tell male/female by vocalization or anything? The lighter one is very quite while the darker tiel is non stop vocal and picks up on mimicing very quickly.

Edit: We have noticed that if your hand is covered by something (say fabric of a sleeve) he will not bite at all and just happily step up and sit there chattering to you. But once that fabric is off and he spots your hand he immediatly lunges for it and starts biting again.


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## Bea (Jul 26, 2007)

Is the biting too hard to ignore? Ignoring bites is the best way to get it to stop.  If it's really hard it might be worth just pulling your sleeve over your hand until he's more tame, it could be that once he's more bonded to you he won't bite so much.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

I would try to ignore it if you can. Here is an article about biting http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-beh...-behavior-issues-biting/why-parrots-bite.aspx Hopefully when he realises the biting is not getting him what he wants, he will stop


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## Sophia (Aug 11, 2007)

We looked after a tiel once that had a very bad biting problem, he would bite and bite your hand, before he stepped up, and it was hard biting aswell! :thumbd:
It really hurt when he bit you, but we chose to ignore it and let him bite, and believe me that is not for someone who can't stand much pain! We only looked after him for two weeks, while his owners were away, and by the end of that two weeks, after getting him out everyday, he didn't bite hard! :thumbu: 

But as soon as he went back to his owners, he went back to his old biting self!  

So just work with him, and try to ignore the biting if you can! *Good Luck!! *


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## Laura (Jul 30, 2007)

You already got some good tips on the biting so as far as the telling the sex by vocalization the rule of thumb is males are more vocal and females are quieter but its still no fool proof when there young how old are your tiels? being quiet doesn't always mean its a female, We got our Lee when he was 10 weeks old and for months not a peep out of him not even a squawk once he hit 4 1/2 months all **** broke loose he started singing chattering beak banging and talking it came out of no where we were convinced for all those months he was a girl who would have known, Our male Ollie was the opposite we got him at 7 weeks and from the day we brought him home he was singing and chattering sometimes it just takes abit and others are vocal from day one.


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## Sophia (Aug 11, 2007)

You can also tell the sex sometimes, from the mutation!  Which mutations are they ?


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## thecrabbykeet (Mar 24, 2008)

*Biting, Mutations and Age...Oh My*

Okay as for how hard the biting is, it can be quite a good nip I've noticed he aims for the edge of your fingernail. We will try to just ignore and see how that goes for awhile. As for mutation, speaking complete gibberish to me there  but someone on the talkbudgies forum thought they were normal grey females. I'm waiting for my cell phone to finally seek out that one bar of life that I need to get some pictures, so I will post some pics soon in the gallery. And since how I found them, I have no idea how old they are. Thanks all of you and by the sounds of the noise in the background, I'm a few minutes behind on doing the lunch run.


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## Sophia (Aug 11, 2007)

You can post pictures on threads aswell by uploading them on to Photobucket(click here.)
You will have to make an account, upload the photo's them just copy and paste the


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