# Nipping/Biting while getting scritched



## PiedPiper (May 5, 2009)

Anyone have any ideas on how to stop Sully from biting me?

She'll bite/nip when I'm petting her, but it's not like she isn't enjoying it because she'll fluff up her facial feathers, close her eyes and nuzzle or turn her head every which way so I can scratch under her chin etc.
If I stop petting her she'll bite or sometimes right in the middle she'll nip and then nuzzle her head against my hand again.


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## Tony's Tiels (May 21, 2009)

Sometimes the bite during a scritch is because you have unknowingly touched a sensitive blood feather...so if possible take a closer look & see if indeed they are blood feathers coming in,
other times, they are just very particular on exactly where & how they like their scritches


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

When cockatiels preen each other's heads, they use a nip as a "stop preening" signal. Many times they will immediately put their head down to ask for more!

When your bird nips you during scritches she's asking you to stop, at least for a moment. Every time this happens, take a moment to think about why she wanted you to stop. Did something happen in the room that disturbed her? Did you hit a pinfeather? Is she just plain tired of it? (That last one doesn't happen very often.)

Once you know the reason she nips it'll be easier to anticipate problems in the future. Vlad used to nip me a lot, until I figured out that most of the time it was because another bird was approaching and he wanted to be on guard in case there was a fight. So now I stop scritching when another bird comes close, and there's a lot less nipping.


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