# Handling a biter



## Linseed (Apr 25, 2014)

So I'm still patiently working with my new guy Rocket. My question is, I lucked out and found a really nice big cage on Craig's list that I'm picking up this weekend and I'm going to need to pull him out and get him in the new cage at some point when its set up and ready for him. I've gotten him out twice but the past couple of times I've managed to get him to step up he'll just step off and go crazy in the cage when I start bringing my hand to the entrance and if I try to get him to step up again after that he bites. Hard. So I might have to resort to just quickly grabbing him and sticking him right in the new cage. I'm worried that this is going to put us a few steps back on trust. Would it be better to grab him up with a small towel rather than just my bare hand? How do you handle a bird who isn't hand tame when they need to be handled?


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Linseed said:


> So I'm still patiently working with my new guy Rocket. My question is, I lucked out and found a really nice big cage on Craig's list that I'm picking up this weekend and I'm going to need to pull him out and get him in the new cage at some point when its set up and ready for him. I've gotten him out twice but the past couple of times I've managed to get him to step up he'll just step off and go crazy in the cage when I start bringing my hand to the entrance and if I try to get him to step up again after that he bites. Hard. So I might have to resort to just quickly grabbing him and sticking him right in the new cage. I'm worried that this is going to put us a few steps back on trust. Would it be better to grab him up with a small towel rather than just my bare hand? How do you handle a bird who isn't hand tame when they need to be handled?


All the advice I've ever heard indicates DON'T grab. Many birds, no matter how tame they are, never warm up to the sight of human hands. Maybe you can put the cages adjacent so that one door is open to the other and he presumably can walk from the old one to the new one?

If not, I would certainly suggest using a towel to completely cover him when you move him so that he cannot see what is happening.


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## Linseed (Apr 25, 2014)

caterpillar said:


> All the advice I've ever heard indicates DON'T grab. Many birds, no matter how tame they are, never warm up to the sight of human hands. Maybe you can put the cages adjacent so that one door is open to the other and he presumably can walk from the old one to the new one?
> 
> If not, I would certainly suggest using a towel to completely cover him when you move him so that he cannot see what is happening.


Well I tried this overnight and what I did was put his old food bowl with very little seed right at the door to his cage and then had an extremely filled bowl right inside the new cage. Propped the door open sat it on a tupperware container and bungee corded the cages together to ensure the cat wouldn't knock it off. Little stinker refused to go anywhere near the door. He spent the night in the corner furthest away from the new cage as possible. So today I brought up Loki. It seems he's way more approachable when I have my lovebug with me. I took his toys out and a couple of his perches and then tried to get him to step up. He won't do it from a perch but if he's climbing the cage bars he will so that's what I did. So I got them both out together for the first time and it went really well. They shared a spray of millet and tolerated one another but still kept a tiny bit of distance between them. So, since the new cage is neutral and big enough that they can keep distance if they want to I stuck them both in together after a few hours of being out together. They've been in there together for about 5 hours and last I checked they were hanging out on the same perch together! If all continues to go well I'm going to keep them in there over night and then tomorrow my husband will help me bring it back downstairs to replace Loki's cage in the living room. Oh I hope they continue to do well!


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## dianne (Nov 27, 2013)

It sounds like it went well and that the birds like each other. I hope the good vibes continue!


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