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My First Parrotlet

JohnBoy

Moving in
Joined
11/18/15
Messages
11
Location
Long Island, New York
Real Name
John Hutchins
Time for another update, hope there is interest in them. Returned from another vacation (my wife and I are retired and vacationing is our job now). Fortunately, our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter live upstairs and are able to take care of Sonny while we're away. Once again, when we returned, he remembered us and it was almost like we never left.

He seems now to definitely like me more than my wife. Although he will fly to her, all he seems to want to do is bite her. He will not allow her to pet or scratch him. With me however, he will fly to me more often and want to be scratched and petted. He will tolerate that for a while and then start biting me too. And he bites HARD, sometimes drawing blood. Does anyone have any idea as to how to stop him from biting? He's about 10 mos. old now and eating a lot of different foods. Fed him a piece of French toast the other day and he loved it. He loves strawberrys, grapes and apples, eggs and Cheerios.

That's it for now, hope everyone including pets are well and happy. Thanks for everything.

John
 

Yoshi&Reza

Rollerblading along the road
Joined
1/30/13
Messages
2,337
Location
Houston, TX
Real Name
Alyssa
I am so glad everything is going well! Parrotlets are great! :dance5:

When it comes to him favoring one person over the other... that is normal and it can change. Sometimes if you leave the house, he could very well enjoy her company a lot more too. It happens here with Yoshi.

Biting is something they do if they are trying to get their point across. If you miss the signs he is giving through body/feather language, then his last option is to bite. Try to pay close attention to his feathers while you are interacting. It is best to learn from him early on because he may eventually skip the signs and just bite. That won't be good for anyone. If a parrotlet is enjoying the physical attention, their feathers right beside their beak will be poofy as well as the feathers on their head. Once those feathers go in beside the beak...I would take a break and just let him hang out. If all of his feathers come closer to his body, then back your hand away because he is on the alert about something!! Could be something in the house or maybe he hears a noise, but that isn't a good time to touch any bird. ;)

It is possible he may have some sensitive pin feathers as well. The pin feathers that are all white are safe... but the ones that are dark (blood) at the base are very sensitive. Watch out for those! Yoshi knows (it is a trust between us - took a while) that I understand his body/feather language now so if I accidentally touch one of those sensitive pin feathers, he will make a specific noise. Now, if I didn't understand his signs then a bite is what I would get!!

Y'all have made great progress!! :highfive: And I really do enjoy the updates! There are many who come here for advice and the members are always happy to give it. But, we DO like to know how things are going... so Thank You! :D
 

Anneka

Jogging around the block
Avenue Veteran
Joined
2/5/10
Messages
998
Location
USA
I will read previous posts later but wanted to warn you about pellets.
Parrotlets should NOT eat pellets, especially the color varieties of parrotlets, and I see yours is yellow.

Some say that pellets are OK for only green parrotlets, but I'd not give pellets even to a green plet.
 

JohnBoy

Moving in
Joined
11/18/15
Messages
11
Location
Long Island, New York
Real Name
John Hutchins
Well, time for another update and a question.

Sonny is doing very well. He has bonded to me and flies to me whenever he's out of the cage. He sometimes flies to my wife although it seems, only when she is working on her iPad. He's chewing her iPad case and throws the tiny pieces all over. He loves to have his head scratched but will only let me do it.

Here's our question. He bites both of us HARD. It seems he tolerates me for a little while but not my wife. He bites so hard it hurts and sometimes draws blood. He's almost one year old and I thought it would get better not biting as much. When he starts to bite hard and he's out of the cage I put him back in the cage and close the door. Any thoughts on getting him to stop biting are appreciated.

Thanks, John
 

Jobot

Walking the driveway
Avenue Veteran
Joined
8/11/16
Messages
223
Real Name
Jo
I just got one who's about 6 mo. He's going through the biting/nibbling stage, too. I'm told it calms down a bit after a year of age. My little punk bites me regularly, and with great relish. Draws blood about 1/4 of the time. :jawdrop1: Not always because he's mad, sometimes because he's bored, just exploring, wants scritches I'm not giving him, or if I'm encroaching on his space. Keep being consistent with his training. Use treats and happy activities to do together to build trust. Clicker training can help reinforce good behaviors. If you can find the instigating factors causing the biting, eliminate what you can. Worst thing you can do at this stage is to stop handling him. He might go feral again if you do that.
 

JohnBoy

Moving in
Joined
11/18/15
Messages
11
Location
Long Island, New York
Real Name
John Hutchins
OK, here's another update.
Sonny is doing very well. He's now pretty much attached to me. Every day I take him out of the cage and hold him in my hand and he very content with that. I pet his back, scratch his head and neck and he loves it. He still bites but much less frequently and it hardly hurts. When he bites hard I put him back in the cage and close the door. I think he's getting the idea. Also, he's starting to talk. He's saying, "pretty baby", "Kiss Kiss" and makes a kissing sound, "pretty boy". Hope to teach him more, he seems to be picking things up all of a sudden. His favorite food is strawberies and sometimes eats eggs and bread. Sonny is about 13 or 14 months old now and is really developing his own personality. We're really enjoying him.
 

Anneka

Jogging around the block
Avenue Veteran
Joined
2/5/10
Messages
998
Location
USA
Sounds as he is doing really well, and how awesome that his has started talking.
He is probably still going thru birdie terrible two. with enough patience, he might stop nipping all together soon.
 

Jobot

Walking the driveway
Avenue Veteran
Joined
8/11/16
Messages
223
Real Name
Jo
Sounds like he's doing great! I'm so glad!:D

As a bit of a tidbit, I wouldn't do too much touching on his back, as that can trigger hormonal behavior. Give scritches on his head, but the rest of his body shouldn't be petted too much.
 
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