nipping/biting

[IggyPepito]

How can I get Iggy to stop nipping and biting? It stopped for a while but now he's back at it. I assume because he's in his teenager phase. At least that is what I have been told. I know I have been told to offer something else to him when he bites but that doesn't work. It works for a second but then he goes back to biting. =/ Unless I am doing something wrong? It's hard to train step up when he just wants to bite you. lol It's not aggressive biting its just an "I wanna bite you because it's fun" type of biting. Either that or he likes the feel of my skin in his beak? I don't know but I would like it to stop. I can deal with the pain to a point, but I don't want him biting and getting away with it because I know it will become a habit and if other people want to handle him I don't want them getting bit and having something happen to my bird, you know? So how should I go about training him not to bite?

 

[Crackaleen]

I think by offering something to him when he bites, you are essentially rewarding the behavior. He's learning that when he wants something, he bites you and he'll get it. I've been catching myself doing something similar with my GCC as well - she'll start to nip and I'll scratch her head so she started to learn that when she wants her head scratched she should nip me. Then I realized what I was doing, so now when she bites or nips, I calmly remove her beak, put her down and walk away.

 

[IggyPepito]

I think by offering something to him when he bites, you are essentially rewarding the behavior. He's learning that when he wants something, he bites you and he'll get it. I've been catching myself doing something similar with my GCC as well - she'll start to nip and I'll scratch her head so she started to learn that when she wants her head scratched she should nip me. Then I realized what I was doing, so now when she bites or nips, I calmly remove her beak, put her down and walk away.

When he bites I remove my hand, take a step back and turn away. I don't think it's working though. lol Do you think if I walk out of sight, just in the kitchen which is the next room over, he would respond better to that? Or should I just continue with turning away?

 

[Crackaleen]

I think the key is to be consistent and keep doing what you're doing. Eventually he will get the message that biting means he no longer gets attention. You could try leaving him if he's in an environment where you can do that safely. Pixie would just come chasing after me lol. If he's on you or on a perch, try putting him down on the floor - I read that suggestion somewhere (might have been here) as many birds don't generally like being that low down when everyone else is high up. I've been using it with Pixie. Some suggest putting the bird back in the cage, but that could backfire if that is where the bird actually wants to be; he could learn to bite when he wants to go back to his cage.