Have a huge problem with biting

[PitaLemon]

My peach face lovebird is about 3 months old. Not sure what happened to him.
He suddenly started cuddling me a lot one day. Constantly wanted to sleep on me, especially under my chin.

One day I bring him home and take him out like normal. He jumped right on my hand easy. And then he started biting my fingers. It didn't hurt so I thought it was funny. He nibbled my ears a bit but would stop.
The next day same thing but he seemed more addicted to it like he just kept biting.

Slowly his bites got a lot harder and started to hurt and all he cared about was biting. Like if I had him out for 3hrs he'd spend 3hrs biting and nothing else. He'll bite me for the entire day just gnawing on my fingers, lips, eyelids, shirt, cellphone. Just anything he can find until night time where he well mellow out and sleep under my hand while he rests on my stomach.

I can't understand what the hell is he doing because he didn't seem afraid of me or my hands because he comes right to them. It's like he's in a complete trance and just bites. I've tried a number of things to make him stop that I've seen or read but nothing is working and right now it's become so bad I'm scared to take him out.

Whenever he can't reach my hands or ears he pinches my skin on my arm or my neck or chest and effin hurts. I have cuts and marks and peeled skin everywhere. I've never hit the bird or anything. Seems like he learned to bite because I left this bridge with strands in his cage which he started chewing on. After that point when he started chewing the bridge is when he started.

Is this a phase for all adolescent lovebirds or did something happen? He started lunging at my hands and chasing them down now. If he gets a bite he won't let go. I rushed cleaning his cage now because usually I keep him on my shoulder when I clean but this time he kept pinching my neck and i couldn't handle it, feels like a needle. Can I do anything?

 

[JaclynBin]

Is he maybe just aggressively trying to preen you? At that age, my pf Gem went through a similar stage where she'd try to remove the skin around my fingernails or nibble on my neck.

It took a few months of wearing a lot of scarves and whatnot to try and prevent these nibbles. Otherwise, I developed a "pain sound". If you listen to lovebirds preening each other, they let each other know when something hurts and I tried to do the same for my lovie. Whenever she took things too far and wouldn't heed my warnings, I'd just put her down on a perch or somewhere away from me and ignore her for a bit. She's so clingy that she got the idea pretty quickly, and smartened up.

 

[PitaLemon]

I thought it might be some kind of preening at first but he started to just lunge and run at my fingers sometimes. Or he'll sprint up to my lips if he notices.

And he just does it non stop. No breaks. If I let him do it, it'll continue forever. He doesn't get bored of it or tired. I can't even bear with it anymore because he'll make me bleed.

I hope he stops soon. I really can't take him out now. The lunging is what worries me the most because I feel like he's attacking my hands even though he gladly jumps on them or me when he needs to.

 

[DoubleTake]

I hope my 3 month old lovie wont start doing that. If she did I'd probably set her down somewhere, like the floor everytime she started and walk away. Hopefully she will learn that it won't be acceptable if she wants to be with me. Currently she is in the cuddling phase you mentioned. Since monday she has been flying to me to hang out. And a few mins ago she tried to get in my shirt to sleep.... these little things get warm

 

[PitaLemon]

Well that's what I tried doing. I tried putting him in his cage the moment he bites. Didn't work.

Tried ignoring him and walking away. Didn't work.

I saw a video where everytime they bite you twist your hand to make them lose balance so they associate biting with losing balance and stop. Some kind of breeder trick...no effect.

He likes chewing on my glasses so I put my glasses down for him to bite. He ignores them unless they're on my face..

I tried wearing gloves. He didn't like that much. Got annoyed and went for my face everytime he saw me wearing gloves.

I tried taming him with a Clicker. He just doesn't give a sh*t. He doesn't care about anything except biting. He'll even skip eating in the morning to make me get him out of cage to bite me if I'm near him.

He spends the entire day making noise to come out and jumping around his cage to get out for hours and hours just so he can bite me.

 

[DoubleTake]

Yeah the earthquake method is just to get their mind off the bite and focus on balancing i believe. When you put him in his cage does he want to come back out or does he just sit there? I mentioned i was going to put mine on the floor if she started biting because thats a place she wouldn't want to be

 

[PitaLemon]

If I put him in he usually seeks to come out immediately. Sometimes he'll just sit for a a minute or two before trying to come out again.

 

[lisaraby]

So, I see a LOT of these same patterns in my 10-month-old. She chews on EVERYTHING. Especially toes, noses and cell phones. It's super frustrating. What I found helpful was ALWAYS having a toy nearby that I shoved in her face any time she started nibbling, to give her the idea of "chew this not me." Look for things that can be destroyed; soft woods, paper, crinkle paper, corks, just to name a few. If you give them something more satisfying to chew than your fingers, then they should go for that rather than for you. Also, what's his sleep pattern like? Does he get a solid 10-12 hours of total darkness and silence? He might be sleepy and grumpy! Finally, take a look at his behaviour. I know you said he lunges, does he chomp down and hold on or is it a whole bunch of little (painful!) bites in a row? The several little ones are warnings to the big one - he might not like hands at that particular moment. Does he make noises too? Do they sound angry? Indie literally growls at me if I'm doing something she doesn't like. If he spends most of his time with his head down and beak open, then he's super grumpy. Try more sleep and more daylight if possible. My sister has a UV lamp for her parrotlet because she lives in a basement apartment and Levi really opened up once he started getting enough vitamin D from the lamp. Best of luck!!!

 

[PitaLemon]

I got him a chew toy a while back but he's terrified of it. Even a small piece torn off it scares him. He's afraid of pencils too for some reason. I'll see if I can find something else. He did seem to like chewing on a paper towel but he got bored of it rather quick and preferred my hands.

It's hard to say with the bites. He will kind of do both. Chomp my finger and just lick it continuously and squeeze. Sometimes he'll do a bunch of small bites until he gets a nice tender spot where he can bite really hard and make it hurt.

The absolute worst thing now is him biting my neck, arms and chest because he uses the very tip of his beak to latch onto the smallest bit of skin he can grab and bite onto it and pinch.

Is there a way to share video here? I can try uploading one tomorrow afternoon.

Also, I think he gets decent sleep. I wouldn't say completely uninterrupted since there's always noise in the house or outside but he's pretty used to it at this point but I try to get him to sleep from 8pm to 8am. I cover his cage too so it's pretty dark.

 

[Les charlson]

Could he be in some sort of mating ritual that he doesn't understand. If he was bonded to you they usually bite to stop you doing something they see as dangerous. I think you may have unknowingly encouraged his biting when you first got him and he thinks its ok. He doesn't know the difference between the bites and so perhaps he needs retraining. When a bird bites me I push toward the beak, into the bite. Easier said than done with an eclectus or large bird for example, as it drawers blood and they bite harder but after a couple of weeks she stopped because she would be forced backwards. Try it sitting on a soft seat in case he falls.
As for the face, I literally put my hand up and swipe them away. Not hard so they fall to the floor but enough to make them get the point. Walk to a couch and brush him off. Same with ears. It won't stop straight away as its taken a while to learn the behaviour so will take a while to unlearn it. Also I grab their beak and say no straight away. They can't bite when you do that. Set aside time to do it and repeat it as long as you can then give him some love, from a distance and always end on a positive note where you aren't being bitten. Last, find favourite food and only give it by hand when he doesn't rush at you. Fingers may be like pencils to him. Perhaps someone tormented him at some point.
Otherwise open the door and walk away. Everytime he comes at you move fast in another direction. As a last resort try another cage, just temporarily to see if it breaks the cycle. Hope you get good results but it will take weeks to know if what you are doing is working.

 

[remazera]

Hello - I've posted this on another thread according to my experience:

"Heya

I am not an expert but will share my experience with my own birds.

During their development, especially around 3 months to 5 months, they will start being nippy and bite you at their full force. In this stage (I believe) they are testing you to which extent they can go further with their bites. You will have to constantly say firm "No's" in this period. In my experience, they will never stop biting, but their future bites will not be as severe as their biting stage which is now, but more of a playful nip as their beak serves as their mouth and hands."

From the last time I have posted this, Zelo has been biting me full force less frequently, but in general he does not seem to be fond of my fingers.

Regarding lunging, is anything is on your hand/fingers at all? nail polish, band-aids, bracelet? I think most parrots do not like change in your hands and would treat it another person hand.

 

[Aviana]

Everyone is different, and this goes for birds, too. However, my lovie only bit when when to the cage when she wasn't ready or sometimes if she wanted something (phone, jewelry, computer, anything I had and appeared to be using) that I wouldn't surrender. She spent a lot of time chewing, mainly on cardboard and paper. I would find your bird's preferred chewing thing and keep an infinite supply. The consistent NO is probably also going to work. Consistency will be important. If we let them get away with it when it is cute, we set precedent. It cannot be treated as cute ever, or we risk teaching them it is okay. I am trying to be consistent with my GCC. He is a rescue, so I did not get to set the expectations like when you get a baby, but the foster family he had worked wonders, so I still have an easy time of it.

Good luck. Lovies are aggressive and tough but so adorable. I have the feeling this will work out.