Painful Neck Biting! Help!

[Miguel.w]

Hello everyone. I received a baby sun conure about a month ago, and he as been really good so far. No issues with biting, until recently. About two weeks ago, he began crawling on my shoulder only to bit my neck ridiculously hard. Of course I didn't react at first, but doing so has made me more and more frustrated. This has gone to the point of leaving two scarred marks on my neck from all the biting. In those moments I feel hopeless and very very sad, since I know frustration will only make things worse. I received advice: whenever he bites, I set him in his cage for a few minutes, then take him back out. What do you think about this? I suppose I could also try clicker/stick training too. Any and all advice would be really helpful

 

[JLcribber]

A bird can only bite you if you provide the opportunity. If you let him on your shoulder you will get bit. That simple. No shoulder privileges at least for now. Using the cage as a tool to punish accomplishes nothing except get the bird to hate/resent its cage. He has no idea why he is being sent to the cage. Exactly the opposite of what we want.

No shoulder. No bite. No discipline.

 

[EllaMay]

Don't allow on your shoulder, shake him off when he lands. Ella has just started trying to come back on my shoulder after 2 months of not letting her on it. It wasn't for biting it was for grabbing ears and rough rough with my hair. Well she tried for the first time tonite after so many months, and got the shake off this evening for literally going nutso on my hair. To me that leads to biting and aggressive behavior. It is a privilege to be on my shoulder.

 

[Dartman]

When Lurch started doing that I'd drop my shoulder if he tried to land on me and if he bit drop my shoulder and he would fly off. I did discover that one of the times he was getting frustrated because he wanted something to happen. I figured out he liked riding into the bathroom and then after a short time he'd shriek and pop me. It turned out he wanted to get drinks from the sink faucet and play in the water. He learned biting didn't get him wanted and if he waited I would allow him to run down my arm and get drinks and play. He never bit me in that situation again as we reached a understanding with each other. He wanted something to happen, but I wasn't doing it so he'd get frustrated and bite.
I'd keep him off the shoulders till he earns the privilege or you figure out what's triggering the bites. They usually have a reason but it may not make any sense to a mere human.

 

[Pikatoo]

Do not use the cage as a punishment!!!! He'll begin to hate his cage and whenever you put him in it because you're leaving or something, he'll think he did something bad. What I did with my cockatoo is what she bit my arm while perching on my arm (AHH SO PAINFUL) I'd drop my arm so that she loses balance and flies onto the floor, and I walk away for a minute. She no longer bites for your situation with the shoulder, I'd take her off your shoulders and walk away from him, showing anger (don't scold or hurt though, just show him the expression on your face) and maybe after he bites you can instantly LIGHTLY flick his beak

 

[Peachfaced]

Flicking the beak is asking for a bite (and isn't kind!). I don't suggest that.

 

[Monica]

The only bite that can't be rewarded is the one that never occurs.



Your neck must be pretty interesting. What can your conure do other than bite your neck? Could he... play with toys? Forage? Play with foot toys? Shred paper? Or?

 

[Donna turner]

All birds are different but I had great Success putting my gcc in her cage for a few minutes for attacking my hand. All I have to do now if she starts is tell her don't bite and she will quit. She doesn't hate her cage cause I always give her a treat when I put her up. Guess what works for some doesn't work for all

 

[GCC_Quijote]

Our conure Quijote went through this. It was really a couple of things.
For instance, my mole. He wanted to pull it off.

One thing that we found very helpful was we decided on a "that hurts" noise. It's a slightly sharp, not too loud "ah" sound.

Sometimes they bite because they're trying to communicate and can't. Sometimes they're angry (which technically still falls under communication). Other times they are trying to do something and don't seem to realize they're hurting us. (Pretty sure he didn't consider my mole a part of me.)

So, we use a "that hurts" noise in combination with setting him down and ignoring him (repeat as necessary for the stubborn and flighted)

He's mostly stopped doing it. He still goes through bitey cycles where we just handle him a bit less, but improved communication was really the key for us.

 

[safehaven]

All great advice.
He has formed a habit/correlation with shoulder sitting and neck biting and he has gotten away with it.
So you need to break the habit/correlation, either as others said, no shoulder privileges, or another method could be to wear a scarf/ headband or anything hiding the neck to prevent access to the neck and in time, shoulder sitting and neck biting habit may be broken.

Just a thought to consider

 

[Shmall]

oh wow. I had the very same problem a few weeks ago. I was told to start training Maia. First, with some treat she really likes, she learned targeting. Now she is learning the colors. No more biting on the neck since I have done that. Maybe your birdie is a little bored, like mine was