Parakeet bites but only when getting her out

[Zilga]

I have a white-winged parakeet, and she's a funny and enjoyable bird. She loves people, loves hanging out with us, you can pick her up like an avocado and and hold her on her back and she doesn't care. However, recently she's started biting but only when we go to get her out. She will act like she wants to come out, yelling and pacing, then when I open the door and ask her to step up, she nails me. If I just pick her up (I tried it to see if she just didn't want to interact), she's fine.

Is she mad that I'm taking too long? She does seem to do it more when she hasn't been out as much as usual (I was sick over the weekend), but I can't tell if that's a pattern or me imagining it. She's also usually fine with us messing around in her cage, so this is only an occasional thing. Has anyone else noticed something like this? I want to avoid accidentally reinforcing it if I can.

 

[Mizzely]

Can you just open the door and let her come out on her own?

 

[Zilga]

Can you just open the door and let her come out on her own?

She can't fly well (clipped when we got her and hasn't fully grown back), so I haven't just let her fly out like I do my tiel, but I did try opening the door and only offering my hand outside of it. So she came out and stood on her door, then bit me and yelled, so maybe I need to go further away.

 

[Mizzely]

You could also try to get her to step up onto a handheld perch. My Jardine's won't step up out of the cage either without being salty lol

 

[Zilga]

You could also try to get her to step up onto a handheld perch. My Jardine's won't step up out of the cage either without being salty lol

I'm glad it's not just us! It surprised me because it's a relatively recent thing and it hasn't been an issue with our other birds (who are generally less rambunctious). My cockatiel gets hissy if she feels slighted, but she doesn't bite unless she's obviously angry, and the pionus is not bitey at all.

 

[sunnysmom]

You can also try putting a perch just outside the cage door so she can climb out on her own.

 

[Zilga]

You can also try putting a perch just outside the cage door so she can climb out on her own.

I will try that - thanks! I didn't even think of it, and we have plenty of perches. None of our other birds are territorial about their cage except when it comes to the other birds (or my tiel with my husband, but that's just because she dislikes him generally), so it took me by surprise. Also, she just works very differently from our other birds, who are generally more low-key.

 

[Zilga]

The perch helped! It didn't entirely end the behavior, but it's been somewhat better. I also wonder if the changing weather wasn't part of it, because she's generally been less agitated the past few days. I rescaped her cage and increased her toy density as well, just in case she was getting bored. (We unfortunately have her out less than our other birds because she has to be more closely supervised - she can't just hang out in our offices all day while we work like the others are fine to do, so she's mostly out in the morning and late afternoon/early evening.)