Problems with biting

[Solvurr]

Hi!
I have a pearly conure who is about 4 months and 2 weeks old, and he has some serious biting issues. I know conures are known for being bitey, especially when they're young, but I'm talking straight up attacking. Whenever I'm holding something in my hand that I'm using for something, for example a crochet hook or a spoon or something along those lines, he will violently attack my hands. I've thought that it might be that he wants my attention, but he can be happily playing on the table or on his playground, and suddenly charge at me and attach to my hand, usually drawing blood. Yesterday, I picked up a bottle, and drank from it, and he went full on attack mode and would not let go of my finger and I'm starting to get pretty upset about it, cause it REALLY hurts. I've been wanting to be able to eat while he's out of his cage, cause I know from previous birds I've had that it's good bonding, but he will attack both me and my food.

I've been hand feeding him since he was 4 weeks old, so he has bonded well to me and he's comfortable with me, so that's not the problem. I honestly don't know what to do about it. Can anyone give me some advice?

 

[Wardy]

Have you done any training with your bird ? is he stepping up and going onto you hand in general without being aggressive ?

One of my bird get's triggered if i take a phone call and she will become aggressive i don't take phone calls when she is out now, my wife cant even pick up her phone without Mojo attacking her she now no longer looks at her phone when Mojo is out so my initial advice would be to remove those triggers as best as possible when your bird it out.
If your bird does bit you need to put the bird down on a birdsafe area say NO and turn your back on the bird you need to be consistant with this how are you reacting when he bites ? ideally you dont want to make any fuss this is a reaction that can encourage further biting.

Try teaching your bird to station on his playground so you can do things without any interferance from him obviously you will have to limit what you are doing until you are successfull with this training and the bird is stationing consistantly. Unfortunately sometimes there needs to be a compromise with what we are able to do and what we would like to do when our birds are out.
When we are eating both of our birds are returned to there cages they can eat there with us and we dont have to deal with the drama of a bird either biting or trying to eat my food whilst a lot of people and there birds eat together side by side personally we dont our birds still eat with us they are just caged when they do this.

sometimes it is worth taking a step back for a while this will pay off in the long term try not to be upset he is just being a bird it will take some time and work but this is something that can be worked on and stopped.

the following is worth having a look at as well some excellent info on training birds on Pamelas blogs

Pamela Clark, CPBC

The Parrot Steward Blog

blogpamelaclarkonline.com

 

[Pat H]

Have you tried giving him his own items to play with while you are using yours? ex-- crochet hook or spoon?
My bird wants attention if I'm trying to do something w/ my hands... It's a give and take learning experience!

 

[Mizzely]

Sometimes birds react in weird ways to things. It sounds to me like there might be a couple of things happening here. He might be afraid of the items you have - that they might be hurting you! - and he is trying to "help" by ushering you away from the scary things the only way he knows - by force!

Or, he wants to play with whatever you have too, and since he is a baby, he isn't quite getting it right.

He is only 4 months old; you will have tons of time to eat together in the future! Right now the biggest thing is getting him to react in appropriate ways to these stimuli.

If it were me I would put him in his cage work with him inside the cage while you are doing these activities right now. So put him in with a treat, and crochet or whatever right next to the cage. If he is calm and curious, he can have a treat. If he tries to attack through the cage bars, he gets ignored.