I have 3 parrots. A U2 (Jasmine age 22) that never bites, a CAG (Jengo age 22) that will nail you at the drop of a hat & JaKhu B&G Macaw (age 1 year 5 months on Sept. 10th) that loves to pinch you. My previous macaw JaJaBinks nailed me a few times over the almost 20 years I had her. She had been abused by her previous owners & every now & then her baggage would surface.
Parrots all bite for a reason. It's up to us to figure out why.
Jengo came to us at age 6 months. CAG's are not hands on birds, so touching them is not something they like. Pet store purchase where they tried to force her to step up on a dowel. I'm sure teased by customers. She'd nail anyone that stuck their hand in the cage. Over the years I have learned to read her. I give her daily beak rubs & on a rare occasion she will allow a head scritch. Wrapped in a towel on my lap I can do her nails, file her beak & give her a good check over without getting bit. To get her to step up off her cage I let out & tell her to come down. She will only step up off her seed skirt. I can't rush her. Actually to get her to do anything she requires details. She wants to know why, where & the how of it. An example would be....I want to take all 3 out to the aviary in the back yard. Jengo is let out first. I tell her why & where we're going. Once she steps up, which can take several minutes, I tell her she needs to go in her crate so I can carry her outside. She's fully flighted. The crate is set on top of our portable dishwasher with the door open. I set her down. She stands there for several plus seconds, while I'm telling her to go in her crate. Finally in she goes. We arry her back in the same way, so this year she willing decided she will step into the crate off a perch in the aviary. No need to towel her to get her baak in from the aviary. Jengo prefers to stay in or on her cage. She doesn't like pl;ay gyms, but does like to walk about on the floor. She talks some in the morning & more in the evening.
Jasmine is super easy. She LOVES towels & will run right into one as you hold it open & down for her. Being a U2 she would sit on your lap all day log if you let her, which we don't. She loves foot massages & getting her nails filed. Jasmine is not much of a talker, but does say a few words. She makes her sounds mostly in the evening hours as well.
JaJaBinks was clipped, as she refused to wear a harness. We took her many places including the motorcycle club. I used to carry her out/in from the aviary & would often toss her half way to the house. Later in life she preferred to walk all the way to the house, climb the steps, go in the door & walk thru the rooms back to her cage. She was one amazing bird. The day I rescued her, on the way home in the car, I made her promises...she'd neve be kept in the dark again, she'd have lots of good food, a big cage, lots of toys & a good life. I kept my promises to her. JaJaBinks talked a lot any time of the day or night.
JaKhu is a baby & still learning. She is very destructive, so she can't be trusted to just be let out of her cage & hang around on it. I could do that with JaJaBinks & she'd stay put or come find me, but never tried to eat the entire house, like JaKhu does. JaKhu is a big time pincher. I think this developed due to the heavy wing clip they gave her before I got her. They told me they flew her 3 times, then clipped her so they could put her on the play gym in the parrot store. Due to that heavy clip she had terrible balance & would grab everything to keep from falling on her face, side, etc. She still grabs when being carried, even tho I am holding her feet. My shirt, my hand, arm, what ever she can grab on to. So I'm working on trying to get her to stop pinching so much. I make a ATTT sound & tell her no pinch. Even tho she is fully flighted she doe not fly. I have tried many times to toss her. She can fly, she just chooses not to. I'll keep working on that too. If she could fly upside down with her tail pointing up I think she would. I swear she's part bat. Getting her in her crate is also not easy. She refuses to walk into it. She'll roll on her back, I then pick her up by her feet & set her in the crate & then she rolls over. She even lays on her back in the bathtub when I give her a shower. JaKhu plays quietly in her cage all day, unless they go out to the aviary. In the evening she gets a couple hours on the parrot tower & some hands on time. She does most of her talking & a little screaming in the evening hours.
Oh Micehlle that big Tiki rope I bought at the parrot fair...it's a 6 foot one...JaKhu has it chewed on both ends already. Ughh this bird!
Our aviary is 12' long x 6' wide x 7.5' high. It's loaded with perches, swings, boing, ropes, toys, etc., & water dishes. As soon as spring hits & we get it all loaded they get taken out daily, as weather permits. Never on rainy days or when temps are below 70. On real hot days they get brought in earlier. WE keep taking them out until it gets too cold, right up to Halloween. Then we remove all the perches, swings, etc., for winter. Over winter they get daily out of cage time.
So back to bites...Jengo really nailed both myself & my husband many times & bad bites. Once I figured out how to handle her & basically respect her & her space the bites do not come. Her being teased in the pet store I think caused a lot of her fear. I think once I get JaKhu learning to fly & land she may stop pinching so much. I'm hoping it will give her confidence with her balance phobia.
So if your bird bites try to figure out why & work to reduce or end the bites.
