Some questions...

[CHIris83]

Well lately Iris (aka Baylee) have been very aggressive she was handfed her wings were clipped before i got her... she have been very moody lately she now bites my fingers whenever i try to get her to step up... When Chester and Hannah are done rasing their 2 chicks i want to introduce the 3 of them outside of their cages, today i did 1 training session with Chester outside of his cage he got his wings clipped almost 2 weeks ago... he did quiet good, he usually bites my fingers too -.- so i want to know if its there a way to make Chester and Iris stop biting my fingers? also this is only when i do training sessions with them, well Iris always tries to bites my fingers when they are close to her cage but i dont let her, today i managed to stop using the perch to get her to step up and got her to step up in the back of my hand tho now she barely let me touch her around her head and wings... i want to pet her like before, she used to be sooo cuddly and now she is the opposite...:confused: Hannah is very sweet when i dont touch her nest box LOL if i put seeds in my hand for Chester and Hannah they both come and Hannah dont bite me at all and she even sits on my hand to eat from it calmly, while Chester does bites me... Iris and Chester bites hard... so what should i do to stop the biting habit? of Chester and Iris..

[Chickobee]

All baby birds will go through a bitey stage as they begin to mature - sort of like adolesence. If you are careful to not reinforce the biting and react to it (this is hard!) then it will gradually almost go away. I say almost because I think all lovies will occasionally bite, even the most tame ones.

However, this is not true with every lovie. There are some--almost always hens--who seem to be way more aggressive than normal, especially during breeding season.

If they look like they are going to bite I try to distract with something like a toy, millet, or by putting them slightly off balance if they are on my hand. You can do this by quickly lowering your hand so they need to regain their balance and forget about biting for a moment.

If they don't get their way by biting or get an entertaining response the behavior will usually gradually diminish as they get a bit older. If they want you to leave them alone and you go away when they bite you that will reinforce the biting. If you respond with a yelp and make a big deal out of it they can find that very entertaining so they will do it more.

Ignoring it is the best response even if you have to hold your breath and put your bird away so you can go to another room to react--even when you feel like flinging them against the nearest wall to get them off of your finger!!! :omg:

If you carefully observe their body language you will learn to tell when your bird is thinking of biting. If you can avoid the bites by distracting your bird before it bites, and reward things your bird does that you like, the problem will go away--almost.

There are exceptions. Jeremiah has one hen, Baby Boo, a.k.a. Landshark, who is a determined biter. Bubblelady has Johari who is also a very determined biter.

We have Zoe who is so sweet sometimes unless she finds a corner to protect or is busily trying to chew up a book, documents on the desk, or my calendar. She always goes for the "good stuff" and bites when I try to stop her. She is also a shirt diver who then bites! Yikes!!! :omg:

If you have a biter don't allow your bird to perch on your shoulder. You will need to keep her where you can see her so you don't have a bird latched onto your earlobe, nostril, or lip! None of these are fun!!!

[CHIris83]

Well Chester is about 15 months old and Iris is almost 5 months old! Iris likes to perch on my shoulder LOL i f i dont let her she hang her self and try to bite me, last time she got on my shoulder i had to carefully laid on a table to get her off of me cause she hided in the back part of my neck LOL and i couldnt get her to step down xD.... Hannah is 14 months old. Hannah and Chester arent that tame yet...they only step up in my hand while in the cage yesterday Chester had his 1st session out of the cage for the 1st time... after 6 months training him inside the cage... on saturday i will clip Hannah's wings and hopefully i will be able to do a training session with them outside of their cage...and finally see how they get along with Iris out of their cages...

[thebubbleking]

Dont mix up beaking with biteing.. lovebirds have no hands so explore everything with thier beak and tongue sometimes a little to hard, thats beaking.. as was mentioned i have a hen and she is a biter she will dig out divots of flesh multipule times and blood only encourages her not stops her! That being said i know by her body language when she is going to strike i also know certain things will trigger and attack such as touching her favorite bell or going anywhere near her happy hut lol

[CHIris83]

Oh ok but Hannah did the bikeing part twice once she realized it was ok she didnt do it again... but Chester ALWAYS do it even tho they (Chester and Hannah) had been 8 months with me! He do it 8 out of 10 times and always hard twice he drew blood from my finger i always try not to react! and its hard... Iris is now copying Chester -.- she had been about 6 weeks with me...