How to get past the fear that your new lovie will bite your face?

[Verena]

I am training my Sunny and we are improving, it's only been a few weeks and now she steps up on a perch and lets me carry her around, bring her close to my face and show her things. I put her down and say up up and she mostly always jumps up on the perch. I keep shortening the stick so that soon she might jump up on my finger. That's how I trained my budgie when I was a kid. I can't get her on my shoulder yet, but she has flown to my arm and my knee.

But when I bring Sunny close to my face I am afraid that she will bite me. She doesn't make any open beak actions but she is looking hard at my face, thinking.... but what!? I am a level I Reiki practitioner so I send her Reiki to keep us both calm....

I have had her give little bites on my arm when I try to get her to come up my arm and on my hand in her cage but they don't really hurt, but in the cage I can tell it's a warning, though she likes me to play games in her coconut and with her beads and mirror. She sometimes nudges the same thing I am playing with but if my finger comes to her she opens her beak in a warning (I've seen her do this with the 2 other lovebirds so I know that it's a warning). I've been taking her mirror out off and on so that she doesn't bond too closely with that birdie - she does like to snuggle and talk to that mirror bird.

How to get past that fear of her near my face? What is the next step, I feel that I could snuggle her with my face but I don't want to scare her if she nibbles or bites and I jump. :omg: What have others experienced and what should I do?

Thanks!

[linda040899]

Sounds like Sunny is getting pretty good at communicating with you, and you are picking up on her likes/dislikes. This is a very good thing, especially if you want to become a member of the flock!

Trust goes both ways. She's learning to trust that you won't hurt her and you simply have to understand her well enough and trust that she won't bite your face. In my own flock, I only have 3 larger parrots that are allowed on my shoulder and it's for the very reason you fear. I can't react quickly enough to prevent a bite that can potentially injure me so I avoid the situation completely. I would not go where you are not comfortable yet. Continue your trust building relationship with her and let it evolve naturally. You will instinctively know when, if ever, you want her that close to your face.

[bird-brain]

I do not put any of my birds directly to my face but I have never had a problem with them biting my face from my shoulder. They sometimes get a little over zealous with their "preening" of my face like they are trying to actually pull the feathers to the surface LOL. Now ears is a different matter altogether! I have to wear a ball cap or something I can stuff my ears under especially with the conures.

After little Cabo got me in the eye (he thought my eyelashes needed preening) I don't look directly at the birds when they are on my shoulder either...

My daughter does a lot of face contact with her gcc and he loves it. Mine have never maliciously attacked my face I just choose to not give them the chance. :)

[Desertrose]

Cookie used to like to sit in my hair and hang in my face. (I will not allow this with my new baby.) I started wearing my reading glasses when I had her out and this cured her of that habit. I had been concerned that she might decide to preen my eyelashes.....:omg:

[lyndak]

I allow my lovebird near my face all the time. She preens my eyelashes and I've never been concerned with her biting me. She absolutely loves it when I'm watching a "chick flick" because there are the inevitable tears and she's right in there cleaning them up.:happy:

I guess it depends on the bird... it never occured to me to be nervous about her biting me but she's normally not a biter anyways.

I think Linda's advice is sound, when you and bird feel comfortable it will naturally happen.

good luck with your birdie, she looks like a real cutie.

lynda

[Pips mom]

Ahhh, the ole chomp on the face! on the nose, the lip, the cheek......yup, I've had my share of those! but for some reason I don't really fear bites all that much.......I mean they only hurt for a few minutes most times! I don't know how you overcome that fear, but for me, having that closeness with my lovie comes first.....if he bites me, he bites me....I guess I'm tough!

[bookworm0550]

ive been bit on the face, jugular, ears, etc... if you are scared, don't give them the opportunity to do so. the thing is though, you won't know if you dont try. i have birds that are super gentle and love to give me kisses and are great w/ preening my face softly, but i also have birds that are a bit rough. they dont do it on purpose. they see joey and pepper giving me sweet kisses so they want to copy them as well, only it ends up being really hard. like hermes, she's rough and pantalaimon is too. but i do agree w/ kim, if i get bit, i get bit. it hurts, yes, but you'll be fine. though i will say the jugular hurts the most! and that was from my parrotlet!!

[shadnamber]

My Lil' Chupa is an ear nipper. But we're working on that. Mostly he just likes to preen my shirt while he is sitting on my shoulder and that's O.K. by me.

I learned the "blinking game" a few months back and that helped me realize that trust is a two way street. You have to give it to get it.

The Blinking game is where you put your face up close to the cage, and then slowly close your eyes- count to 5 then slowly open them. do this a few times a day and see what happens. The first time I did this Chupa hopped right over to my face to see what I was doing and it startled me, I realized then I wasn't just training and taming my birds but they were training and taming me also. I hope this helps.

[kimberly1985]

My Lil' Chupa is an ear nipper. But we're working on that.

Shadnamber:

Just curious to know what you're doing to work on that. Yoshi started to do this a few days ago and boy does it hurt. I wear earrings..he nibbles them. I usually don't mind that but I took them out last night and he latched on pretty hard. So I put them back in and he did it again. Lately he's got where he will bite the cartilage. As a matter of fact, it is still sore from last night. So today, I have been very hesitant in letting him sit on my shoulder. I know I'm not suppose to react but it hurts so bad..I remove him...rub his beak and say "no bite." but it doesn't seem to work.

[shadnamber]

@ kimberly:

One of the things that helps is he likes kissing noises. So if I feel him nibbling around my face or ears I start to make kissing/ smoochy noises. I also remind him no bite as I reach back to rub his beak. We do clicker training and that seems to help with chupas trust issues.

[kimberly1985]

@ kimberly:

One of the things that helps is he likes kissing noises. So if I feel him nibbling around my face or ears I start to make kissing/ smoochy noises. I also remind him no bite as I reach back to rub his beak. We do clicker training and that seems to help with chupas trust issues.

Thanks shadnamber. Yoshi nibbles my lips when I do the kissing noise sometimes..but he doesn't nibble my ear. He bites HARD. No warning once so ever. He'll be just sitting on my shoulder preening my threads on my tshirt and then BOOM, I feel a hard bite.

I'm sure he thinks it's something trying to "love" me and doesn't realize its a part of me. He preens my fingers and has never bit them hard. So I think he knows that they are a part of me but not my ears! LOL

[bimmyb]

My lil guy will only allow me to touch him with my face ( he hates fingers and will not tolerate them at all) and he made the first move to tell me this was acceptable by pretty much showing me what he wanted.
I used to be nervous of the dreaded mojo bite but now i trust him completely. This is not say that he dosent push his luck at time, he likes to have a nibble at my lips and often if im talking on the phone he will get a very small piece of skin on my neck and just pinch....lil bugger!! I do everything to do with petting with my face, ive been known to help him get out a lose feather with my mouth...my bf thinks im crazy!!

A new thing he likes is for me to roll him ove on my chest with my chin and blow raspberries on his tum....aww its too cute!! He preens my eyelashes (this took alot of courage to allow him to do this first time and he can get a bit carried away and have a lil pluck lol)

Just trust your baby a bit that way you will know for sure!!

Good luck.