SirMarty
09-10-2014, 11:49 PM
Hi guys, I'm new here at LPC. I actually tried signing up a few months ago but I think I was thought to be a spambot. :(
Now that I'm finally here, I have a lovey named Aly Bananas who's pretty old (I'm not sure how old but all I know is that she's an adult) and she bites. She bites aggressively hard. I don't think she's been hand-fed ever. Originally she and another Lovey who was paired with her were given to me by my paternal aunt and uncle about 7 to 8 years ago, and they lived with them for a while both in NYC and a bit in NJ before being given to me to take care of. I assume these guys are from some pet shop due to this type of experience I'm about to delve into further.
Both of them were aggressive biters so we never handled them. We used mittens instead to grab them and put them on our shoulder, but most times they'd just fly to us. Sometimes we actually didn't keep them on our shoulder because one would get nippy and decide to bite our shoulder with more and more pressure – this would sometimes cause the other to also nip – so we would get them off of us and put them back in the cage. We never really enforced discipline and structure so they became very spoiled very fast, but fortunately this shoulder biting behavior ceased. :)
Unfortunately, Aly's mate AJ Mangoes passed away in December 2009, but she adjusted rather quickly to her passing. She's still pretty much same, although during periods of time where she isn't nesting she can get rather clingy and enjoys being on mine or my mom's shoulder virtually 12/7. She'll just sit there, preen, do her nails, and sometimes perch on one foot and even preen our hair. However, sometimes my mom will try to bug her, much to my dismay, and she CAN get nippy on the shoulder if you try to lay even a finger close to her – luckily this nippy behavior happens very rarely.
I want to change this though. I've heard that trying to tame an adult bird and discourage biting and aggressive behavior can be difficult, but it's not totally impossible.
What can I do to start off? If I show her my finger, do I just let her bite it? I know she can break skin because she's done so in the past, but I fear that it'll be quite bloody because when she does bite sometimes she applies a lot of pressure and I fear it's gotten worse up to now due to the fact that she hasn't bit me in YEARS. She sometimes doesn't want to leave a certain area and when I'm trying to retrieve her with the mittens she'll even get aggressive with them as well. However, I do enforce the "pushing against a bird's body" maneuver instead of pulling away to make sure she knows that it won't work. Sadly I don't think she knows this fully and can still be quite aggressive with the mittens.
The only thing that I've really done to try and stop the biting is blow air from my mouth against her head and in a few seconds or less she'll shake her head and fluff up her body and that's that. She stops. But I feel that this isn't a great way of temporarily punishing her, and I feel like a much better discipline and structural method can be put in place.
So LPC, what can I do to start taming her and getting her to act positively and hopefully being able to use my hands with her? And what can I do to punish her and set some structure? I actually do still spoil her so I think it'll make this process even harder.
Would I let my lovey bite me since she won't expect it? Because in the past I remember pulling my finger away from her and AJ to avoid being bit but trying to touch her. As for punishment, should I spray water on her? I actually read somewhere on Yahoo Answers that spraying water on a bird is a bad form of discipline, but here I see contrarian points. Should I do a combo of spraying water and toweling her (she HATES toweling) and putting her in her travel cage (which she rarely goes into a travel cage anyways and dislikes it so I can use it as a discipline cage)?
I would like to make Aly's experience living with me for however longer she'll remain on this world that much better; for me as well because I'd love to be able to handle her. If this takes some broken skin to be able to rectify this behavioral problem, then so be it.
I tried to be as descriptive as possible so you guys can help me out as best as you can. Thank you so much!
Now that I'm finally here, I have a lovey named Aly Bananas who's pretty old (I'm not sure how old but all I know is that she's an adult) and she bites. She bites aggressively hard. I don't think she's been hand-fed ever. Originally she and another Lovey who was paired with her were given to me by my paternal aunt and uncle about 7 to 8 years ago, and they lived with them for a while both in NYC and a bit in NJ before being given to me to take care of. I assume these guys are from some pet shop due to this type of experience I'm about to delve into further.
Both of them were aggressive biters so we never handled them. We used mittens instead to grab them and put them on our shoulder, but most times they'd just fly to us. Sometimes we actually didn't keep them on our shoulder because one would get nippy and decide to bite our shoulder with more and more pressure – this would sometimes cause the other to also nip – so we would get them off of us and put them back in the cage. We never really enforced discipline and structure so they became very spoiled very fast, but fortunately this shoulder biting behavior ceased. :)
Unfortunately, Aly's mate AJ Mangoes passed away in December 2009, but she adjusted rather quickly to her passing. She's still pretty much same, although during periods of time where she isn't nesting she can get rather clingy and enjoys being on mine or my mom's shoulder virtually 12/7. She'll just sit there, preen, do her nails, and sometimes perch on one foot and even preen our hair. However, sometimes my mom will try to bug her, much to my dismay, and she CAN get nippy on the shoulder if you try to lay even a finger close to her – luckily this nippy behavior happens very rarely.
I want to change this though. I've heard that trying to tame an adult bird and discourage biting and aggressive behavior can be difficult, but it's not totally impossible.
What can I do to start off? If I show her my finger, do I just let her bite it? I know she can break skin because she's done so in the past, but I fear that it'll be quite bloody because when she does bite sometimes she applies a lot of pressure and I fear it's gotten worse up to now due to the fact that she hasn't bit me in YEARS. She sometimes doesn't want to leave a certain area and when I'm trying to retrieve her with the mittens she'll even get aggressive with them as well. However, I do enforce the "pushing against a bird's body" maneuver instead of pulling away to make sure she knows that it won't work. Sadly I don't think she knows this fully and can still be quite aggressive with the mittens.
The only thing that I've really done to try and stop the biting is blow air from my mouth against her head and in a few seconds or less she'll shake her head and fluff up her body and that's that. She stops. But I feel that this isn't a great way of temporarily punishing her, and I feel like a much better discipline and structural method can be put in place.
So LPC, what can I do to start taming her and getting her to act positively and hopefully being able to use my hands with her? And what can I do to punish her and set some structure? I actually do still spoil her so I think it'll make this process even harder.
Would I let my lovey bite me since she won't expect it? Because in the past I remember pulling my finger away from her and AJ to avoid being bit but trying to touch her. As for punishment, should I spray water on her? I actually read somewhere on Yahoo Answers that spraying water on a bird is a bad form of discipline, but here I see contrarian points. Should I do a combo of spraying water and toweling her (she HATES toweling) and putting her in her travel cage (which she rarely goes into a travel cage anyways and dislikes it so I can use it as a discipline cage)?
I would like to make Aly's experience living with me for however longer she'll remain on this world that much better; for me as well because I'd love to be able to handle her. If this takes some broken skin to be able to rectify this behavioral problem, then so be it.
I tried to be as descriptive as possible so you guys can help me out as best as you can. Thank you so much!