Biting furniture. Bitter apple?

[idiotwind]

Does anyone have experience with bitter apply spray to stop lovies chewing on a sofa?
Two questions:
-Does it work? (very mixed reports on amazon)
-Is the bird version made by grannick's the same as the dog version? (Imported the bird spray is several times more expensive unlike on the US amazon)
Thanks,
Ed

[linda040899]

I, personally, don't like spraying anything anywhere as a deterrent for unwanted behavior. I simply cover up what I don't want them to chew up. This is natural parrot behavior and it's what parrots do. My dining room set is glass and metal because parrots chew wood and I don't have to tell you what happened to the set I had before my current one!

Rule of my home is that parrots are locked up in their cages if I'm not there to supervise! They can get into trouble faster than I can blink! Ginger, my CAG, had a toe amputated because she wouldn't stay away from my macaw's cage. She got one toe bitten but not too badly. She didn't learn her lesson and the door to my bedroom didn't catch completely so the second injury was much worse. Has she learned the lesson yet? She still goes over to that door and pushes to see if it will open!!

[idiotwind]

They aren't allowed out unsupervised, the room is as safe as we can make it but I wouldn't risk it - and they have an amazing ability to destroy things! We can cover it up to a point and I know they are doing what they enjoy doing but, would rather not lose the couch if possible. Will continue to cover with a cloth but am tempted to try the spray...

[linda040899]

A spray bottle filled with plain water and the spray set on stream might get the message across. If they are where you don't want them, one or two sprays should get the message across. :) Quite a few of our members have found this useful and I've even found that, after a while, just the appearance of the spray bottle becomes a deterrent!

I actually replaced my wooden baseboards with marble simply because I got tired of replacing wood! The marble is a bit more expensive but Ginger (CAG) gave up trying once she realized that her beak was just not strong enough!

[idiotwind]

Raquelle managed to chip a ceramic ornament that I thought there was no way she could chew (luckily I intervened quickly before she heart herself) so I wouldn't put marble out of the question!
Spray bottle is a good idea. I don't want them to associate the couch itself as bad, because it's nice to have them join us on it. Just rather they stopped trying to rip it to pieces. Very strange that they only just decided to do so but ah well!

[Maxie]

Max associates a spray bottle with bath time...lol. So, if he does anything I'm not happy with, I look at him straight in the eye and say "noooo honey" and he actually doesn't do it again....of course it takes about a dozen "no honeys" before he stops. I like to think he understands me when I so "no" but I think he just loses interest in whatever he was doing...lol.

As for chewing things to pieces, I had to change all of my picture frames hanging on the walls because he managed to destroy them all :)

[linda040899]

Max associates a spray bottle with bath time
I have the same problem with my Amazons! They LOVE spray baths so this kind of discouragement has no effect at all except to get a bird absolutely soaked to the skin!

Parrots can be stubborn and sometimes just repeating no will finally get the message across. :)