Unsure of what to do

[amerianz]

Hi, alot of my problems have to do with biting, but I thought I would put my questions here as I have several other questions.
I have had my Charlie for around 18 months now, supposedly hand reared but highly doubtful as he was terrified of all things human when I got him.
Charlie is absolutely beautiful and we get along famously- he loves people now and wants to be doing whatever you are doing.
But we have a large problem.
he HATES skin.
if he sees any skin, be it arm, finger, hip, or feet he will lunge and bite. Ive had to taken to wearing long sleeve billowy t-shirts so that he cant get to any.
Ive been trying to train him out of this habit, because I would like to be able to train him to step up, etc, but have had no success. Wierdly though he has no problems with necks and I have gotten him to enjoy having his beak petted through the cage bars (he wont allow me to touch him that way when he is out).
Any suggestions of how to stop him biting?
There is one exception to the biting rule- Charlie will allow me to pet him if he is making a particular movement. I am actually quite certain Charlie is a girl (is v nesty, territorial and shreds like there is no tomorrow- no eggs though) and sees me as her *ahem* mate. He will crouch down, spread his wings and make a constant clicking noise. When he does that he will allow me to pet his back and cheeks- but will immediatley try to bite me if I try to pet his belly.

other than that, I do worry about his eating habits, he basically refuses to eat anything but seed, and even then will not touch larger seeds like sunflower. I only occassionally get him to touch fruit when I am eating it, and most of the time then he makes little head shake movements and wont touch it again. Ive tried dried fruit, nutrivit, birdy breads, sprouts, etc and while he shows more interest in dry foods, he still wont take more than a few bites before ignoring it completely.
Is it okay for lovies to have a seed only diet? I try adding supplements like cuttlefish, mineral blocks, etc to his cage but he just ignores them.

[Janie]

Hi,

I don't know what to tell you about the biting but hopefully someone else will be able to advise about that. Don't get me wrong, I've been bitten but it's a rare thing so I'll pass on that.

As far as her/him only eating seed, my advice is to keep trying with fresh veggies and the birdie bread. I am convinced that if I could get a 7 year old 100% seed eater to eat broccoli, it can be done. Because I praised him with every nibble he took, I think he ate it more to please me then because he really liked it but whatever, it worked and he eats his broccoli nearly every day for the last 4 years. Since my other two (much younger) were open to trying nearly everything I offered them, that did help convenience Oliver to try more things and he does now. He loves birdie bread but until he saw two other birds eating it, he didn't try it.

I ate a whole lot of broccoli when I was trying to get Oliver interested in it and in my case, that seemed to work well. I would chomp down on it and make yummy noises and that sparked his interest. Every family member praised him over and over when he started eating his broccoli and he seemed to enjoy that attention and praise. :)

Oliver did exist on nothing but seed for the 7 years before I adopted him and was in pretty good health other than being very thin. So, I'm sure a bird can survive on nothing but seed BUT the additional fresh foods would likely make one healthier and add a few years to their lives. That was my hope when I became determined to get him to try something other than seed. Good luck, I know it's frustrating.

[BarbieH]

Hi;

I also have a bird who hates skin. You may have seen Gracie's name around the Biters Not-So-Anonymous section. :rolleyes: We didn't know her background when we adopted her, so all we could do was take her behavior at face value: bird hates skin.

The only thing to do was not to force her to accept skin. If we did, she would bite it -- hard. If I wore long-sleeve shirts, she would go down my arm, but if I wore short sleeves, that was as far as she would go. Hands and fingers were completely out of the question; the bites weren't worth it, and it only confirmed her biting habit.

My husband and I decided that our dear Gracie knows what she likes and what she doesn't, and we needed to respect that. If we want her to step up, it's to a dowel, not a hand. She will also step up onto clothing, but not to bare skin. It seems to be a deal-breaker for her.

I don't know if there was some abuse in her background that caused her to hate skin, or if it just feels really weird under her toes, but in this case we simply respect her preference. And we all get along very well that way. :)

Best wishes,