Tame IRN suddenly bitting hand and ear

Sladana

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Alex is a baby bird, as far as I know 4-5 months old. He was very scared when he arrived but is now pretty tame. When we let him out of the cage he flies around but mostly likes being around people, hands and heads. I would say he is annoying sometimes :) not that I don't like it. But he/she likes our heads very much and we let him stay there but when he is exploring our hair he always bites our ears very hard. So normally we scream (kids mostly) and duck and try to get him of the head onto the finger. Then when he steps on our hand he then proceeds to bite the fingers. He usually doesen't have problems and does not bite fingers, but only when we take him avay from our head or ears. When he proceeds to bite the fingers I always try to turn my finger so he would lose his balace, but he only bites harder then. We decided not to let him on our head any more, and everything would be fine till he tries to fly onto our heads. We put our hand between so he would have to land on the hand instead the head and he again goes crazy and starts to bite. What should I do and how to stop him from bitting ears (so I could let him stay on the head) :D
I have to mention that he doesen't like to be pet on his back...
I don't know what to do :(
 
Alex is a baby bird, as far as I know 4-5 months old. He was very scared when he arrived but is now pretty tame. When we let him out of the cage he flies around but mostly likes being around people, hands and heads. I would say he is annoying sometimes :) not that I don't like it. But he/she likes our heads very much and we let him stay there but when he is exploring our hair he always bites our ears very hard. So normally we scream (kids mostly) and duck and try to get him of the head onto the finger. Then when he steps on our hand he then proceeds to bite the fingers. He usually doesen't have problems and does not bite fingers, but only when we take him avay from our head or ears. When he proceeds to bite the fingers I always try to turn my finger so he would lose his balace, but he only bites harder then. We decided not to let him on our head any more, and everything would be fine till he tries to fly onto our heads. We put our hand between so he would have to land on the hand instead the head and he again goes crazy and starts to bite. What should I do and how to stop him from bitting ears (so I could let him stay on the head) :D
I have to mention that he doesen't like to be pet on his back...
I don't know what to do :(
First do not stroke your birds back because it will stimulate him (sexually/hormonally) stick to his head!

Probably a good idea to keep him off your heads and maybe go back to basics, i.e training him to step up? Have you done this already?
 
Also if you do get bitten try to ignore it and not react. I know its difficult but they love the attention and will most likely do it again if they know it gets a reaction
 
Yes, he steps up with no problems and is pretty tame till he tries to get on my head. When I don't allow him to be on my head he gets very angry and bites. As I said I don't let him on my head beacouse he bites our ears hard. That is my problem..beacouse he will try and try to get on my head till he gets angry and bites.. what should I do in this case? I always try to get him of me and leave the room.. but this didn't help..
 
Yes, he steps up with no problems and is pretty tame till he tries to get on my head. When I don't allow him to be on my head he gets very angry and bites. As I said I don't let him on my head beacouse he bites our ears hard. That is my problem..beacouse he will try and try to get on my head till he gets angry and bites.. what should I do in this case? I always try to get him of me and leave the room.. but this didn't help..
Does he just fly onto your head? If you ask him to step up will he stay on your hand or climb up to your head?
 
He flies onto my head when he wants (well I do not let him anymore) and I can make him step onto my shoulder, my head, my finger or onto furniture. He has no problem with steping where I want him to be...
 
Try to avoid letting him up there unless you can get him down. My african grey that I just got always climbs up my shoulder near my face and because he is new and we dont know each other so well id rather he wasnt up there just incase he bites my face. To get him down I stand near a perch and he will step off onto it and I reward him for doing that. If i was to use my hand he would most likely bite at the moment just because we havent developed enough trust. You can also target train your bird and use that to get it off of your head. If you're getting bitten you can try a more hands off approach such as target training or presenting a perch for him and see if he will step up and positively reinforce good behaviour with a treat. Does he bite any other time or just then? Birds like being up high because it makes them feel safer. Ive just trained my african grey to fly to my arm (because hes still wary of my hands) and again that could work for you as it would mean your bird is more likely to fly to your arm if it associates that with a treat and means he will be away from your ears and face. Also training is a great way to bond too. Thats just my thoughts but sure some other members will be on to advise too 😊
 
No, not yet. But he bites hard so he leaves marks. I can't explain my children not to move or make any noise when he bites them. As I said he doesent do it all the time.. only when he is on our heads or when we put him off the head and don't allow him onto our heads any more. he gets angry I think.

I tried to put a video here but unfortunately I can't. But here is a pic where you can see him on my hand.
 

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I'll try to make a video and link it here so you can see if he is only exploring or what kind of behaviour it is..
 
ok your bird is still young and with many of the parrot family they will use there beak and seehow far they can go, its not done hurt although we fill it even at his age if he wanted to bite he can take a chunk out. doing what you are by removing him away from your ear he will learn that it is unaceptable and should stop shortly but i havefound just tapping gently at its toes will stop the birds action. have you tried stick training
 
Little update: It seems that the toe tapping works with Alex. By twisting and turning my finger while he bites, he got angrier, but with this gentle tapping he would start to like unsurely bite with quite less presure, like he got confused and then stops biting. I'll try it in the next days as well to see if he gets the point :D
 
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