Henrys biting

[evey1989]

Hi all

Our male scaly has started biting really hard. He is 8months old and has started to bite severly drawing blood. He started doing it inside his cage when we put our fingers in but now he is doing it to me alone.

He bites my partner and myself from in the cage, but twice now when my partner has been handling him and is then giving Henry to me Henry fluffs up and is attacking biting me really hard.

I don't know what is going on with him. Does anyone have any ideas?

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Evey

I don't have a scaley, I have Indian Ringnecks. Indian Ringnecks are rather infamous for going through a stage known as "bluffing" (see www.indianringneck.com/bluffing/). Do you know if scaley's go through that same stage?

All birds can be territorial of their cage so I'd try to only interact with your bird away from your cage if you can. Do you have a t-perch or a play gym you can interact with your bird on?

Do you work with treats? Does your bird accept treats from you through the cage bars and from your hand when not through the cage bars? Do you do any positive reinforcement training with your bird?

When I had a problem with my bird biting (hard) I found increasing foraging for food decreased the biting a lot.

If you want, I can provide more details on any of the info above, just thought I'd try to get a little more info from you first.

Good luck and best wishes.

Ellie.

[avinet]

Jun 24, 2012 21:55:25 GMT 10 ellieelectrons said:

Hi Evey

I don't have a scaley, I have Indian Ringnecks. Indian Ringnecks are rather infamous for going through a stage known as "bluffing" (see www.indianringneck.com/bluffing/). Do you know if scaley's go through that same stage?



Good luck and best wishes.

Ellie.

Yes, Lorikeets can certainly go through a terrible teens stage, similar to Ringneck bluffing. And the exquisitely sharpened tip to the beak makes it even worse than with Ringnecks

Good suggestions about foraging, although given the diet of Lorikeets, it does present a bit more of a challenge than with seed eaters.

cheers,

Mike

[evey1989]

Hi Ellie

Thank you so much for your information. Henry seems content with his fruit and and nectar mix, after carefully watching him now for a whole I noticed he is also squawking (as if in an excited cheerful way) when we talk to him, and then the biting happens. So I don't know if that is an over excited thing?

Also we recently moved house and he was showing these signs during the packing up phase of moving right through, it's only just starting to slowly get better. I also decided to start spending some one on one time with him too which has been helping.

This bluffing stage, what is it exactly I'm not familiar with the term?

[evey1989]

Hi Mike

Thanks for your help, could Henry be going through a terrible teens stage? If so will he grow out of it?