When my lori bites how do i get him off?

[oldmanbeefjerky]

My lorikeet rio, over the past few months has started biting more and more without provocation.
Everywhere i look, people talk BS about just ignoring your bird when they bite, to make them stop. But thats stupid, when my bird bites, hes trying to rip a chunk of flesh from my hand, and the bite holes he makes are really deep. Its both to painful and does too much damage to just let him continue, once i did try that and he went on for a whole 30 seconds, after which he starting biting a different part of my hand. normally, by pure reflex, i wave my arm around and fling him off, though, once off, he comes right back wanting more. every now and then i try to force his beak open to make him let go, but that usually doesnt work. I dont want to hit him or fling him off as this might hurt him or do damage, even so, anything could do to inflict pain to him would break bones and stuff, but theres nothing else i can do, and nothing seems to deter him from doing it again.

Does anyone know what i can do to make him come off AND stop him from biting again?

[blondie25]

Wow - I have exactly the same problem with my rainbow lorikeet... he just seems to want to cause as much damage as possible, it's like he is possessed! I don't have an answer for you but will watch this post keenly to see if anyone has advice to offer! You are definitely not alone!

Kim

[leeann]

It's a game for them. While its best to just ignore him, if it's not working you should try a glove.get a thick gardening glove (even a welding glove) and start handling him again. It will probably take at least a week or 2 of constantly handling the bird, but what you are trying to do is forget this game and start on a new more positive game. My breeding male loves to do this, especially when he is showing off for his mate. It takes patience to change the behavior but without perseverance the bird will continue to act badly and eventually become unhandleable! Sadly this behavior can often return when breeding season starts again, but that's just birds! Good luck

[squishy]

My lori mostly bites out of excitement or frustration and I'm sure the reaction she gets is exactly what she wants! Extreme! I've tried everything to deter her but the only thing that has worked over the years is to give her really EXTREME praise when she kisses gently, or licks, because she loves a reaction and better it come from the good behaviour. Now she kisses gently 99% of the time, even when she's reaaally excited, because now it's a habit, just like the biting was. I try to ignore the rare biting, or just walk away from her. She hates being left, so she bites very rarely now. I guess it's just a matter of working out what your bird considers a 'good' and a 'bad' thing. Some birds would consider it a reward to be left alone, for example. My bird loves high energy interaction, and so that's what I give her when she does the good stuff. Lories are such energetic birds, they need a lot of play to burn off all the sugars they eat. No wonder they get frustrated and bitey.

[Gerard]

This behaviour is usually caused when the Lory/Lorikeet has reached sexual maturity. I recently had to bird sit a red collared lorikeet and a black capped lory for a neighbour who went overseas for a couple of weeks. Both birds attacked me and drew blood and nor did the neighbour advise me her birds behave this way even though she knew. However, I did come up with a solution that solved the problem. Please be aware though that this method would not be recommended by the current breed of bird psychologists. Out of frustration at being bitten time and again I decided that the next time either of the birds bit me that I would grip its beak. So the next time it bit I prised the bird's beak off my hand, but maintained a grip of the bird's upper mandible. The grip was strong enough that the bird couldn't escape, but not hard enough to injure the bird. You also need to allow the bird to twist it's head so just rotate your hand to maintain your grip while allowing the bird to twist its head. Make sure that the bird has its feet grounded on a solid surface such as the arm of a couch. For the first 10 seconds the bird still attempted to bite which it couldn't. For the next 10 seconds it tried to free its beak. For the last ten seconds the bird became quite alarmed that its beak was stuck. After freeing my grip the lorikeet came back to bite twice more, to which I repeated the same procedure. After the third time the bird decided that it was better to play on its cage mounted gym. The bites from a black capped lory really do hurt I can assure you.

I found I had to repeat the procedure with both birds a couple of times over the next few days, but I did not have to do it as long or as often before both birds got the message. IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO YOU WANT TO HURT OR INJURE THE BIRD! The message I wanted to deliver to both birds is that I am bigger and stronger than you and that there are consequences if you bite me...if you don't want to be held captive by your beak, then don't bite. By the end of the third day both birds had decided it was far safer to play and bite things around their cages than me.

After the fifth day I started hand feeding the both birds small pieces of fruit which both birds accepted rather cautiously. A few days later they had become rather more playful with me. However, occasionally their mouthing would become a little too hard and I would have to grab the upper mandible for just a few seconds to achieve the desired result for the bird to get the message. By the end of the second week I had two relatively well behaved birds on my hands.

When their owner returned she was quite gobsmacked that I had her black capped lory out of its cage and playing a game with it without being bitten. The kicker to the story is that 2 weeks later she begged to know what I had done so that she would not be bitten. The price was a bottle of Johnny Walker blue, because she had failed to warn me of their behaviour. I do not feel it is fair for a person to withhold important information about their birds to a person who will be looking after them in good faith, especially when that information may affect the bird sitter's safety, just so they can have a holiday.