Jealous of my phone?

[alicia62]

Okay- so this might sound a bit bizarre.My lorikeet is about 9 months old (or there abouts) and is a lovely little chap. He adores me and behaves well. 
Now whenever I'm home during the day, Oliver's usual perch is my shoulder/arm HOWEVER, whenever the phone rings and I answer it, he immediately starts biting me HARD. I mean- OUCH. It is the only time ever that he will go to bite me. 
If hiding my fingers or putting the phone on speaker doesn't work, he'll get put back in his cage for a good couple hours. Since most of my phone calls are work-related, I can't really be randomly shouting 'NO' throughout the call! Haha!

I'm assuming he's jealous that I'm focusing my attention on the phone and not himself, but I'm not really sure how to nip this in the bud. Phone calls come randomly throughout the day so I can't predict them, and I still want him out of the cage as much as possible. Once I'm off the phone he returns to his usual lovely self and sits quietly. 

Any thoughts/tips/advice/ideas? Has anyone else's birds ever been violently jealous like this? 

[avinet]

This is a bit of a tough one. I would assume as you suggest that jealousy is the problem but how to fix it is something I am at a loss to suggest. My only suggestion is to perhaps get him a play stand that he has to sit on rather than on your shoulder during the times that phone calls are likely to come in. Lorikeets have a very sharp beak and I would be worried that nips on the ear could develop into hard bites on the face if you continue to keep him on your shoulder while this jealousy occurs.

How does he behave if you are talking face-to-face to someone rather than on the phone - is he OK or doe she still show signs of jealousy.

The other possibility is to get another Lorikeet to keep him company so he isn't so dependent on you for companionship. It is nice to have a bird that is closely bounded to us but if that bond is too close it does lead to problems.

cheers,

Mike

[meandem]

Wow. I was curious to see a reply to this. Thankfully Mike came to the rescue. I hope you can get the problem sorted out. :/