Question About Galah Cockatoo Biting
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***QUESTION***
i have a 16week old galah cockatoo. brought her at 10weeks lod hand reared from a pet store, she is very loving but is starting to bite alot tawards me and my 3 girls when we all want to pick her up,or if we are playing with her, she has no proble stepping up to come to us when she feels like it or to come ut of her cage, but my biggest problem is when she is sitting on y shoder or o the floor playing she is really biting hard with all of us.i have tried the technieck of putting her in her cage when she bites and walking away and coming back 5 or 10 mins later to see if she has learnt her lesson, so il open the cage to pat her again and she loves her head rubbed but then all of a sudden she will bite again really hard. and yet other times she is so loving and gentle and still lets out that little baby bird sound and loves me patting and kissing her, and now all of a sudden she will just lunge out and peck me in the eye or my nose or face for no reason. how do i stop this befor she gets 2 rough.
Kim. Mosbey
***ANSWER***
At 16 weeks old it should be easy to break it quickly. My question is, when the bird bites what kind of a reaction is being given? Reacting verbally can be reinforcing him to bite more.
All baby birds go though their nipping and biting phase. I believe it is their way in trying to test their independence and try to show dominance over the family. As long as the family reacts it only feeds the bird to bite more.
The baby bird needs to know the handler is serious about the “no biting” rule.
From what Kim said about how her bird loves to be petted and love on and then to turn around and bite her shows that the bird is telling her “I am done with the hugs and kisses” and “I am the Boss - The Boss is always the handler of the bird”
The first thing I would do in breaking the biting is not to allow it on my shoulder. He would only be allowed on my hand or arm. Having it on her shoulder gives the bird too much control over the handler, and until he understands who “The Boss” is he will have to earn his place back on the shoulder.
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susanne said,
March 22, 2008 @ 5:45 pm
ive just found out the bird i have is an indian ringneck identicle to the one danny had on vidieo he is really nasty as i think he has been abused and feel very sorry for him as he is missing out on a lot of love from me but i cant put up with his constant lunging aand biteing me im not very good with computers husband is away for a few days so i am struggling to with emails SORRY
jerry r said,
March 25, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
i recently got a blue fronted amazon from a friend that had problems with biting. the bird( Willie) has really taken a liking to me and loves to be scratched and played with. but his biting problem has popped up. the only times he bites is when he gets on your shoulder and you are going somewhere he soesn’t want to go. i know the problem is being on the shoulder but the worst bites i get is when i try to keep him from being there. he is an expert at climbing down my arm and can get onto my shoulder no matter how or what angle i keep my arm. the last bite nearly took my finger off! i really want to keep him but i don’t want a bird that just sits in the cage. how can i train him to stay off my shoulder without loss of limb?
BETTY said,
May 8, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
I HAVE A QUAKER HE BITES ONLY IF HE IS OUT OF THE CAGE AND HE WILL TALK IN THE CAGE BUT NOT OUT OF THE CAGE HELP IF YOU PUT HIM ON FLOOR HE RUNS BACK TO THE CAGE IAM THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN GET HIM OUT HE WILL BITE EVERY ONE ELSE THANK YOU BETTY