In Reply to: Re: Help! Biting posted by Marie on April 29, 2008 at 21:12:18:
: I just keep at it. Yes, the biting hurts, but they can't see that reaction from us. They like getting that type of reaction. Then again, I've never had a bird that bites me in/around their cage before. I've never had a problem reaching into my GC's cage while she's in it to either pick her up or to clean up the cage a bit. You just have to be bold, and they have to know you're the boss.
I was wearing these big, dangling metal earrings one morning and Ariel went after them - attacked my neck and bit me in several places. It was really a baaaaad feeling, and he just wouldn't stop. He was totally out of control. I learned to be more careful of my jewelry. He thought they were toys, like the bells in his cage he attacks with the same verocity. My bird is more territorial, so I always handle him on a wooden perch near and in his cage. He'd bloodied my fingers so much in the first weeks I had him that it took a long time for me to get over being afraid of getting bitten, but look at it this way - part of that fear is good, if it helps us think more carefully about what we are doing around our birds and how we can avoid future trouble. Most of the time, when I tell my bird "gentle beak" I can stick my hand in the cage with him in it and he will restrain his natural tendancies to go after it with his beak. But I have to give him processing time, maybe 30 seconds, for the idea to sink in before I put my hand in.