Our baby african grey BITES --- HELP !!!?

Question

We have a 12 week old (almost 13 weeks) baby african grey. We have had it for 2 weeks. We love her to bits. She gets the best of our attention, the freedom of the house and only in the cage at night to sleep or because we need to vaccum clean the house. She eats all sorts of fruit, and has the best parrot mix we can get. Calcium is also given to her. She sleeps a full 12 hours a day from 8pm to 8am

The only thing we have a problem with is that although she is very affectionate with me, she bites mywife daghter and son (daughter is 19 and som is 10)

Please help. Is this temporary ? Is it because it's still baby ? Experts swear blind that A greys are not one man birds. Any help and advice will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Bite here back a few times...show her who's boss.

Answer 2

experts they cant be experts,greys are very much a one person bird, my parrot loves me to bits but on the odd occasion when hes in a mood he will bite me!,when i first got him he was 6 months old and he used to bite me all the time,the best way to deal with this is when he bites say no biting thank you, then either put him in his cage or just ignore him for 10 minuets.when he shows nice behaviour when touching him reward him with his favourite treats. this may take awhile, mine dislikes my partner and used to bite him all the time but with time and patience and doing all of the above they come to accept that there are other people in the family, never smack the bird as they are very sensitive and will hold a grudge for ever. good luck :)

Answer 3

My Aunt has a male that hates my Uncle and they were told they can be one person birds, girls birds like men and visa versa. You need to make sure you are always above the bird when you talk to and feed her so you are the boss of her, so stand on something so your taller than the cage.

Answer 4

Anything with training animals (especially birds) takes a lot of paitence. Any person that she has a problem with has to bite the bullet and spend as much time with her as possible - they cant show any fear because she will pick up on this and will be more likely to bite.

Get them to sit quietly near her untill she feels relaxed then try introducing her to hand feeding. It will take time but she'll get used to people and will learn to love spending time with everyone!

good luck!

xx

Answer 5

Grey's are just nippy. Its in their nature. Most Grey's bond to only one person in a household and tend to bite the others. Its just in their breed.

Answer 6

african greys are one person birds i have one and it loves my mum they will get to know other members of the family. African greys are biters they are sly and will basicly always bite soz but its fact

Answer 7

We have had our african grey parrott for about 5 years now and she does bite still, the only people she doesnt bite is my mum and my brother!

Answer 8

Experts may say that greys are not one man birds, but there are always exceptions to the rules.  However, your grey is a little young to be picking a mate from the flock so I wouldn't be to worried about that.  At least not for 5-6 years.

Before we try and acess why your bird was biting, we need to look at the reasons a bird bites, and how they get that nasty habit.  You see, in the wild, a bird will only very rarely nip at it's flock mates, and usally this is only in situations of extreem stress. However, when birds are living with us, they are forced into a different dynamic, and biting becomes somewhat common?  How?  We teach them to bite us of course!  It's much like a child throwing a tetratantrum, if they get a reaction, or what they want they'll do it again, and again to get that result.  

So as a hypathetical situation, lets say that your daugher or son were playing with him, and they did something that really really frigntened him, but maybe they didn't relize it.  They go in to touch Mr.Grey, him still being all freaked out, and he bites them to have him back off.  Your child recieves a very strong bite, makes a ruckous by either crying or shouting, which entertains the bird even more, and he gets what he wants, to be left alone, and as an added bonus he now has entertainment - an upset child.  Parrots in general loooove Drama.  They think it's the best thing in the world!  And will do almost anything to create it.  And African Greys, as I'm sure you have learned are increadably smart.  So he in a sence just found the "that was easy button" to entertainment fun, and getting what he wants in your house hold!  Well..... While that's nice for him how do we we stop this before it turns into a habit that has us goingto the hospital?

That one is a bit harder to figure out, and much harder for most people to carry out.  In a nut shell you have to teach them that their bite doesn't do anything.  It doesn't stop him from getting petted.  It doesn't create a wonderful drama of people shouting and jumping around and yelling "ouch!".  Here's the hard part.  In orderto do this you have to let him bite you and not do anything.  Nothing at all.  Your facial expression can't change.  Now I know a bite from a grey hurts, it's enough to make white light flash in front of your eyes.  So if your staring at your screen, going this women is nuts I don't blame you.  Especially since your kids, and your wife will all have to act in that manner, which may be a bit much to ask from a 10 year old.  So here's one method that may really really help.

Since he doesn't bite you take out your grey, and hold him there and then start doing the step up exercises with him, and just keep going untill you have a rytem started.  Once your little feathered friend is comfortable, call over your son, daugther or wife, and have them continue to have him step up.  the important thing with this, is that thb bird doesn't stop stepping up during the trastion of being hed by you to being held by them.  You almost want to think of it as a dance beat.  You don't want to throw off the beat.  It's okay for them to waer gloves if they are scared of being bitten.  ( the ruumor about birds being afraid of gloves was because birds were orginally captured by gloved men, for birds these days, there is no reason not to wear them)  Have whoever is holding him continue to have him step up, continuing like this through everyone in the family.  When the little beauty has stepped up from everyone you take the bird and put it back.  It's very important that you put the bird back and not one of the others.  

Now You'll want to do this every day, rotating who takes him out of his cage, or off the perch. (make sure you are always the one to put him back though)  Try and very the amount of time it will go on for, and when the exercise is done, and hopefully over a slow amount of time he'll learn that biting is a no no.  If at some point he is going to take a bite at you there are 3 possible things you can do.  

1.  If you are holding him shake your hand/arm to throw him slightly off balance, this is called the earth quake method

2. Blow on him!  Most birds find thes a bit discomforting and don't like their faces being blown on, so they stop their current action.

3. Let the bite happen and ignore it entirely.  Don't do anything, no ouch, no facial expression change, contuinue on like it didn't happen.

Over time, if you keep with only doing those 3 actions when he goes to bite you, he'll learn not to.  Relize though ehat even if he's doing great it doesn't mean that training him out of biting is over.  That something you have to work on them consistantly woth for their whole lives.

As a side note  for right now, ake sure you sre rotating who feeds him and who takes the food away, also don't let him ride on our shoulder for at least a good 6 months or so.  You want to build a trust bond with him before you do that.

Congrats on your new feathered friend!  Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.

Answer 9

we have a grey and she is lovely she used 2 nip and we used 2 grab her beak blow and say no every time she did it now she doesn't you could try that but be consist ant and show her who's boss it will take time but shes a baby good luck

Answer 10

a lot of greys are one person birds.  you need to tell the bird that it is not ok to bite,  almost as you would tell a puppy.  These types off birds are very smart.   after it bites or tries to put your finger on the top of the beak and with a little pressure say    No bite.  If this works great, but the bird may pick up the words as one of its things to say.  never hit the bird as all birds are fragil.    another thing make sure the other family members are not coming at the bird to fast, or in the dark as that will cause a bird to bite.

Answer 11

Everything that I have understood about the birds... mainly my brother owning one, is that they do tend to be one person birds.  While they will tolerate others it seems that it prefers you and doesn't really want to be messed with by others.  I would recommend that you try and allow them to interact with the bird without your presence, it may help.  I attached a couple of links, but I am sure that you have been all over the web.  Good Luck!