New budgie chewing my poor hand!

[jamiesmack]

Hello all!

This is my first post on the forum so please be kind!!

Well, we have had Bobby the budgie for over a week now, he's about 12 weeks old. I have been slowly introducing my hand to the cage, and after a few days he started flying onto it himself if i didnt put my finger up to him quick enough for him to sit on!

The problem I have, is as soon as he's on my finger he really bites and chews my finger/hand. it really can be quite painful. If he manages to get further up my arm, he chews my jumper/shirt/whatever.

I dont think he's scared of me, he seems very comfortable with my hand in the cage, and comes close to me on the cage whenever I go close.

Any ideas as to why hes doing this? any ideas to stop it? I dont mind the odd nibble and nip here and there as I know thats par for the course, but I feel this is a bit much!

Sorry for the rambling post!

thanks in advance, Jamie

[Marianne Marlow]

Welcome!

Can you upload a photo of your budgie?

Are you sure he's a he? - Girls are known to be the hardest biters

[jamiesmack]

Il be able to upload a picture tomorrow when I get in from work. The breeder I got him from told me it was, but perhaps he was fibbing! Is there any way of stopping this biting?

[LuvtheBudgies]

Give him/her something to chew on in cage and hand if they will stay there maybe?

[stace]

I think this is just a case where you have to be patient and persistent with training. You want the bird to be comfortable stepping up and sitting on your hand, so you don't want to make him/her afraid of your hands. At the same time you don't want the bird to bite. That's annoying.

Don't do anything to frighten the bird at this stage, as you want to build trust. But as you are doing your Step Up training to get the bird to step up on command, when biting happens try cycling through your fingers in a continuous step up, one after another with each hand. This should initially stop the biting, as the bird has to step from one finger to another and is unable to bite. It will also be a bit annoying, so if the bird bites, he/she associates biting with an activity that the bird doesn't like (without being a scary punishment).

Millet rewards given by hand help as well.

[jamiesmack]

Sorry I haven't uploaded a pic as yet, my camera's playing up. I'm at my wits end with bobby now! I've tried everything I can and he's still biting me! Hard!! He seems fine with me having my hand in the cage, cleaning it out etc, but as soon as he's on my finger he's away again! It's getting to the point now that I don't want to put my hand in as it hurts so much. I was hoping he'd take to me ok, but starting to get the impression he doesn't like me very much

[stace]

We've had some discussions on biting. REad through these and see if there are any tips that might work for you.

budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=budgietaming&action=display&thread=304&page=1

budgerigarsforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=budgietaming&thread=220&page=1#1849

[Hezz]

Have PMed you Jamie