He Wont Stop Biting People, Its getting annoying Options

[Quakerperson]

I love my bird Sam very much, but he is a little stinker. Almost everyone he sees he will try to attack them. I have to keep people away because I do not he biting them. My friends would really like to see him but I can't show him to them. Is there a way to get him to stop this? Please help.

[Carrie~Anne]

Unfortunately the only way is to have people handle him. My Quaker is the exact same way. Right off the bat, I tell any one who comes into my house not to touch her, or go to close to her cage because she will bite you.

The only way to stop this is to socialize her and in order to do that you need people who are willing to work with her. It's best to take her into a room she isn't used to or has never been to do this, because she'll be more uncomfortable and more willing to trust someone else with step ups.

Again, the hard part is to find someone who is willing to work with her and take some bites. Not an easy task.

[Sandi Kiwis Mom]

Carrie is right.....when we first got Kiwi....my Hubby was home for a few months but he had to go to his new job and I had to get our house ready to sell. Kiwi did not have much interaction with PEOPLE including my Husband. Mr. Kiwi would bite anybody......I have to say that 10 yrs later Kiwi is much more laid back and could care less. Just tonight my Husband was talking to him from about 10 inches away from Kiwi's BEAK and Kiwi was chattering to him Kiwi doesn't bite much anymore unless he feels threatened.....he really has mellowed ALOT.....I love this little guy

[Cacophony]

Most birds don't like strangers. They're not a domesticated animal, like a dog or cat, that has been bred for generations to not only co-exist with a completely different species but to work themselves into the very odd lifestyle we lead. We're the most independant "pack" animal on the planet - living in large groups completely isolated from everyone around us by walls. Some people would argue that it makes us the most dysfunctional of the pack animals! *wicked grin*

Kiko will sit on my hand and allow other people to tell her how pretty she is. They are not allowed to touch. She will not stand on someone she doesn't trust. And heaven help it if they get too close to her cage.... it's like a complete stranger walking into your house with shoes on and sitting down in the middle of your bed, while eating crackers. Another bird would never intrude like that in the wild without expecting one heck of a tail whooping! Some individuals have been raised around enough people to play "pass the potatoe" and certain species like cockatoos crave the attention to the point where a lot of them don't CARE who's scritching as long as those scritches keep a coming... as a whole though, asking the bird to allow itself to be handled by a lot of strangers is asking a whole lot.

Does he have a playstand he could come out on and socialize, away from his cage, where people can talk to him without giving him anything to feel threatened over? No one should have to touch him to meet him and you might find he's more laid back if he's not worried someone's going to grab him.

Good luck and let us know how that goes!

[Siobhan]

It really is the very rare bird who will allow a stranger to touch. Clyde is very tame and takes immediately to a person here and there, but for the most part, if he doesn't know you, he doesn't WANT to know you. I have a friend who has a T-shirt with very rude language that I won't repeat, but the essence of the message is "go away, I have enough friends" . That shirt could have been designed by Clyde.

Jade bites US if we get too familiar, so she most emphatically will bite other people if they get too friendly. We had an incident recently with my brother-in-law, whom Clyde adores, but Jade does not remember him -- he lives out of state and visits a few times a year. When he approached Jade and we both warned him that she would bite him (and she warned him, too), yet he insisted on poking his hand at her and, yup, she bit him, it served him right.

I visited some people who have several large birds (macaws and cockatoos, an eclectus) and the man told me I could pet one of the macaws who he takes to visit schools and hospitals, even though that bird's body language clearly told me I COULD pet her, I was still a little hesitant. I wouldn't have dreamed of trying to pet any of the others; they didn't know me and didn't want to, though they were quite willing to talk to me from a distance.

[Quakerperson]

Thanks everybody, I will try to get people to work with him with me. I hope he stops it at least a little bit.