Clyde loves to sit on my shoulder and chuckle in my ear and sometimes nibble on it, too, but lately his favorite thing is to pull at my shirt, and in plucking at my shirt, he often gets skin, too. Or he'll go straight for the skin. He's done this so much that he's learned to say "ow!" and "quit!" from hearing ME say it. Now, I know he's just playing and he also does that if he thinks I'm not paying enough attention to him, but when I object to it, he makes his grumbling "doggone it, I'm BUSY!" noise and usually nips even harder. So I tell him if he's going to gnaw on me, he has to go back to his cage. He doesn't want to go back to his cage, so by the time we get there, he's leaning against my cheek saying "awwww" and "pretty bird" and making kissing noises. Little stinker. I'm sure he knows that I don't enjoy being a chew toy, but I don't know how to make him stop doing that other than the trip back to the cage, because after that he usually stops or is at least far more gentle about it. I'm a sucker for the cheek lean and "awwww" and if he'll promise to be nice, he doesn't have to actually go back in the cage. The trip there is just to inform him that I'm tired of being nibbled on.

And he doesn't like head scritches, either. That's a SURE way to get gnawed on. He likes very gentle strokes down the back if you stop before you get to his tail feathers. I'm thinking the people who had him before must have done all sorts of things to make him neurotic about certain things that I'm only slowly learning to recognize.

Boy youve just described my Xerxey . He does quite often to but he dosent talk but when i scold him he laughs and thinks its funny so putting him in the cage dosent do anygood. I just bought a shoulder apron to cover my shirt and it also protects my shirt s from being chewed on this also helps keep your clothes free of poop. u might want to try that i havent used it yet for ijust got it friday and xerxey is afraid of it. but im gradually getting him to get used to it. If i find th elink illpost it on here.

heres the website its

www.birdsupplies.com

when u go to the website u have to type in the search place poop apron and it will pull it up.

Archie bites my girlfriend because he gets attention: he bites her and says "Don't bite mommy!" and laughs, and the laughing often causes us to laugh. She also would say "no no no" and he'd repeat that too. It's fun for him. "Ow" and "Quit" are fun for Clyde, especially when you aren't paying attention to him.

First, try to avoid the biting altogether. For a week or two you might not allow him on your shoulder. Any time you see him about to bite, try to distract him by moving your hand to make him look away. The less he bites, the less he'll think about biting.

Second, try to be gentle with him. Avoid roughhousing with him. Give him exercise like moving him up and down quickly to flap his wings, and give him showers to use up his energy and make him more mellow.

And finally, when he does bite, try not to say anything at all or react at all. Push into the bite until he stops, then give him no attention for maybe 1 minute. You might give him a cold stare first if he threatens to bite again. Then start playing with him and act like nothing happened--make sure it has been at least long enough for him to have forgotten biting so this doesn't seem like a reward.