[pi77]

no offense but i find this funny as hell. thanks.

i am new to birds and i just rescued a 'love bird' and an amazon. both are in thier terrible two's.

while the m amazone gives me nips and is just learning to bond with me that is not the case with the love bird.

love bird my a$$. i was going to call her shark but ended up calling her lola. now that bird can bite. omg. she nips me way harder than the amazon does. i hope that this is because the amazon is holding back.

there was a point where i would try to change her food and water and she would nip my hand multiple times until one day i had enough. i was in the middle of putting her water bowl in the cage when she gave me a particularly bad nip so i dumped all the water over her head. talk about a shock to her psyche. it did not hurt her at all but she sure got the message that i did NOT like that behavior. she was totally drenched and retreated to a back corner of the cage. where misting her didnt work this did it seems. i left the bowl on the bottom of the cage an did not change her water of give her food for an hour.

she still bites but some of the time it seems like she nudges me with her beak rather than bites. she is a fast little devil so i have to assume she could bite me if she wanted to.

since that time i have been able to get her to perch on my finger outside of her cage without a bite. only 2-3 times though.

now i have also noticed that she seems to be offering me the back of her head as if she wants me to scratch it. she will be in her cage and she will have her back to me and push her head up against the bars as if she is learning to trust me a bit. i sure hope this is the case.

god how i love that little bird. she provides me with so much enjoyment. she has a macaroni box in her cage now that must weigh 5-10 times her weight and she moves it all over the place and hides inside. she is so strong i do believe she could pick it up off the floor.

anyhooo good luck with your bird i am sure you will find a solution. they had a show on animal planet a month or so ago where a very aggressive cockatoo was trained to allow others to handle her. this change took just 3 days.

one thing i have read is that some small birds need big bird training to get the desired results. by big bird they meant trimming her flight feathers as you would a large bird and actually training the bird as if it was a huge mccaw. i am going to try that with lola.

from what you describe it sounds like you almost encourage that behavior.

i suggest your local library for books. i currently have 5 i am reading.

keep your chin up.