please help: my bird keep biting my husband!

[ringrin]

hello. My bird now keeps biting my husband and no one can stop it. Please help!

I bought my ecletus on last Sunday, and it's a sweet bird at that time--playing with everybody. Because we don't know how to give it the baby food and it's already 5 months old, we decided to stop hand feeding and give it other food instead. However, after 5 days,it suddently begins to bite my husband and doesn't want him to touch it any more. Whenever he want to get it "up" to his hand, try to touch its feathers or even sometimes when he's feeding it with soft food, it just gives him a suddent and strong attack, biting non-stop. The only time it doesn't attack him is when he has food to feed it.

But on the other hand, it is still sweet to me. It confused me that why it just bite him? Did we do anything wrong with it? We have never abused or even beaten it before. The biting made my husband so frustrated 'cause he loves it.

Please help me out or I have to sell it to others.

[jimpierce7]

this one is beyond me. 5 months is how old Sophie was when she weened but it was a process of slowing down the feedings and letting her eat solid foods. Sure hope to see an answer for you!!

[Pepper's Pa]

First, your bird is not an "it", but a he or she that needs your respect, love and care. With Eclectus, their gender is obvious as the males (green) and females (red, maroon, blue) are different colors.
Even though your Ekkie may appear full grown, he or she is still a young bird needing lots of nurturing and care. If your bird was still being hand-fed when you brought him (I'll use male pronouns for ease of writing) you can't simply choose to stop hand feeding him because you don't know how. That's the reason it is recommended that people never purchase a bird that is still being hand fed (unweaned).
"The only time it doesn't attack him is when he has food to feed it". Could this be a message that your bird is starving and wants more food?
"The biting made my husband so frustrated 'cause he loves it." Birds sometimes are attracted to one person and not another. It takes time to earn a bird's trust and bond, sometimes that means you have to show the bird that his bites don't intimidate you by ignoring them (I know they hurt and they're very difficult to ignore). Trying to determine why he is biting is important.
"Please help me out or I have to sell it to other". You need to either commit to this Ekkie for the long term or I urge you to find him a new home quickly. It can take a new bird weeks to months to feel comfortable in a new home. Also, the behavior he is exhibiting now is not the same as he will exhibit when he becomes comfortable and confident with you. In addition, behavior changes occur as birds mature.

Here are two articles that may be of help to you:
The Eclectus Parrot
Eclectus FAQ

[WarriorWoman1st]

While I would be the first person to admit that I know next to nothing about Ekkies, I have hand raised more than 1 parrot ( a couple of hundred ) and sold more than most in my area of expertice. I do know that you need to take that baby back to the breeder NOW and make her wean it before you take it back home with you. She should have never let you take home an unweaned bird. Your lucky that the bird has not died. If your had it shipped to you get to a vet TODAY and have her teach you how to hand feed her. That said, someone lost his or her temper answering your post and that did not help the situation, did it ? I wouldnt let it get to me. Bird people are funny about unweaned birds for a reason but they should at least be nice. I'll check my email more often today so that you can answer a question for me. If you are in Florida or want to drive to west central Florida I will finish weaning your baby for you, with you watching me and learning. I'm at warriorwoman@atlantic.net
and I'll send you my phone number so that we can talk personally.

[ringrin]

Thanks everyone. He's about to weaned in fact. The breeder is reducing its baby food and told us that we can stop it anytime this week. And this is the real reason that we can choose whether it should stop hand-feed. I appologized for the wrong use of "it", because I am actually a foreigner and just follow the grammer I learnt.

Today, he seems to be nicer to my husband and can "up" on his hand. I will still try to use soft food instead and let him get used to the new home and new food as soon as possible.

Thanks for your guys' follow up. I really appreciate it.

[Pepper's Pa]

ringrin, I apologize for my misunderstanding of your use of "it" when describing your Eclectus. I felt you were using it as if showing you owned your bird. I was saying to call him he or she, so that you would more likely consider your bird a special member of your family and not simply something you owned.
Based on your second post, to help you with your decision of moving away from hand feeding, you may want to do some reading on weaning and abundance weaning. This information may help you in moving your Eclectus from hand feeding to independently eating solid foods.
Here is an article that may offer you some help: Baby Bird Weaning Tips

I wish you the best of luck and health for your new Eclectus.

[macattack]

what is the weaning time for an ekkie? The only thing that has me a tad worried is that the breeder should have weaned slowly. NOT ok its ok to just stop cold and not reduce gradually. I'd be a pissy bird too. Not sure if that is standard practice for ekkies either. I believe in abundance weaning. Any animal. abruptly stopping anything they consider comfort will add stress... stress make them angry. and your husband is getting the brunt of it.

[Mammabird]

The weaning process is very gradual, like with a human baby. Since your husband has been giving him food he associates him with that and because he is essentially starving he's acting out in frustration. I do not mean to scare you but your bird is in grave danger if it does not receive baby formula. I am disturbed that a breeder would release a partially or recently weaned bird so soon to someone inexperienced. I highly recommend taking your baby immediately to an avian veterinarian and tell them it is an emergency. Please do not take it to a regular (dog/cat) vet that also sees birds, avian veterinarians receive an extra 2 years of school for just birds. They will weight him/her, run tests to make sure it is not sick (they can also feed it). I suggest contact a veterinarian instead of the breeder because I am not sure I trust this breeder. It could be a situation where your baby was weaned but regressed due to the stress of going to a new home but if the breeder knew the baby was not weaned and sent him home with anyway, well it was a very unprofessional unethical thing to do (and against the law in most states to be honest).

[sergiomedina2004]

Don't let the "it," comment offend you. Many people don't realize that many bird owners don't know the gender of the bird which is fine... I'm a guy...I would personally rather be called "it" than "she/her." Anyway, my parrot always like the my father, brother, and me when we first started training, but he ended up being aggressive with my father and brother and still got along with me. I strongly believe that's because out of the few times that he was injured I took care of him. I gave him treats and played with him while others didn't pay attention to him. They're like kids, they need to know what's not allowed and what is. Let you husband reward "it" and show affection to "it." It takes time but "it" will eventually get the hang of it.