11 month old GW

[Pharoh]

Hello,
My baby green wing has become very nippy, and in some cases he has just down
right bit me. He lives in a double macaw cage and is on the harrisons diet
along with fresh fruits and veggies. He also lives with an umbrella cockatoo
that has its own cage.
He don't seem to like it when people come around.
I throughly researched the Macaw species before adopting him.
And I choose the GW because it was suppose to be the most gentlest of the
macaws, nicked named the gentle giant. (besides the hycinth.)
But he doesn't seem to like anyone but me, and like i said he has become very
nippy & bullieish with me. I give him the evil eye when he does it and sternly
tell him NO
But he doesn't seem to care. I have to twist my arm a bit radically
or just grab his beak to get him to stop chewing on me when he is sitting on my hand.
This is getting very frustrating, I keep hoping he will grow out of it.
Can anyone tell me if this will get any better?

[The Outlaw]

I'm finding that the GWs I know personally seem to go through this baby stage. You need to enforce the no bite rule very strongly. And, they seem to be one person birds. I notice that anyone can pick up my Eenie if I'm not in the room, but NO ONE can if I am.

Anytime he acts up, promptly deposit him to the floor. They don't like that. When you have his attention, ask him to step up. Do it EVERY time. Sooner or later, he'll come to understand that bad behavior delivers him to the floor. Be sure to praise him when he's doing what you want. Sometimes, we forget that part.

[Irish]

Arthur, at about 7 1/2 months, is doing the nippy thing with me, sometimes, too. He loves me to death (almost literally *grins*), and a lot of his nipping seems to be trying to get as close to me as humanly possible, and getting frustrated when I don't let him climb up my nose or something :-). I've found that reminding him to be "easy" helps keep the pinching to a less painful level. Also, he likes to just have my digits in his mouth, and feel them all over, without pinching at all. I've also found that he needs time to burn off energy in the morning, or he's just plain rowdy and beaky! We accomplish this by letting him and Bob have their breakfast together on the Honkin' Huge Perch and the Atom, and wrestle together and flap like maniacs for an hour or so afterwards.

Arthur is also pretty much a "Momma's Bird", but then, so is Bob. But whereas Bob doesn't want anyone touching him if I'm not there to say it's ok (and even then, if you don't know him, forget it!), Arthur is the opposite. He wants me and only me if I'm in the room. Others can hold him if I pass him to them, but except for his buddies Deb and Letitia, he saves the snuggling for me. Usually when others hold him, he just spends his time trying to get back to me, and if they don't hand him back quick, they get a rather nasty welt on an arm or a neck....

Dog, I hope that wasn't too much rambling! LOL!