The four main reasons that a parrot will bite!

Although many captive parrots are aggressive, biting is not a natural behavior. In the wild parrots do not bite other parrots hard enough to make them bleed. Biting signals that something is wrong. While it is not easy to change this behavior, it can and should be addressed. If your bird bites, than he or she has some sort of motivation to do so. Once you learn how your bird is motivated, you can use this understanding to retrain your pet.

There are four main reasons that a parrot will bite. Birds will instinctively explore their surroundings with their beak, the way a baby will learn by putting things in its mouth. Often a bird will grip the owner’s finger simply to investigate. The owner needs to tell the bird how hard it is allowed to “explore.” Saying “No” sharply and loudly imitates the vocal signal an adult parrot would use in the wild to communicate with a young bird that is acting out of bounds.

Another reason birds bite is to protect their territory. In a natural setting each bird bonds with one other bird. In captivity parrots usually bond with one human. Biting serves as the only available method to drive away outsiders from their territory.

The third reason a parrot bites is fear of the human that is forcing himself on the bird. Forceful movements or hugging can be viewed, from the bird’s point of view as aggressive and frightening. The last reason a parrot bites is learned aggression. If biting leads to a desired result, the parrot will bite when he considers it profitable. For example, if a bird learns that when it is on the owner’s shoulder, the owner will give it a treat to stop the biting, the bird will regularly bite. Or perhaps biting will lead to the bird being left on its perch and outside of the cage. In both cases the bird has a strong motivation to keep biting.

Before parrots resort to biting, they usually exhibit signs of non-violent aggression such as raising head feathers, a particular look of the eye, quick head movements, slick feathers, growling or pumping the beak forward. In the wild these signs would warn off another bird. The owner will often not notice the sometimes subtle body language that indicates that the bird is afraid or upset. The parrot cannot fly away, so it resorts to biting.

Parrot owners must become sensitive to how their pet communicates. It is important that you never make a parrot do something it does not want to do. In the wild, parrot social structure is not built on hierarchy or dominance.

Parrots, unlike dogs, do not understand punishment or dominance because it is not part of their nature. Aggressive techniques will only lead to a more aggressive bird. Training should therefore be based on rewarding positive behavior instead of punishing negative behavior. The bird should be thought of as a partner and not an object to be dominated. If you understand why the bird is acting as it is, your attempts to change its behavior will be much more successful.

Author: Zevs Borealis
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