whitling@andromeda.rutgers.edu.rutgers.edu (Donna Whitlinger) (01/04/90)
In article <3385@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> nora@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (nora.y.mclaughlin) writes: [much dicussion about gentleness and agression deleted] > >Have you ever noticed put your hand to your bird and see it kind of just >open its beak like he is going to bite you? Well maybe not , but if you do, >that is the bird going into self defense mode, waiting for the smack. >This I my opinion and my experience. While this may be true in your experience, my bird does this and he has never been hit. Daniel (a grey cockatiel) is admittedly a very spoiled baby and he threatens to bite in this manner whenever we want him to do something that he doesn't want to do. (Nobody's asking him to do anything terrible. Donna says, "Daniel, it's 10 degrees outside; you don't really want to go out there, why don't you sit with Bob for a while instead?" Daniel responds with threaten, threaten, grudgingly step from Donna's shoulder to Bob's hand, then as soon as Donna leaves, cheerfully tell Bob what a pretty bird he is. :-) We've been very gentle with him and he just gets more and more domineering. He bit my father and drew blood several days ago. A local breeder suggested that between the excitement over the holidays (houseguests and rearranged furniture) and his age (about 10 months), he was going to be riled up for a while. She said that I should either blow gently in his face when he threatens or spray water on him. He has been responding fairly well to this. I'm not trying to be aggressive, I just wanted to point out that not all birds that bite have been treated agressively. Donna Whitlinger whitling@andromeda.rutgers.edu {many large machines}!rutgers!andromeda!whitling