Neck nipping

[kendrafitz]

Rosie has been nipping my neck lately and it is driving me nuts. She does it when she is on my shoulders, hanging upside down off my ponytail, when we are on her recliner or even if I just pass by her and she can reach me. It has become a real annoyance. It is hard enough to bug me, but not meant to hurt. She generally clamps on and then I have to remove her beak from the front or back of my neck. She let's go but she is doing it all the time. I have told her no, gripped her beak and said gentle and have even tried putting her on her tree, telling her she needs to be nice and not hurt Mommy. No change, she nips my neck with apparent glee the next chance she gets. Little red devil - ugh! :l

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I am not sure what else to do?

[94lt1]

This is with your macaw in your avatar? My green cheek did this..(she was so abused I allowed it so she would feel a connection) but with a macaw..Monte, my scarlet, tried this as well.. Put the bird on a chair or day pitch(not its cage) and walk away..do this immediately.. Make sure the bird knows your displeasure by your vocal, but not loud NO!! MAKE SURE YOUR FACE SAYS NO TOO...angry, unhappy face..

Don't interact with the bird for a bit, I may be wrong here..in how to stop it, but birds will nip at each other like a love tap..perhaps the shoulder isn't the best place for that bird at this time..your face or eye could be next. .just saying..

Others will, i'm sure have better ideas..

MAXXED OUT!!!!!

EDIT: believe it or not, these four year olds(mentality wise) respond very quickly to our faces...a glare, a smile...remember to never shake your finger in a macaws face...EVER out of anger...you'll have a bad time...

[kendrafitz]

Thank you Brandon. Yes, Rosie is our almost 2 yr old GW. I try to do the angry mean face and the stern voice with her. I also put her back on her stand (I can't put her on the chairs bc she chews them). She generally just ignores my face/tone and tries to charm me. Which is cute but annoying.

I agree about the shoulder and I need to be more vigilant about it. Since she goes about my day with me I have always found it easier to put her on my shoulder so I can carry things with my hands. But I know you are right and it is smarter to keep her down at the moment.

I was wondering if it was some kind of love nip. She is always so happy when she is doing it.

[Pinkbirdy]

Harlow definitely has her bratty moments [like this] . Its like once they learn something new that's what they want to do. I hold her beak and tell her No!! [then sometimes she laughs] :)

[tonkatiel]

Mia has been doing the same thing for the last week or so and I thought it was bad coming from a little Sun Conure LOL I suppose once you spend a lot of time with a Macaw their giant beaks maybe don't intimidate you as much as someone who has barely spent 5 minutes with one :/ lol
Mia is quite gentle with her little neck nips but I do definitely notice it in more than a ticklish kind of way, I've been doing as mentioned and firmly saying no as well as putting her on the play stand and walking away - problem is she really doesn't like the play stand and flies straight back to me :/
Sorry I don't have any advice but I'll definitely be reading to see if anyone else does lol...

[Blancaej]

I have this issue with Savannah. Usually she is my very sweet girl but I am finding she is coming out of her shell more and more and is more comfortable to show me how she feels. Which is good and bad all at the same time! LOL! She will do the nipping thing with me as well. But she also tries to climb up to my face and do. It's more of a beaking on my face rather then nipping. But it's annoying and it could turn bad. So I try to keep her from climbing up to my face when we are sitting on the chair and she is in a "mood". I tell her "No" and to be gentle. I put her on the arm rest of the chair as well. The other thing I do is when she calms down and is a nice girl I tell her "good girl, gentle!" in a happy voice so she is clear on what gentle means.

I am glad you brought this up because I've just started experiencing this with Savannah since Coqui came into the picture. One she is more relaxed and willing to show her feelings and two, she is jealous of Coqui. It is getting better since the beginning, but I know that is playing a key roll in her behavior right now.

[kendrafitz]

Terri - the laugh kills me! I have to try to keep myself from laughing bc it only makes things worse in the long run. But the laugh after being naughty is ridiculous to me and it's hard not to laugh.

Emma - the beak doesn't intimidate me - anymore. I can't say that it didn't in the beginning. She loves me so much that she doesn't try to hurt me. She can be rough when she is excited but I can remove her beak from my hands easily and I have found if I kiss her cheek she calms down. Silly, but it works. Rosie's wing feathers are growing in and I am thinking about letting her try to fly. She seems less clumsy and I think she may not hurt herself so much now that she is older. My fear is exactly what you are dealing with. That she will fly to me constantly and I won't be able to do anything without an extra (macaw) appendage.

[Blancaej]

It's funny Kendra, I kiss Savannah on the cheek and it calms her down, too! LOL! :th_biggrin:

[kendrafitz]

Blanca - I will try the praise when she is calm. Thank you. My problem with Rosie is that if I remove her and put her back on the arm of the chair, she runs up to the top and goes for my neck again. Or she will run and climb up my chest to go to my shoulder/head to keep up her not so fun activity. So it is like a never ending war of wills until I just remove her or myself.

I understand Savannah being jealous of Coqui. Is she jealous of Quincy or Blueberry & Buttercup? Does she like to play/hang out with Coqui if you aren't involved?

The reason I have never thought of bringing another bird home, no matter how tempting, is jealousy. Rosie is a jealous freak and goes ballistic if she sees me near another bird. When she was at BP she would scream, flap and flail if she saw me with another feathered friend. When I brought her in for a weigh in when we first got her we had an incident. I had one of the staff that she loved take her to another part of the store so I could visit with Big Blue, a baby Hy I adored. They laughed at me and thought I was ridiculous. That is until they brought her close enough that she could see me. Screaming, nipping the staff member, flapping, just freaking out horribly. She is a one bird in the house bird, and that is that.

Funny that kissing Savannah's cheek calms her down as well. Silly girls!!!!

[Blancaej]

I am thankful that Savannah's jealousy is not that severe! I am hoping that her and Coqui could get along and enjoy each others company at some point. I just have to trust her enough around Coqui before I let them interact. I caught them with beaks wide open going after each other when their perches were too close the other day. I have to take baby steps with their interaction, that is for certain! Savannah is not really jealous of Quincy or Blueberry & Buttercup from what I can tell. Quincy was here before she came to live with us, so maybe she sees him in a different light.

Savannah will go back up from the arm chair, too. If she doesn't calm down, I put her back on her perch. But I really do think praising good behavior will be helpful. That way Rosie will know what you mean by gentle when you praise her for being gentle. It really is working well with both Coqui and Savannah. :) Good luck!!

[Grey]

Does she nip at he same area? If yes, have you looked at it? There may be something there. I don't have to go to the dermatologist anymore to have skin tags removed, Lola takes care of them for me without an office visit or copay

[kendrafitz]

Lol, I can definitely see why a dermatologist wouldn't be necessary!

No, it is anywhere she feels like grabbing on my neck. Front, back, side. She has even nipped my collar bone once or twice. It's not a preening nip, she has done that on bumps she finds. :) It is a just for the heck of it nip.

Have been praising her good behavior more. Haven't noticed a big difference yet. However she is getting lots of nasty pin feathers on her neck and head plus losing a bunch of tail/wing feathers this week. I think she may just be too cranky from constant poking to expect any big changes at the moment. :l

[Turquoise]

My Roscoe is my biggest nipper. He has this impish attitude of nipping my bicep part of my arm most of the time I have him step up. He has been doing this since he settled in two years ago & I have been correcting him for it all along. He has this gleam in his eye while he gleefully nips the heck out of it! It is not a 'bring blood' nip, just a love nip, but it pinches. I will take his beak and hold it while I kiss the top of it and tell him, "Control the beak~~Control the bird".

Roscoe's worst thing he does is the macaw lunge and he does that a lot at my face, but I have always been able to dodge him, except one morning when I went into his enclosure to take out his fresh food bowl. He was hanging on the door, I swung it outwards so I could walk past and I didn't get it far enough. He raked my cheek with his beak and did leave a small scrape that bled. My friend at work that night asked me what happened to my cheek and I told her my macaw did that. The look of horror on her face was *Priceless* LOL

Ruby Jewel has recently begun to squeeze my fingers a bit too much when she is playing with me. She doesn't understand it is more than she used to squeeze and I will tell her 'no' not so hard and start to talk softly to her & she is mumbling back at me and then she is good til she forgets again. Any time I talk softly to this girl she will start mumbling back to me as if she & I are carrying on a conversation. It's a bit one sided as I think she understands me way better than I can her. :)

Angel is my sweet boy. Since he has a little trouble staying on my arm I don't pick him up very often and when I do I use a towel in my lap so he has something he can cling to with his claws. When I go into his enclosure he is always hanging on his door and he likes to chew on my shirt or jacket. He does do the lunge at times and I have to stretch my head way back when he chews on my collar which is his favorite part of my jackets. When I give him scratches and he is not in the mood he will grab my finger and gently move it away. He does not squeeze down hard or try to hurt my finger. I find that to be such an adorable thing for him to do. He is just such an awesome boy!!

[Blancaej]

Love to hear about your birds De'. Coqui loves to do the nipping thing, too. To my belly when on my lap! Lol! :rolleyes:

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[kendrafitz]

De'Andrea - your birds are awesome and I love that you know them all so well. :). I can just picture your friends face. Too funny!

Rosie gets that gleeful look like Roscoe. She has started pinching my arm lately. Just for the fun if it. Naughty girl. Like Ruby Jewel she is testing her pressure on my fingers again. She has been leaving some indent marks lately. Not bad, but there. She is my mischievous chick!