Does/did anyone elses handfed tiel do this?

[Robyn]

Riley is an 11 week old teil who was handfed and is the sweetest tiel ever. But she does one thing I hate and am having a hard time breaking her of. When she is hanging out on my chest (I always wear my purple safety sweatshirt like in my avitar) she will sooner or later come up and start biting my lip usually my lower lip sometimes my upper lip. I always put my hand between her and my mouth which she seems to take as a sign she's going to get her scritches and so she will rub her head on my hand. Another way I try to deter this behavior is distracting her with one of the draw strings on my hoodie. But if she persists I take her back to her cage. I don't eat when I have her out with me so I know it's not because she's curious and wants to try what I'm eating. I have no clue why she does it but I really want to break her of it.

[spiritbird]

Hello Robyn and welcome to you and Riley. As you must already know Cockatiels are birds that love affection and head scratches. If you can talk with the breeder you may find out that going for human lips is something the breeder started. I think distraction and positive rewards for not lip biting while on your body are the way to go. Perhaps keeping her from landing on your chest would help if that is possible. Riley should love millet and that can be a good reward to keep handy while flying about. I am sure you may get suggestions from other members.

[Robyn]

Not letting her on my chest would be very difficult as I got into a car accident a week before I brought her home which has caused a lot of pain in my lower back so to releave the pain I have to sit in a partially reclined position.

[froggij]

Orsino never chewed on my lips but he'd always go for my jewelry when I first got him. I broke him of chewing on it (and sometimes accidentally me if I got in the way) by putting him either off to the side or away in his cage completely if he chewed on something I didn't want him to, and he got the hint - bad behavior means you don't get head scritches. Dori (my lovebird) on the other hand, will march right up my chest and nibble on my lip. She likes sticking her head in my mouth to look for food, which I try to discourage, but then she bites harder... so if she chews her humans in any capacity now, she goes up for the night, because she knows better than to do it, but she still tries. She's actually good at "grounding" herself if she does something she knows we don't want her to, like if she bites her grandma she jumps back into her cage and sits in the corner looking out at us, even though the door's still open - all it takes is one "ow!" and she knows she did something wrong.

[P&K]

Peanutbutter does this to me too! I always thought of it as "preening" me. When he does it and it's not welcome I'll usually just push his head away at which time he just puts his head up to my mouth and demands head scratches. If he persists then he loses priveleges of sitting on my chest. I move him for a few minutes then allow him back. If he tries again I just repeat.

[Mare]

I find this rather sweet! You folks with "littles" are fortunate, indeed :). Birds need companionship and sometimes we are all they're going to get! Love 'em!

[Robyn]

It took a few months but I did eventually break him of it. He's still the sweetest tiel ever except this month he's been cranky cause he hasn't been allowed out of his cage at all