# How to get my budgie to stop biting cage bars



## Prime (Jul 15, 2019)

My female budgie wont stop biting cage bars and its driving me nuts. Every single day she goes at it at my canaries cages and literally bites off the paint. Its left bare. I always make her stop whenever she bites, but of course that doesnt help. I also try covering certain areas but all she does is move onto the next bar, and i cant cover the entire cages, i have birds living in them. Now shes trying to bite her own cage bars from the inside because i put her away to make her stop. 

I give her chew toys and hay which she loves, but i can only go so far with toys. I cant cover every single bar with toys and hay so that she chews that instead. She'll just chew the toys until she gets bored and goes to chew the cages. 

Im concerned because of the paint. I dont want her ingesting it, which she probably is. Some of the cages have also been spay painted (with krylon, which is bird safe) but i still dont think its healthy to ingest it. 

Any ideas what i can do? She doesnt even care too much about chewing on wood or anything. I dont want her to get sick, plus the sound is so aggravating when she chews on the metal.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*She may have a mineral or nutritional deficiency causing her to chew the metal.
Chewing the paint off the cage can be very dangerous.

If there are bare metal spots on the cage bars the cage needs to be replaced.

Heavy Metal Poisoning in Budgies - Budgie Health

How old is the cage and do you know what metal it is made from? (See link below)

https://www.thebirdclinic.com/UploadedFiles/BirdClinicHandout4.pdf

Try to spend more time with her in healthy and fun activities if you can. Perhaps you might like to try clicker training with her.

https://talkbudgies.com/training-bonding/237105-using-positive-reinforcement-training.html

https://talkbudgies.com/training-bonding/265337-basics-clicker-training.html*


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## Prime (Jul 15, 2019)

I do not know the metal type but they are all prevue cages. 

Its hard for me to play with her because she just flies away after a few seconds. Sometimes training works (shes super smart) but most of the time she gets too distracted because she isnt food motivated. Ill try more though. 

Should i add something to her food? She chews on her mineral block a good amount, nothing excessive but she does chew it. Im definitely concerned about poisoning from the metal.

Oh and she is about 9 months old. The cages, i dont know how old they are. Her cage is 6 years and the others ones she likes to chew on i dont know


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## Blingy (Feb 26, 2018)

Could she be biting the bars just because she wants to get to the other birds? I’ve seen other birds bite and pull in cage bars because they either want to get out of their cage, or because they’re trying to get to the bird(s) in the cage beside them. Is she housed alone, or does she have a cage mate? 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Prime (Jul 15, 2019)

I dont think she bites to try to get to the other birds. She usually focuses on certain corners of the cage to bite that the birds dont go near very often. Theres a different type of 'look' to her when she is trying get in or out of the cage. She does that sometimes from inside her cage but not from outside.

She is housed alone and i did try letting her out with the rest of the birds too but she is very unpredictable and sometimes attacks them since theyre canaries and finches. Im waiting on a breeder to get another budgie.


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## Bugie king (Jul 19, 2019)

Same thing with my female budgie also. She also bites her cage bars.I think they must be liking to chew on those bars.....


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