# Aggression and biting



## JasmineAndPearl (Nov 2, 2021)

Hi all

Context: Pearl was hand-raised by me and is well-bonded with me.

Thankfully I had been working from home and had time to bond and train Pearl. But my parents whom are “essential members of the society” had to report to work. Due to this, my parents are unfamiliar to the bird.

I tried to let them feed millet spray to the bird, included them in simple flight training. But Pearl bites them, even while feeding on the millets. If it runs out and their hands don’t move away fast enough, they get bitten. Her aggression is also observed when she is in the cage. She gets really their fingers. She doesn’t do that to me. But when my parents are near, she gets aggressive with me too.

*Pls advise me on how to tackle this problem, the cue to look out for, e.g. bird’s or humans’ body language, or direct me to a YouTube video. *

Pls share your experience if your baby turning into adult bird did this too. 

Thanks, and take care.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Budgies generally bite because they are scared, they are trying to show dominance and/or they are protecting their territory.

Take a look at the information in these links:

Why is my budgie suddenly so aggressive?
*
*Biting - A Learned and Often Avoidable Behavior*


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## JasmineAndPearl (Nov 2, 2021)

Omg my baby budgie has started her teenager phase? She’s only 11 weeks old!! Currently still allow scritches to the head. Morning training could be a bit of chore for her now. I keep my training sessions within 3 min. But now I have to break it up into flight (2 min includes chasing me) and simple tricks (target, spinning and tunneling through my hand).


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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

Not necessarily, but as she grows up she will find her own personality and her own preferences. This will combine with her "teenager phase" whenever she gets there. Positive reinforcement (i.e only reinforcing good behaviors and not acknowledging undesirable behaviors, such as biting) is the best method to teach birds since because they're so smart they often will continue to do undesirable behaviors if they know they can get attention, even if it's negative attention. The problem is your parents may not know how to work with Pearl to actively discourage her from biting without making it worse or scaring her, so it may be a long-term process to work with them and Pearl so that she's more comfortable around them. 

I think also right now because she's not familiar with them it doesn't matter to her if they're uncomfortable or not; i.e she's not seeing them as part of her flock, etc. The first step I think is to have your parents interact with Pearl without any expectations, for example sitting by her cage and talking to her, acknowledging her when they come into a room, etc. After she is more comfortable with their presence she may be more receptive to positive reinforcement and learning that her biting makes her humans uncomfortable and she shouldn't do it. Budgies are able also to understand preferences and tendencies of different people, so just because she doesn't bite you doesn't necessarily mean she applies it to everyone. 

Best of luck with little Pearl as she grows up!


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## JasmineAndPearl (Nov 2, 2021)

StarlingWings said:


> Not necessarily, but as she grows up she will find her own personality and her own preferences. This will combine with her "teenager phase" whenever she gets there. Positive reinforcement (i.e only reinforcing good behaviors and not acknowledging undesirable behaviors, such as biting) is the best method to teach birds since because they're so smart they often will continue to do undesirable behaviors if they know they can get attention, even if it's negative attention. The problem is your parents may not know how to work with Pearl to actively discourage her from biting without making it worse or scaring her, so it may be a long-term process to work with them and Pearl so that she's more comfortable around them.
> 
> I think also right now because she's not familiar with them it doesn't matter to her if they're uncomfortable or not; i.e she's not seeing them as part of her flock, etc. The first step I think is to have your parents interact with Pearl without any expectations, for example sitting by her cage and talking to her, acknowledging her when they come into a room, etc. After she is more comfortable with their presence she may be more receptive to positive reinforcement and learning that her biting makes her humans uncomfortable and she shouldn't do it. Budgies are able also to understand preferences and tendencies of different people, so just because she doesn't bite you doesn't necessarily mean she applies it to everyone.
> 
> Best of luck with little Pearl as she grows up!


Thanks for ur wise words. Appreciate much! 

Pearl now flies to them and bites their hands, even if they were just sitting nearby on their phones. 😅 She’s also willing to fly to their hands on command too. But will bite first when they offer millets.

Oh and she’s going through her first juvenile moult!


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