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okay nibbler is starting to drive me a little crazy......... he is still doing the biting, maybe a tiny bit less

 

but now when he comes out of the cage he sits mostly on my head goodness only knows why, but then he will fly from my head to my hand and he kinda tries to get to my face well not kinda he does try to get at my face, he has some sort of fascination with my eyes, what is with that?????

 

if he is sitting on my finger and I am talkin to him he looks at my face and fly's at it, he will then land on my head, use my hair as a rope and make his way down to my eyes and my nose, maybe he thinks my nose is my beek but as for the eyes i really have no idea what he is doing

 

any help would be much appreciated

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This is normal behavior he is trying to get close to your face as he would another budgie. If you don't like it like I don't then you can use gentle correction. One way to avoid this behavior is to not let him sit on your head the higher he sits the more in control he is in his mind of the situation. That is why they say don't have the cage higher then eye level. So I would not allow him on your head this will start controlling this type of behavior. I had to do with with Merlin because he would try and scale down my head and preen my eyebrows cute for a couple days but not when you are trying to do things and it becomes an obsessive behavior.

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Juleslou .... SEND ME YER BUDGIE !

 

I WANT HIM/HER/IT ! He sounds like an awesome bird. He just wants to LOVE you. LOVE YOU LONG TIME. Just offer your finger under it's belly & encourage it to step to your finger. And off your head.

 

I was wondering though ... Are you making kissing noises & sounds & showing him a puckering mouth when he's in & out of his cage ? He just might be wanting to return them to you. On his terms. Do ya think ?

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Charley does this as well. WHen he's out he goes STRAIGHT for the top of my head.. if I take him off by getting him onto my finger (providing he's not tangled up in my hair which often happens!!!).. and I hold him in front of me he also goes straight for my face. I have to be very aware to keep my face turned away when he looks like he's going for it!! When he gets on my head I just keep taking him down and putting him back on his perch, sometimes if it annoys me enough I put him back in his cage.

 

He does love to kiss me though, when he's in his cage and i come close enough he kisses me gently so I am presuming he just wants to be close to my face when he's out so that he can kiss (sometimes he nibbles and gets a piece of lip or nose!! OUCH!).

 

And I have read previously that budgies dont like being stroked but Charley LOVES it when I stroke and tickle around his neck, head and belly. He turns his little head up and has that glazed heavenly look in his eyes. I think he just sees me as another budgie or perhaps himself as a little human.

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I had to train Milly to keep off my head - as others have said, dominant birds tend to sit higher up in the tree, so when they are above your face they feel they are in control of situations over you. In their minds they are the ones that initiate play/contact, and they are the ones that stop it - not you. It can be very nice to have a budgie kissing you and obsessing with your face, but sometimes it can be very annoying. Milly never played with my face but I intensely disliked having her on top of my head.

 

A trick I had while I was trying to keep Milly off my head was to put her on one of my hands every single time, no matter what, at about shoulder level. When it looked like she was going to go for the head again, or the face, I would put the other hand up and force her to step up onto that one, and bring it back to shoulder level. I did this again and again until she realised that the head was not a fun place to go. She settled for walking up my arms to the shoulder.

 

Milly and Squee both have a fascination with necks now, they must get onto shoulders no matter what and like to sit close to my neck as possible, I don't mind this, it makes a nice snuggly budgie scarf ^_^

Edited by Chrysocome
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thanks for the help all, makes sense, as I type nibbler and I are in the middle of fighting over my head...... hehehehe he has been sitting on my hand and ever now and then he takes of and tries to land on my head again, but I have been putting my hand in the way so he has to land on that, seems to be slowly working, for the last 5 minutes he hasn't tried to land on my head he is to busy fighting with my finger's over the keys on the keyboard.

 

maybe he will finally get the idea if I keep stopping him from landing on my head.

 

any idea's on how to encourage him onto my shoulder because he really doesn't seem that interested in it, he would much rather be on my head or hands

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If he is crazy for millet I taught Pretty to sit on my shoulder by putting a millet spray on my shoulder that encouraged him to stay there and chat :blink:, Merlin will go on my shoulder but he prefers my hands or keyboard. I won't let him on my head anymore because he used to scale down to bite or preen my eyebrows and lashes so I do what you are doing used my hand to fly him off or not let him land. They learn pretty quick. :P.

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Great hints! I too will try to teach Charley to stop using the landing strip on top of my head. I even resorted to wearing a tea towel on my head as that frightened him a little and he wouldnt land there. But I did feel kind of ridiculous walking around wearing a tea towel on my head! :blink::P:(

 

I have been taking him off with my hand each time he lands there but often we get all tangled up as he grips my hair to hang on for dear life, thus i have to peel him off, pulling him off hair by hair!!! very annoying! I'll try the discipline approach!

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this is very good advice, l'll have to remember it when l tame mine :budgiedance:

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I suppose we have to remember, we walk up to their cage & make kissing noises & interact with them, so they will try & do this with us & in our space. ie OUR FACES.

 

Which means when they are out & about you will have a budgie on yer noggin or in your face trying to kissy kissy you. I have heard ppl wear those non prescription glasses, or sunglasses so the bird could perch on that & not get so close to your eyes. You can lead him away with your hand by reaching up & removing him with your finger or hand.

 

But I agree with Elly & Cryso ... one of the best ways is to train the bird to go to your hand or finger & let him on your shoulders. Place a nice little chunk of millet there.

 

Don't leave a long strand of millet on your shoulder & letting the bird think you are a garden. It's just a training exercise to teach him or her to stay off yer noggin !

 

I'm sure the bird will get the message soon enough. When he or she gets comfy with you controlling it off your head & onto your hand & shoulders they stay there, you can invite it closer for some serious KISSIN. By then your bird has learned the boundarys.

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Thank you NickNack.. that sounds like more good advice. You're right of course. We ask for them to come close to our faces when they're in the cage (well I know I do it regularly, as soon as he sees me he comes to the side of the cage for a kissy kissy and I am more than happy to comply!!!) yet we then wonder why they feel they must get in our face when they're out. Silly humans!!

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Thanks so much everyone its really helpfull, he is slowly getting the idea my head is not a perch.

 

one more question my nibbler looks very very much like thk's maxie with a pink cere I have assumed he is a boy, am I correct?

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if he is over the age of 6 months and the cere is very pink yes I would say boy

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he is about 4 or 5 months old, his cere is very pink and when you look closely it almost has a ring of light blue around the nostrils

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I would say male then if you have a picture of your bird's cere to show us we could confirm but if you don't see any signs of tanish, whitish pink then I would say at this point most likely male.

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Hey Juleslou ...

 

Hows NIBLET doing ? Still messing your hair ? Keep us updated !

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Hey NickNack

 

Nibbler is doing well, still has a thing about my head but doesn't attempt to get there as much as he used to, still likes to bite though, dunno what to do about that.

 

but other than that he is as adorable as ever :-D

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Don't let Nibbler get to your fingers. Offer him the FLAT of your hand. Just hold your fingers together & give him the " TALK TO THE HAND " & he won't be able to chew on you. Fingers dangling around are the perfect chew toy.

 

Remember not to rear back when & if he bites. Don't say OUCH. Pretend it doesn't hurt. HE WILL STOP. If he sees your unaffected by it he will stop. My one bird I nicknamed " MANGLER " doesn't bite at all now.

 

(of course ... I had to remove his beak) Now he's called GUMMY ! JOKE JOKE ! :devil:

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NickNack :P

Aside from not reacting to being bitten by making a fuss and moving away- when I was training Squee, if she bit my finger I would push back against her. Not hard or sharply, but firmly so she got the idea that I was a bigger and stronger 'budgie'. It did hurt me the first few times but I just grit my teeth and persisted. She soon learnt that she is lower down on the heirachy and doesn't bite me hard anymore :D

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howdy,

 

I have tried ignoring the biting, I don't react when he does it, and sometimes believe me it is really hard not to react, but I have done all of that, I have even tried blowing a little on his face when he does it, (I read somewhere that is sometimes effective) but he just gets this look on his face like I'll show you, and bites me harder.

 

I think he may just be a biter and there is nothing I can do about it

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does your bird like to be misted with a spray bottle? If not this is a good way to correct if so don't do it because then it will make him not like the misting. Pretty didn't like misting so I used a squirt here and there to stop bad behavior and he got the point quickly.

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Good advice there Chryso ... yes showing your bird you are the dominant budgie is the key ... but when they are chewing & swinging on your flesh its hard to push back on its beak & keep a safe grip on the little mangler.

 

But as I said ... I like your idea & hope it works for Juleslo.

 

And Juleslou ... don't give up. Don't think that this is just a budgie that is a BITER. There is no such thing. THEY ALL BITE. That's because they are afraid & they can't reach up & punch you in the nose. Budgies got no punch packed into them little wings. Biting can be stopped. It takes time & patience ! Speaking of patients too ... like in a doctors office. Make sure you wash your hands well after you've had a bout of the chew cycle with your bird. Some aloe vera cream can help some of the sore spots your NIBBLET has given you.

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Thanks so much for the help everyone, I might try the spray bottle thing I haven't tried that yet, so will give that a go, thanks elly, not sure how well it will work though like I said before when I blow on him when he does it, it stops him for a split second and then he just looks at me as if to say "i"ll show you" and bites harder

 

NickNack I really don't think nibbler is biting me out of fear I think he just thinks of me as a chew thing, everyone for that matter, he does it to my 5yr old daughter and my husband, its almost like he is teething hahahaha

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Merlin does the same thing a lot of time I think it is hormonal or just theim as their personality. Merlin's bites are not as hard as you are describing but I bet that spray bottle will work it is more effective.

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Good luck with the little biter.

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