Cockatoo bite

A parrot’s beak is an amazing instrument meant to be used to find the tasty and nutritious nuts inside extremely tough shells. It is a tool for climbing, preening, and protection. The force that a beak can exhibit to crack open these nuts is impressive.

Captivity isn’t natural, and a parrot that bites its owner is not a “bad bird”, it is merely using the only tool it has to react to this unnatural environment.

Unfortunately, when parrot beak and human flesh meet, the beak always wins.

For companion parrot guardians:

Biting and ABA – An article by Bev Penny, Living With Parrots, that discusses how using ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) can help you learn to work with a companion parrot that bites. Bev writes,

“… biting is a learned behaviour. The people who accept this behaviour from their birds is actually doing their bird a disservice. Isn’t it much better to learn how to prevent your bird from biting in the first place?…ABA teaches you how to become the best avian caregiver you can be. Then you can teach other caregivers, and they can teach other caregivers and we can help parrots keep their homes.”