Mommy took a cool picture of me biting my swing in my cage. As Mommy explains, and explains, and explains!, over and over again, it's OK to bite my toys. It's NOT OK to bite Mommy!

During the 5+ years that I've lived with Mommy, I've heard it at least 3 times a day. NO BITING! That means that Mommy has uttered (screamed) those words that I've come to adore, and find repeating them equally amusing, approximately 5,475 times (Mommy used the calculator for that one).


Those words are so ingrained in my tiny bird brain, that I really do know what biting is. Part of my daily routine includes chewing, ripping, tearing, and naturally destroying the end of the large rope that extends from one side of my cage to the other. As I typically become quite agitated during these sessions, I begin yelling at myself (as Mommy normally would), "NO BITING! NO BITING!"


Mommy thinks it's cute that I know when I'm biting and choose to tell myself to stop. What she doesn't find cute is the fact that I continue to bite her.


Well, Mommy was visiting birdtricks.com the other day, and clicked on the Parrot Biting link under Pet Bird Tips. Now these guys are experts compared to Mommy. They've been handling parrots and all sorts of pet birds for many, many years, and have developed some awesome videos to help bird owners with training, behavioral problems (Mommy says that's what my biting is), and talking.


So what do these experts have to say about my biting?


"To stop a parrot from biting you need to make sure you are not having a loud reaction when the biting is taking place. If it hurts, you need to release yourself gently and go into another room to deal with the pain or anger the incident may have caused. Otherwise, you will reinforce the biting."


"huh huh huh huh huh" (That's me, Lucy bird, laughing out loud!)


"Not having a loud reaction!" What a scream! (no pun intended) Mommy's been reinforcing my biting for 5 long years! She must feel like a dodo birdy!


Well, I guess I laughed too soon. Mommy liked the free tip so much that she's going to purchase one of their training videos in an attempt to get those words NO BITING (said in a soft and gentle voice ;) to really mean NO BITING!


After Mommy receives the course, I'll be posting about our first training session! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Can't wait to start training Mommy!