I've been finger training my keet Damien and he has gotten to where he will perch on my finger when I say 'up' (and I even let him out of the cage and he comes back) but he bites my fingertips when he does it, not enough to hurt really, it's sort of like he is trying to eat the dead skin around my nails, is there a reason he is doing this? I would hate for me to be scaring him in some way and not knowing it.

Thank You!
Nicole

I have no idea what to do in that way.

But maybe he likes to chew on things so get make him...

http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/toymake/index.html

yummy chewy things there.

bye

as for chewing fingers, thats a sign of affection and that he really likes you. sky does it all the time

Thanks for helping me guys, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't scaring him.

Yup my keets nibble on my fingers a lot, they like to chew. Give them lots of chewing toys. But that is much different than *biting* which is a defensive thing.

Mine do that too when they're on my hand. They haven't perched yet. They just crawl all over my hand when it's in the cage and nibble. It's gotten to kinda hurt too.

You shouldn't let them get to the point of hurting you - keets are like puppies or toddlers, it's up to you to set the limits of behavior. Otherwise they don't really know that they're doing something wrong

Thanks for explaining, Lisa.

One of my birds is so fidgety but he comes to me when he's in the mood. And he always nibbles my hand - its adorable.

My other bird loves playing by biting me - she's like her mom. She plays aggressively, and she's so playful. And she flies to my hand when I say, "Heidi come." But now she's nesting and has been spending most of her time just sitting in the nest box.

And my other parakeet acts like a finch - he's so leight, and he practically has a heart attack when I put my hand by him. He occasionally comes, but flies away a few seconds later.

And my other parakeet is 10 years old and doesn't do much anymore...