mean lovebird, mabye a killer..

[lubinski]

its a story so u get the jist of things.

bought a lovebird a year or two ago. they said i had to take it out everyday and pet it and stuff. so i did. but it allways bites me. then some circumstances came along and we had to give it to a family member for quite a while. they have it now and its still a mean bird. it will bite u and draw blood. it acutally means to bite u hard. now the circumstances changed and i would like to get it back and make it a nice bird like i was trying to before. but how do i get a mean lil bird that im afraid of to be nice lol. it hurts when it bites and i wear a leather work glove to take it out and stuff. but when its biting the glove i can pet its back and sometimes his head but then when hes done w/ the glove he latches onto my hand. i dont want to sit there and have it bite my hand for it not to be afraid anymore. any suggestions? thx.

[lovechick]

You have to get to the heart of the problem. Start with the beggining, where did you get the bird? was the bird abused in the first home?
It can be hard to earn birds trust and some never really become all that time. Like the story of my female lovebird Pettie that I rescued from an abusive and negligent family. The bird was kept in a small parakeet size cage with a poor diet of wild bird seed mix(sunflower seeds and proso). The bird was also very agressive and plucking her feathers bad and had a huge wound from the biting on her back. So of course I could not say no, they were getting rid of the bird. I took her in, moved to a larger cage , put her on a healthy diet and took her to vets. Shes now happy and almost 100% recovered, her back is now covered in new shiny feathers. But(yes theres always a but), shes still mean and likes to scream. She will attack my hands( only) because she associates hands with bad stuff like handling and giving medicine. The reason why shes like that, it because shes very broody and her hormones are raging during breeding season so she will attack anything or anyone that she perceives as an intruder.
Is your bird a female?
You have to eliminate the obvious things,
How big is the cage? where is it located? Who has access to the bird? What is the birds diet? how much time is it let out of the cage every day? What is the interaction process? Does the bird have plenty of chew toys in the cage? What is the history of the bird?

Lovebirds are very active small parrots, they need a lot of crawling space, and they love chewing and shreding stuff. They need a varied diet that should consist of commercial pellet(about 95% of all food)- I reccommend harrisons(www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com) or roudybush. The rest should be made up of fruits, veggies, healthy treats like cooked diets-small pasta, rice, cooked veggies, millet spray, sprouting seeds, etc. Seeds should only be given at a treat 1-2 times a week just a tad bit(which is also a great way to start a new training routine with a bird). The cage has to be located in a draft free enviroment away from kitchen and bathroom fumes and toxic plants. Also away from all the noise and clutter like kids and other loud pets. Birds are extremely sensitive animals and they stress out easily. The bird should have plenty of outside cage time( at least an hour), maybe you can get a playgym for him.
I strongly reccomend finding a good avian vet and doing a check up and maybe some blood tests and maybe even seeing animal behaviorist.
I also reccomend this website:

http://www.petmedicinechest.com/avian/Default.asp

and get some brobac adult, systemajuv and calm or aiety supplement, great stuff.
Hope this gives you some idea.

[lubinski]

thx u, ill look at some of the links and post againl laters if i got any problems.