Make The Biting Stop!!!!!!!

[Sora]

My lovebird griffin is about 9.5 weeks old. I've had him for about 3.5 weeks. So for the first 2 weeks he was all mr. cuddle monkey(lol) and wouldn't dream of biting me. Now in the last 1.5 weeks he's all mr. vicious attack bird. He bites my ears, chin, eyebrow, neck, fingers, nose basically anywhere you can get an earing. My mom won't come near him only me and my friend leanna and sometimes michelle are able to cuddle with him but as a result we suffer a lot of pain. Is it like because he refuses veggies? has he had this mood swing do to lack of vitamins? Should i buy water vitamins and try to see if he'll eat pellets? Also he's kinda odd he won't sleep unless his happy hut is on the GROUND! Is this a rebellion thing cuz i took him away from his siblings? Should i get another bird?! AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! I don't know what to do. The pet store guy said all he needed to eat was seeds and millet and i'm kind of thinking to myself thats not HEALTHY AT ALL! So i need your guys' help cuz the petstore guy is suppose to be really good w/ birds and is really well known around where i live. but he's like contidicting everything i researched before getting griffin! HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PLEASE!
~Sora~

[Nhima]

Lovebirds are actually well-known to be "nippers", so it's extremely important that you establish your position in the flock, and that he knows his boundaries. During the first two weeks that he was with you he was probably unsure of his new surroundings, meaning he was quieter and less active in general than a normal lovebird. Now that he is used to his surroundings he is testing his limits and testing you.

Are you training him? He should be learning the step up and step down commands and you should be rewarding him positively when he does either command. It is extremely important for him to learn these commands if you want him to be tame. You should NOT let him on your shoulders or head as he will think that he is your "superior" due to his position. For that same reason you should not let him near your face.

It's unlikely that he has any sort of vitamin deficiency. Liquid vitamins (that go in water or are dropped on food) should NEVER be used as they can cause huge amounts of bacteria to accumulate within the water. It's not uncommon that he is not eating vegetables yet. Being that he is so young he's probably stubborn and afraid to try new foods. He should already be on a mix of pellets and seeds. You'll have to introduce new foods into his diet, slowly. I'm leery of the advice the "pet-store guy" told you. Millet and seeds alone are definitely not all that a healthy lovebird should be eating; I'd take his advice with a grain of salt.

When Griffin bites you it's important that you take action. Do not let him continue to bite you and never hit or yell at him. Three good ways to let your bird know biting isn't okay:
1. Use the wobble trick: When he bites you, slightly wobble the hand that he is perched on, don't try and make him fall, just enough so that he stops biting. When he does stop biting, praise him.
2. Put him down. Some birds love human attention and soon realize that biting a human means not being able to be near the object of their affection.
3. Distract him. Have a toy nearby and try to distract his attention to it. When he begins to play with the toy, praise him.

As you can see all of these methods use positive reinforcement, the only way that a bird will understand that biting is wrong. I'll leave you with some further sites, one that deals with biting and another about lovebird nutrition.

http://www.pethealthcare.net/html/body_feeding_a_lovebird.html

http://budgies-n-tiels.com/contents/

Good luck!

Nhima