Misbehaving-territorial over laptop keyboard and biting

[shiraartain]

As a college student, I get most of my work done on my laptop. I'd say i spend 50% of the time I play with Fajr not on the laptop (mornings-a few hours together) and the other 50% on the laptop (the time I'm spending with him in parts throughout the day).

He likes to pull out the keys. I can deal with that and keep typing. But if I try to, he will attack and bite my fingers. In some cases he will attack until i pull my fingers away and then climb up to my shoulder and go for my face. If I take the key away from him and put it back in he will bite my hands again. Rather than being angry at the laptop, he's angry with me for daring to go near it.

I had two theories.
1. he wants me to pay attention to him, and not the laptop.
2. he's trying to tell me he's hungry

I tried playing with him, but if the laptop is nearby he will ignore everything and go for the keys. If I open it while he is eating he'll go for it, abandoning his food/sometimes bringing a mouthful with him. I tried providing distractions for him-everything from toys to providing him with a rose branch to chew (Not sure if I ever mentioned this, but at one point in the summer my dad cut a large branch into sections and I baked them all for him (Thank you Wolf!).)

He's strong enough now that his bites can draw blood. I haven't experienced this yet, but he hates my youngest sisters now and bit one's nail to the point of drawing blood (this, I think, is jealousy. He sees us all hug and spoil them all the time. They cry afterwards, more from the emotional hurt of Fajr disliking them than the physical pain.)

I am now firmly telling him "No biting". Sometimes he listens, and other times he just becomes angrier. I point my finger at him when I say that, do you think it makes a difference?

Also, I think he likes the keys because they're biscuit-like in a way? I'm thinking of taking vegetables and cooking brown rice, then pureeing and baking it all to make biscuits. I'm also thinking of "slicing" one of the rose branches so there will be little circles for him to walk around with and chew on instead of keys.

My last-ditch alternative is Granny Smith Apple Spray to just avert him from the keyboard altogether, but I am averse to that as rather than developing our relationship and understanding/taming, it will just be forcing him into doing what I want.

His lifestyle is still the same as I have stated in previous posts.

[Wolf]

I do tell my birds "No Bite" but have never pointed my finger at one of them for this. My only reasoning is that I never liked it when someone shoved a finger in my face and I considered it to be a threat, as a result I think that the bird may see it as a threat and even if they don't retaliate at the time it might make them hand or finger shy. Since I don't do this I have no evidence to support my reasoning.
I think that both of your theories about why your bird acts around your laptop are wrong. I understand that I could also be wrong but I think that Fajr has claimed your laptop as his toy and is not interested in sharing it with you, and because of this I would not let him play with it anymore or I would find an old keyboard from a desktop at a second hand store and clean it up for him to play with instead of my laptop.

[shiraartain]

@Wolf, you're probably right....He does have his own toys but seems uninterested in them for the most part. Still working on figuring out what to amuse him with. He's more big on personal attention. The other day he was very hyper as I was leaving for school (literally hopping every third step!) and my mom mentioned putting him in the cage while she got work done as she was worried he would interfere with everything. I told her to play with him with no other distractions for 30 min and he'd probably calm down by the end of the session and be calm while she worked. She later told me I had been right and he had been very happy to receive all of her attention . We did play peek-a-boo with him once, but it was a random situation where communication worked perfectly between us and him.

(sorry, I tend to ramble whenever I get the chance to come on here and talk about Fajr. My friends listen to me but unless they're also bird people, they tire out after one or two stories haha. At uni i'm known as the girl with a bird among acquaintances.)

ANYWAYS, I lost my "Fn" key to Fajr . I have been doing my best to keep him away from the keyboard, he is definitely not interested in sharing it if he indeed considers it a toy. If I need to use it and he starts going after the keys, I find a family member to play with him instead. He's pretty reluctant to leave me though, since I'm his favorite at the moment.

He doesn't listen to the "No Bite" unless I point my finger at him. What I realized is that I accidentally conditioned him to react to me saying "SHH!" as a warning call. I was saying it whenever I wanted him to stop doing whatever he was doing and would usually carry him away. It was just a part of my speech habits, I was saying it to catch his attention. It's something I say in multiple situations though, so today I said it when I dropped something and he flew across the couch, immediately alert. If I do it in regards to the keyboard though, he'll stop for one second and then go back to it and ignore me

TLDR; the situation is a bit better, but he still likes the keyboard.

[Wolf]

It appears to be pretty common among parrots to become fascinated with keyboards. Most of them just want to play with it, but many of them claim it as their very own special toy. In this situation I would consider getting a used keyboard from a desk top computer or a non working laptop for him to play with.

[Lizz]

Good one Wolf.

You should look for the thread: What has your parrot destroyed. They even posted pictures of keyboards.

He wants to play with it because it is your favorite toy.

[shiraartain]

I did try the method of providing him with another keyboard but his key removal didn't stop at just taking them off the board, he was breaking them afterwards . Sharp pointy edges everywhere and he was rotating them in his mouth. I was afraid he would either cut himself or us, by running around with them and dropping them on the floor so I stopped.

@Lizz, I will check it out, sounds like a riot haha

[Pajarita]

My keyboard looks like it has been to war and lost. I have a number of keys missing so I type on the little knobby thingies that are under them and, sometimes, I have to hit the same 'key' several times to make it work But Zoey stopped playing with it some time ago - took almost two years though (this is the second keyboard she has destroyed). I would just make her move away by very gently pushing her back with the side of my left hand (she is only allowed to stand on my left) so she would get off it as soon as I would see her taking the first step to 'climb' on it and told her "No, that's not yours" (this is the same command I use for the dogs when they are trying to get something they shouldn't) - of course, this had to be repeated many times one after the other and day after day but she did learn to leave it alone (she is now perching right next to it on my left, dozing off as I type).

[Wolf]

I did try the method of providing him with another keyboard but his key removal didn't stop at just taking them off the board, he was breaking them afterwards . Sharp pointy edges everywhere and he was rotating them in his mouth. I was afraid he would either cut himself or us, by running around with them and dropping them on the floor so I stopped.

@Lizz, I will check it out, sounds like a riot haha

So toss the removed keys out or save them as replacement keys for your keyboard, I would be willing to wager that the bird will still play with the keyboard even without the keys. I would also do as Pajarita has described in her reply.

[Lizz]

Some one put a little battery operated Easter chick in my mother's Easter basket. When turned on it chirped and jumped. It drew every critter in the house. If you put something like that on the corner of your desk it might help.
I have a sheet draped from the top of my desk to the drawers and only uncover the keyboard and screen because Myrtle tries to destroy everything there. She can strip an ink pen or lighter in about 15 seconds. A pencil in half that time.

[LightFlashA]

My Senegal did the exact same thing!! When I used to use my laptop a lot, I could not allow her near me in order for me to use it affectively. She would climb down and either pick the keys off or pick a spot and curl up and go to sleep. If I tried to remove her she would bite. I found an old keyboard and presented it to her, put her on it and everything, but that was garbage compared to my keyboard. I had no idea why.

I swear, parrots just only take interest in things that bother you hahaha!