Oh gosh, I am not sure about this. I know my sun conure loves to nibble on my hands as well. I wouldn't think that just the plain skin would hurt him, but I would be concerned if you were to have some kind of lotion or medicine. I would just make sure that I really washed my hands well before handling Milo and if you can, try and distract him from your skin. Keep a circle of beads or some other birdie toy and when he goes to nibble, show him them. This way you can distract.

Let me know how all this goes and hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come on with some help.


I am owned by:
Benjamin Aiden: Chocolate Lab
Ming Mia: Pekingese
Sunny: Sun Conure
Skye: American Budgie

Hi Nicola,
These birds. Meet strange, then stranger.

Dido on making sure you have no medications or lotions on.
If you were to call a good Avian vet, or the first time you go
in for a routine visit, ask. I'm sure he'll survive until then.
I also have a BC, but he doesn't show this behavior, but now
my Cockatiel!! She loves the bottoms of my feet. I prepare her
lunch very hygenically. The bottoms of my feet are naturally calloused, and the skin is very thick. I swear, if I left them, I would grow
hooves in a couple weeks. I scrub my feet meticulously, and usually I'll find a crack that I can take the soap stone too, and rubbing and scrubbing carefully and throughly, I can usually coax a perfectly
sized Cockatiel filet of --ugg--

remove a smal Cockatiel portion just for her. She gets all excited,
awaiting this meal, and I have a hard time keeping her away.
She works up quite an appitite awaiting her meal,of me.
There is no blood, the bottoms of my feet are that thick, right on
the heel. And I can always remove a small piece. I let it dry out
and it becomes like raw hide. She munches away on it like a potatoe
chip. At first I couldn't believe she was actually eating it, I though just tearing it up, so I watched with a magnifying glass, and
was shocked to find out she was eating --ME--. Like you, I found out
by accident, birds, they love to remove things, round them off, what ever.
But with excema, isn't that just a condition of really dry skin?
It's not a virus, or bacteria, so I would think neither of you will
get sick. Be careful he doesn't really get to digging though, a little
blood won't stop the fun if he really gets going.
I always think of how much dogs love
raw hide bones, which is really just the cow's thick leather skin.
Please, I'm just telling a story, my wierd little bird and I just
evolved into this cannibalism, it's not a daily, or even weekly
event. It just happened. I hope there is some nutritional value
for her, as all she will eat is a seed diet. I think alot of birds
take a nip of skin now and then, but they can really start digging
and cause infections, etc. If they draw blood it can get dangerous.

P.S. if anyone else has very thick callouses on your feet, be sure
to be very careful with that. If you develope cracks down to the
blood line, you can unknownly develope an infection that can get into
your blood and it will travel, causing a staf infection just about
anywhere it wants, but usually in your backbone, and you become
lunch again, for the staf bacteria. Only it can be very painful, crippling and life threatening, developing into spinal ostemolitis. In India, 15% of all people that come in complaining of lower back pain, this is what they have, a staf infection that started from
innocent looking cracks in their feet, or a bug bite that becomes
infected.
So Good night Nicola, we had a health lesson and a Story!! (I swear,
it's true.) Jeanie

Your Bird is preening your hands for you. If you watch you might find the bird is actually spitting the skin out after pulling it off. If he does happen to be eating it, it should not hurt him as long as you wash your hand throughly with mild soap and water before handling them. My macaws are constantly checking my hands and arms to make sure I am in peak condition. It is a natural behavior in the wild among birds and as pets we take the place of there mates and so they feel the need to care for us.