My parakeet is biting

Question
I got a parakeet a couple years ago.  It turned out to be a girl and she was very sweet, I taught her tricks and she was very friendly.  Then, literally overnight, she became very untrusting and unfriendly.  I figured something had scared her during the night so I gave her her space, but it just kept getting worse.  She was biting even more and she wouldn't respond to any of my commands or perch on my finger.  Then we moved temporarily (for a couple months) and nothing changed.  I've decided to try again.  My questions are what happened to make her like this and what should I do to fix it?  Thanks for your help!

-Angela

Answer
Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is relatively common.  Female budgies are almost always a bit more aggressive, and these sort of mood swings sometimes happen.  The good news is, they often go away just as soon as they appear.

One thing you can try is wrapping your finger in a band-aid when you try to get her on your finger.  If she tries to bite, but it doesn't do any good, she might give up.  That's what worked with my biter.  Best of all, it doesn't punish or hurt her, so it won't make the problem worse or make her even more hostile.

You can also try hand feeding her treats.  That way, she might learn to trust you again.

One possible explanation is stress.  The recent moving probably didn't help with that.  Once she feels a bit more secure, these problems should go away.

Keep me posted!
-Leah