The new Shriek-Strike combo, courtesy of Shiko

There's a lot of things Shiko does that quite frankly make little sense to me... like almost drowning himself in baths, his random engine starting sounds, and his odd obsession with both my eye lashes and teeth. But this one has me floored - his new "Shriek-Strike" attack (patent pending).

What happens is random in my eyes. There's no warning behaviour, no "upset" fluff he gives me if I scold him, no obvious pinning of the eyes, no body language I can immediately interpret whatsoever. He essentially lets out a shriek and then bites. Never hard enough to draw blood but like I've mentioned in a previous thread, the bites are getting deeper and harder. It happens during recall training, if I'm taking him out of his cage, if he's stepping up... basically any time he has to go onto my hand. I don't wear nail polish, I haven't changed the way I ask him to come to my hand, nothing I've been doing has changed. And it really does just happen randomly and ONLY with me. The shriek doesn't even sound angry or scared... almost offended, really. It's not a warning call, or a "I'm going to get sooo mad at you!" scream. It's just a really high pitched, quick shriek.

The only things I can come up with is hormones (though he is turning 1 in three weeks, I still feel like it's too early?) or jealousy over me handling Avery (either towards Avery's interactions with me or vice versa). But once again, the shriek-strike combo doesn't depend upon me handling Avery. And it's ALWAYS a shriek and then a strike. Unfortunately I can't react fast enough to prevent the bite because he strikes so quickly.

Any insight or suggestions? He's such a sweet heart... we just spent 30 minutes cuddling and when I recalled him when he landed on Avery's cage, he did his shriek-strike. I really don't want to keep having a negative reaction to behaviours I'm trying to positively reinforce

Does anyone have any thoughts... ?

The first thought that comes to mind is that this might be something physical . Does he normally do this during or just after step up? Almost sounds like someone who gets a sudden cramp when lifting a leg for example, then associating the "cramp" with you. A feather that pinches when stepping up....just running down some ideas. The sudden shriek just makes me think that this is something that suddenly bothers him and then following it up with a displacement bite....

I think if it was jealousy he might display some sort of displeasure before actually stepping up.

Just a thought but see if there is any constant when this happens maybe?

Oh, I think maybe I know what you mean, Leonard does something like this, too. It's not loud or particularly angry sounding, it's sort of a weird thin shriek that is hard to describe.

I'm not really sure what it's about, although it seems somewhat attention-seeking, in Leonard's case. He does it most frequently if I'm laying in bed reading or at my computer ignoring him while he sits on my arm or leg. The bite never hurts, and usually is aimed at clothing rather than skin. SHRIEKBITE usually gets followed by me saying OH NO, EARTHQUAKE and shaking whatever body part he's sitting on, then another SHRIEKBITE, and another earthquake.

Ronel, I was also wondering if it was physical. Almost like he flies into me too fast and hits his keel or legs when he lands. But I can't understand the step-up one, because he never does it to my boyfriend who handles him only slightly less than I do. I'll have to do a slight touch test with him. He and Avery have their check up appointment booked for the end of this month, so maybe he has a bruised leg or keel?

And hmm, that might be it too, Starry. I'm glad that Shiko's behaviour isn't exceptionally odd within itself. I'm going to have to just experiment and see if it's an attention thing or a physical thing. I already tried to see if it was me specifically by having my boyfriend recall train him the same length I do and also having Shiko step up onto his hand while in the cage (sometimes immediately after he does this to me), but it's specifically targeted at me.

It's still a really odd behaviour to me because he's not doing it out of anger or distrust. Sometimes I wish I could just morph into a bird so I could ask him myself

ringnecks are funny animals, so his reasons for the behavior may well be different from Leonard's, I never actually tried to figure out what Leonard's real intent was, to be honest, and now it's just become a game for us.

He does this with my mom, too, but he thinks she's his girlfriend and apparently he usually pinches at her skin when he does it, so I think there is a different thing happening there. Possibly still attention seeking at it's root, but with other girlfriend-related motivations

Or maybe he's just telling her that she's playing EARTHQUAKE! wrong lol

Good luck figuring it out!

One thing that comes to mind is excitement overload. Before Bixby got sick, he would sometimes get VERY excited when flying to me... particularly if he was exerting himself. Like after several flights and he was getting tired?

Whenever he'd get to that point, he used to get really over excited and would sometimes even nip me. Like he was about to explode with how much fun he was having and didn't know what else to do with his beak! Lol!

Anyhow, I made it clear every time that nipping was unacceptable, whether by just telling him no and putting a finger to his beak (in a "shhh" gesture. He understands that to mean what he did wasn't cool), or using the wobble technique. Eventually he understood that he had to control himself.

But I also like Ronel's take as well. Though why only with you? Maybe those dainty hands are far stronger than they look? Hahaha!