very suddenly aggressive bird

Pansexualpuns

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a black capped conure named theo!
hi! my black capped conure, theo, has suddenly become hyper agressive- enough so that im incapable of taking him out of his cage, in the last day or so. hes bitten me hard enough to draw blood the two times i attempted, which is very upsetting because he hasnt done so since i got him.

i got him back in February from a woman who had been lying about the care he was receiving. i have since adjusted this (pellets, millet, cuttlebone ect.) he has a long list of behavioural issues that i have been working very hard to manage- we go to a bird training school once a month! im really not sure whats suddenly spurred this on...
i did put him in his harness (that he currently does not very much like) over the weekend, but he was doing fine until today. i did start school today, but ive been away for 8 hour shifts at work over the summer. hes also very attached to my dad, and has been exhibiting the same behaviors towards him. hes roughly 9 years old, hatched 2009, not a DNA'd male. they said he was, but didnt have any paperwork on him.

is he just having a bad day? should i start cutting down how long his UVB light is on during the day as the season changes? at the moment it usually goes on at 8am and off around 8pm. he gets up at 7:30 and goes to bed at 9.

any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!
 

ChristaNL

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Japie (m) & Appie (f), both are congo african grey;
All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
No idea, sorry (I am struggling with an all of a sudden lunging and biting macaw as well)
could be something seasonal ?


New moon next saturday, so we can rule out were-parrot (as in werewolf) ;)
(I know, not much help - I hope someone else will have a brainwave about this)
 

Kiwibird

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1 BFA- Kiwi. Hatch circa 98', forever home with us Dec. 08'
Remember- this is about the time of year most parrots in the northern hemisphere begin their annual molt (which has to be uncomfortable for them and can cause them to become quite irritable) and also, they most certainly are sensitive to seasonal changes! 9 is far too old for a conure to be hitting puberty and it is just not the right time of year for hormonal behavior, though it's possible his hormones are out of whack.

I suspect though he is reacting to a change of some sort. Parrots can exhibit pretty extreme reactions to things they don't like and it doesn't necessarily have to be something huge and obviously scary to really piss them off. Has anything changed about his environment lately? A new toy in his cage or a new decor item in the room where he can see it? Have you yourself changed anything about your appearance? New hair style/color, painted your nails, wore a bold color or pattern clothing item, new glasses etc....?
 

Laurasea

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Hi, if you are forcing him into the flight suits. That's your issue right there. Judt because conures are small enough to man handle into a flight suit. It takes a great deal of positive training to get them to accept the harnesse. Plus you named several others what with going back to school and all. And Kiwibird is right I have two in moult right now. Burds can also become cage agressive. Let him gaurd his cage, let him come out in his own, then work with him away from the cage. Lots of understanding, patience. Don't take this bites so personally, there over and done with. I've gone through brief periods of biting but worked through it, to have years with no bites.youbcan do this and work past this. Doend time with your bird even if you are on opposite sides if the bars and talk connect with him. Many behaviors can improve by spending more time with the bird, eating gruop meals together really benefits them. Plenty of bath time options, can offer a bath bowl daily. Can you explain the other behavior issues?
 

Scott

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Goffins: Gabby, Abby, Squeaky, Peanut, Popcorn / Citron: Alice / Eclectus: Angel /Timneh Grey: ET / Blue Fronted Amazon: Gonzo /

RIP Gandalf and Big Bird, you are missed.
Excellent points above. May be the "perfect storm" of molting, hormonal activity, and possibly the flight suit.

What type of pellets, are fresh vegetables and fruits offered?
 
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Pansexualpuns

Pansexualpuns

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a black capped conure named theo!
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He has been molting for about... 6 months now. Before I got him he was on a seed only diet and hes been going through rounds of pins ever since i swapped him over to pellets. While he didnt like the harness, he was pretty content to be outside and, this was on the weekend. The aggressive behavior only arose yesterday.

As for other behavioral issues, there is a few. Thankfully no plucking though!! He only gets along with my dad and I, to the extent that were the only ones who can handle him- my mom has "given up" after being bit a handful of times but to be honest, I didnt expect much from her on this anyway. I believe he has something more or less similar to separation anxiety? When I leave the house or am gone from the room for too long, he screams. This isnt even about attention, because as long as he can see or hear me, hes fine. It's more extreme with my dad, to the point he cant even take a few steps away without him screaming.

I know I shouldnt take his bites personally, it's something that I need to work on myself. Obviously I dont take this out on him, nor would I ever want to. I love him to bits and I really want to help him work through everything.

As for food hes on a 50/50 mix of zupreme and tropican pellets, since he likes the zupreme more but In my opinion the tropican is a little bit better. He gets seeds as a reward, and occasionally in a foraging toy. Fruits and veggies have been difficult because he wasnt ever given veggies til now. He avoids everything green!! He does like cherries, raspberries and his absolute favourite is bell peppers. I'm currently trying to convince him to try the bukchoy I got.
 
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Laurasea

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I totally understand about taking bites personally as this is something I have to tell myself and really take the time in my head to be calm and really forgive and forget as my rescue Penny and work on trust. I never went to imply that you were doing any punishment or anything like that at all. More of the mental thing of not getting upset I think they can read our minds lol if not our body language very well. Remember they can communicate by pupil size!!! Where is the cage located? Birds flock call to each other when out of sight, it's good to answer this, nit screaming of course. But try when you first are out of sight doing your own flock call first, I say I'm still here to mine. Sounds like you are doing good on diet. Offer a bowl I use a small square caserol dish with a shallow layer of water every day for bathing. Will he let you preen those pin feathers? If not some misting will help.
 

Danigrrl39

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Momma to Mochi- Cinnamon Green Cheeked Conure. Hatched 4/18/16
And the new baby, Romeo- Hahn's Macaw. Hatched 4/26/18
I just returned from a 7 month overseas deployment, and my conure wasnt happy in the least. He pierced my lip, as well as drew blood a few times. Maybe yours is just angry, and you need to rebond. It depends on how long you had him before you went away as well. I had Mochi a good year and a half, he eats breakfast with me and i sit when i have my coffee. Ive found calmly putting him back in the cage, walking away and ignoring everything for a few tends to do an attitude adjustment, and then we can come out and play. Mochi has free fl oil ght around the house, so maybe see if that will work?
 

beetory

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Two conures, a pinapple (Booger) and a yellow sided (Darling).
I agree that you might need to work on bonding again. Like the person above one of my conures became really aggressive towards my dad after he was gone for work for about 2 months. Before then he would love being around my dad and would even let him stretch his wings himself.
 

EllenD

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If this just happened suddenly, out of nowhere, then typically that is due to a sudden change or sudden newness...From what you describe, could be the new schedule, could be the harness (is it just a harness or is it an actual flight-suit? Big difference, harnesses are fine, flight-suits not recommended at all for a number of reasons)...It could also be that his molt is finally just making him irritable. All of my birds, including my Ringneck Dove, are suddenly molting all of their feathers it seems, they are all suddenly covered with pin-feathers and my house has feathers floating around everywhere, especially the Dove, holy cow he molts! It looks like a pillow exploded! Even though he's been molting off and on for months now, that doesn't mean that he didn't just "hit the wall" with it so to speak.

Do you bath/shower him often to help with the molts/pin-feathers? If not, you might want to give that a try, one way or another, as it will not only speed-up the molt, but it will help a lot with his itching from the pin-feathers.

His diet sounds good, I personally switched to Tropican pellets and Tropimix seed-mix about 6 months ago for all of my guys, and they love it. And it was recommended by my CAV over Zupreem Natural, which is what they were on prior...If you're feeding Zupreem Natural pellets they are fine, but if you're feeding Zupreem fruit pellets, then yes, you want to try to switch from them to totally feeding the Tropican, as most-any fruit-flavored pellets are loaded with sugar, Zupreem being one of the worst. Just like feeding them fresh fruit every day, it's not good, just too much sugar, which is converted into fat and stored in their liver, just like the fat from sunflowers seeds and nuts is, no different at all. So go easy on the fresh fruit too...Try some of the different, "meatier" fresh veggies, such as different Squash, Sweet Potato, Eggplant, Okra, etc. They tend to love these even if they don't seem to like fresh greens or the more common fresh veggies like Green Beans, Pea Pods, Broccoli, Carrots, etc.

Also, as far as putting him under an artificial UVB light, you should really consider not doing so, as it's totally unnecessary and can actually be counterproductive and literally harmful to them, depending on what type of UVB bulb you're using. If it's a Coil/Spiral UVB bulb it's bad news, for any pets, including reptiles and amphibians, as they ALL emit very harmful light rays that are a byproduct of the manufacturing process, and they are well-known to cause severe eye damage, blindness, skin damage, feather shaft damage, etc. In addition, Coil/Spiral UVB bulbs, as well as Compact UVB bulbs (regular lightbulb-shaped bulbs) are extremely weak in the amount of UVB light they emit, to the point that you can put a Bearded Dragon under them for 14 hours a day and they still readily and quickly develop Metabolic Bone Disease, simply because they just don't emit enough UVB light to be beneficial in any way. So really the only recommended UVB lights for the types of creatures who actually need them/require them to survive, such as most reptiles and amphibians, are either T10 or the stronger T5 strength UVB tubes mounted inside of strip-light fixture, and usually they need to be 10.0 UVB tubes to be effective. However, birds do not at all benefit from being underneath an artificial UVB light at all, no more than human beings, dogs, cats, etc. would benefit from them. Birds do not need to sit under an artificial UVB light in order for their bodies to manufacture Vitamin D3 or to be able to digest, process, or use the Calcium that they ingest, or any other mineral or vitamin. And the fact is that sitting your bird underneath an artificial UVB light is not only pointless, but 9 times out of 10, it ends-up doing much more harm than good, especially if you're using either a Coil/Spiral or Compact UVB bulb. The only reason companies like ZooMed and Arcadia started marketing UVB bulbs for birds was for revenue, not based on any scientific research or studies saying that their are any benefits at all, which is completely backed-up by the physiology of a bird. Changing your bird's diet from being all-seeds to being a healthy fortified pellet supplemented by a healthy, non-sunflower seed, varied seed-mix, with added fresh veggies daily, and then occasionally getting him outside for some natural sunlight is going to give him everything he needs without the risks you're putting him at by putting him under an artificial UVB light.
 

Laurasea

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Amen it's moult city here too!! All five! Crankyness seems lessened by misting the birdies :)
 

noodles123

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Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
Harness+ transition could have set him off. Also, is it possible that you have been inadvertently petting him in ways that give him "the wrong idea"--- if he chose you (or your dad) as a mate and feels rejected, that is a possibility (esp if petting all over/ under wings etc). Is he getting 10-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night? It makes my cockatoo way more irritable if she is sleep deprived.
 
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GaleriaGila

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The Rickeybird, 38-year-old Patagonian Conure
Just to round out the picture... just to make sure there's nothing physically wrong...

Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.

A few thoughts on biting, in general.

I have reduced biting to almost zero over the decades... not because I've changed the bird, but I have changed me. And a lot of that has involved giving up on a lot of my desires/expectations. After years of battle, I "compromised". I don't do stuff that gets me bitten. I NEVER do stuff that makes him mad... I don't touch others when he's out; I rarely try to get him to step up onto my hand first. Hand-held perch first, then hand. In some ways, I swallow my disappointment at having such a little monster for a pet, but he is what he is. I ALWAYS wear my hair down when he's on my shoulder, so all he can bite is hair. Really, I don't involve hands much... he doesn't like them. He seems to think the real ME is my head, perched on a weird moveable tree with questionable appendages.

Since he's fully flighted, the ONLY way I get him into the cage is to toss a chile pepper in and he flaps in after it. So food reward is a necessity for me. Time-out doesn't exist in the Rb's kingdom.

I have had some success with using the "earthquake" technique for biting. When he bites, give your hand a swift shake... it should make him let go. The idea... every time he bites, a mysterious earthquake shakes him up. Some people feel this is mean and/or engenders lack of trust. The same can work for clothes biting... give your shoulder a shake, or jump! For me, it has helped.

But please... listen to and try all the good advice you'll get here.

Don't compromise until you know you've done your best. Then just accept and love whatever/whoever your bird turns out to be.


Parrots aren't always easy pets to understand and control, and your bird sounds ALL-PARROT! :)

My Rickeybird is in some ways kind of a worse-case scenario, but we have it all worked out between the two of us.

Parrot-owners usually wind up determining their own personal comfort level with various behaviors.

Good luck, and good for you for reaching out.
 
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Pansexualpuns

Pansexualpuns

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a black capped conure named theo!
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I took theo to a certified avian vet when I first acquired him, and got blood work done. I'm not stranger to bites; I work at a (very reputable and bird oriented) petstore, and have had to deal with giving an African gray medication before. It's really not so much that it hurts, just that he feels the need to. Every bird has their good and bad days, I just worry!

He gets misted regularly, or he even gets a quick shower in the sink with some warn water, which he really enjoys!! If hes really aching for a bath he even dunks himself in his water dish. Hes been a little friendly today... but not by much. I've been very careful to to do any suggesting mate wise! He only gets head scratches and currently isnt allowed on shoulders, even with his size. I want to build up a proper flock bond before shoulder training him.

I'll likely be working him off the zupreme entirely, but it's what he prefers and eats the most and I dont want to accidentally starve him!

He has a harness, not a flight suit!!! As for schedule, nothings changed other than going back to school, but that doesnt make much sense either because ive been away longer for work before. Unless he somehow knows its school?? I'm not sure. There hasnt been any major or even minor changes in the environment otherwise! I really just want to know what's happened so I can fix it. It's really frustrating that before hed let me mess around in his cage no problem, and in a day hes done a 180.

As for the comments on UVB......

I'll have to disagree with you. Heartily. Theos UVB was recommended by his vet and he has shown improvement since its introduction. There are many studies online done by reputable vets that show without proper UVB, they have color vision issues. If I'm totally wrong here I'd love for you to send me some links with proof of your claims, but for now I'd rather go with the vets recommendations.

He wont step up for me at all, and he goes for my fingers if I even get close to his cage. Hes been cage aggressive to my dad as well, but steps up for him with no issue.
I have a bird behavioral class I go to monthly tonight, so perhaps I'll get more advice there.
 

noodles123

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Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
There is is UVB controversy, but as you stated, for whatever reason, they do seem to help a lot of birds. I get that it isn't comparable to sun, but if I had to keep a bird inside over the winter, I would far prefer to do that with a bird-light (so long as it isn't too close etc--they can cause retinal burns etc if too close, but they need to be close enough to make an impact). My bird likes her weird, full-spectrum "craft light". Even when she gets exposure to natural sun, she still tends to sit under her light when on her cage---It isn't warmth related either, because she does it when it is like 78 degrees in here....and mine isn't even a legit bird light--just full-spectrum (AKA, NOT UVB)....There are some anti-lighting articles that question their validity (one is from WindyCityParrot---- it isn't the best, but it comes off that way)- https://www.windycityparrot.com/blog/2015/08/06/birds-full-spectrum-lighting-got-wrong/
another- https://www.windycityparrot.com/blog/2017/10/14/6832/
(Maybe it isn't vitamin D that is responsible for the mood improvements etc...but something else?)


Another forum discussing the controversy: https://theparrotclub.co.uk/community/index.php?threads/confusion-avian-uv-lighting-how-long.26118/




I have known too many birds who improved feather and mood issues when lighting was adjusted electronically.
 
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Pansexualpuns

Pansexualpuns

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i thought id update you all!

we've decided that hes likely trying to bond with me. hes been okay with stepping up and is significantly less aggressive when its just him and i in the room. however when its my dad and i in the room he wont have any of it; he puffs up, leans forward and hunches his wings, and becomes incredibly cage aggressive, worse than hes ever been before.

yes its the wrong time of year for hormones, but most of his natural cycles are out of wack, so its not terribly difficult to believe this one is as well. i wont be encouraging this as i want him to be a flock bird, not bonded to me! ill be cutting back his daytime hours to give him more sleep, along with changing up his food and more regularly rearranging his cage and rotating toys to keep him busy.

if anyone else has any advice on dealing with it, im more than happy to listen!! as well as how to make my dad stop calling my bird horny, hahah.
 

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