Hormones or Territorial? Or Both?

Hi all! Cairo is 16 months old, and I'm expecting him to start getting hormonal anytime soon since he's growing up He's been with us for over a month now - he warmed up surprisingly fast. First week, he really didn't want to engage or step up, then next following weeks, he started preening us and trying all sorts of tricks, even got him harness trained! He's a sweet boy who would rather fly away from strangers than attack them (and we make sure to protect him from touchy strangers but also encourage him to accept treats from the ones who adhere to his personal space).

His current setup is almost free reign of our room. His common/preferred areas are:

- His cage.
He goes into his cage for sleep, for mealtime, for when both of us aren't home (rarely, maybe twice a week for a couple of hours), and for when my partner is busy freelance/working (a couple of hours each weekday). He's ok with me touching his cage (I clean it regularly and update his toys when he shreds them beyond safety), so long as he's not on, or in, the cage. If he's on his cage, he would growl and motion to bite me, so I learned to make sure he's away from his cage before I start moving things around. He's ok if I'm adjusting his food or water while he's there, but anything else is not really acceptable for him. But he's perfectly fine with me adjusting things when he's on my shoulder, observing; just not while he's on/in the cage.

- A covered standing table.
He likes this for the height and viewability, since he can see both my partner, myself, and outside the window. He likes to try to find things to bite there, but it's completely covered so he can't access any wires. He's starting to growl and act as if he wants to bite when we shift the cover and he's on the flat surface, but he doesn't mind us interacting with the space or him if he's perched up on the monitor. We don't feed him here at all.

- A nightstand converted into playstand (our current place doesn't have a lot of space, but we're moving at the end of this year).
Here, he has his toys (that aren't inside his cage). We have basic foraging toys there as well. In addition, when he gets the odd coconut, he eats/plays with it there. This is the sore spot for him (and us). When we try to return a toy that he's dropped or push a coconut that is about to fall off, he will lunge to bite. He doesn't draw blood on me, but he did on my partner once. In fact, since the nightstand is next to our bed, he will march across the table and onto the bed to hunt down my partner, who adjusted the coconut before it could fall off.

Now, I can see it two ways:
1. We are kinda encroaching on his territory. He feels like that is HIS space, HIS room, HIS toys, HIS food areas; and tbh, if someone came into my room and adjusted it, I'd be pissed too.
2. We're a flock and need to share this space. Biting hard is not socially cool in our flock.

Now this little guy is normally very polite and kind. He would gently tell you he didn't like something with a bite that wasn't a nibble but wasn't hard or painful in any way, and sometimes he still gently conveys his point. I started observing what would upset him and work around it (e.g., he doesn't like tissues being used on the same perch as him, so I'd get him to step up or go somewhere else before I used a tissue on that place - this method still works as he doesn't respond to the tissue when it's in a different space from him).

Our current response to his aggressive biting/lunging is to tell him, "no bite," and put him back in his cage for a few minutes. I had thought that creating multiple food areas would prevent him from becoming too territorial over one space, but the nightstand is getting a bit tricky if he's in a bitey mood or remotely close to bitey. And during his bitey moods, he'll even start attacking his toys and perch - not for an extended period of time, but for a few minutes during which we try to give him a wide berth to calm down. I mean, even when I get into a disagreement with people, I need time to calm down, so I can understand his moodiness. We just are struggling with his sudden switches that occur when he's in select places. He'll go from happily tossing toys around and accepting them back from me, to territorial about me giving him back a fallen toy.

So what's your take? Are we interpreting something wrong? Is this his teenage/hormonal phase? How should we handle this - adjust him, adjust ourselves, and how much from both sides? Does he need more toys, more food areas, etc?

New development - he's doing angry beak clicking sounds now when we put him in his cage.

He's fully flighted - should we just ignore him instead of putting him in his cage?

Or should we completely remove the nightstand?

What do you mean by angry beak clicking? Sounds like you’re referring to beak grinding, which is actually a positive “I’m content” sign.

Yes, I’d do away with the nightstand. You have enough spots that if one is troublesome just do away with it. You need a portable stand for the bedroom that he can’t get off of, for your partners sake.

chris-md said:

What do you mean by angry beak clicking? Sounds like you’re referring to beak grinding, which is actually a positive “I’m content” sign.

Yes, I’d do away with the nightstand. You have enough spots that if one is troublesome just do away with it. You need a portable stand for the bedroom that he can’t get off of, for your partners sake.

Click to expand...

Phew! Thanks for much for responding, Chris! I always know that I can trust your judgement.

I know his happy beak grinding - he always does that while on our shoulders or sleeping. But this was him pissed and a very loud snapping sound from his beak. A friend of ours mentioned his grey did that sound before attacking someone.

We'll move the stand out of the room for now then. Do you think we might be able to reintroduce it at some point? As a proper nightstand instead of playstand?

And do you think this is just him being hormonal or are we doing something wrong? He's our first bird for both of us, so we're fully aware we might be unknowingly making mistakes.

This sounds very much like him being territorial, which is not at all uncommon when it comes to their cage, especially in a bird that is so new to the home...Even if you are earning his trust and he's been very friendly to you during his first month in your home, it's still a new place with new people, and that cage is his "Safe Space", so whenever anyone invades that safe-space, his space, he's becoming very territorial about it...Could hormones influence his territoriality and make it a bit more fierce? Sure, but I don't think that hormones have much to do with this, as cage territoriality is common among all birds, hormonal or not.

Cage territoriality is also an "individual bird" thing too, in that some birds are very territorial, some aren't, and some are crazy nuts about it. And even birds who aren't new, who have been with the same owners in the same house since they were hand-raised babies can still be extremely territorial about their cages, stands, toys, etc. (cages seem to usually be the place that they get the most upset about). My 3 year-old Quaker, who I brought home as an 11 week-old hand-raised baby and who is the most loving, cuddly little ball of blue fluff any other time, will still nip at me every time I put my hands inside of her cage to change her water, give her food, put in a new toys, etc. Any other place or time I can hold her, squeeze her, snuggle her, scratch her, I can touch her anywhere and she doesn't mind, she flies to me when I call her, and I can play with her and her toys OUTSIDE of her cage...But, the second my hands go inside of her cage, all bets are off. She's really my only bird that is like that, my Green Cheek and my Cockatiel could care less, and my Senegal is a bit territorial in that he'll sometimes give me a little "growl" (yes, Senegal Parrots growl, just like a dog, lol), but he has never even nipped at me...But my Quaker has made it well-known that if my hands go inside her cage, she is not going to be happy. I've tried target-training, I've tried rewarding her with her favorite treats when she steps-up onto my finger from inside her cage, I've tried everything, and she's the sweetest bird in the world otherwise, but she just doesn't want anyone inside her cage!

Hi folks, I also posted in the conure section, but I have a similar issue which may be territoriality and/or hormonal nesting behavior??? Would love help/suggestions!

We are new sun conure owners. We love Pickles parrot, (s)he's a red factor. Pickle-pepper is a goofy, affectionate, active little bird of about 3.5 months. She has no issues with hands in her cage, and she isn't showing any territoriality except for the location of her couch cushion/pillow/cave.

I read online that they start looking for mates at around 4 months. We got "him" recently - no DNA test, the seller said "probably a male." Well...I've been doing research online and Pickles' behavior seems like a horny young female trying to nest. (S)he is super friendly with my husband and father-in-law but bonded most strongly to me. She started playing in the couch cushions and it was so cute we let her, but my husband thinks she is possibly vent-rubbing the pillows and trying to nest. My husband said he saw her trying to vomit for the pillow and she tried to vomit for me once too. She will put her butt in my face and raise her tail up and down, and flap her wings at me when we are cuddling. I made the mistake of letting her nibble on my teeth every day and I have fed her warmish food from my hand regularly mimicking regurgitation. We also made the mistake of petting her on her wings too, now she only gets head scratches. We don't want to encourage hormonal egg laying behavior.

When we mess with her couch-pillow-cave she will lunge and bite us. We took her pillows away from the couch since she was getting pillow-cave-aggressive and she got pretty mad and bites us when we all hang out near her former pillow cave. I can kinda redirect her bites onto toys and towels and I know she still loves us, but I think she feels like I "led her on" by making her think she's my mate. She sometimes bites me when I am hanging out with both her and my husband. She doesn't draw blood but I don't want her to become a nippy maniac because we are total newbs at bird ownership.

Any thoughts? We love our Pickles Parrot but I'm afraid we taught her to bite when she was a baby because it was so cute and she is clearly exploring the world through her mouth. I don't mind if she gently chews on fingers for fun or preens or gently uses her beak to step up, but this couch-pillow-cave thing is definitely different. I have waaaay more experience with dogs than birds, but I am discovering dog psychology differs somewhat from bird psychology. oops.

Suggestions appreciated! Thanks!