IRN is EXTREMELY jealous of ‘tiel

reeisconfused

New member
Aug 11, 2018
137
0
Parrots
rescued IRN Max and Cockatiel Honey
Sorry for the super long post in advance.

Max meeting Honey has been...interesting.

Quarantine ended early because I was cleaning and I accidentally left the door open and Max flew in (he has free reign of the house). 10 mins in, I walk in to see Max on top of Honey’s cage, looking over. He flew away when he saw me and would come back at every chance he got to see Honey.

So after a few days, I moved Honey’s cage next To Max’s. Now, everytime Max got the chance, he would fly down over, sit infront of Honey’s cage and do his usual birdie noise. At first, I thought that maybe Max was interested and I was happy and thought that this might be the start of a new friendship.

Oh boy, oh boy.

During this time, Max would also try to get in the cage and would fly away again if he saw anyone of us too close. (In case, some of you don’t know, Max is a wildcaught rescue and not tame). Honey did not care that Max was there. He was always busy playing with his toys and never gave him a second thought.

I soon came to realize that Max didn’t care about Honey but the FOOD BOWLS Honey had in his cage. Both their bowls are same and I think he felt like Honey was eating HIS food, even though Max’s food bowls literally 2 feet away. I changed Honey’s food bowls but that made him want Honey’s food EVEN more because there was now something that Max felt (robbed?) of.

Fast forward to their introduction, Honey and Max saw each other for the first time in the TV room, which is mostly a neutral territory since we or Max don’t spend much time there. I only let them see each other for the first few days.

And then, they finally met.

Now, disclaimer: Max and Honey have the same toys. Max has NEVER touched his, no matter how much I tried to get him to play with them. He, however, loves shredding things up. He also has a small basket at the bottom of his cage where his foot toys and small balls are. Never touched them as well.

On that particular day, Honey was playing with a ball and a tissue roll when Max (who was on the curtains) came down to him. There was also another set I kept for Max. I was watching close by, enough to stop anything from happening but also to give them space. So Max comes in, and this is a bird who doesn’t like toys, take the ball in his foot, the towel roll in his beak and starts playing. Hallelujah!

However, after a few minutes, he sets his toys on his side and goes on to try to bite Honey. Honey moves away and he take Honey’s TOYS as well and goes back to space.

This has been happening for EVERYTHING. Max wants WHATEVER Honey has / is eating and he will not stop unless he gets it. He also thinks that everything is his territory and Honey is a trespasser.

Max will not approach Honey IF I am present in the room. This is because the first time he attacked Honey, I was very firm with a NO. (Max fully understands and listens to commands, usually). If he sees that I’m not there, He will come to Honey and try to chase him with his mouth open, trying to bite him.

It’s not a “I want to kill you” thing, but more of a “back off! this and this and this is MINE. LEAVE!!!” thing.

Honey, on the other hand, at first, was very taken by Max. He tried to follow Max around a couple times (before Max chased him away) and was making a lot of cooing noises.

Since then, he’s realized that Max is a bully and flies away if Max tries to get too close.

Ofcourse, I was prepared for this but I have to ask, is there any way that I can get Max to stop bullying Honey?

Max and Honey both have their food bowls at different places outside the cages and Max always eats his and then comes to eat Honey’s. If Honey tries to eat from the bowl when he’s there, Max will again, try to bite him.

Other interesting things I’ve noticed is that Max now copies EVERYTHING Honey does and I don’t know why. If he sees Honey playing with a toy, he plays with his as well. Honey is talking, well guess its time for Max to scream!!! haha.

I can also now get Max to eat just about anything if he sees Honey eating it as well. (if you remember from my older threads, Max came to me on one tomato a day diet and he refused to eat anything but fruit and rice).

Any advice / tips appreciated.
 

Laurasea

Well-known member
Aug 2, 2018
12,593
10,702
USA
Parrots
Full house
Such a perfect post of parrot behavior! Yes anything someone else has must be better. Doesn't matter if the same food is in their bowl , or the same toys! I don't allow the parrots on the parakeets cage top, as they need a safe retreat. And Ta-dah and Neptune can't harasse Penny on her play top, because she can't fly..

Boy oh boy do they every copy each other! Usually any bad behavior lol.

I would suggest setting up a group or flock feed of everyone's favorite treats in a neutral big location. Like tabletop with towls laid down so no slipping. All spread out. Birds eat in mixed flocks in nature. And it's a positive bonding activitie. It's what worked for me. I try and have a " family meal with my whole flock once a week, if not more. ;) Attendance mandatory!
 
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ChristaNL

Banned
Banned
May 23, 2018
3,559
157
NL= the Netherlands, Europe
Parrots
Sunny a female B&G macaw;
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 :)
Oh boy(s) - I wish I knew...

The same is going on here-- not as extreme but:

Japie was here first (only bird for almost a year) and since he was really focussed on (crashing eh..) learning how to fly and Appie was somehow busy with a laying-eggs-experiment; they more or less ignored each other the first 6 months or so.

So, just like you I did some supervised introduction and tried to get some (dormant?) "flockmentality" going by feeding them special foods together, take them for a shower together, have a communal evening-scritching sessions etc.etc..
They DO watch each other, even shared a cage together (not getting near each other at all)... so I found that they were doing just fine...

Then Sunny arrived and there was a lot going on, and Japie decided he needed his own space (??), Appie was a bit stressed about it all, I tried my best to stop her laying eggs this year (it worked).
Chaos all over...

Right now I have Japie trying to bully the ladies (stuntflying at them), Appie trying to bully the macaw (pulling her tail and chasing her out of her own cage) and the greys no longer share a cage-- they actually are all actively trying to sleep anywhere else...

Anyway: yes, if one of them eats something the others are far more likely to try it as well - that is the positive, and it does not stop at toys but avaiatortraining as well: if one gets the praise (and treats) ...the rest will follow.

The downside: I need eyes in the back of my head if they are all out at the same time.
Yesterday I heard macawscreaching and found Sunny trying to get a perch on top of the cagedoors and Appie grabbing Sunnies tail at the end, like a mountaineer on a rope, pulling her backwards and down with all her might...
(yup, a pulling match CAG versus B&G, CAG winns! Easy of course: her tail was not being hurt in the process!)

Sunny is less likely to fall down when Japie flies at her, so he is doing it less and less, he also tried to flirt with (instead of bully) Appie, so that is also changing again.
So apart from setting boundries for all of them (no biting!) I am letting them figure it out.
 

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