Is my GCC's behaviour normal?

hey guys i have a couple questions...ive had my GCC for about 2 months now...she is about 7- 7 1/2 months old...and shes a closet talker...now some problems i have are...my GCC will not let me touche her. when i put my finger or any piece of skin near her, she latches on and draws blood...Pretty Hard!!! another is that she always go's to my shoulder...the previous owner used to let he sit on her shoulder whenevr she wanted and i believe that is a reason. to get her to step up...i have to wear a sweater. and instead of using my finger...i have to use my arm...now i dont think this is proper behaviour...is this normal? and she always climbs on my head...i dont think that is any better.

any advice is appreciated...thanks!

Hi, although I am fairly new to the parrot world and have a GCC myself I can try to offer some advice that was given to me on these forums although please take what I say with a grain of salt because like I said I am new as well. Anywho, when i got my bird he drew blood a few times and man does it hurt but I started touch/click training and it worked / works like a charm. Now he comes out of his cage on his own steps up and allows me to pet him. him or her biting you maybe a trust issue or out of anger. Who knows what his previous owner taught or didnt teach him or her. But I suggest you try touch training you can go on these forums and look it up or you tube. Trust me it is a process that I would have never even thought of and it really works. Well I hope what I said helps and please take the more experienced parrot owners advice over mine due to my noobness lol. Anyways good luck and I hope it works out for you...
P.S. GCC are known to be very nippy birds to begin with, but man they are great and have such a big personality for such a little bird.

I've had my GCC for about the same time as you. I'm trying to get him out of the habit of rushing to my shoulder too. It's just so hard to stop him because he's so quick and agile! I'm fine with it as long as he steps off when I ask him to.

I don't know how, but I think they know how hard it is for us to get them off of our shoulder. It's like they're running away from our hands. I'm sure it will get better with time and they learn what's acceptable.

My GCC Tori goes straight to my shoulder as well. I simply tell him to "Step up" to my finger and take him off when I don't want him there. He doesn't usually bite when I do this, but if he does I block him from going behind my head and give him a gentle push so he has to step up to my finger. After that I always give him a treat because it can be unpleasant.

DON'T LET YOUR BIRD SIT ON YOUR HEAD! Being above you is a sign of dominance. Make sure that you are always slightly higher than your bird.

Yes, they love to be up on shoulders! Our Charlie is not easy to control when he is up there and we are working on bringing his hormone levels down so he is not allowed up on our shoulders. We block him by putting our hands in the way, sometimes we tilt forward until he has no choice but to step down onto our lap/couch whichever it is that we are putting him onto. We also get him to step up if he gets on the shoulder (he is sneaky and quick!). He knows what no means but doesn't always listen. We have trained him by using a small small piece of almond as a reward when he does a behavior that we want - previously he was terrible at stepping up. Clicker training using touch training (when he touches a stick, he hears the click and gets an almond) is great and was super easy. he caught on in about five minutes. That is another way to get him off the shoulder. Try training with positive reinforcement rather than negative and you will get a lot further. Patience patience patience. Do say no when he bites, though, and there are several camps in terms of what you can do when they bite (we do gentle earthquakes to distract, but never hard enough to shake Charlie off. DO NOT try this method if your bird doesn't trust you - Charlie wants nothing more than to be latched on to us 24/7 so we are not wrecking any sort of trust by doing this. It is just a distraction. Placing him on the ground and looking away for twenty seconds also works. he runs around saying "good Charlie!" when we do this and is better behaved when he comes back up. Cute!).

oh and parrots wanting to be higher to feel dominant is a myth (parrots don't live in hierarchical societies - they are are pretty much equal so there is no dominant position). They just feel safer up there but its up to you to let them know where they can and can't go. I don't like charlie up there because I can't see him so he is not allowed. But it is perfectly normal that they want to be up there.

Printer bird said:

oh and parrots wanting to be higher to feel dominant is a myth (parrots don't live in hierarchical societies - they are are pretty much equal so there is no dominant position). They just feel safer up there but its up to you to let them know where they can and can't go. I don't like charlie up there because I can't see him so he is not allowed. But it is perfectly normal that they want to be up there.

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I don't like my cockatiel on my head because he'll poop in my hair if he has to !