Cockatoo Grump

I just wanted to see if anyone has been having similar issues to me. I have a female 1 year and 4 month old Corella cross Galah cockatoo, she's been handled from a young age and for months she was sweet and calm, but over the last few months she's been a real horror, she'll bite your fingers, lunge at your face and generally go for the eye, attack ears ect. Before she had her wings clipped but I've let them grow back and don't really want to get them clipped again. She's the worst when she's inside and extremely bad around her cage, but as soon as I put her out in her big aviary outside she is the friendliest cocky you'll ever handle again. Just thought I'd put up a general post as it is a bit of a bother.

I have a galah [Ive had 2 ] . They both went through this terrible "2" over excited stage [and can be nippy].

Are you sure of her age? She is a bit young for hormones, but the smaller toos can reach sexual maturity between 2 and 5 years of age.

The behavior does sound a bit hormonal, may just be growing pains. So be prepared when she does hit puberty!

Working with her thru it is the best thing, don't let her get away with it, start target training or training to step up on a stick / perch. I would not let her on your shoulder or upper arm again until she has earned that trust.

Almost all birds go thru the bratty years, some of it is just pushing to see where they can position themselves in the flock. If you cave to her behavior, she's now the leader of the flock and will really be a brute to deal with! Do you have kids? Think of those early years when they just learn they can push and see what they can get away with Redirect her into positive behavior, try to notice if there is a warning. That is a drawback of the toos, they often do not warn you, they are such great little actors.... act all sweet right up til they chew off an body part!!!

Don't lose faith in her, just know that if you work thru this time, your sweet wonderful girl will most likely come back to you!!!

And once she hits hormone age, you'll go thru it every spring! Ivory had her time in the last month when I wanted to wring her neck, was just so beaky and nippy (and totally not that way at all). But, we just put her to bed earlier to counter the longer daylight hours and took away all the soft warm foods she likes. Those are triggers its time to setup a nest.

Good luck and I hope she doesn't give you too much of a headache for too long!!!

When I picked her up from her previous owner (total idiot) he gave me an age between 3/4 months of age, she's already had a large molt and still dropping feathers often, and from what I've read galah's go through their first molt at around a year? It's really hard to find any decent information on the cross-breed cockatoos. I've already started to train her a bit, but training her to step up on to perches that aren't in her cage is difficult as she's a really jumpy bird. I don't have kids, I'm a bit young for that. Baby is the only large bird I've ever had experience with handling and right from the get-go I've been winging it with her care/getting to know cockatoo behaviour. In the summer/spring time I don't tend to put her to bed early, it can get roudy and I feel mean for covering her up when it's going to be loud for another couple hours after that. Thank you a lot for your reply though it really helps!