Unexpected bites

Boozieshome

New member
May 26, 2017
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The Woodlands, TX
Parrots
Bonnie and Clyde, Umbrella 'Toos, and BoozieToo, a double yellow Amazon. RIP Boozie, Blue crowned mealy Amazon
We have had Bonnie and Clyde for almost a year. Bonnie took some time to come out of her shell, but now that she has, she is amazing. She was very shy and a bit skittish, but I chalk that up to pad parenting. We were her 4th home in 4 years. People gave up on these two wonderful birds and we all know that is traumatic. We were told Bonnie was mean, but nothing could be further from the truth. She has only bitten me once and that was squarely on me for ignoring her warning.

Clyde is as sweet as can be. He loves everyone and wants nothing more than to snuggle with my wife, Lesa, and is content to attach to her every minute of everyday when she is home. If she isn't, and someone else is, she will attach to them as a substitute.

Except me. He will tolerate me, and allows me to bring him out of his room in the morning. They have a cage, but the door is never closed and they live in a room that is theirs alone with cargo nets, polls, stands, and toys. Bonnie prefers to stay in there, but I convince her to come out with the flock, Bonnie and the Mealy Amazon Boozie.

Though Bonnie is slightly bigger than Boozie, Boozie wants to pick fights with Bonnie so I usually keep them on separate stands. The 'Toos can fly, Boozie is still working on it.

Ok, all that said, Clyde hates me like poison. Ok, so he is a good judge of character, right? I don't mind, as long as I can get him his food, move him from room to room, etc.... He step up when he is ready to come out of his room, but... just before he steps off, he will bite me hard and not let go. He will climb down from Lesa's lap and walk across the room to climb up my chair, get into my lap, and try to bite me. He will be on my arm and cuddly, and then out of the blue bite me.

Of course it hurts. He's an umbrella cockatoo. But I don't mind. Sometimes I think it's kind of funny after I stop the bleeding. Some days I cannot even give him his "to die for" treats that he loves so much because he would rather take a chunk out of my hand. And I have the scabs and scars to prove it. Even when I try to put them directly into his bowl instead of his mouth, he will come flying over to attack me.

Here's my question: am I doing something to elicit this inconsistent behavior or is Clyde not an unusual case? Are some 'Toos just more erratic and inconsistent? Can anyone think of any way I can change his mind about me? I'm not a bad guy! All the birds love me!
 

LaManuka

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Aug 29, 2018
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Queensland, Australia
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Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Sounds to me like your flesh may have become Clyde’s “to die for” treat of choice! He is lucky you don’t mind so much, it sounds very painful! I only have experience with little birds so I’ll leave it to wiser heads to advise you, but thanx for sharing your story & for rescuing these guys & giving them a chance of a better life!
 

ChristaNL

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May 23, 2018
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NL= the Netherlands, Europe
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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 :)
Clyde has picked your wife as his mate, so yea...when you are around he needs to put you in your place.
(thats why we call it a pecking-order ;) he is making sure the competition is not competing )

It happens a lot- so it probably is not you.
A lot of the time it is the situation where the bird bonds with the spouse and the other half of the human couple is not even allowed to touch that person without the bird going bonkers about "hands of my mate, Mate!"

(Same thing is happening here atm. : my macaw will bite me when I interact with the greys-- I hope correcting and ignoring will help, but I am not sure. Some instincts are non-negotiable and her instinct is telling me to "get away from those upstarts! " by biting me even though the greys were here first.)

Though it would be worth looking at the whole- step-down situation: if you get bitten every single time the bird steps of you ... try something else!

Oh... have you looking into "displacement biting" yet?
Apart from the "hands of my mate" that also happens a lot: bird sits on person, something scary happens, bird bites person instead of scary <something>.

But since the too actually just plans his attack on you (grinn your description, not mine) I do not think this is likely ... but you never know.
What happens before a bite?

When placing the bird on a different perch -- do you bend over a bit so your face comes closer? (and might be a threat) Do you wear glasses in the morning and contacts the rest of the day (or the other way around).
Do you wear a certain colour/ pattern that day?


LOL Sunny used to attack me if I moved food out of her reach - I think she was lured with it and then denied the treat (or something like it) in her past.
So I know what that is like: you want to give the treat AND keep your skin intact, bird attacks you for stealing his food!
Being very consistent and making sure that everything I offered her actually ended up in/near the beak took care of that.
 
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Scott

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Aug 21, 2010
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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.

Siobhan

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Apr 19, 2015
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Clyde, Quaker; Freddie, tiel; Rocky, umbrella cockatoo.
Get or make a T-stand for moving Clyde from place to place and for interacting with him. Then he's not on your arm where he can easily bite you. Our Rocky likes me best, and was shredding his daddy at every opportunity, and he wasn't just biting to warn. He was trying to maim. Then Hubby made a T-stand and he carries and holds Rocky with that, and they're buddies now. Hubby can file Rocky's nails, he can pet and kiss him, he can do whatever he wants, but he doesn't put Rocky on his arm and he doesn't get bitten.
 

LaManuka

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Queensland, Australia
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Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
My long-suffering hubby (God love him!) knows his place in the pecking order.... WAAAAAAAAY down at the bottom ;)
 

noodles123

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Jul 11, 2018
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Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
Cockatoos are pretty complicated. These bites may seem random, but they may be totally predictable when you tune into the antecedents etc. For instance, I "too" (lol no pun intended) initially wondered if I was being randomly bitten (face value) when my normally sweet bird started going after me...But then I figured it out (And no issues since)...the reason was SUPER obscure/elaborate...I will find the original post and paste it in. Long story short, she was biting to go back to her cage because she randomly moved her bedtime back by one hour (and in the past when she bit, I moved her to her cage because during the day, she doesn't like being away from the action)....She doesn't bite anymore, because I make sure she is on her cage within 1/2 hour or so of her anticipated bedtime, and if she starts giving off weird signals, I put her on to of her open cage and give her the choice. Also, when I first adopted her, my bird HATED me for a month solid and wouldn't step up for 3 (she is a re-home). For the awhile, she loved my boyfriend and now she loves me (and my ex lol, but she prefers me, which is odd considering where we started).

Who feeds her/cleans her cage? Often, the person with the most consistent/safe interaction will eventually win over the bird.

Also, what do you and your wife do IMMEDIATLY after your bird bites? ANY attention could be percieved as a positive in an attention-seeking bird...Even if it is "NO" or "STOP THAT" etc...

Google ABA (Applied behavior analysis) and look into doing an ABC chart. Obviously your problem is not bedtime related....it is more likely an attention issue or escape behavior. I just am mentioning my story because so often, what seems random is not. It could be hormonal, but it could also be more specific....


Here is the biting post I talked about above (see below):

"So, recently I have encountered some strange behavior from my 10 year old cockatoo. I think I have found a solution (maybe) but I am just going to give you the long backstory first.

My cockatoo normally is very sweet---she hasn't bitten me for a very long time. I pet her on the head only and she gets 12 hours of sleep + lots of sun and adequate nutrition.

3 times in the past month, she has bitten me/become aggressive without much warning.

Here are the similarities among these instances:
1. After 6:00 pm
2. Other people are present or were present right before
3. 3/3 times I was wearing a light blue button-down shirt (but once it begins, the behavior continues even when I change shirts lol--yes, tried that)---I also wear this shirt frequently and don't always get attacked, but all incidents have happened while wearing this shirt.
4. 3/3 times started away from her cage

Possible related factors:
1. 2/3 instances happened while we were traveling with her.
2. She was recently boarded for the first time, and 2/3 of these instances happened after boarding...The first, however, was BEFORE boarding, but right after a car trip...she travels well, at least outwardly.

The first time it happened, it appeared that she had become overly stimulated and it was past her bedtime, so I wasn't horribly shocked. The second time, again there was lots of play right beforehand, but it wasn't THAT late. The third time (last night), it was barely 6:30, and her bedtime usually ranges from 6:00-8:00 (depending on her mood).
Yesterday, my boyfriend came over and didn't acknowledge her on her terms. This may have aggravated he situation as well...don't know.

Side- note: when she wants to go to bed, she usually will go into her cage and bob up and down in a specific pattern.

In the past, when she has bitten other people during the day, I have removed her from the stimulation/attention that I know she craved (by placing her on or in her cage, away from the action). Then, she has gotten to come back after a time-out. This worked during the day, because she really DID want to be with everyone.

That having been said, I think she has determined that if she bites, she goes to her cage, so I believe that she now may be biting at night in order to get me to take her to her cage/BED! (WHOOPS!)

I know that she doesn't know how to ask to go to bed when she is away from her cage, so I think that this is her solution. Still, that doesn't explain the blue shirt, or the fact that she doesn't always go straight to bed once on her cage. I guess it could be like an overly tired child who swears they aren't tired while throwing a fit....?

My potential solution is to make sure that she has access to her cage from 5:30 onward each evening (so that she can "ask" to go to bed appropriately)...but I am still trying to understand what caused this to be an issue all of the sudden. I am sure that there have been times in the past where she was tired but did NOT bite, so it is a bit odd.

Has anyone else had experiences with birds that bite at a certain time during the day?"
 
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Laurasea

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Aug 2, 2018
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Full house
Yes my young quaker gets very worried, and unhappy at six. He even has a special peep sound he makes. So between 530 and six he doesn't want to play or to be touched, he wants to be at his roost before the sun goes down even if he will stay up late. My GCC on the other hand waits till it's dark then begs to come out for sine one on one time. So I guess us an individual thing. I've tried to set up a different time if day for her one on one, but nope she wants the other parrots asleep.
 

Siobhan

New member
Apr 19, 2015
685
6
Illinois
Parrots
Clyde, Quaker; Freddie, tiel; Rocky, umbrella cockatoo.
Bites can also be warnings, if you ignore the other signs. Rocky will raise his crest and bounce twice and then bite -- and those things happen so close together, it's tough to react in time to avoid the bite -- when something startles him. The oddest things startle and upset him. He's a rescue and we're his fifth home (and he's only 8!!!!) so even though we've had him for three years and have figured out many of the things that scare him or used to, there are many we can't guess until it happens, or fix even if we know what they are. We can't stop the garbage truck from coming, for example. Sometimes a noise on TV will create the reaction. It's a constant quest to keep a 'too happy and calm!
 

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