Frustrated

Hello everyone. This is my first post her so bear with me please. I apologies if this post gets a little winded.

I bought my CAG 15 years ago as an egg, raised him to be quite a great bird. His name is Tookie. He truly is my best buddy. He was in an environment with 3 or 4 other birds (Sun Conure, Sengal, and a love bird) up until a couple of years ago, until the girlfriend and I decided to part ways. We still stay in touch, and she still does his nails for me and he gets to see the other birds we lived with regularly when I take him over there. He's always been completely friendly to me and my kids. He has a huge cage as you can see, and gets let out the second I get home from work to roam around the cage and has a rope to the floor to get down and walk around to get some exercise. Even with no rope he would fly down to walk around and stuff. He always sits on the back of my chair in the evenings when we watch TV. He has a great vocabulary and can talk up a storm. I swear we have viable conversations together and definitely knows what I am talking about sometimes. Lately though he's become quite a handfull. He does nail me sometimes when I got to pick him up (barehanded of course) when he doesnt want to get locked back up when I need to leave or clean etc. etc. My thumb has many scars now hehehe. And I cant always determine when he going to do that. Its actually got me so spooked that now I don't trust him to step up on my hand. Its not that I cant take the pain, its the fact that I cant control my fast withdraw motion and usually send him flying. I'm so afraid I'm going to hurt him that it pisses me off and I just get madder at him and take it out on him. I literally have resorted to dangling a towel in front of him so he grabs it and I set him in his cage, then wrestle the towel away from him to give him a timeout. He has also gotten into the habit of when he is down on the floor to chase my feet. I try and stop him from doing it by waving my hand in front of him and sternly saying NO! He literally just laughs at me, stands there and gets all ruffled up. I dont want to dodge his attack and accidentally step on him, or have him go after the grandkids and bite one of them, or have them step on him. I don't want to leave him locked up 24/7. Thats not an option and no way for a pet to live.

Is there such a person as a bird whisperer in Indianapolis that I could arrange a meeting with to evaluate him? I have thought about giving him to my old girlfriend lately because I'm so afraid I'm going to get mad at him and hurt him somehow, but I would be devastated if I gave him up.

Thank you for listening to me. I need some help with him please.

Welcome to the forums. Yes, I know your pain. All birds get nippy at times. Knowing when they will get nippy is the key and it's not as cut and dry and it seems. So what I do is this:

If one of my birds acts as though they want to nail be and I foresee it coming, I will grab a stick that I keep near their cage all the time. I then force them onto the stick, some times they will run around to avoid the stick and sometimes they will just step up onto it.

After I bring out the stick, they are more than ready to step up on my hand and are sweet as sugar afterwards.

Also, if you can train yourself to push your finger or hand into the bird when he bites you, it throughs them off balance and they quickly realize that this is not the reaction they were hoping for. It's hard to remember to do it until you do it once or twice and see the reaction you get from them. Then when you see how it settles them down, it will make it easier to remember.

I would consult a behaviorist at this point. You need to have someone come into the house and see the dynamics. Unfortunately if your acting like your nervous he is going to pick up on that and you are more likely to get bit. This is a horse reference but 'if you think your going to fall off then you will'. If you think he is going to bite you, your body language is going to send signals to him that you are nervous. Also if hes learning that bites can get him what he wants then you are encouraging the behavior. I had a really cool experience at sea world one day. I got to spend the day with one of the head bird trainers among various topics we talked about biting (as he was being bitten by a GW, that they had just gotten in, at that particular moment). He said the best thing to do is act as if the bite isn't even occurring and act like the bite will never happen again. If the bird gets no reaction from a behavior they are less likely to do it in the future. I understand for the average person, it down right HURTS and its hard to overcome physical pain and just take it.

I would call the state university and find out who they can recommended. For instance, here in Florida UF has an excellent animal behavior sciences division.

Thanks for the reply Mike. I'll try the stick thing. Although he's pretty smart and will usually just put one foot up and then back off only to refuse to step up up on anything like that. I've tried heavy leather gloves too with the same results. I love him to death and somehow have to regain control over him.

He eats well. Plenty of a quality seed mix with his other dish filled with Pretty Bird Species specific pellets, plus he always gets whatever I have for dinner too. He loves spaghetti hehehe. I know it may not be the perfect diet, but I believe in letting him enjoy life with some variety. He gets plenty of sleep (9p.m. to 7a.m. usually). And when I'm gone he has full use of the 46" HDtv that he likes to watch Animal
Planet on of course.

p.s. Mt. Dora is a great little town. Lived many years in Orange City, and used to drive through Mt. Dora many times on the way to Umatilla.

Hi, there. Welcome to the forums. I'm sorry you are having this trouble with your bird. You might want to look into these books for some guidance, and see if you can handle it yourself. If not, I would consult a behaviorist.


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Solving-Behavioral-Problems-Companion-Parrots/dp/1895270278/ref=pd_sim_b_2]Amazon.com: Good Bird! A Guide to Solving Behavioral Problems in Companion Parrots (9781895270273): Barbara Heidenreich: Books[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/The-Beak-Book-Understanding-Preventing/dp/0967129818/ref=pd_sim_b_2"]Amazon.com: The Beak Book: Understanding, Preventing, and Solving Aggression and Biting Behaviors in Companion Parrots (9780967129815): Sally Blanchard: Books[/ame]

One of the best bird therapist is Sally Blanchard. Just google her name and you should find her contact info for a consult. Best of luck and huggies to you.
http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-behavior-and-training/bird-behavior-experts/topiclist-blanchard.aspx

Hi TT, your grey is beautiful. I think what you need to do is take two steps back to gain one forward. First, it is not an issue of taking control but of building trust and a bond. When you use a towel or glove you are using negative reinforcement to train. This can and will back fire on you. The best way to gain the trust and build that bond is with positive reinforcement. Spending time sitting and talking, offering treats and verbal praise will gain you positive strides.
Stick trining does work well if the bird is not afraid of the stick. When he makes any slight move toward stepping up ie:lifting a foot or toe, leaning forward praise and treat him immediately. Right now he does not know what you want from him and your job is teach him that positive behavior is rewarded.

Or try Jesse James~ I saw him at the pet expo and went to his seminar~ he emailed me back quickly when I had behavioral questions!

Thanks everyone. I'll order those books, but I don't think he'll read them.

95% of the time he's a perfect bird. We sit outside when its nice. We always sit together and I do talk to him constantly with some funny looks from the neighbors. His cage is only 5 feet from my chair here in the apartment so he's in constant contact with me. I swear he's just like a teenager and trying to see just who is the alpha male around here.

Another quick question. Does any ones Grey lay down like this (picture below) ? He gets so layed back sometimes he just flat dozes off.

Your laid back grey is awesome! I've yet to see that move. I have no experience with greys but do with a male umbrella 'too and I have found that once he knows he can intimidate, he will take FULL advantage of the situation.

With those large beaks and jaws that can produce thousands of pounds of pressure, it is very scary. I've seen the damage that my 'too can do to flesh and it's no joke. I assume a grey is not one you want to get bit by, either.

Amigo terrorizes my oldest son, when he comes around. I know why my son is scared to death of this bird but I also believe that both of their actions feed off of the others. Knowing what kind of hurt can come down, it is hard not to flinch.

If my bird sees, or feels any kind of weakness or fear, (in men only), he'll not be understanding. Nor will he tolerate aggression.

I wish you the best of luck on your relationship with your grey, they sure are complicated, relationships that is.

Your grey is gorgeous... Did you really get him as an egg?

Yes, I bought him from a very nice lady here in Indianapolis. I got to pick out one egg of three and mark it. She called a couple of days later and I rushed over to actually watch and help him hatch. There is nothing funnier looking than bald 1 hour old Grey. I then went nearly everyday to feed him with a syringe full of baby food. It was amazing watching him gulp it down to fill his gullet up. I do have lots of pictures, but none of them are digital that I can post on here, sorry. He was a little spraddle (spelling) legged at first and does have an unusual toe configuration, but it does'nt slow him down at all. We throw a birdie birthday party each year for him and he opens his presents one by one. His favorite is a brand new box of Cap'n Crunch peanut butter cereal.

That is adorable. Please be careful feeding human cereal. It is large amounts of Iron, sugar and vitamins that can be dangerous to birds.