Timneh doesn't like me to touch her stuff

Billdore

New member
Nov 12, 2016
900
17
Vermont
Parrots
African Grey Timneh
I was cleaning the cups on her playstand and for some reason she was not happy with me when I went to put them back. She bit me while I was putting em back on so we had a little talk about the second cup. So she bit me harder. Not sure why she got so fired up I put new pellets in em and she aggressively slammed her head and threw pellets around. Once the cups were replaced she went back to normal. Don't touch my stuff Dad. We were doing a little flight trainging earier. She flew to her house and back twice so that was pretty cool. Then she started goofing around and flying back and forth on her open moon roof, instead of flying to me. Timneh doesn't bite aggressively often but she likes to protect her things. She really wanted to roug house earlier too so I said please don't hurt me too much and we wrestled for a bit and she did take it easy on my too. How should I act when she becomes so territorial over her stuff? I put the second cup aside and let her calm down and then put it on when she wasn't looking. She made a mess of her stand tonight sorry about the mess. But with a parrot it's basically one mess to the next lol. That's when you know they're having fun.
 
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Scott

Supporting Member
Aug 21, 2010
32,673
9,792
San Diego, California USA, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy
Parrots
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.
Wonder if you could put her in another room while you are cleaning and rearranging? A bummer you would need to, but might calm her territorial drive?
 

DRB

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2016
1,024
75
Ohio
Parrots
Perjo - Female CAG hatch Nov 2015
I do some cage and room cleaning with Perjo on the cage, either on top of the door or on top of the cage. She seems to enjoy watching me do the work. When I get to the bottom of the door or cage she gets too curious and wants to grab at the cloth and walk on the grates which I just sprayed with poop off.

She will occassionally take a swipe at me, I think just to get some attention like "hey don't forget I'm here". What really surprises me is she has no fear of the vacuum cleaner and the long hose, but you put that small yellow microfiber cloth near her and shes freaks out.
 

Mindy

New member
Nov 9, 2017
114
2
Michigan
Parrots
Finnegan the Timneh, Chicky the Cuban Amazon and Fanny Featherbottom the house chicken.
My Finnegan gets that way sometimes. He'll lunge at me for changing bowls sometimes. Not saying it's the right way to handle it; I say 'very funny' and continue doing what I'm doing. When he does the throwing the food around it cracks me up so when he wants to be funny now he throws stuff really hard. We call him our curmudgeon.
 

AmyMyBlueFront

Well-known member
Apr 14, 2015
6,315
Media
4
3,034
Connecticut
Parrots
Amy a Blue Front 'Zon
Jonesy a Goffins 'Too who had to be rehomed :-(

And a Normal Grey Cockatiel named BB who came home with me on 5/20/2016.
Interesting Bill coz Smokey would do the same thing when I was cleaning/feeding/rearranging her pad. At times she'd literally lunge at me :eek: and on more than one occasion got a good hold of my fingers and drew blood.
Friggin hurts!




Jim
 

clark_conure

Well-known member
Jul 14, 2017
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2,243
Minnesota
Parrots
A crossover Quaker Scuti (F), A Sun conure named AC, A Cinnamon Green Cheek conure Kent, and 6 budgies, Scuti Jr. (f), yellow (m), clark Jr. (m), Dot (f), Zebra(f), Machine (m).
clark doesn't do anything like that, but I kinda think any ammount of interaction that doesn't frighten the bird just makes him/her more acclimated to you. Perhaps it's a game perhaps he/she is mad, but you have to stand your ground too and do normal maintenance.

It's not like your chasing a bird around the inside of it's cage trying to grab it, or capture it in a hand towel. The bird needs to be able to accept the care-taking you provide, over time he/she should just give up and realize it's nothing to be bothered about. They are instigating the response, so it's not really your fault. Just do what you have to and they will realize there is "no there there". And move on from the bad behavior eventually.
 

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