African grey attacking.

scoman123

New member
Dec 28, 2015
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Sheringham, uk.
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A CAG (Baby)
Hi, thanks for any help in advance.

My Congo African Grey has never liked women and never liked my mum, he has always fluffed up his feathers when she goes into the room. She talks to him daily but has never been able to feed him without getting bitten.

He has slowly become more aggressive with me as well, I can still handle him, play with him & feed him and everything but he now has a lot more off days.

Yesterday, however, things got worse. Usually when he is out of his cage and my mum comes in he will just fluff up and stop speaking as usual but yesterday he decided to dive on her (I could see he wasn't trying to land on her because he just glided and didn't flap his wings which he usually will).

He is 3 years old and we have had him out a year and a half i think.

I have no problem with him not liking my mum because he was always brilliant with me but I can't have a situation where he attacks her so I will have to rehome him unless I can find a solution.

Any ideas? Thanks!!
 

LeaKP

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Aug 11, 2014
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I am by far no expert but it’s hormonal time it sounds to me. There are many ways to approach this but first of all boundaries need to be set with your grey. Peruse birdman666 threads dealing with aggression. He is, by far, the guru when it comes to dealing with this kind of behavior. You can get thru this and end up with an amazing bird. Don’t give up!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

chris-md

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Feb 6, 2010
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Hello and welcome!

I hear your frustration. I think however the first thing that needs to change is YOU. One day of really bad misbehavior and you’re already using the horrid “rehome” word. Without even having tried a dang THING to fix the situation. Before the word “rehome” ever leaves your lips, you better have tried everything in your power to correct the issue. I admit some dismay this is your first headspace when something goes wrong.

Start with this: Birds misbehave, it’s what they do. - for everything else, there’s Geico. This includes the possible aggressive action.

Can you tell us more about baby’s care? How often is he out of cage? What is his diet like? What is his cage like? Everything I know about CAGs I learned from the internet. But I see they enter puberty between 4-7 years old (when you can REALLY expect some challenging behavior for a period of time before it settles down on its own), so my gut says this isn’t hormones quite yet. But I could be way off base, and it is in fact puberty coming early :)

And more about yourself. How old are you exactly? You sound like a teenager?
 
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greytness

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Sep 11, 2015
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Southern California
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3 CAGs, BHC, 2 duskie conures, Jardine's, Meyers, pineapple GCC, eclectus, miligold macaw, scarlet macaw, & Panama Amazon
My CAG hates my oldest son. If his back is turned towards him, he'll dive bomb attack him. Solution for us? My son will face our CAG whenever he's in the room. Otherwise, he'll remain out of the room whenever he's out and about. My older son has never really cared for our CAG, and I strongly believe our guy can pick up on his negative vibes.

He's worse during hormonal and molting times. CAGS do pick their favorites, but even their favorites will get a nip from time to time. We've learned to read him and avoid situations that potentially could cause a nip.
 

bigfellasdad

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Sharing your life with a parrot or having children is not about giving up when anything goes wrong or not going to your liking, issues arise often, as they do with children. The trick is to understand what is going wrong and YOU fixing it.

Enzo my 13yr old hen started off friendly to people, then got very aggressive. She has bonded with me strongly and actually laid a 4 eggs a month after she arrived. I have to re socialise her now and the way im doing this is to never give her treats myself but make sure quests/other family members give all of the treats. I have asked everybody to speak to Enzo every time they enter the room as well, its to build trust back up.
Initially I kept enzo in the cage unless i was alone with her but now she is getting a little more time with people, so far so good and no bites have happened in a while. She has flown to my son and girlfreind a couple of times and landed on their necks without attacking/biting, so progress is being made. I dont expect this to all mend itself, we are all having to work at it but its not just me that realise the benefits of a well socialised and calm parrot will be to the family.
Things id try

Stick with it please, re-homing a parrot really should not be considered, especially when YOU havent put the effort in.

Think of your parrot as a 3-4yr old child all of time, this will really help getting into the correct mindset.

Hope it works out for you, we will all help you along, please just ask... im new to parrots myself but the forum has really brought my knowledge and attitude up to a great level, stick around and stick with your parrot.
 

MonicaMc

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His aggression could very well be due to lack of mental stimulation, a lack of an outlet for energy and a lack of training.

He's bored, under stimulated and doesn't know what to do. With no direction, that could lead to aggression.


Encouraging foraging activities, clicker training (start with target training!) and, when possible (maybe not now, but later on), work on exercising him. (re: flying from point A to B and back)



Target training can be quite simple to teach. You need to know what the top 3-5 treats he enjoys the most (for variety in rewards). This could be nuts, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, or?

Then figure out a target. This could be a chopstick, an empty pen case, a knitting needle, or?

Once you have something in mind as a target, then work on training! You'll want to break it down into steps though... such as, if he looks at the target, reward. Repeat. If he moves his head towards the target, reward, repeat. If he takes a step towards the target, reward, repeat. Keep this up!

He does not physically need to touch a target in order to be target trained.

Station training (aka staying put) would be beneficial whenever your mother is around. Teach him to stay on a perch for longer and longer periods of time and ignore your mother.



By encouraging foraging activities and working on training, you are stimulating his mind and teaching him what to do. In other words, you are giving him direction.


Once you can get to a point where you can exercise him via recall and target training, this will give him an outlet for his energy.
 
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scoman123

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Sheringham, uk.
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A CAG (Baby)
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Hi,

Thanks for the responses, first I'd like to say thank you for assuming that I haven't done "a dang THING" to try and rectify the issues without asking or having any previous knowledge of this or my personal situation. Also as I mentioned in my post this hasn't been just a one-day event, it has actually been getting worse over the last few months.

The main reason that re-homing is an option isn't strictly because of his behaviour but because I don't have the time to deal with it. And I believe I probably will be re-homing for that reason.

We can't afford to buy him any toys or anything like that as we simply don't have the money & when it comes down to it because of my work I just don't have the time to try training him again, which I thank you for the suggestion.

To sum up at the moment I'm getting bitten daily and asked for cuddles at the same time and it has been getting worse over time but to fix the former takes one or multiple of following; time &/or money. None of which I really have.

So personally I'd rather re-home him with someone who can give him that time and effort that he needs.
 

chris-md

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Feb 6, 2010
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I think the question still remains, what exactly have you done? The way you present your in your post implies not a whole lot.

Here’s the thing, if this is in fact puberty, rehoming him is really the wrong route. EVERY parrot goes through this difficult time. You need to stick it out because it ultimately passes and you will have your sweet bird back. Enduring puberty is just part of owning a parrot. You’re punishing him for going through a natural part of life!

But we need more information to help you. We can’t know what’s going on until you answer the critical questions previously asked about how exactly you are currently caring for him and what you have done so far to address the issue.

For all you and we know, the answer is painfully simple. Give him a chance and we can really work to help you.
 

bigfellasdad

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dont worry about buying toys, you can make them, my son and i do this. Enzos FAVOURITE thing is simply an oven tray with a newspaper in it. She will rip it to pieces, once shes done that ill throw a handful of seeds in there and she will spend hours just looking and foraging for them. Even the paper is a free weekly rag. cost 0p, time and effort, nothing.
 

LordTriggs

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honestly it sounds to me like you're giving up after falling to the first hurdle. You state in your first post that he attacked her yesterday. That's literally one attack and you jump to rehoming, have you even tried to understand why he attacked? It could easily have been he was scared. I had similar happen with my conure, he attacked me 2 days in a row out of nowhere. I then quickly understood he was scared of what I was wearing, so I didn't wear the offending item around him anymore.

There's never enough time or enough money, even when you don't have a parrot. You just make it work, hard to explain but you find ways to overcome situations, but to do so you have to make the decision to do it.

There's an excellent point above which you have neglected to answer. What have you done? Without that piece of info we have nothing to go by. A toy can be anything. I made the mistake with my conure of spending loads of cash on toys, his favourite toy? A plastic bottle cap. You don't need to spend thousands on toys or days creating them. A piece of paper to rip up, a little ball to chase around ETC. Can all provide hours of fun. Cereal box? You just gave them at least an hour of shredding time.

As for biting, to correct it all you need is 2 minutes. Any time a bite happens they get a firm "no" and placed on the floor, back of a chair, wherever is not immediately fun where you can ignore them for a minute. Not exactly hard is it?

Ultimately nobody can stop you but it sounds like you're throwing in the towel before the first round is over. Really ask yourself though if it's easier/better for him to during a moment of his life when his body is changing and he doesn't know what's happening to her, to have his entire family abandon him, get put in a new scary place with strangers who he thinks may eat him at any moment. Or is it easier/better for him if you try to make some extra time, have your mother work at becoming friends with him and genuinely work to make the situation habitable for everyone
 

bigfellasdad

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Well said LordTriggs, Scoman123, we all get so much enjoyment from our feathered friends it really is worth the effort!

OOI, I get up at least half an hour earlier each morning just to spend time with Enzo, for both of us it really is a fantastic way of starting the day, I don't do the dishes in the evening as she loves to sit on my shoulder and make all the clanking noises when she gets up. She comes in the shower with me, she drinks her morning tea with me etc. So although i dont dedicate my time to just sitting with her, I get jobs done with enzo at all times. Its not costing me any more time to be honest, and you know what, its probably our favourite part of the day and believe me, im NOT a morning person.
 

LordTriggs

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same here. I would get out of bed early with rio to spend some time with him before work, after work I would have him out whilst I did housework, sorted my own stuff out ETC. Even watching tv he would come hang out. Days off work he'd come out while I laid in bed . Not quite the same as a CAG but in their way Conures can be far more exhausting and needy, mostly due to their cocaine stash.

Like I say, you just kind of make it work. No situation is perfect
 

Kalel

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Sun conure named Lemon (nickname Moonie) hatched August 28, 2014, BFA Professor Green hatched August 22, 2014, Macaw Flash hatched Sept 15, 2007
Scoman123, I'm sorry that it has come to you considering rehoming your bird. Although this is not my first choice and I normally wouldn't recommend this, however, since you are almost at the point of rehoming him I thought I'd suggest it. Have you considered clipping him? It would totally solve the dive bombing mom problem and would give him an attitude adjustment to help you deal with him. Just to be clear, the other suggestions of working with him and training him would be my first choice, but clipping his wings would be an option that to me is better than rehoming him and uprooting his life. If he's going through puberty, it will be easier for him to do so with people he knows and loves rather than complete strangers. Anyways, just thought I'd put that out there. Good luck and please keep us updated on any progress:)
 

MonicaMc

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Sep 12, 2012
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You did ask for "any ideas", only to turn around and say that you don't have time or money.

It would be like someone wanting to learn how to paint, but not having the time to paint, and not willing to make time, even if it's only 5-15 minutes per day. Seriously, training doesn't need to be an hour or more a day! In fact, it can be 15 minutes or less! The money issue can kind of be worked around.


If you are already not willing to put in the effort, even a few minutes a day, then maybe you are right and a new home would be best. It sounds like your grey needs someone with more experience and time than you have right now.


Clipping wings wont solve any issues. Sure, he might not be able to dive-bomb anyone, but they still have feet! And their feet can still get them places where they can bite a person!



Since it sounds like you have already made up your mind, I'm not entirely sure why you are asking us? Unless, of course, you don't really want to give him up?


Ultimately, it's up to you to decide if you can provide what he needs or not, and if you feel it's not you, then find someone who can.
 

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