Sudden aggression?

Ok, well, I think all of you know that I have two 6 mo. old GCCs, Bella and Zora. Well for the past few days they have been really nippy, and they never are. I'm still trying to figure out why. They have been sometimes avoiding me unless I have a toy/treat in my hand. Bella is more moody than Zora mostly. They'll get all 200% puffed up and cluck at me then dig in and chomp. And I have no idea why. For example, I'll pick up Zora and (randomly???) give me a hard nip. At least I get to pick up zora. Bella sometimes won't even let me touch her. That's so out of character. I'm guessing cage aggresiveness??? 3 or 4 days ago they got a huge cage compared to their old one (20 by 22 then 33 by 23). That's the only thing I can think of. I haven't really been observing very well, but after the next few days I'll see if the nipping is happening when I'm touching/approaching their cage.
Anyways. If it is cage agressiveness, can any of you people please tell me how to stop it??? Do I do the ''floor and ignore" thing, ladder, etc... Before I used to give them tim out when they nipped for say, being in a bad mood, but now they want to be in their cage. :20: Can any or all help me? Any help would be SUPER appreciated!

Hi CG,

Hmmm this is beyond what I know as far as giving advice. From what I read though, two birds housed together have a tendency to bond with each other and less with their human, sometimes even becoming hostile. They may see others as intruders and try to protect their bonded partner. I'm not sure if this applies to 6 month olds as they may have not sexually matured yet.

Drastic measures would be to separate them in different cages, but like I said that seems drastic. Try rearranging their cage interior or even the location of the cage I heard that helps in cage aggressiveness (at least for single-housed birds). You can also go for the try and tested positive reinforcement. Treats when theyre behaving, turn your back when they're not.

Hopefully someone else could give more experienced tips. Good luck!

Thank you. I honestly dot think it has anything to do with them bonding and going against me, nut more of new cage aggressiveness... I haven't had this problem with any of my finds so... I'm kind of lost.

Is it possible that the new cage is making them less secure? I would expect a change in cage to work against cage aggression not to encourage it. You could try moving them back to the old cage if you still have it and make the transition more gradual, putting them in the bigger one for a bit of play time, then back to the smaller one. Is this a flight-style cage?

It sounds from your description more that they don't want to come out than that they are truly being cage aggressive. I'd address not wanting to come out by making "out" as rewarding as possible. Give special treats, have special fun things to do... If they are chasing you away from the cage and making it hard to feed them, clean the cage, etc, that's more territorial.

I'd also suggest thinking carefully about anything else that might have changed at the same time. Is the cage in much the same place? Is there anything you might have done around the time of the transition to either inadvertently reward the behavior or to make them feel less trusting? How did you move them from the old cage to the new one?

I was going to mention this in my original post but forgot. I switched Boomer to a new cage which he has had for 1 week now. It did not cause any aggression with him. (it did gave the unintended side effect of him forgetting he had to poop on his poop perch, which im trying to make him relearn). It could be as Deb said, they might be feeling insecure of the change. I read that most parrots don't take to change very well.

It is a flight style cage:
http://www.parrotforums.com/cages/22231-new-cage-got-here-yay.html
The cage is in the exact same spot, no change, and it's the same height (give or take 2 inches).
I was filling the cage with toys in the next room when they heard me and flew over, and they were doing everything in their power to get and play with their new house. I put them in and they liked it, so what the heck, I left them in there. Then I took them out and moved the cage into there normal spot. The only thing I can think of which would make them mad at me would be when I bumped the cage with my hip. I was SO sorry and I started apolagizing and then I gave them each half an almond. That's it. I'll try making time out as amazing as possible. Should I leave them alone when they bite or will that only encourage the behaviour???

There are two things about a flight style cage that I can imagine making a difference. The first is that it's harder to climb the sides due to the lack of panels with mostly horizontal bars, but since they are flighted, this may not be too big a deal. The second is the lack of outside feeder doors. If they aren't used to you reaching into the cage to place food and water, it may seem like an intrusion.

But it is possible they are just enjoying the new space, as you initially surmised.

Well, their old cage did not have feeder style doors, but did have horizontal bars on two panels. I'd also like to add that I now realize how in my previous post I made it sound like they were flighted. They are very lightly clipped. They were able to get out of the room they were in, walk to the shelf, climb up that, and take off again, landing on me. They cannot fly from the floor, it has to be a high place like a cage or in this case a shelf. And it's all downwards as well. They can fly distance, but no way can they fly upwards. Just wanted to clarify that....