Cockatoo keeps flying at me

Hi everyone,

I adopted a cockatoo about 5 months ago. I'm not sure how old he is, the vet estimated him to be a young adult, so I'm guessing in his twenties. My question is, this morning when I was getting his food ready at the kitchen counter He came running up to the plate and started eating his oatmeal, then turned and bit me. Maybe because I was to close to his food? The things is, when he bites, he just keeps biting and readjusting until he finally just stops. Its not like a quick hey I don't like that. I put him in his cage and had to go to work. I left the radio on for him when I left. I do everyday. When I came home he seemed a little scared of me, but I opened his cage and let him out. I sat there with him, then all of a sudden he flew at me, like he wanted to get on my shoulder. I don't allow him on my shoulder, 1, because he doesn't always step up when I tell him to, and two I don't want to get bit in my face. I just don't feel like I've developed his trust enough for that yet. I'm not sure why he is acting like this, he is usually pretty cuddly with me, and never tried to get on my shoulder before. For instance, yesterday we snuggled all day. He just sat in my lap and I pet the top of his head or he just sat there with me. Any advice on what might be going On? He is also striking his cage a lot today.

Could it possibly be hormones? My Ekkie tries to climb up my shoulder, are all over me in general when he's got the feeling. Feeding something warm and or mushy like oatmeal around this time may not be best, if in fact that is what's happening. It's summer time, so if it's too warm in your house that might contribute to it, I would make sure he's getting at least 10 hours of sleep per day as well.

I've never heard of anything bad about leaving the radio on, but I would try a timer to plug it into. Maybe having the consistent drone of noise for hours and hours on end put him on edge. I know it would put me on edge. And maybe only set the time for certain shows, there may be some sounds on the radio that irritate him. Tv with people just talking might also b better.

Does he have a window view while you are away? Something to look at?

But I would say if he previously had some sort of bond with you, and this is a sudden change, it is probably hormones. Or you unknowingly did something to piss him off, which also happens. Maybe he saw you getting cuddly with someone else or another animal and is feeling jealousy.

sounds like he's hormonal to me. Just so you're aware young adult means he's made the jump from a baby/fledgling to a bird that can breed. This could mean he might be about 6 or so (I can't quite remember hormone age in Cockatoos)

I would stop giving him oatmeal right away, the warm gooey texture is the same as a mate regurgitating which is one of the fastest ways to set hormones off. If he isn't make sure he gets 10-12 hours of sleep each night.

The biting is something to expect with hormones, just enforce the bite training you have. I personally don't like using a cage as it can cause more extreme problems. Just plop him on the floor and purposefully ignore him for a minute, he'll get the message that he did a bad thing. It's really good you're saying "maybe I was too close" it means you understand there's a reason for it which there will be, go detective mode whenever he bites and figure out what sets him off, it could be anything. My conure for example hated my red hoody and would nip me until it was off. Only the red hoody though, any other he was okay with.

The banging on his bars strikes me as territorial behavior, essentially when he bangs the cage with his beak he's saying "see this? MINE!" if he only does it to his cage then let him have that boundary, it's his cage anyway. Just let him come out of his own accord, try re-arranging the cage or even put it in a new place in the home. He'll hopefully be thrown off and will be less inclined to be hormonal, it should also be pretty interesting for him.

Lastly the shoulder thing is just parrots enjoying being high up, they feel safe up high, definitely keep him off until you can trust him, work on stepping up onto a perch and then work towards your hand/arm. A Perch is a lot less frightening for them and is a good if anyone else needs to handle him, always bribe with a good treat to get him up until it becomes second nature

Hopefully it is just hormones in which case he will pass through it in a couple weeks as long as you don't encourage the behavior