Lullx
New member
- Mar 6, 2015
- 299
- 1
- Parrots
- Nephele - Baby CAG | Genevieve & Phaedrus - Green Cheeks | Lucy - Lutino Cockatiel | Ludo, Zero & Anzu - Budgerigars
I am reaching my wits' end with my green cheek, Genevieve. She is almost 2 years old, the smartest of my birds (with my baby grey quickly catching up), and also the one that causes the most trouble. She has a serious attitude problem and it has only gotten worse lately. Most of the time she behaves well enough, or at least the trouble she gets into isn't really dangerous or harmful.
But once in a while (and increasing in frequency lately) she will get hyper-aggressive towards my african grey, who is 11 months old and still quite the baby.
Genevieve will sometimes fly directly at Nephele the grey and try to attack her, which causes poor Nilly to take off and try to fly away (her wings haven't grown in yet from when the aviary clipped them, so she doesn't get very far before crashing onto the floor). No one has been hurt yet, but I know it's only a matter of time before: 1) Genevieve bites and hurts Nilly, 2) causes Nilly to hurt herself as she tries to escape, or, my worst fear, 3) Nilly finally has enough and sticks up for herself, which would potentially lead to Genevieve being seriously hurt or worse.
When Nilly is in her cage, Genevieve will sometimes fly over to her cage and try to pick a fight through the bars. I run over as soon as I see her start to land on the cage and make her step up with a dowel. I can't use my own hands for recovery anymore, otherwise I get bitten very hard by the little gremlin. There have been a couple of times where I wasn't quite fast enough and the two engage in a beak battle through the cage bars, but no one has been hurt yet. When Nilly is outside of her cage, Genevieve will dive right at her on purpose. I also use the same dowel perch when someone flies up out of reach where they know they aren't supposed to be (like on top of my curtains).
I had been training her to avoid going near Nilly's cage at all, and for the most part I thought it was working! We were doing SO well. No incidents in quite some time...
Last night, I was sitting with Nephele on the couch, spending some time with her before I switch and grab the smaller birds to sit with them for a bit before I put them all to bed for the night. Before I can put Nilly back, Genevieve flies over to my right shoulder and starts eyeing Nilly, who is perched on my lower right arm. I deflect by cupping my left hand around Genevieve, who loves to snuggle and nap in my hand. She settles down and ignores Nilly, snuggling her beak into my hand. This has been happening a lot lately, which made me think we were all making progress: Both get my attention and snuggles, both are happy and ignoring each other. We're all sitting there for several minutes with no issues.
All of a sudden and seemingly without warning (if there was a warning, I missed it), Genevieve chomps down on my hand in an attempt to make me pull my hand away, and she tries going around my hand to get at Nilly. I don't move, so she grabs onto the back of my hand with her beak and bites me so hard that I accidentally yell out and scare everyone. I have a bruise and it welted up quite a bit. I was also bleeding in three places and she must have gotten a nerve, because my entire left hand and partway up my arm was screaming in pain for the rest of the night. It still kind of hurts now ):
It was close to bed time anyway, so I immediately put everyone away in their cages and shut down the living room for the night.
I've been doing everything I can think of to curb this behavior over the last several months, but after last night I've realized that I will have to clip Genevieve's wings. I can't keep putting it off. I feel so horrible about taking the gift of flight away from her (she LOVES to fly), but I would feel even worse if either her or Nephele got hurt. My poor hands also can't keep taking this sort of abuse.
She is such a good bird until she gets jealous of Nilly. I give them equal time with me, but it's not enough for her. Any time with Nilly is too much according to Genevieve.
I couldn't stop crying last night after I put them away. Thinking of clipping her wings is really breaking my heart, but I don't know what else I can do at this point. Little gremlin thinks she is much bigger than she is, and her attitude really needs to be put in check before a tragedy occurs. I will never forgive myself if either of them get hurt because I was too scared to give Genevieve a trim.
I guess I'm writing this to make sure I'm taking the right course of action by clipping her wings. She is so aggressive sometimes. I know a lot of it is hormones, but she's going to end up getting herself maimed or killed if I don't do something. At the very least, clipping will make it a little more difficult for her to go over and bother Nilly.
My heart hurts so much right now.
But once in a while (and increasing in frequency lately) she will get hyper-aggressive towards my african grey, who is 11 months old and still quite the baby.
Genevieve will sometimes fly directly at Nephele the grey and try to attack her, which causes poor Nilly to take off and try to fly away (her wings haven't grown in yet from when the aviary clipped them, so she doesn't get very far before crashing onto the floor). No one has been hurt yet, but I know it's only a matter of time before: 1) Genevieve bites and hurts Nilly, 2) causes Nilly to hurt herself as she tries to escape, or, my worst fear, 3) Nilly finally has enough and sticks up for herself, which would potentially lead to Genevieve being seriously hurt or worse.
When Nilly is in her cage, Genevieve will sometimes fly over to her cage and try to pick a fight through the bars. I run over as soon as I see her start to land on the cage and make her step up with a dowel. I can't use my own hands for recovery anymore, otherwise I get bitten very hard by the little gremlin. There have been a couple of times where I wasn't quite fast enough and the two engage in a beak battle through the cage bars, but no one has been hurt yet. When Nilly is outside of her cage, Genevieve will dive right at her on purpose. I also use the same dowel perch when someone flies up out of reach where they know they aren't supposed to be (like on top of my curtains).
I had been training her to avoid going near Nilly's cage at all, and for the most part I thought it was working! We were doing SO well. No incidents in quite some time...
Last night, I was sitting with Nephele on the couch, spending some time with her before I switch and grab the smaller birds to sit with them for a bit before I put them all to bed for the night. Before I can put Nilly back, Genevieve flies over to my right shoulder and starts eyeing Nilly, who is perched on my lower right arm. I deflect by cupping my left hand around Genevieve, who loves to snuggle and nap in my hand. She settles down and ignores Nilly, snuggling her beak into my hand. This has been happening a lot lately, which made me think we were all making progress: Both get my attention and snuggles, both are happy and ignoring each other. We're all sitting there for several minutes with no issues.
All of a sudden and seemingly without warning (if there was a warning, I missed it), Genevieve chomps down on my hand in an attempt to make me pull my hand away, and she tries going around my hand to get at Nilly. I don't move, so she grabs onto the back of my hand with her beak and bites me so hard that I accidentally yell out and scare everyone. I have a bruise and it welted up quite a bit. I was also bleeding in three places and she must have gotten a nerve, because my entire left hand and partway up my arm was screaming in pain for the rest of the night. It still kind of hurts now ):
It was close to bed time anyway, so I immediately put everyone away in their cages and shut down the living room for the night.
I've been doing everything I can think of to curb this behavior over the last several months, but after last night I've realized that I will have to clip Genevieve's wings. I can't keep putting it off. I feel so horrible about taking the gift of flight away from her (she LOVES to fly), but I would feel even worse if either her or Nephele got hurt. My poor hands also can't keep taking this sort of abuse.
She is such a good bird until she gets jealous of Nilly. I give them equal time with me, but it's not enough for her. Any time with Nilly is too much according to Genevieve.
I couldn't stop crying last night after I put them away. Thinking of clipping her wings is really breaking my heart, but I don't know what else I can do at this point. Little gremlin thinks she is much bigger than she is, and her attitude really needs to be put in check before a tragedy occurs. I will never forgive myself if either of them get hurt because I was too scared to give Genevieve a trim.
I guess I'm writing this to make sure I'm taking the right course of action by clipping her wings. She is so aggressive sometimes. I know a lot of it is hormones, but she's going to end up getting herself maimed or killed if I don't do something. At the very least, clipping will make it a little more difficult for her to go over and bother Nilly.
My heart hurts so much right now.