My Red Belly, Duncan

[MyFlock]

He'll be traveling in style in his new pak-o-bird! Now if I can only get him out the cage! Lol
Oh yes! They can be hard biters, he can really dig in with that beak! My GCC who is cage aggressive I let him come out on his own and if I need to get him out for the vet I towel him. He's pretty antisocial as it is so I leave him alone whenever possible, he's not your typical cuddly GCC that Ive read about. Lol

My Jenday and Sunday are not cage aggressive at all, I have no problem with those guys.

Toweling a bigger bird I believe would be unreasonable so I'm going to get him his stick and have him pick out a nut and do stick training with Duncan. Makes me wonder how he came to be that way in first place ? or if he's always been that way like my GCC.

 

[Taw5106]

When I first brought Buddy home (GCA), he let me rub his head through the bars, I was nervous, didn't know what to expect. He's not cage aggressive but it took me a while to learn him. I would leave his cage open but he never came out, then on the fourth morning, he just stepped up on my hand and made his way to my shoulder. And then he yanked my earring out and crunched it all the while making pretty sounds. I let him set the pace and it sounds like you're doing that.

Duncan is a gorgeous bird. I was looking a red bellied in December, he was a character. He'd roll on his back with his legs in the air. He found a home in January, he stole my heart, lol.

 

[MyFlock]

When I first brought Buddy home (GCA), he let me rub his head through the bars, I was nervous, didn't know what to expect. He's not cage aggressive but it took me a while to learn him. I would leave his cage open but he never came out, then on the fourth morning, he just stepped up on my hand and made his way to my shoulder. And then he yanked my earring out and crunched it all the while making pretty sounds. I let him set the pace and it sounds like you're doing that.

Duncan is a gorgeous bird. I was looking a red bellied in December, he was a character. He'd roll on his back with his legs in the air. He found a home in January, he stole my heart, lol.

I think you're missing a Red belly in your flock! intitially I had wanted to get one after researching them since they fit my personality so well but then I became undecided. I happened to go into a pet shop to look for cages and they had two red bellies there so I asked to see them, the "friendly one " which is Duncan seemed a tad grumpy and pissed off, they had him by a flock of chickens so maybe that's why he was so grumpy looking, plus he'd been there for who knows how long. He's two years old so someone obviously dropped him off there and walked away.

After reading Silversages post about them still being there a month later I decided to have another look and also Ravengryf suggestion that this type of bird sounds like the one for me! I looked at them again and Duncan still seemed grumpy but my mind was set at that point, out of two red bellied parrots the shop workers suggested I take that particular one home. I'm sooooo glad I did! He is the best bird ever! He talks, he's independent, he does tricks, he's not overbearingly loud and is everything I could have ever hoped for! He no longer looks grumpy, I swear I can see a smile on his face now, if a bird could smile. I think he just hated being in the pet shop confined in a small space.

I highly recommend these parrots! They are awesome!

 

[RavensGryf]

I'm so happy for you . They're the right bird for me also. But just wait til hormones hit in the winter lol. He might be a bit young though.

No, Pois wouldn't be loud to you at all since you have a Jenday and Sun conure!

 

[MyFlock]

Uh oh! Tell me what the hormones are like with male red bellies, what can I expect?

 

[RavensGryf]

Well.... Robin is now almost 21 so he's mellowed out a bit finally . When he was younger he'd bite and clamp on so extremely hard that he once took a chunk of flesh out of my hand that wouldn't stop bleeding. Nice to have to go to the ER to get it cauterized on Christmas day lol.
Another time, he went in to attack mode when he was on my pants. I didn't have a stick handy, but quickly realized that I had to remove my sweat pants immediately before anything happened... then there he was, laying on the floor with the pants biting them like mad!

The Pois and especially males can be pretty formidable with those beaks when they want to be. It reminds me of what people say about Caiques when they mean business and are out to kill. What's also hard is that the African species don't show such an overt body language before striking as the South American birds do. With Robin anyway, his bites are almost always the bite and hang on type, not bite and release. You'll be fine, no Poi owners have lost a finger on account of the bird lol.

Don't worry though, haha. The otherwise sweet nature and cuteness more than make up for it . How are your conures? Do conures show much of a marked aggressive period when hormones hit?

 

[MyFlock]

I know they bite and hold on lol I've already experienced it! Well, that sounds a bit scary, I might need to get suited up with armor around those times ...

My Jenday is a nippy brat when hormonal, when she bites she will release. She screams and becomes more demanding. The Sunday I haven't experienced his hormonal period yet.

My female lovebird on the other hand, has them all beat! She turns into a vicious yellow monster! watch out! She's bloodied my fingers many times but not so much anymore because I'm more careful not to get in her way.

 

[MyFlock]

Here's Duncan enjoying blue skies.

 

[Grraarrgghh]

So gorgeous.

I find when Albert is in a "bite to maim" mood rather than a "bite to BACKOFF!" mood, I just have to be quick to pry his beak open before he takes skin with it.

Mind you, the only time so far that he's broken skin is on my wife when we were putting on his harness a few weeks ago. He does not like the harness.

 

[MyFlock]

When Duncan has bitten me I try not to react and then try again later, but prying the beak off seems like a good idea! They really hold on! It's not a bite and they are done like my conures! Which sort surprised me at first.

 

[MyFlock]

You know, they sort of remind me of large sized lovebirds in a way. I think I must be partial to the African species of birds. Lovebirds do the bite and hold as well but even though they are small they can still pack a whopper of a bite!

 

[Grraarrgghh]

Yeah Red Bellies are weird. They're pretty chill like 95% of the time, but sometimes they get a bug up their vent and think your hands are the worst thing ever. Sometimes I'll pry Albert off after he gets bitey and while I'm holding him (firmly, not tightly, no chest pressure) in my other hand, he'll whip his head at me furiously and go "EEK EEK EEK!" as loud as a Red Belly can (doesn't even make your ears ring like most parrots haha).

Of course, immediately after he gets that out of his system, I put him down, and he'll fly onto my shoulder and bend over for head scratches.

Birds.

 

[MyFlock]

I can tell Duncan is sensitive to how I do things or don't do things the way he thinks I'm supposed do them, he likes to do his own thing and if I bother him for instance like asking him to step up when he doesn't want to he'll give me a bite. I just need to get to know him more I think , we are not in sync yet but we are slowly getting there.

I'm going to try stick training him to get out of the cage, that's his main issue right now. That darn cage!

 

[RavensGryf]

I'm going to try stick training him to get out of the cage, that's his main issue right now. That darn cage!

Just make sure the stick is long enough LOL . I find an easy way to do it (with Raven my Pionus) since he is almost always it threat posture around his cage with me, I have a "T" shaped stick. The top of the T doesn't have to be long, but the handle does. I need to replace my handle, cause a mad Pionus running up the stick is not good!

 

[MyFlock]

I'll see if I can find a T shaped stick this weekend or at least an extra long one

 

[MyFlock]

Lol I just heard Duncan say; Do you have any money? Omg! Too funny!

 

[MyFlock]

Another Duncan photo. Does his beak look normal to you? I thought it looked dry.

 

[RavensGryf]

The beak looks completely normal.

 

[MyFlock]

Thank you!

 

[MyFlock]

I started stick training with Duncan, he steps right up on the stick so I think he was already stick trained which leads me to believe that's how his previous owners got him out of the cage! Before I had the stick I tried to get him to step up on my bare hand and boy did he get me good! This time he drew blood.

So I have him step up on the stick now and give him an almond, his nut of choice.