please I need advice about Buddy

[Dinky318]

Last night we had a very, very good night with him. Last night he was on the living room floor playing with the cat, yes I said cat, lol. I was nervous the whole time, but everything was good. Buddy even came out his cage and actually let me kiss him I only did it once, I don't want my lip pierced by Buddy, lol.

Now for today...Buddy has been showing a lot of aggression towards my husband. He comes out his cage and goes to the side my husband is sitting. When he is inside the cage he tries to grab my husbands arm with his foot, and just seems really aggressive, he tries to bite out the cage, so when he came out the cage, I told my husband to see if Buddy would maybe let him touch him....Wrong move, Buddy took a chunk out of my husbands finger.

I went to Buddy and said NO! NO! and I closed his cage. He stayed in the corner of his cage, but my husband is sitting in the recliner, and now Buddy has come to that side of the cage and has his back to my husband. Since he bit my husband, he is very quiet, and just still. Can he possible know he did wrong?

 

[crimson]

For whatever reason Buddy may not be too fond of your husband. I don't own a cockatoo, so hopefully someone will be along shortly and offer some good advice.

don't despair, things like this happen all the time, with all types of birds.

my Senegal hated everyone but me, so it does happen quite often.

 

[Pinkbirdy]

I too find this true with my rehomed [white 2s].Im lucky [my guy is a real bird person too] Your husband is going to have to "Win him over " in a big way and stand up to his lunging bluffs . Have a perch handy [to put him back ] and not get bit. Learn to read their moods [sometimes they don't want to do everything you want to.] Also toos can turn very aggressive on the floor . Please don't do the cat with him [im sure theirs not good stories on here [find them ]

 

[Jayyj]

With careful supervision it's possible for certain cats and birds to cohabit perfectly happily - but because cats (and other predatory mammals, us included) carry bacteria in their mouths that is deadly to birds it only takes a scratch from a tooth or recently washed claw and your bird is in serious trouble. My cat and bird coexist perfectly happily in the same space, but I wouldn't go as far as to let them play together or leave them unsupervised. Where you set your boundaries with them is entirely down to your comfort level and the personality of the individual animals, just be aware of the potential seriousness if something goes wrong - at the very least it's an emergency vet visit.

My only experience that might be relevant with the husband thing is I have a friend who occasionally stays with me who Alice took an initial dislike to. She landed a couple of bites the first time the friend stayed, even drawing blood which is an extreme rarity with Alice. After that my friend was naturally pretty tense around the bird, which made things worse and every time she walked into the bird's space Alice would go into hunch and lunge posture.

The first thing we did to address it was to start out with the bird inside the cage and simply for my friend to offer favourite treats through the cage bars. Once she was accepting treats gently and consistently, we moved to Alice on my arm and held just below chest height, and my friend stroking the top of her head (Alice adores having her crest stroked), with me ready to move her away if she did anything aggressive. We're now at a point where Alice will happily sit on my friend's forearm and nuzzle her with her beak, so I think we can consider them friends... although my friend insists on wearing very thick jumpers whenever the bird's about!

I'm very lucky with Alice in that she's extremely unaggressive and easy to handle, so it may be your situation is a little more complicated, but I'd at least try the treats through the bars thing to see if you can make any progress, and there are others here with lots of experience of more aggressive birds who I'm sure will help if he's not so easily won over.

 

[strudel]

MonicaMc posted some links (thanks!) in another thread which I'd read just today, including this one.
Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Respecting the Bite

Her approach is the same as Jayyj has been having success with. I'd give that a try.

 

[Dinky318]

Thank you everyone. I knew I was going to have problems, and set backs with Buddy. It took him 4 months just to let me get close enough to trust him to let me kiss him. I will never push Buddy to do what he doesn't want to do, I never want to make him feel threatened by anyone. He is still jumpy any time he sees a stick, so I don't go around him with one. I wish I could see into his soul to see what he went through in that house. I was thinking he maybe more aggressive with my husband because his abuser was a male. I really don't know, I'm just guessing.
Thank y'all for any information, Buddy is my first exotic animal, so Buddy and I are learning together. He's learning to trust and let someone love him, and I'm learning patience and how intelligent these birds are...

 

[jenphilly]

I am trying to make sure I remember properly about Buddy... was he abused previously by a man in his last home?? If so, you may still be dealing with residual fear behavior. Or, the first thought that came into my head is that Buddy loves you and hubby is not gonna be a member of the flock.... We have a bare eyed and she is super social, literally enjoys everyone, but not sure if Goffins are quite as social butterflies, if they have the larger cockatoo issue of overbonding to one person, you may be dealing with who Buddy has chosen as his caregiver....

 

[getwozzy]

I was thinking he maybe more aggressive with my husband because his abuser was a male. I really don't know, I'm just guessing.

You guessed right!!

Buddy being abused by a man is the root of the problem. Now he sees all men as abusive jerks and the only way he knows how to deal with it is by showing his emotions (lunging, biting, screaming, making a fuss) in hopes that someone will heed his warnings. He doesn't understand that not all men (your hubby) are out to hurt him. And you said he's scared of sticks?? I could probably assume that since his previous man was abusing him that a stick may have been involved.

Undoing the effects of being abused will take A LOT of time, patience, persistence, and love. Your hubby needs to spend daily one-on-one time with Buddy (and you should be elsewhere not to be seen or heard otherwise Buddy may flip out)....not necessarily touching or holding him, but at least interacting with him. Like Jay said earlier, start with trying to give him treats and food through the bars. If he feels unsafe doing it with his fingers try putting the treats in a bowl or on a spoon. He could also sit nearby and read a book to buddy...use exciting tones in his voice to make it sound fun.

Btw- what kind of 'too is Buddy??