Strange Aggression

[Chikoo]

For the second night in a row, my parrot has been doing something weird every night when I go to put her in her cage for bedtime: she lunges at me inside her cage. I have noticed that she is temperamental once its close to bedtime, and I have to be careful handling her, or she can get nippy. But usually I take her on my arm, as she has been a bit nippy with my thumb when I handling her sometimes, as of late. She stays in a screened in deck attached to the house during the day, and eats on top of her little cage inside there. And then at night, I move the cage upstairs to a closet in a room where no one sleeps, and then cover it.

Just for some background, I started doing this for two reasons: 1.) As per my previous thread, she was sleeping in a snuggle hut, and showing signs of nesting, scratching at the bottom constantly, etc. The hut was also in my bedroom, and she was often woken up when I would come in a bit later. 2.) She started plucking her feathers, which I've now concluded is hormonal, because she has stopped as of a few days ago. I think this is because I've removed her "nest", and because she is now getting 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

But when I go and put her in her cage for bedtime, she is lunging, and making a low kind of snarling noise that she makes sometimes when she is really lashing out about something, or when something is happening to her that she doesn't want. The last time she made this noise was when the vet was trimming her nails, and when I tried to see if she wanted to be on her back. It is a kind of low snarl that is not very loud at all, and it is accompanied by her lunging forward with her beak. She does this inside the cage once I put her in there at night, and not at any other time, and not when I am handling her. As I cover her cage, she moves closer to where the activity is and lunges and snarls.

Is she trying to protect her cage and becoming territorial? Is this just part of her hormonal behavior for the time being? This is only the second time it has happened. In general, she has been nippier than before ever since her hormonal frustrations kicked in, but otherwise she is still quite friendly and sociable, and I handle her daily. She will fly to me on command, and I take her for walks as well.

Does anyone have any explanation for this behavior?

 

[lene1949]

You have changed quite a few things over a short period of time... That could have something to do with it...

I would have changed the sleep time gradually... I agree with the removal of the 'nest'...

Did you put her in a different room to sleep? I don't think it matters that she wakes up, when you go to bed, as long as you don't talk/play with her... Birds sleep very lightly - it's hardwired into them... but they do get used to the noises, and just ignore them...

Her behaviour I would just ignore completely...

 

[Chikoo]

Thanks, Lene. I removed her nest first, and allowed her to keep sleeping on her perch in my room, just without the hut. Then after a few days or so, I moved her to her own room to sleep inside her own cage.

I've been curious how birds sleep. They seem to sleep intermittently or something. At least, when my bird was sleeping in my bedroom, in the middle of the night, she would come out on her perch from her hut, and sometimes would stay there the rest of the night. She would scratch herself and I would sometimes wake up hearing her shake her feathers.

I will just ignore the lunging and see if it goes away.