Sudden Aggression

[stiles]

ChrisYNA - I'll try getting rid of the bells to see if anything changes. From the limited amount of information I was told, there was only one previous owner and she was an older lady who had to give him up because she had lung problems and the doctor told her the bird dander was only making it worse for her. She has had the bird since he was a baby and the rescue had her fill out any information she could. The rescue told me she was bawling her eyes out when she brought him in. The thing she noted in the papers is that Chelly is really fond of his bells and it's his favorite toy.

For that reason, that is why from my first post, I said I think I screwed up when I touched his bells, because he hasn't been the same since and I think I lost that early trust I built up when I first brought him home. Prior to the incident of me touching his bells, he literally never left my side. He demanded head scritches all the times and let me know with light nibbles on my finger and he would even stick his head under my thumb all the time so I would scratch his head. If my hand was in a cupped shape, he loved crawling into it and just falling asleep with my hand wrapped around him. He never even bit me if my hand was in his cage and I could always get him to step up from inside his cage. The ONLY time he ever gently nipped at me was when I changed his food/water bowls and that was it. Wherever I was in the apartment, he needed to be near me or he would start screeching. Even when I worked on my computer, he had to sit on my hand while I moved the mouse around. There was 0 aggression in him. I work from home so I spent lots and lots of time with him and I've learned some of his smaller signs like when he's relaxed, I know how his feathers will fluff up and he will always pull up his one foot. I know the sounds he makes when he's satisfied/content and I know the look of happiness in his eyes. He would give me signs when he wanted to go back to his cage to rest or to get more food/water and I would take him there. I never forced him to come out of his cage and if he didn't want to go back in I never forced him either. I made sure he was as comfortable as possible and he seemed extremely happy every one of those days. Every night he had complete silence and I always gave him 12 hours of sleep minimum. When I first take his covers off every morning he would screech excitedly and the moment I open his cage he would hop on me and demand scritches and preen my facial hair and scratch himself with my beard.

Literally all of this is gone. When I take his covers off now, he will start aggressively tugging on his toy bells, screech once, and then give me this angry look. Then he will run up to the cage wall, climb on it, and start trying to bite me through the wall. When I open his door, he tries to lunge at me and bite me until I go away. The fluffing up he does now is not the same fluffing he does when he's relaxed and I can clearly see the difference. He also lowers his stance and has his beak slightly open and I can tell he's just waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I can also see it in his eyes that he is not happy with me. The feeling I'm getting from him is that he no longer trusts me. This is why I'm also a little hesitant about removing his bells, because I felt me touching his bells in the first place is what got me in this situation. This cage and his toys (including the bells) have been with him since the very beginning when the previous owner bought him and it's never changed. He's always been a bit territorial, but the rescue had him at their home (they fostered him) for 4 months before I adopted him and they didn't have this issue besides the light nipping when changing food/water. Like I mentioned before too, the first couple days after the bell incident, I just left his cage door open and let him come out on his own. His cage is next to my couch in the living room and I watched tv there all the time and at first he would climb out of the cage and climb towards the bottom and make noises at me to pick him up. He would demand scritches like normal so I thought okay this is fine, I just can't be by his cage but he still likes me outside of the cage. Couple days later though, he did the same thing but this time the moment he got on my hand he started aggressively attacking my hand. That was the last time I was able to even have him on my hand. He viciously attacks my hand now when it's even close to him. He just started climbing out of his cage today again, but I have him climb on his basket and I set him down, but that's the extent of the interactions I can have with him because he tries to bite my hand thats holding the basket too. I very carefully hand feed him his grapes he loves but if I'm not careful he tries to go for the the side of my finger holding the grape.

For now I just try to spend a lot of time in the room with him, talking to him, getting excited when he gets out of the cage. I even cheer for him when he takes food out of my hand without attacking it. I'm just hoping deep down inside he still likes me and will give me a chance again eventually. I will give him all the time and space he needs, I'm just trying to figure out when is the right time to approach him again. I'm mostly worried because I know conures need attention and they like affection and I don't want Chelly getting anxious/stressed that he's not getting it because he won't let me handle him. I just want him to have the happiest/best life he can possibly have.

I've attached some before pictures (when he was a very happy birb) and 2 after pictures where he's the little rage monster now. (Not sure why the last two photos won't rotate correctly... sorry).

 

[stiles]

Big update! So, ChrisYNA, I followed your advice and removed all bells completely from his cage and perches and everything. He no longer fights his toys and screeches at me. He still doesn't seem like he wants me to pet him but while I was working on my computer today, he stepped off his perch and onto my hand on his own and he didn't bite me at all!!!! Baby steps!!!

 

[lplummer52]

Make sure he is getting at least 12 hours of sleep. An over stimulated bird is aggressive. Make sure to cover his cage at night. Ignore his aggressive behavior, i.e., working on your computer. Parrots hate to be ignored.

 

[MonicaMc]

I'm sorry that you've been given some poor advice before from other people. Sadly, IMO, that advice is common and doesn't always help... sometimes it can make things worse.

It's better to avoid the bites by learning the triggers to them than getting bitten then trying to punish the bird for biting. If you do get bit, you don't need to "do" or "say" anything. That is, you don't need to say "No!" or "No biting!". No "earthquake" method, no beak grabbing, no flicking them, etc. Simply pry them off of you and set them down. If you aren't near the cage, then set them down on the ground, a table, a chair, anything that's near by!


From the sounds of it, your conure was giving you warning signals that he would bite hard, and you ignored them. He might have trust issues with hands around his cage (I wouldn't consider him cage aggressive necessarily - probably just doesn't have good experience with hands near his cage).


If your conure is in the cage, then any time you walk by, drop a special treat into a cup. With the door closed, work on target training through the cage bars, then once he's good at that, work on target training through the cage door, then around the outside of the cage. Eventually, you can work your way up to target training away from the cage.

Station training will help with the aggression with the food dishes. If you teach him to "stay put" on a perch while you change out the dishes, this can help to avoid bites. It's much easier if you have a cage with food doors and you can multiple dishes so you can easily and quickly swap out the old ones for the new ones.

 

[stiles]

Chelly is getting a lot more comfortable with me again. Still bites a little bit but not as hard as before. He likes to spend a lot of time sitting on my shoulder or scratching his head on my beard and spends most of his day just hanging out on me.

One thing that I'm still trying to work on is getting him comfortable with my fingers again. He has no problems doing step up on my wrist/forearm, but he will not step up onto my fingers anymore. If my fingers approach him he either backs up a little or tries to bite them (seems like he's afraid of my fingers now). The odd thing though is he will walk over to my fingers on his own and step up on them when he's the one doing it. So it doesn't look like he's afraid of my fingers, but afraid of my fingers approaching him. Right now I'm giving him treats with my fingers and he'll take them without biting me so I'm in the process of getting him to be okay with my fingers again. Anyone else have any tricks they used to get their birbs being okay with their fingers?

Note: When I first brought him home (prior to this whole bell incident) he had no issues with my fingers whatsoever.

 

[MonicaMc]

I'm using treats now to teach a hands off conure to step up. It's all done by his choice and by what he's willing to give. If he wont give as much as I want, even if he just did it, then I relax the requirements so that he remains comfortable with the situation.

 

[stiles]

Chelly seems to have flipped back to aggression mode and is tearing up my hand once again. When he bites he goes super aggressively at it and shunning isn’t working at all. Before he was fine on my shoulders and would never bite my lip or ears but he’s starting to do that now as well. I pretty much can’t have him on me anymore. I went to my local bird store and spoke to the owner who has a lot of experiences with birds and was highly recommended by multiple people and he told me it’s possible this sudden aggression is hormones? At first he wanted me to clip his wings and put him on the floor to retrain him to not bite when I ask him to step up but I’m really not a fan of clipping wings. I’ve searched around looking at signs of hormonal conures and he does seem to fit some of the signs. Sudden aggression, trembling, he started plucking his feathers a little, increased territoriality, and a lot more vocal than normal. Anyone know the typical breeding months for GCCs? I’m really hoping it’s just hormones and will pass. It’s really difficult for me not being able to hold my baby.

 

[BoomBoom]

Sorry you are going through this. It's very normal to have these cycles of improvement then regression. Stay consistent with the shunning method but give him no access to your shoulders or face for now until he shows improvement. Avoid creating instances where he would bite so as not to encourage a negative habit. It may take some time but you will get there.

Yes, hormones is a huge part of this. It's worse the first time around but will always be a part of your bird's life depending on the season. The violent displays will lessen in intensity as he matures and mellows out.

Have you taken him to the vet to rule out possible health issues attributed to the aggression? That's another possibility. If anything, a vet visit might give you peace of mind and a boost to morale. Vets with great bed side manners always does that for me. My opinion is not to clip but I understand that this is a personal decision.

Stay strong! You and your bird will get through this with training and proper approach. It may just take some time.

 

[lplummer52]

Oh, poor you! I really feel bad because I know you are doing your best. Now you know why parrots end up in Rescue. Especially because he was so sweet at first. But this is not your fault. You are sharing your life with a wild creature. GalleriaGila's advice is spot on. It may not be the relationship you were envisioning, but it can be a richly rewarding one. This bird needs you right now whether he knows it or not. Keep trying. And keep fingers and shoulders out of the bird's reach. You can try wing clipping. If it doesn't help, they grow back!

 

[stiles]

BoomBoom - I have brought him for a check up at the vet pretty recently, and he was given a clean bill of health. Today he was being better and less bitey. He ALWAYS wants to sit on me though and when I don't let him sit on my hand he starts screeching at me. He won't let me approach him still with my hands but he will run onto my hand on his own. When he's on there though I get super nervous about him biting me out of nowhere so I barely move it while he's sitting on me. When I need him off my hands, because I need to do something, he will start chomping on me the moment he sees me trying to put him on his perch.

I was doing more research into hormones for conures and they said some conures can be very hormonal from 5 years - 12 years old? (Chelly is 5 years old right now). I just keep telling myself it's hormones right now because it makes me feel more at peace and gives me hope that once this period of hormones is over he'll return to being my sweet little angel. I don't really want to think that he's gonna remain aggressive forever cause that would break my heart.

 

[Laurasea]

My GCC girl girl through biting occasionally, I always try to figure out why, right now it is jellousy of the phone, if I have it on me near me, ir am useing it I get bit. One time when it was bad I read somewhere to dip my fingers in sugar, it worked and broke the cycle. Not healthy, not something to do often. Just did it a couple of days in a row, and she bit then was like wow fingeres good!