Aggressive biting yellow-bib lorikeet

[ruban]

Hi all,

This is my first post and probably a topic heard quite a bit. I have a male yellow bibbed lorikeet who hatched Apr 11 2018. When he was young, he was very playful and did not bite at all, at least nothing that hurt. I was always gentle, and I would say little phrases like “I got you”, “come here”, “peekaboo” and so on. We would laugh together as he picked up language quite well and also mimicked my laugh.

After 6 months he started biting extremely hard and I’m not sure why. My fingers would end up bleeding quite a lot. I have a tube of polysporin that is almost empty. I changed the way I interacted with him and things improved somewhat, but there was always weariness about what he might do. The worst injury is when I surprised him by uncovering my eyes and saying peekaboo in a gentle voice while he layed on my palm. Immediately his beak sank in to my nose, and I had a large cross cut “C” shaped beak scar, as his beak went half a centimetre in to my nose! lol. Didn’t hurt, but lots of blood. I never did that again.

Now after 1.5 years he has started biting my feet and hands again, and has become a lot more vocal in his cage, saying “I got you” over and over in the morning before work, and laughing more loud than ever before. His vocalizations seem a lot more frantic or energetic recently. After he bites me he goes in to loud English-like rants “I’m gonna get you some”, “I got you”, “hahahahahaha”, pacing back and forth. lol. Almost intimidating.

What age do they go through hormonal changes? How long does it last? Any advice? Toys and stuff change from time to time except his favourite toys. I keep his home clean. I always talk to him. Regular sleep. I’m a little at a loss.

Yesterday, I wore a leather glove on one hand. He didn’t seem to mind and he played with the gloved hand trying to chew it up and wrestle with it. I found I could have him out of his cage for a longer period doing this while my other naked hand could offer food, toys, or touches.

This is tough for me since I’ve never had to deal with it in the past. Any advice?
Thanks

 

[LaManuka]

A belated welcome to the forum to you and your lorikeet!

I’m so sorry ruban that I didn’t notice your post earlier. Looking at the dates it seems to have coincided with my lorikeet hen’s last bout of egg-laying so I would’ve been preoccupied. In fact she’s laying again now and again I find myself being her butler and/or slave!

Potential aggression is the main reason why I’ve always shied away from the larger lorikeet species. A friend of mine about 20 years ago had a rainbow lorikeet that was extremely aggressive and would bite her and her partner very hard indeed. At about your lorikeet’s age I would think sexual maturity and therefore hormones would be a major contributing factor in his behaviour. As to exactly what you’d be advised to do about it I really couldn’t say since neither training nor discipline have ever been my forté. Lorikeets do seem to me at least to be among the more wilful and assertive species and I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful to you than that. I hope someone else may be able to give you some better advice!

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to return to my servant duties!

 

[ruban]

A belated welcome to the forum to you and your lorikeet!

I’m so sorry ruban that I didn’t notice your post earlier. Looking at the dates it seems to have coincided with my lorikeet hen’s last bout of egg-laying so I would’ve been preoccupied. In fact she’s laying again now and again I find myself being her butler and/or slave!

Potential aggression is the main reason why I’ve always shied away from the larger lorikeet species. A friend of mine about 20 years ago had a rainbow lorikeet that was extremely aggressive and would bite her and her partner very hard indeed. At about your lorikeet’s age I would think sexual maturity and therefore hormones would be a major contributing factor in his behaviour. As to exactly what you’d be advised to do about it I really couldn’t say since neither training nor discipline have ever been my forté. Lorikeets do seem to me at least to be among the more wilful and assertive species and I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful to you than that. I hope someone else may be able to give you some better advice!

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to return to my servant duties!

Thanks LaManuka,

sorry, its been a while. Ruban is approaching 4 years of age this coming April and his hard biting behaviour has subsided on its own. I am not sure why, although a few times he does bite hard, but a lot less blood than what it used to be. In fact, I enjoy our playtimes because he plays so furiously, growling like a dog as he tries to beat up my fingers. During playtime I end up with shredded skin on my digits but it is still a million times better than what it used to be. He sure is a ball of energy. I am hoping to phase out the left-hand leather glove. Ruban doesnt like it when I remove it, lol.

His vocabulary is impressive. I notice he likes to rule the house. He is bossy and insists he has his way. He trusts me, but he is the type of bird that wants more interaction than affection. He is not the type of bird that likes to be carressed to sleep.

During the difficult period, I just kept my routine in place and was careful to not trigger him, although I wasn’t always sure what did that.

Once or twice in the last few months he would fly to my shoulder, bite my ear hard, and fly away. He would say “i got you” and laugh, “hahahahahahaha”. Still, not nearly as bad as it used to be. He is probably becoming more mellow as the hormone levels fall. It is somewhat as the breeder had said, they will be hormonal from 2 to 3 years and they are definatelly not for beginners. Didnt know what “not for beginners” really meant at the time, lol.

anyways, I feel like play time again. Time to go.

 

[LaManuka]

Thanks LaManuka,

sorry, its been a while. Ruban is approaching 4 years of age this coming April and his hard biting behaviour has subsided on its own. I am not sure why, although a few times he does bite hard, but a lot less blood than what it used to be. In fact, I enjoy our playtimes because he plays so furiously, growling like a dog as he tries to beat up my fingers. During playtime I end up with shredded skin on my digits but it is still a million times better than what it used to be. He sure is a ball of energy. I am hoping to phase out the left-hand leather glove. Ruban doesnt like it when I remove it, lol.

His vocabulary is impressive. I notice he likes to rule the house. He is bossy and insists he has his way. He trusts me, but he is the type of bird that wants more interaction than affection. He is not the type of bird that likes to be carressed to sleep.

During the difficult period, I just kept my routine in place and was careful to not trigger him, although I wasn’t always sure what did that.

Once or twice in the last few months he would fly to my shoulder, bite my ear hard, and fly away. He would say “i got you” and laugh, “hahahahahahaha”. Still, not nearly as bad as it used to be. He is probably becoming more mellow as the hormone levels fall. It is somewhat as the breeder had said, they will be hormonal from 2 to 3 years and they are definatelly not for beginners. Didnt know what “not for beginners” really meant at the time, lol.

anyways, I feel like play time again. Time to go.

Welcome back ruban! Awesome news to hear that your boy is a little easier to handle these days! So glad to know you got through the worst of those hormones, certainly with boys the first few seasons tend to be the worst it seems. My Lilly had a shocking breeding season last year when the only term I can use to describe it is "berserk rage" - her latest one this year was marginally better but, like you, I had to break out the leather glove otherwise my hand would've resembled a badly abused pin cushion for sure! Not a lot you can do about those hormones, sometimes you just gotta ride it out and try to preserve your digits as best you can! Reducing fruit to pretty much zero and increasing her veg intake seems to have helped some too.

Hope you will come back a little more regularly and post some pics or video, I'd love to see your little guy

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[ruban]

Okie dokie… here is a picture of Ruban. He‘s very handsome, lol. Sometimes I know when he is about to bite. Beside my ear he will do some sort of evil laugh… a slow ha ha ha ha in a deeper voice, then “chomp”. Very mischevious little kid.

 

[LaManuka]

Oh WOW, you're not kidding, he's just beautiful, and he looks like quite the little livewire too! Thanks for the pic!

 

[ruban]

Ruban is standing on a coat on a chair looking fot attention.

 

[LaManuka]

Ruban is standing on a coat on a chair looking fot attention.View attachment 32121

And getting it too! Handsome fella

 

[chris-md]

What a handsome boy!!!! So glad he's settled down. It really does sound like puberty hit him pretty hard; it can be a really challenging time to get through as an owner, and its a time when MANY birds get abandoned because owners either don't understand, or are ill-equiped to deal with the challenges. Especially with species llke amazons, who can take 5-7 years to get through the process. It swells my heart that you were able to stick it through with Ruban, and that you're able to see the benefits of doing so. You DO get your sweet boy back on the other end - perhapsa bit different, and seasonally problematic - but you get him back.

 

[ruban]

Today was a good day. Ruban played rough as we wrestled, and I’ve come to quite like it. The last 30 minutes he quieted down and cuddled a little on my shoulder, licking my ear. Unlike a gentle cockatoo licking an ear, Ruban licks like a pair of vice grips being pushed deep down your canal. lol.
Right now I am eating some grapes and he is eating some apple. He mirrors me in ways He can.

When I was desperate a year back or so, I considered hiring an online bird psychologist, lol, really. I was getting scared but never considered giving up. After the bad nose bite I was quite gun shy. His beak went deep in to my nose like a hot knife in to butter, and there was plenty of blood. The last year feels like none of it ever happened.

 

[LaManuka]

Oh ruban, I feel your pain on having a nostril sliced open. I had a GCC once do exactly that to me - it was not fun! Even my tiny Lilly has a sharp beak like a little laser scalpel so I think i would be rather intimidated by Ruban's!

I had started to wonder what had happened when you did not reply for such a long time. Many (many!) years ago a work acquaintance of mine had enormous problems with her rainbow lorikeet who had begun to bite most savagely, seemingly out of nowhere. We didn't know so much back then about how badly impacted they can be by the onset of puberty and all those hormones madly charging around in their bodies and brains, and she thought the best thing she could do was go and get him a mate. Unsurprisingly that only seemed to double her problems and all she could do from there was build them an aviary in her back yard, as together they had become too aggressive to be domestic pets any longer. Actually that was probably a reasonably good outcome since, as Chris mentioned, many other lories are rehomed or abandoned when owners find themselves unable to cope. So yes, I am VERY happy to see you back here and knowing that you got through the worst of it with Ruban and are now reaping the rewards - even if you can't put that leather glove away just yet. Actually my Lilly is really quite partial to my leather glove too, it must be a lorikeet thing!

 

[ruban]

Hahaha, yeah, interesting how that works out. Too bad department stores dont sell single gloves. The nose thing sounds worse than it was, it actually wasnt painful and it healed up quickly. When it happened though I knew I could be in serious trouble and my palm was immediately full of blood. Scared the daylights out of me.
There are not always a lot of answers around, and there isnt always much one can do. I started looking at youtube videos years back to find answers to biting but I mostly found content with smaller birds. “If your bird is biting, just gently drop your hand to put them off balance and they will stop biting” kind of videos, lol. Nope, dont think Ruban would ever even notice, he’s had too much astronaut training.

This picture was snapped back in 2019 or so. A typical fly-by ear bite. Yes, kinda gross, but it gives an idea what some people deal with. I was collecting evidence at the time so I could explain what was happening if I ever found help, lol.