Change in my bird's behavior

davisn456

Member
May 3, 2013
109
0
Saint Albans, WV
Parrots
1 B&G Macaw - Frankie
Hello, been a while since I've posted anything here. Circumstances have changed a bit for me recently and I've had to move in with some family. My macaw seemed to adapt fine to the new social situation at the start, but the longer I'm here, it seems like she's starting to get more and more aggressive. Her cage is in my bedroom/office space at the new location. I am in the room with her regularly, and generally, my relationship with her hasn't changed as far as her continuing to trust me and being affectionate with me.

However, I've noticed a pattern of recent aggressive actions. For lack of a better term, they're pretty severe mood swings. If one of my family speaks to me when my bird is present, usually just in my bedroom, she screams over and over as if she wants the other person to leave. However, she does not do this if she's in another room, like the living room.

The other thing that worries me is that she's been biting me much more frequently than I've ever experienced. She will make a gesture/call to me as if she wants attention, then when I go to pick her up, she has occasionally lunged at me, bit me, or will go in her cage and ruffle her feathers and drop her head looking at the floor and raising her wings in an aggressive gesture. She also has a plastic swing/ring toy that she seems to very frequently rattle - the same motion that adult birds use when feeding babies.

I've had my bird for a long time (about 8 years). She's somewhere between 18 and 20 years old now. I've never had any sort of issues like this with her before. And whatever this is, it seems to be getting worse.

I try to comfort her, spend time with her, give her treats as well as a variety of food. I do manage to get her to play once in a while. She's never been big on toys, but likes to fiddle with a blanket or wash cloth/towel sometimes. Her eating habits are reasonably good. She seems to have a good appetite, no issues with any sort of obvious medical issues (like diarrhea or anything). She has the same foods generally that she's always had, so nothing like that has changed. She does have a different cage (slightly smaller), but it's still plenty of space for her. The only other change is that at my previous home she had her own room (a spare bedroom), but she was frequently with me in other rooms. Now I'm with her in the same room with her more often.

She seems to be very defensive over her cage, even to the point where she lunges at me when I try to change water and food bowls. But her extremes in mood are pretty wild sometimes. She's still quite affectionate, and still talks fairly regularly to me (and the neighbors out the window). She even sometimes climbs over and wants to sit on me in the bed when she wakes up in the morning. So I don't think she's become afraid of me, or has developed a lack of trust.

Any suggestions to help ease this transition or to help improve her mood?
 

wrench13

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seems to me the big change is the new digs. SHe could be placing her claim on the whole room where you both spend the most tiime, and interlopers are warned off or failing that , to get you to leave the danger zone. A displacement bite if you will.
 
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davisn456

Member
May 3, 2013
109
0
Saint Albans, WV
Parrots
1 B&G Macaw - Frankie
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seems to me the big change is the new digs. SHe could be placing her claim on the whole room where you both spend the most tiime, and interlopers are warned off or failing that , to get you to leave the danger zone. A displacement bite if you will.
I think the pattern so far seems to support this. It's just a bit strange that she's become suddenly so aggressive towards me, when this has never been the case in the past. The thing that confuses me is that she'll sit on her cage and basically chatter and call to get my attention, but when I go to her to talk to her or potentially pick her up, she dashes into the cage and starts ruffling up and banging her beak against the walls of the cage or her perches. It doesn't happen every time, but quite frequently.

But yesterday, after I posted this, I laid down on my bed for a little nap yesterday evening. While I was napping, she climbed across my night stand and literally stood on me while I was sleeping. Very calm, no bad behavior at all, for the better part of an hour. It almost felt like she was trying to apologize for her bad mood or something.

I'm hoping this is a short term thing, but it just feels like it has gotten much worse over the last couple of weeks.
 

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