LakeDesire
New member
- Sep 27, 2012
- 118
- 0
- Parrots
- Jade (Nanday Conure, 20),
Henry (Red-Crowned Amazon, ~15), Joey and Sophie (Congo African Greys, ~17)
Hello!
I adopted two congo African greys from a parrot rescue about a year ago, and they're overall great birds and behave well when I'm attentive. They are target trained, and will station when I'm supervising them. However, they've been destroying their bird room lately in an attempt to make a nest, and the male turns aggressive when I go near his "corner" where he is trying to nest.
Background:
They're both 15, and met at the rescue and bonded there. Sophie is presumed female, and was in at least two homes before the rescue got her. They found her in a house with too-many birds, living in a cage in a dark corner. The rescue folks had to teach her out to step up again, and she was a loner and inactive until she met Joey. Sophie and I have become pretty close, and have a trusting relationship. We can read each other's body language, and enjoy each other's company. She is very active now, and flies around her room and plays with her toys.
Joey is a confirmed male and had one owner who vetted him regularly before giving him to the rescue. Joey is unusually extroverted for a CAG. He loves meeting new people, and will step up for anyone. He is a great bird to introduce new people to parrots because I can trust him not to bite and he will just push your hand away if he doesn't like how you're petting him. He is devoted to Sophie, and follows her everywhere, and regurgitates for her.
However, Joey wants to build a nest, and turns into a little monster if you get near his corner.
I'd previously had a problem with Joey and Sophie chewing up the trim in my living room and kitchen whenever I turned my back, so I moved them into their own bedroom. This way, I didn't have to cage them while I was at work or not directly supervising them. Their bird room is really fun and they agree: have a cage that usually has an open door, a manzanita tree, a rope-net, a hanging perch, and a stand. They like their room, but lately it is turning into their turf in a bad way.
When I'm at work, they chew up the wood trim in the room. I'd barricaded the spots they really like to chew with some bricks and boards, but yesterday they chewed past the trim, moved my barricade, and made a hole in the drywall. Easy enough to patch drywall, but they've gone too far.
The rescue advised me to cage them when I'm not home, and also cage them when I see the unwanted behavior. Easy enough: Sophie steps right up and accepts her "time out" with grace. However, Joey attacks me if I go near his corner. He will latch on and draw blood if I let him, so when he turns into attack mode I have to towel him and deposit him in his cage. When I let him back out, the behavior repeats, even if I've taken Sophie into another room for several hours.
I have Barbara Heinrich's book The Parrot Problem Solver, which does talk a lot about dealing with aggression, but mostly cage aggression, which isn't really an issue for these two.
I've also removed anything that could be used as nesting material, such as boxes and paper bags. These items were good diversions to get them away from their corner, but ultimately just made them want to defend their box/bad instead.
The wonderful family that runs the rescue helps their adopters build bird rooms, so I'm going to have them over to help me fortify the room to prevent further destruction, but they're busy with the rescue (on top of full-time jobs) and it may be several weeks before they have a weekend free to help out.
TL;DR: My male CAG wants to build a nest at all costs, and is aggressive when I enter his bird room, and time-outs don't see to help. Advice appreciated!
I adopted two congo African greys from a parrot rescue about a year ago, and they're overall great birds and behave well when I'm attentive. They are target trained, and will station when I'm supervising them. However, they've been destroying their bird room lately in an attempt to make a nest, and the male turns aggressive when I go near his "corner" where he is trying to nest.
Background:
They're both 15, and met at the rescue and bonded there. Sophie is presumed female, and was in at least two homes before the rescue got her. They found her in a house with too-many birds, living in a cage in a dark corner. The rescue folks had to teach her out to step up again, and she was a loner and inactive until she met Joey. Sophie and I have become pretty close, and have a trusting relationship. We can read each other's body language, and enjoy each other's company. She is very active now, and flies around her room and plays with her toys.
Joey is a confirmed male and had one owner who vetted him regularly before giving him to the rescue. Joey is unusually extroverted for a CAG. He loves meeting new people, and will step up for anyone. He is a great bird to introduce new people to parrots because I can trust him not to bite and he will just push your hand away if he doesn't like how you're petting him. He is devoted to Sophie, and follows her everywhere, and regurgitates for her.
However, Joey wants to build a nest, and turns into a little monster if you get near his corner.
I'd previously had a problem with Joey and Sophie chewing up the trim in my living room and kitchen whenever I turned my back, so I moved them into their own bedroom. This way, I didn't have to cage them while I was at work or not directly supervising them. Their bird room is really fun and they agree: have a cage that usually has an open door, a manzanita tree, a rope-net, a hanging perch, and a stand. They like their room, but lately it is turning into their turf in a bad way.
When I'm at work, they chew up the wood trim in the room. I'd barricaded the spots they really like to chew with some bricks and boards, but yesterday they chewed past the trim, moved my barricade, and made a hole in the drywall. Easy enough to patch drywall, but they've gone too far.
The rescue advised me to cage them when I'm not home, and also cage them when I see the unwanted behavior. Easy enough: Sophie steps right up and accepts her "time out" with grace. However, Joey attacks me if I go near his corner. He will latch on and draw blood if I let him, so when he turns into attack mode I have to towel him and deposit him in his cage. When I let him back out, the behavior repeats, even if I've taken Sophie into another room for several hours.
I have Barbara Heinrich's book The Parrot Problem Solver, which does talk a lot about dealing with aggression, but mostly cage aggression, which isn't really an issue for these two.
I've also removed anything that could be used as nesting material, such as boxes and paper bags. These items were good diversions to get them away from their corner, but ultimately just made them want to defend their box/bad instead.
The wonderful family that runs the rescue helps their adopters build bird rooms, so I'm going to have them over to help me fortify the room to prevent further destruction, but they're busy with the rescue (on top of full-time jobs) and it may be several weeks before they have a weekend free to help out.
TL;DR: My male CAG wants to build a nest at all costs, and is aggressive when I enter his bird room, and time-outs don't see to help. Advice appreciated!
