Help - Kiwi has started attacking

[MissKiwi]

Over the past 8 months or so, Kiwi has started attacking either myself or hubby if we have a phone in our hand and/or up to our ear.



She has also attacked if I have a calculator in hand.



Kiwi has always been a real sweetie and very calm/gentle but now I have to be very careful she is nowhere near either of us if we have to answer/use the phone. And what make it difficult for me as well because I often work from my home office working on client bookkeeping contracts - I must use my calculator frequently and her bites can be brutal.


We scold her with a firm voice and eye contact and she is put in her cage for a time out and to cool her jets! When she comes back out - she's back to her sweet self again.


Has this happened to anyone else or have an idea what has happened to cause her to start doing this?

 

[saxguy64]

You might want to switch to putting her down on the floor, instead of in the cage, so she doesn't associate the cage as a punishment. The floor while being shunned is usually quite effective, since they generally hate both. Be consistent, and she'll get the idea.

My Ekkie gets jealous and grabby if I use my phone for anything while he's out. It's taking away from paying direct attention to him, and that's definitely not acceptable lol! Makes being a moderator difficult sometimes...

 

[Squeekmouse]

Yup, agreed with Saxguy. Our boys do the same kinda thing. Trigger hates phones and remotes because we pay too much attention to them instead of him. So he wants to either steal it, destroy it, or punish us for ignoring him in favor of the device. Yoda does the same thing if we try to take a drink when we should have been focusing all our energy on cuddling him.
It can be painful and often feels futile when we try to train them off of these behaviors... instead we have trained ourselves. If I'm holding Trigger and I need to use the remote or phone, I must either hide it from his sight or put him down and step away from him to use it.

 

[MissKiwi]

Sorry for delay in response - was having a glitch with my account.


I try to make sure I'm out of sight of Kiwi when I have to use the phone but if she hears any sort of noise coming from the phone, she'll seek me out and attack.


Putting her on the floor but .... she and her flock friend Pearl love to play hide and seek under furniture, etc. so she doesn't look at it as punishment.


I'll just have to be very careful and she's locked in her cage if I have to use the phone or calculators. :17:

 

[Scott]

Just a thought, how old is Kiwi? Aggression often peaks with onset of puberty, and some behaviors become ingrained.