Personality Change

[Talven]

So my young GCC finally made it to the 1 year mark and has undergone a personality change. I expected a bit of a change with puberty but the change is not at all what I expected. A month ago he would want to curl up in my hand and have a head scratch, would happily jump on to my hand to come out of his cage in the morning. Now he runs from the hand just sits on his playgym and doesn't want to interact at all. Has anyone had a similar thing happen?

 

[itzjbean]

At least you're not experiencing aggression! Green cheeks can give nasty bites.

It happens. They go through phases like this and it's best to respect their boundaries and let him do what he wants instead of forcing interaction. He will come back around, I promise! (especially if you bribe with treats)

 

[noodles123]

This isn't uncommon--- give it time--- keep doing the stuff you did to build trust early on (and if you didn't ever have to build trust back then because your bird was young, you may have to do that now). It is like a teen who finally decides they need to evaluate their parents after all of those years lol.
Just make sure you keep any petting to the head and neck and keep your bird away from dark spaces. If he/she is hitting puberty, any shadowy spaces or cuddling can increase the hormonal impact and lead to territorial stuff, aggression, screaming etc.

Pretty sure it's breeding season for some varieties of cockatoos! Mine just bit me for the first time in a year and was very restless all day (about 2 months every year she gets really weird). All birds have a rocky patch once a year-ish (usually anyway) but puberty is different in that it can last longer and often requires changes on behalf of the "parront".

 

[Laurasea]

I read an article, but not sure if I saved it. It said that as bird becoming sexual mature and enters adulthood, they suddenly see the world differently. It becomes a scarier place as an adult, they are more sensitive to threats ECT. Lordy that's true for us humans too !

Sudden fear if hands is so very easy to cause. Hands are just scary! I've had this happen before with my GCC. And I had to actively work to over come it with her. I had to feed lots of goodies by hand. I had to pay extra attention to her body language, and gain her trust back again. So I agree with previous posts you can get past this. Respect the bird, work in trust, bribe, bribe , bribe !