So we're trying to isolate what is driving Roo to be aggressive so far, and it certainly isn't being out of her cage. Spending time out of her cage appears to be her favorite thing to do right now.
However, it's been an instructive evening. When I came home, my wife deliberately left her in her cage, and we waited for her to settle down before we let her out. Well did we have pogo-stick-head, and screaming! Mind you, only about 5 minutes worth of screaming, but wow, she can be loud! Interestingly enough, my wife had noted all day that she had a calm, non-screaming, non-excited bird.
After she had settled down about 10 minutes after screaming, I opened the cage for her, and Miss lovey-dovey came charging out. She received her requisite scritch, then proceeded to go after my wife, who she was sweet to all day before I got home.
To get her to settle down, we had her join me on my armchair, where she proceeded to give me the stink eye while attacking a towel on the arm. Yup, we went from 2 minutes of lovey-scritchy followed by "I can't tolerate anyone". Also opened her beak to daughter #2 who was sitting three feet away from her, and hissed at wife when she moved within three feet as well.
She was moving in a slow, deliberate manner, and it gave me the distinct impression she was looking for a reason to get angry. She clearly was communicating that she had no interest in being interacted with at this time.
When she started to try and chew the leather on the chair, I said her name loudly, and "No!". Well this totally spooked her and she flew to our ottoman, and proceeded to walk around for about 10 minutes, crest fully flared, and hissing non-stop. Yikes! I could not get within two feet of the ottoman without entering "The Chomp Zone". Apparently I was not going to get the opportunity to move the ottoman to her cage, and stood there scratching my head wondering what I was going to do about our obviously stressing bird.
So, I moved the chair out of the way, and was able to wheel her cage over to the ottoman, and she climbed up on it.
My daughter and I then had to tag team from either side of the cage to move it back to its spot, as when she touched the cage, she was stalked, and when I touched it I was stalked. And of course, we still had a lot of hissing going on. Finally got the cage back to its spot, and after about another 15 minutes of agitation, Roo has settled down to just ornery. I'm feeding her dry rotini right now, just to give her something to vent her aggression on.
So we seem to have something very interesting going on. It seems that for whatever reason, she gets very excited to see me. However, after she's had a few minutes of love, she apparently doesn't like me very much anymore. As per my wife, when I am at work, she is calm, levelheaded and easy to tend to. As soon as I come home, even if I deliberately keep my energy low and use a soothing voice (no excited "Hey Roo! or anything like that) she gets wound.
Well, our weekend starts tomorrow, and I will be around, so we'll see what a regular presence does versus a work/home presence.
One final note as I'm at the end of this post, I went over to her cage and said "Bed time Roo! Time to go in your cage!" She made some sweet sounds, bobbed her head five times, then proceeded to flare her crest, then bang her face violently against the bars about 10 times in a row. She then made as if she wanted to head to the floor, and I asked her to go in again, so she flared her crest and smashed her face a few more times.
Then she went back to the top, raised her wings, flared her crest, and started hissing again. But the lure of an almond finally got her into her cage. So she grabbed the almond, ate it, the came back to the top of her cage, flared her crest and hissed some more. She's now saying "sweetie" and bobbing her head for me to let her out, then raising her crest and hissing, then bobbing her head again. I have zero clue what is going on, only that these wild and unpredictable swings in mood are starting to make me very nervous, especially when it seems to just be my presence that sets her off.
Edit: And now she's on her javawood perch, snapping her head and stomping her foot. And now she's on the front of the cage making "sweetie" noises. Ahhhh!