Dealing with Aggression?

I've had my 2 GCCs, Luca(male) and Mira(female), for about two weeks. They came together and get a bit upset when separated so I didn't want to pull them apart. They were born the beginning of August 2015.

However... The male is becoming unbearable with Aggression. The female is timid but she has learned to step up like a champ if I have food. Both will take treats from my fingers. The male is always trying to bite me. He'll place the bottom of the cage until I open the door so he can perch on the door frame, but if I try touching him or reaching past him he bites. I'm talking eye pinning, fluffing, open beak, finger seeking...

While they both seem to be settling well. This Aggression is unreal. How can I start to establish a bond when he's being so nasty? He doesn't seem to get upset when I touch or reach for the female though....But if I take the female out he'll try getting out to be with her as well.

My brother, who my other 2 birds get along with, went to give him a sunflower seed the other day and Luca attacked his hand and my brother, being a jerk, poked at his beak... Luca lost it. Screaming and charging his hand.
But he calmly took a seed from me a second later.

Could separating them help take his Aggression a bit? The female is making leaps of change... Him? Not so much.

He also bites outside the cage if I ask him to step up or if I'm holding him. And I'm talking Chewing bite lol

Find and study everything from MonicaMC! From her first post on! I had a worse situation, search on barbarian, it worked/working wonders! Everything birdman666 is dead on even though his direction is on macs. You have the ultimate mini Mac! The two have different approaches, depending on what you are dealing with!

http://www.parrotforums.com/search.php?searchid=944808

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html

I will definitely check those out!! Thank you

Sounds like my first GCC - also a male, though he would never attacked me. I had him for a few years before he became too aggressive to other people that I had to rehome him as a last resort. He was the only bird, and I guess, had bonded to me. Everybody else was a threat to him. I had tried all methods without any significant results However, unlike your case, he used to be a sweet bird when young. His aggressiveness only surfaced after puberty.

LoveMyConlan said:

He'll place the bottom of the cage until I open the door so he can perch on the door frame, but if I try touching him or reaching past him he bites. I'm talking eye pinning, fluffing, open beak, finger seeking...

While they both seem to be settling well. This Aggression is unreal. How can I start to establish a bond when he's being so nasty? He doesn't seem to get upset when I touch or reach for the female though....But if I take the female out he'll try getting out to be with her as well.

My brother, who my other 2 birds get along with, went to give him a sunflower seed the other day and Luca attacked his hand and my brother, being a jerk, poked at his beak... Luca lost it. Screaming and charging his hand.

But he calmly took a seed from me a second later.

Could separating them help take his Aggression a bit? The female is making leaps of change... Him? Not so much.

Click to expand...

It is possible that separating them will help with *his* aggression, however, you would need to separate them by sight, and, if possible, by sound as well.

Maybe Luca feels more comfortable with you but not your brother. Most birds are not like dogs and do not enjoy the company of strangers because strangers could equal danger.... unlike many dogs who think "Stranger? Oh, somebody new to stiff and get pets from!!!! I like this!" Birds can be taught to enjoy interaction with strangers, but it could take time if working with a bird who has trust issues to begin with with everyone!



When you talk about him sitting at the door frame and going to reach for him or past him and he bites.... well, simple solution! Don't reach for him! And don't reach past him! You're putting him in a position where he feels the need to defend his space and if you don't want to get bitten, then you need to avoid putting him and yourself in situations that will result in a bite.

Now, as an alternative, you can attach a perch to the outside of the cage with a treat cup next to the perch, or get a perch that has a cup on the end! Like these perches!

PPP50962 Polly's Mess Less Perch Cup Small Long - POLLY'S PET PRODUCTS
Excellent perch and food dish for smaller birds
FeatherSmart SM Perch 'N Cup


Place the perch away from the door and if need be, kind of make a show of putting a treat inside the dish. It's ok to *NOT* interact with him physically, just let him get accustomed to you and learn that you equals good things! If he comes out of his cage, give him a special treat. Give him a special treat for going back inside the cage. Any time you walk by, give him a special treat. Let him look forward to interactions with you!

Flboy said:

Find and study everything from MonicaMC! ... Everything birdman666 is dead on even though his direction is on macs. The two have different approaches, depending on what you are dealing with!

Click to expand...

There's a reason we have different approaches! I'm all for allowing birds to make a decision and giving them *CHOICE*. If a bird is afraid, it's ok to leave them be to settle in. If a bird doesn't want to do something, that's ok, you can try again later! If a bird is aggressive, it's not going to kill them to leave them inside the cage and work on training *through* the cage bars to establish *good* behavior! You learn to work around the behavior while trying to cause the least amount of stress towards the bird. Birds learn that humans aren't scary nor do they need to attack them because the humans haven't done anything to cause fear. In fact, humans can be amazing because they have treats! Which can later turn into physical attention and verbal praise!



The other method however removes choice. If a bird is afraid, it doesn't matter, get the bird out of the cage! If the bird doesn't want to do something, to bad! They *have* to do it anyway! The bird gets no say in the matter! If the bird is aggressive, to the point of being unmanageable, then scare tactics will be used to force the bird to comply. Birds trained using these methods may get what is known as "learned helplessness" - that is, they have no say in the outcome and simply give up. This type of training may also result in increased aggression because the humans aren't paying attention to the bird's behavior, and the birds feel the need to increase their aggression to try and get their point across. I can't help but wonder if birds trained using these methods suffer from capture-bonding....



The thing is, *HOW* you train *DOES* matter! It matters because of the mind-set. Birds trained using positive reinforcement look forward to interactions with humans and willingly step up because doing as asked equals rewards! Birds trained using the other methods may feel as if they have to do a behavior that they don't really want to do, so they don't really look forward to the interaction. This is especially obvious with birds that are trained while clipped. Once their flights grow out they want nothing to do with their human and will avoid them at all costs, even going as far as to biting, a behavior they may not do while clipped - because they had no choice! Which results in the bird being clipped until their behavior "improves" - which it rarely does, because the human rarely ever changes the way they interact with their bird....

Now, not all birds trained using the more aggressive approach end up hating their humans! Many birds do end up looking forward to interacting with their humans! But again, I wonder how much of this may be capture-bonding behavior vs actual affection, and if there is any way we can tell the difference? I mean, the bird's end up showing the same behaviors, but is one bird more stressed than the other? Or is there something else that we can't tell by physical appearances alone???? I don't know.