Aggression is Returning

[ctwo]

I've been back in the office since July, hence I have much less time to spend with Mango. We've been doing fine - I know he dislikes being caged all day. Usually when I get home, when he hears me, he'll perk up and start calling. The residents tell me he's been quiet up until then. Nobody really know what goes on mid-late morning though. He stands super tall on the corner perch nearest the room's door, seemingly waiting. I open the door to greet him and he'll usually come out fairly soon, sometimes he'll fly to me, and yesterday he came wandering into the kitchen and began to announce himself. What a darling!

This past weekend there was an episode when he was on my shoulder and I was giving them food, when he suddenly started cawing loud and frantic like a crow, as if he'd been pinned. That's a rare sound. I could feel him jerking on my shoulder so I bowed down, put my hands down, and turned the back of my head to him. Things calmed and I turned to look at him, where he was erect off the side of my shoulder looking at me. I stood up, put things away, and went to get him a nut, verbally so... I put him on his perch and things were well.

Today I went to give him a bit of seed block and he took half and dropped it, so I went to dump the remaining piece into a cup where his cockatiel mate was. He lunged at me. That hasn't happened in a very long time. He scolded me a bit and lunged some more at the bars as I talked to him. Again I went with the nut routine and he eagerly came to get it at his door.

I'm here just outside his room, and we've had a few "words" I know what needs to be done. Just wanted to share.

 

[foxgloveparrot]

When he bites:
-never ever react to the bite (yell, pull away, etc)
-if it’s REALLY hard, give him a short time out

And to stop the aggression in the first place, try target training, more shredding toys, and offering rewards for being calm.

The cause could be hormones or even sickness, so maybe take him to a vet just in case.

 

[wrench13]

All good suggestions from Foxy, however I would hold up on a vet visit. I mean it almost never hurts a situation to be able to tick that off when aberrant behavior shows its ugly head, but lets face it - parrots are smart and intelligent creatures but they also are emotional creatures and something as fleeting as a lunge in a given situation could simply be his mildly pissed-off reaction to conditions. If his behavior in similar situations continue, I would then take him to his CAV for a full physical exam to be able to tick that box off as non-contributing. Closely keeping track of his actions and emotional state are going to help nail down those down if they are really affecting things.

Hormones could be the source, parrots loose their minds during mating season and especially during their first flush of hormones (puberty!).

 

[ctwo]

My understanding of IRN's is they have a tendency to return wild if not handled, and while I interact with him daily, we are spending much less time together. I only have a couple of hours before it's his bedtime each day, and I can't always spend it with him. It's too early for him when I get up in the morning too, but sometimes I go in there, dark room, to close his cage if I forgot, or to give him fresh food for the day.

By words, I mean nice words. I would call him and he gave his little guttural giggles. My reaction was simply a sad "Mango", with a downward inflection. Then I'll usually repeat my usual "It's OK" whenever something upsets him. He was standing there with a large head, "chin" down, so I knew he was still mad and I left him alone for a bit. It was just a lunge and not a bite. Probably happened because I was moving my hand towards his girlfriend a little quicker than he liked (yeah, he still charges in between me and her if he thinks I'm giving her any attention, especially when they're on my shoulder and I say her name, he'll switch sides and wedge in between, or even pull her off). It was the follow-up lazy lunges at the bars that was more concerning. He was quite aggressive when I first got him, running up to the bars and hard lunges at the bars whenever he could see me.

A bit later last night he came out to see me, and Peach came out too. We shared a blood red orange on my shoulder. Peach hung out on the back of the chair, and her piece ended up on the floor. She's kind of ditzy but flies miraculously well. She's the one that gets her poop flung up onto the ceiling. Mango flies more like a spruce goose, always has.

I'll give him extra loves tonight when I get home.

 

[ctwo]

I'm probably overly concerned. It was just such an effort to get through his initial aggressive state. There was blood. And I've read they easily return to wild.

He's on my shoulder now, nibbled my ear, we shared a "cracker". Cockatiel is on the back of the chair chirping as they do.

He hasn't bowed his head demanding scritches for a while though.

 

[ctwo]

We were doing pretty good there for a while. I have 3-day weekends so they get to enjoy open cage time all weekend, and Mango spent a good amount of time with me Fri-Sat. I just wasn't motivated to go out and work on my projects.

Well, we've been having a refrigerator issue so Sunday morning I engaged the forced defrost mode, in which the fridge makes a constant beeping noise like a truck's back-up beeper. Mango was getting annoyed and had a couple short screaming episodes to let me know something was wrong. I consoled him and he seemed fine.

I terminated the defrost after about an hour and cleaned up the watery mess. Then I went to talk to Mango and he seemed excited to see me, eagerly climbed out of his cage, and marched directly to my shoulder, hopped right up, and gave me an ear piercing, followed by some screaming.

I could hear him saying, "Don't ever torment me with that incessant noise ever again!" This time I put him in another cage in a room by himself for a while, while repeating no biting a few times, and then again when I took him out about 20 mins later.

 

[ctwo]

Yeah, I still don't trust him on my shoulder very much.

 

[ctwo]

Mango has been nice for a while so I play with him and my new toy.