Antisocial Biter

[Karlee]

MY alexandrine parrot is about twelve months old, i've had him about 3 months now and tostart with he was fine being touched mostly and ate from my hand etc then i clipped his wings (2 months ago) and ever since he is terrified of me, he wont even come to the side of the cage for his favourite fruit from my hand. i sit by is cage for most of the day and i talk to him alot softly but nothing seems to be helping, what should i be doing?

 

[thebirdnerd]

Did you clip his wings yourself? Some birds find this traumatizing and will percieve you as a threat. It will take time but he will come around.

 

[henpecked]

Sound like Yoshi must have had a pretty traumatic wing clip,did you have to restrain him with a towel ,or your hands ? If you have to restrain him to clip his wings,the best advice is to get someone else to do it (like the vet).With a young/new bird you haven't had much time to develop a relationship and he has lost that little bit of trust he had.It will take a lot of time to gain/earn that trust back. The issue was not the fact you clipped his wings but that he was manhandled and restrained ,so naturally he wants to avoid that again. Keep doing what your doing but understand why he doesn't trust you.Next time get him to the point of being tame enough to hold or get someone else to be the bad guy.

 

[Remy]

I have other people (like the vet) groom Puck. There is no way I could do it myself. I could do wings and nails if I really wanted to, but I don't. I noticed that he was a LOT nicer to me after his vet visit! They took him in back while they did the grooming and drew blood, so I was the "rescuer"... I think it's best not to be in the same room when they're getting groomed.

 

[lene1949]

MY alexandrine parrot is about twelve months old, i've had him about 3 months now and tostart with he was fine being touched mostly and ate from my hand etc then i clipped his wings (2 months ago) and ever since he is terrified of me, he wont even come to the side of the cage for his favourite fruit from my hand. i sit by is cage for most of the day and i talk to him alot softly but nothing seems to be helping, what should i be doing?

I would be doing a lot a cage cleaning, at lot of food changing, without looking or talking to your bird... Just quietly going about the chores, and each time dropping a favourite treat into the birds bowl... Move about 3 metres away, and tell your bird 'Good boy/girl' whenever he takes the food.

It's going to take a while for him to trust you again.