dealing with cage aggression

[Niki]

Hello all,

I am a pretty new parrot owner. I have had my 3 month old male parrotlet, Pepsi, for about two weeks and have a few questions. I should say that he is pretty friendly, I take him out at least twice a day and he does very well. Auggie's Dad helped me get started on his training and he is about 80% better with biting. He is getting bonded with me, he even preened my neck today, that was quite an experience! I always do my training in a different room where he can not see his cage.

My first question is this, I have looked at tons of the old threads about cage aggression but haven't seen one specifically on it. The cage aggression has only become an issue in the last few days. Now it is not a surprise by any means, I researched many parrots before deciding on my pint sized friend, and know that Parrotlets are prone to cage aggression. (I would have loved to get a large parrot, but I know how much time I have to offer, and with going to vet school next year it just wouldnt have been fair to the parrot) He is fine when everyone's hands are outside of his cage, but is getting very aggressive to anyone putting their hands in his cage. I was putting some fresh food in his cage this morning and he lunged at me from across the cage and bit down pretty hard. He then followed my hand around lunging at it until it was outside of his cage.

Now I have been looking at different articles on this and there are two opposing views, one being let him have his space (being his cage) and respect it, and the other being that it is never acceptible to be lunging and biting at me (i.e. the flock leader). I am strongly leaning towards the second idea, as I would never accept that behavior from my dogs.

So, I was wondering what other people's experience has been with this, and what you have done? I completely understand that is hasn't been that long and we are still getting used to each other, and we are working very slowly, and I do not expect any quick fixes. I actually do use his cage as a time out when he is out and bites, and it works just fine, because he wants to come back out. Normally when I open the door to his cage he flys right up and steps-up without any issues, and no biting.

My second question is this, I have just started going back to work, though I am only working part-time and only for a few hours. Yesterday when I got home he was very excited to see me, running all over the front of his cage and crawling on the door of his cage.

When I did go to give him some attention and do a quick training session he was so overly excited that he was biting constantly. Now I have read other threads with this problem and I understand that most of the time you just need to give them a time out and chill. My problem is that it was EVERY time I tried to take him out yesterday. Do you think getting a seperate cage as a time-out/calm down spot when he is behaving this way would be benificial?

I have gotten much better at reading his body language and can usually anticipate him getting close to biting before he does. However, I couldn't get him to just calm down enough to do anything constructive with him. Today I made sure to do a quick training session (in a different room) before I went to work, which was when he was preening my neck. I just got home and havent taken him out yet, so I dont know how he will be. He is coming to the door of his cage everytime I look his way though. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Niki

 

[Auggie's Dad]

I'm glad something I said helped.... but if that keeps up I'll never get my head through the door again.

Now I have been looking at different articles on this and there are two opposing views, one being let him have his space (being his cage) and respect it, and the other being that it is never acceptible to be lunging and biting at me (i.e. the flock leader). I am strongly leaning towards the second idea, as I would never accept that behavior from my dogs.

These are two common views, and they often are seen as opposing but I think seeing them that way is a mistake; they can be complimentary. It's not a matter of compromise - they are both 100% right.

The cage can be his space and you can respect that without having to tolerate him ever biting you. Imagine a child's room - the parents own the home and they may enter the child's room at any time for any reason and the child should not attack them for doing so. At the same time good parents would respect the child's privacy and not take observe their right to enter the room very often.

If you MUST enter his cage he should deal with it; but at the same time the cage should be his space and you should respect that.

Sounds nice in principle, but how can that be put into practice? Well I can only describe what I do with Auggie. Auggie is a bit cage aggressive. I never reach in his cage when he is in there and he never bites. I fill his food and water and clean the cage while he is out of it.

I will not tolerate him biting me - he will not tolerate me invading his cage while he is in it. We can compromise so that both of our demands our met.

Your demand is that you be able to reach into his cage to clean and feed - there is no reason that you need him to be in the cage at the same time.

Healthy compromises are not about people sacrificing essentials but rather about clearly defining what it is that is essential and respecting the other parties essential needs.

Don't reach in his cage while he is in it; when you are going to reach in his cage put him somewhere else and there is no need to worry about bites.


As for excitement upon returning home what happens if you just let him out of the cage then ignore him - not 'actively' ignore as in punishment, but rather let him out then go about your business, perhaps making a cup of coffee and sitting down before going back to pick him up.

 

[Niki]

Thanks AD, that is pretty much what I was thinking I should do for his 'space.' I agree with you that it they aren't really opposing views. The more I thought about it today the more I agree with you. Usually when I am putting fresh food/water in his cage he comes right to the door anyway and I put him somewhere or just hold him with my other hand so it was never a problem. I was just adding some fruit quick before I went to work when he chomped my hand. I will just always take him out first, and it wont be an issue. I want people to respect my space, and I should respect his too.

As far as the excitement, I tried ignoring him, that was my first thought. I figured I just needed to give him time to calm down. The problem with him is that even though he has his wings clipped, he is so small and light that he can still make it across the room. So each time I would put him down he would fly right for me, usually aiming for my head (though he usually cant make it since he cant fly up). I have a strict no head rule, and shoulder sitting only on my terms only, so I always give him a no and set him back on his perch when he does go for my head. He is still trying for my head a few times a day but eventually I think that point will get across. He is a pretty smart little guy, every time I give him a 'time out' it is like I can see the wheels turning while he is trying to work out what he did and what he needs to do to get back over with me.

So, when I did ignore him he just kept flying to me then biting. I did this a few times with him, and then eventually put him back. When he isn't super excited to see me he rarely if ever bites. I did not get bit today. Now normally I just wouldn't take him out when he was so excited, but he didn't seem to calm down yesterday.

Should I just keep putting him back on his perch when he flies to me, as many times as it takes to have him calm down? My work days are going to get longer in the coming weeks so he needs to get used to not seeing me around the house during the day. He wasn't so excited today when I got home, so maybe it wont be an everyday occurrence. I just want to be prepared on how to handle it if it does come up again.

 

[RKZX2]

let me think of the most extreme scenerio. parrot in cage, in the dark, WITH eggs. even with all that, my conure still will not bite me. that's how gentle she is.