Disciplining GCC?

[Feathertales]

Hey all!

Cyanne is a green cheek and is turning 3 next month. She was bred by a professional breeder, and is my first bird. She steps up reliably and loves giving kisses.

I know biting problems are common with cheeks. But I've tried a lot of things to make her stop and nothing seems to be making a difference.

It started this past July. I left the state to visit family, my husband babysat our animals. He texted me saying he couldn't even get her out of the cage. I figured she was upset that I left and would calm back down over time. She didn't.

I took her to the vet. Said she was very healthy.

I tried toning down her hormones. I never touch anywhere but her head. I turned the temperature down a little, took out toys she could see as a nest, didn't allow her in dark spaces, made food less abundant, any tip I could find online. Since it's winter, I figured she'd go back to normal...

There's usually no warnings from what I can tell. I have researched body language, and can tell when she's not wanting to be touched. If she bites because I didn't notice her body language, that's understandable. But these attacks don't seem to show any warnings. She could be just hanging out. In fact, today she went over to my husband to give him a kiss then bit his lip hard when he went to return the kiss. And she likes him.

She gets 12 hoursish of sleep a night, and sleeps in a different room in a smaller cage. She's quiet throughout the night. She eats pellets, nutri berries, and veggies/fruits. Her main cage has toys she likes to chew on or swing from. Her cage does sit beside my tiel's.

I've noticed some patterns. When I have plastic bags, plastic containers, napkins, paper towels, tissues, etc she gets really angry at it. Usually she'll attack the paper, sometimes my hand or neck. She will also sometimes bite me if I'm laughing or talking. If she doesn't bite me directly, she chews on my clothes. She seems to resort to biting my clothes over biting me directly, and attacks laundry while it's being folded.

I don't mean a nip, either. When I say bite, i mean she will run toward you to bite you, and she bites hard.

I tried shaking my arm or body when she bites. She didn't seem to get what was happening. So I tried putting her in her cage for a bit in time out. Wasn't clicking there either and I'd always feel guilty. So I tried putting her off of me. She just flies back on me.

I feel like I'm missing something? Is her age a factor? Do birds typically mellow over time? I don't understand nor can predict her random attacks.

I recently noticed when she bites, I instinctively wrap my hand around her. Sometimes she lets go right away, sometimes she holds on. But I realized that would count as touching her back. I'm not sure if that could be the answer to her behavior, though.

Thanks!

 

[jce2005]

DITTO.....

Sounds almost like my 3 year old GCC Pico ! However, he is spoiled and I am not very strict with him, but he reacts to when I say : "Stop biting" he will actually stop, however, there are two situations where he doesn't stop biting and also bites very hard. Haven't found out the reason why he would viciously bite when :

1. When I try to pet or put my finger under his wings
2. When he is on the floor and I want to pick up something from the floor, no matter what it is. He runs towards me and tries to get my fingers or hand and if he does, he bites and can draw blood.

Otherwise, I can touch him everywhere and handle him in any way.... he loves to "shake hands" and also says it clearly... LOL

I handle lots of parrots at work, mostly Macaws and they just love to get pet and scratched under their wings, however, Pico is getting into attack-mode when I try to get under his wings. I checked him out and a vet checked him out ( with leather gloves...lol ) just to make sure there is nothing wrong under his wings and he is perfectly fine.... Well, maybe he is just ticklish under the wings... hahahaha

Otherwise, he always was and is a little nippy, but does not bite hard... Sometimes he snuggles on my neck and "out of the blue" bites my ear-lob, but not very hard, same if I pet him on his neck or head which he loves and enjoys a lot, but again, out of the blue, he tries to bite my finger...but he doesn't want me to stop, he still wants to get pet.... but these bites aren't hard bites like the "floor and wing" issue.....

 

[LordTriggs]

what I would do is whenever she bites, firmly yet calmly say "no" then pick her up and place her away from you immediately, literally just out of arm's reach, if safe to do so the floor is good, if not then a table, chair, arm of the sofa, windowsill anywhere that's not immediately with you. Then simple ignore her for like a minute, then go back to paying attention and being nice. The concept is to drive the association that she bites down on you and the fun immediately stops and the flock wants nothing to do with her. it'll take some time but she'll figure it out. Of course with things like plastic bags I don't think any bird particularly likes them so I'd just try to keep them away from her

 

[wrench13]

Depriving her of food, or warth seems a cruel.I peronally would never reort to that. Triggs advice is the same as I give. A firm No, but not shouted, and then a time out on a chair back.You are essentially shunning the bird ( kicking them out of the flock) for unacceptable behaviour, which hapens in the wild too. Salty will bite occasionally, but its usually my fault for not paying attention to his body language. Parrots in general donot respond favorably to 'punishment' as humans think of it, and can backfire making things worse. However the flock will oust or shun members who misbehave. Pay zero attention and no eye contact ! Good Luck.

 

[DebraS]

The Parrot Whisper has a youtube video on dealing with bitters and aggressive birds. One thing I learned is that they don't like latex gloves, so they usually won't bite if wearing them when working with your bird. Hope that helps.

 

[LordTriggs]

The Parrot Whisper has a youtube video on dealing with bitters and aggressive birds. One thing I learned is that they don't like latex gloves, so they usually won't bite if wearing them when working with your bird. Hope that helps.

NEVER and I mean NEVER listen to the parrot whisperer

he believes in starving birds when they don't behave and is actually pretty cruel to them. I distinctly remember one video where he got someone (who had never handled a bird before) bitten by a macaw full force. He instead of comforting anyone immediately began chastising the poor woman who had a gash on her arm. At no point did her even acknowledge the bird who in the commotion had fallen off the training perch