He bit me again

[Talaya]

This last few months my boy has been very volatile.

Twice he has flown or jumped over to me & growled & bitten me before flying then off. (A planned thought by him)

Last week, he was on hubbys knee, hub broke an almond in half and was treating him, after giving him the last half .. Solo
turned around, jumped to hubbys hand growling, bit him & flew off screaming. I wasn’t in the room I just heard it.

Today he bit me again.. I was taking him into the lounge, I couldn’t get to where I usually ask him to step off.
So I asked him to stand on his tree with his toys instead. He didn’t want to get off, so he picked up a toy and was chewing it. I waited until he stopped & put it down, I then moved & asked him again at another branch.. this time he stepped off, but just before he released his second claw, he screamed, reached under the perch and bit me. Fortunately only the tip of his beak punctured.

The growling is happening more & more around different perches, plus trying to bite you…I can only assume today it’s because it wasn’t the normal morning perch. he is 3 and having a moult so I understand he is uncomfortable.

Is this be the terrible twos ??

 

[Talaya]

Phew no bites since the above, only once he seemed to do it in slow motion.. so I managed to shoo him away before he got to the target finger.
He still growls when he’s displeased with something or is being corrected, or espcially putting his bell away. Bless him he brings it over and puts it in my hand asking us to play with it, if I ignore him he will climb up me and bang my chin with it.. sadly he just gets too angry, we never can work out if he’s angry I’ve picked it up, held it too long or not picked it up at all.. he’s bitten for all 3 situations.
Blessings though he is not cage aggressive, we can get in his cage and clean it without any aggression to us.. he just sometime wants the cloth. He will also drop most things if I ask, he even dropped a nut into my hand recently. (Hazelnut in shell) only coz he can’t open them!
These last 2 nights he seems to be getting better sleep, all his feathers coming through have been really annoying him and even making him squawk out in the night. That seems to be easing.

 

[clark_conure]

Does sound like hormones if they are unpredictable. I'm glad I'm out of that phase. Are the bites bad like bleeding or just Grrr, I'm so mad at the world I'm an EMO now. That's kind of how I gauge it, but I'm no expert I just know what works for me and my flock.

 

[kme3388]

I am sorry to hear that your Ekkie is biting. I am on the other side of things. Nico is following me around everywhere to try to mate with me. He’s regurgitating chop on the bars and perches of his cage he also regurgitates on me. Everyone else he bites. He’s like this year round. He gets maybe a little worse in spring, and his feather plucking seems to get worse in spring. I haven’t seen him feather pluck in quite sometime but he just did today. Hopefully the biting your Ekkie is doing settles down soon.

 

[chris-md]

Oddly I don’t think this is hormones. I can’t put my finger on it yet and can’t quite think of the right questions to ask to suss it out, but he’s not unpredictable. You’ve said yourself, he’s bitten every time. I feel like it’s environmental, the toy feels ironically irrelevant. There’s no guarding (worried about you touching it), if he’s approaching you with it.

I’d recommend starting by avoiding this whole scenario to begin with. See if the biting redirects Or subsides completely. That’d be a start to see if it’s something within that scenario that triggers the biting. You don’t say WHERE biting occurs, but if it’s the face, let’s avoid letting him get close to the face, period. Parker had bitten my ear twice and cheek twice over the last 8 years. He gets zero shoulder privileges unless he’s exceedingly calm in that moment. And one of those face bites was just a couple months ago when, while holding him, I passed my hand too close to my face, and he decided it needed rearranging. definitely hormone related. He literally dangled from cheek for about 7 seconds. I can laugh about it now And thankfully no permanent damage.

 

[Talaya]

Thank you all for your great replies.
I agree with Chris, somehow this doesn’t feel hormonal to me either. But I can’t quite put my finger on it. He occasionally regurgitates on me just before feeding time.. but doesn’t try to mate with me anymore.
So its usually when he has brought over a toy, given it to us by dropping it in our hand or lap, we’ve been playing with him and he starts to act more aggressive with the toy, so we stop, put the toy down and relax our hands in our lap on a cushion etc & effectively ignore playing.
He stares sideways out of one eye, eye looking in eye.. head cocked sideways at us for let’s say 20 seconds like he is thinking something over.. then he takes off growls mid flight… flies to a hand, lands and bites a finger or thumb. Immediately flies away screaming. Sometimes he just breaks the surface skin sometimes a few blood drops, but there is always bruise. He has also done this to our forearms, with the same toy scenario.. now we take the toy away, to a toy box if he brings it over. He doesn’t like that, he follows it screaming as we drop it back in the box.
And also occasionally when being asked to step off onto a perch, he will hang onto your finger with one foot and then growl & try to bite fingers of the hand hes holding, again he usually bites hard enough to break skin.
He has never bitten a face.
The only time he bit an ear very hard he lost shoulder privileges for 2 weeks. (2 years ago)
Yesterday I took him from his sleep cage, out to his day cage, gave him a pine nut on the way.. reached out to turn the light off and he growled & lunged for that hand. I didn’t see him as I as looking at the switch. He can be a little food aggressive at times, but that I’m not too bothered with. So I know that was my fault completely as I got too close when he was eating.
He was hand fed by a breeder & has always been a ‘beaky’ quick to temper bird. We’ve had him since 3 months old.
He hasn’t done it since we’ve started taking toys back to the box, but a few weeks isn’t long !
I’m just glad that he doesn’t seem quite so bothered by his feathers regrowing now, that was REALLY bothering him at one point.
EG: I trained that so I can grasp him by hand or in a towel, I ask him ‘can I pick you up’ he braces & stands still on bended legs and waits.. then he will chew any reachable fingers to tell me he doesn’t like it. But this last two months anytime I’ve said it he’s ran sideways out of reach. So I know he’s been ouchie. He still lets me pick up a toe to manage his claws no problem.

 

[kme3388]

The shelter I adopted Nico from told me Nico bites, and draws blood if you try to put him down. He has done it to my husband. A lot to be honest so my husband gave up, and no longer handles Nico. Nico has never done this to me. Recently he’s started to grip onto me very hard with the claws when I go to put him back in his cage. I wonder if eventually he will get to that point. The last shelter I was in contact with adopted out am Ekkie who was biting everyone when they were setting him down as well. They asked for my help but Nico hasn’t done it to me yet so I had no experience with it. My husband gave up because he got tired of being bit. So unfortunately I was of no help. I’m not sure what the behavior is but yes I’ve heard of it, and seen it happen.

 

[Talaya]

The shelter I adopted Nico from told me Nico bites, and draws blood if you try to put him down. He has done it to my husband. A lot to be honest so my husband gave up, and no longer handles Nico. Nico has never done this to me. Recently he’s started to grip onto me very hard with the claws when I go to put him back in his cage. I wonder if eventually he will get to that point. The last shelter I was in contact with adopted out am Ekkie who was biting everyone when they were setting him down as well. They asked for my help but Nico hasn’t done it to me yet so I had no experience with it. My husband gave up because he got tired of being bit. So unfortunately I was of no help. I’m not sure what the behavior is but yes I’ve heard of it, and seen it happen.

Hi
You know, I’m really trying to work his brain out. He refuses a lot to get off. He just wants to sit on me for 30 mins, or be carried around the house. He is ever hopeful that we will end up in the kitchen where the food is. I think maybe he gets off to be polite because weve asked.. but then tells us how grouchily unhappy he is about doing it.
Bedtime can be a battle of patient wills. Though he has never bitten at his bedtime, he actually looks forward to going to his bed.
My thoughts are now maybe he gets annoyed with his bell for ringing for me.. as in maybe he thinks it should only ring for him.
Sounds like I have the extra grumpy version of Nico lol. How old is he?