Hormonal aggression?

[Reub]

My 8 month old eclectus, Suzy, has started being real aggressive on my shoulder. I'm assuming it's hormones, but her behavior hasn't changed much outside of this one new habit. She doesn't bite otherwise and is rarely territorial, always happy to come out of her cage, its just she always aims to get on my shoulder once she is out and will start biting my ear and whatever else gets near her very hard once she gets there. Is there any way to change this behavior or am I right in my assumption that it is hormones and I should just not let her on my shoulder for a while?

Thanks for reading.

 

[chris-md]

Hello!

I highly doubt it's hormones; she's too young. My guess here is simply she can't be trusted on the shoulder. Don't let her up there, problem solved.

You know the old saying, "I told my doctor 'it hurts when I do this.' He tells me 'don't do it.'"

 

[Violet_Diva]

My new male eclectus immediately had a tendency to go for my earrings, ears and glasses! So I'm keeping him busy with training whilest he's out of his cage as a distraction, and then I'm putting him back into his cage immediately after training. I wouldn't try just having him sit on my shoulder as he would be looking for something to do straight away, with the nearest 'toy' being my ear! My female is also interested in ears, so I always wear my hair down over my ears and try to keep her distracted with training and toys and this is enough to keep my ears safe... so far!

 

[Anansi]

As Chris mentioned, she has to lose shoulder privileges... at least for a while. The main thing is to communicate to her that what she is doing is unacceptable. Clearly tell her "No", in a firm yet even tone, anytime her beak pressure goes beyond acceptable levels. And then put her on timeout for around 5 minutes. Eventually she'll come to realize that certain levels of bite pressure have a very predictable result.

 

[Reub]

Thanks for the help. Been telling her no and then quickly squatting/bending over to unbalance her, as that allows me to get her to then step up without biting. Been noticing some improvement, but I guess it'll just take time. I also only let her get there by putting her up there myself, instead of allowing her to just climb up on her own.