Hormonal Changes?

[tunarr]

Hi everyone. I have had my bird, a green cheek conure, about 2 years now, and most of it was great. About 9 months ago he completely changed, almost overnight. He was a cuddly bird that liked to kiss me and play with his toys, and now he just bites me and stares at me all day. He wont play with anything. He simply hangs off the side of his cage staring at me, and when i bring him out, he climbs down and runs straight for me. Once he gets to me, he climbs up my clothes and bites me wherever there is skin. He even does this at night sometimes when i am asleep with him opening his cage. Even more recently, he has been attacking my mother. She comes into the room where the bird is and he flys to her and bites her. Last time he bit her right underneath her eye, and shes not traumatized by the bird it seems. She will not enter the room for anything. My mother told me that if i dont get rid of the bird that i can find another place to live(I'm a college student). I really dont want to have to rehome him, since i got him off of someone who needed to rehome him in the first place, this is his 4th home they told me when i first got him. After taking him to the avian vet and being charged nearly $600 in tests, the vet said that he is probably just hormonal. (They did a check to make sure he is male, they said he is.) Anyway, they said he is probably going through puberty, but is that right? Its been almost a year now, and i have been trying everything from clicker training to vet checks, and i am now at a loss. I really dont want to have to rehome this poor bird again, im attached, but if its not hormonal and he really is satans spawns, then i might have to. Any help would be much appreciated, Thank you, Marc

 

[Spiritbird]

Let your mom give this litle guy some treats and play with him so he gets used to her. It will take time. She could sit next to the cage each day and read something to him so he gets used to her voice. Gradually open the cage door and see if he will fly to her without a attack.

 

[suebee]

explain to your mother its not personal and your little hormonal birdie needs time to get over puberty! and as spirit bird said, but for now i would work on the bird to stop attacking you and keep the 2 apart

as for you, i think best to start again, from scratch! so to speak

when your bird attacks you, you make it clear its not acceptable behaviour,
i find making a disaproving sound and ignoring (short amounts of time!) works best in the long run, this will take some time

also when your away from your room, what else other then toys does your bird have for entertainment?
remember your bird is a social creature, so if its on its own for a considerable amount of time, that'll add to its aggression

what you need now is to set a new routine, what i did with the nut was cage her more! but her cage is in the main room in the house so she wasn't alone, when caged. and she could see what we were doing, then she has her out of cage time, which was just for her, we interacted with her more, did things that interested her, super then bed for the nut, covered 10/12 hours, in spare room, she could hear the tv etc but all the sound came from other parts of the house

basically we distanced ourselves from nut, i did not worry to much about the bond thing, as although nut was attacking and biting me, i felt that was part of the bond (the negative side) and i was not doing anything that was outwardly mean towards her
she now only really has about 2/3 hours out of cage time and on a rare day alot more, before hand she had full days out
this way we all reinforced as a family what was acceptable behaviour, when she bit any of us we just all gave her the cold shoulder, other then when my son was involved as he wasn't listening to her body language

there are of lot of methods that'll work and you will come across one's that seem to work and then don't, just stay consistant because they do grow out of these phases. keep us up dated

 

[Remy]

Puck has days where he acts like this. I just try to be patient with him, and put him in his cage when he's not handleable (which sometimes has been all day).

 

[Pedro]

Tanarr, You mentioned he can fly. If he still has flight i would clip his wings. I sometimes have to do this to my breeders so they won't kill the hens at breeding time. It just give the poor hen enough time to fly away from him.

With companion GCC they do tend to get very aggressive at breeding times. At this time it's best not to over stimulate them with to much petting. I also think we dwell to much on what we feed our parrots & keep them in breeding condition all year round. I tend to cut back on the amount of food i give my breeders in the non breeding season & feed them up just prior to breeding. However my companion parrots don't ever get the amount of food a breeder would get so by keeping them on a healthy maintenance diet all year round i very rarely encounter any homonal problems at all.

With your little fellow I think he now knows that he has you all bluffed. I don't know if you can get Rescue Remedy but a drop or two will help calm him down, you can take it yourself as well. Chemists or health shops usually carry it. Or you could try avicalm, either product will help.

Maybe it will also help if your bird is placed in a more social part of the home than stuck in a bedroom by it's self. I feel that he is claiming the bedroom as his own & is trying to drive everyone away. Sort of protecting it. GCC mature at 12 months of age & can also breed at 1 year of age.