I thought I knew a bit about bird behaviour. HELP MEEEE!!!!

[Betrisher]

I gave my son a peachfaced lovebird for Christmas (Petrucchio). This was by way of a companion for his little Pineapple, who has been alone in her cage for a couple of years. She needed a companion.

Petrucchio has indeed been a wonderful addition for Pineapple and they have bonded immediately. So well, in fact, that Petrucchia has laid two eggs!

Unfortunately, it turns out that Petrucchia is a biter of the most amazing power and ingenuity. She flutters around anxiously in the cage when Matt comes to clean it and as soon as ever he touches the door, she's there, absolutely lacerating his hands and shaking her head like a dog killing a rabbit. I've never seen anything like it!

Just then, I attached a hopper-type feeder to the cage so Matt won't have to open it in order to feed the Lovies. We went to return the cage to his room and dear little Petrucchia flew furiously across the room and - I can't put it any other way - savaged me! The bite on my thumb (shown in pic) was the worst, but the others on my neck and shoulders were just as painful if not very impressive to look at.

I tried to stay calm as best I could but poor Matt was aghast that his darling would hurt me like that. He had come ready-armed with a thick sweater and gardening gloves. I had only a singlet top on and nothing on my hands. I felt quite sure that if I remained calm and spoke in a low voice, Petrucchia would be likewise calm and would listen to me.

Hah! Not on your Nellie! She's savage! All she wants to do is grab beakfuls of your flesh and rip it off your body!

The bloke I bought her from said 'She tended to bite a bit' when his kids handled her. I can only assume the kids had been allowed to handle the bird roughly and she's now afraid of hands. She's also the most cage-aggressive bird I've ever seen. Yet, with her precious Pineapple, she's an absolute darling, preening and feeding him and snuggling up like Hannibal Lecter.

I'm at a loss over what to do for this poor little bird. If she weren't so aggressive, I have all the patience in the world and would be happy to sit with a stick or a treat and just wait for her to come good in her own time. But that's just not possible. Whenever a human being approaches within, say, three feet, she goes ballistic. If the cage door's open, she chases you and bites hard and long, screwing her beak into the flesh and ripping at you. Is that normal?

I'm so sad for my poor Matt. As some of you will remember, he is autistic and a very solitary, gentle soul. His birds are his darlings and he's got himself convinced it was something he did that made Petrucchia so angry. He has wounds and scars all up his arms and on his neck from her bites!

I'm willing to try anything and everything that members might suggest, but at the end of the day I'm beginning to think euthanasia might be the only answer. I couldn't pass Petrucchia on to anyone else who might treat her badly because of her viciousness, but I have Matt's safety and peace of mind to think of.

Can anyone help us? What can we try?

 

[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

I'm no expert, but I just want to put a hand on your shouder and thank you for caring and trying so hard to be a great parent and parront. Hopefully, our experts will be along soon...

 

[Owlet]

Could it be her being protective of the eggs? Was she like this prior to egg laying? If it only started happened after I suggest replacing the eggs with dummy and giving her time to reject the dummy eggs and calm down

 

[ParrotLover2001]

When I got my lovebird Jordan she was just as bad. She's a little more gentle now, and doesn't bite as hard or as often.

What I did, I did the first thing I could think of, hand taming.
But first start out just by sitting by the cage until the bird is comfortable with you, it might take days. Read a book out loud or just talk, but do so in a calm quiet tone.
Then place hand on cage near bird, if bird tries to bite, slowly pull hand slightly away from cage, just far enough so the bird can't bite. Wait till the bird is calm and slowly move hand closer to cage. Do this many times a day until bird doesn't react. Over time the bird will not react to you being near the cage.
Next get bird use to having the door opened. Slowly open the door, making, if bird reacts to it close the door and try again when bird is calm. Do this many times during the day and eventually bird will stop reacting to it.

Once you get past these steps you can move onto hand taming. Hope this helped.


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[Betrisher]

Yes, thanks, it did help. LOL! In fact, I've given similar advice to people in the past, only now it's happening to a bird of ours, my common sense has gone quite out the window. Petrucchia was hand-tame when we got her. For about three minutes, she sat on Matt's finger and looked as pretty as a peach. As soon as he moved a fraction, she went to town!

Yes, the aggression has got markedly worse since the egg-laying. If I thought it would help, I'd let her raise a clutch but somehow I think having a nestful of babies would only make her worse. Poor little thing! It must be awful to feel so driven all the time.

Now I've had a chance to calm down (O boy did that thumb-bite HURT!), of course we won't desert little Petrucchia. I'll take over training her right away (Matt's too emotionally involved to do it calmly). Wish me luck! And thanks again for the voice of reason.

 

[RavensGryf]

Oh Trish, I'm so sorry to hear about this! Petrucchia sounds like quite a formidable little thing . I wonder what got her that way at the breeder's house in the first place (even before the eggs)?

I know you'll persevere and eventually be able to tame the devil out of her.. Set some boundaries now. She had never had that and probably always has gotten away with bad behavior, which reinforced it even more. Get her to realize what you find is unacceptable, reinforce the positive.. you know what to do.. and hang in there. It might be slow, but little by little you'll get there.

Take care of your wounds! Poor Matt . Please keep us updated Trish.

 

[Taw5106]

OK so my Ekkie Venus is determined to lay. After she sliced and diced my hands last summer, I've kept a dowel stick close by for her to step up on. You should do the same. I use the dowel with no hesitation, also I use my feeder doors to deliver food when she is hormonal. She has been less aggressive this round of egg laying but that is because she views me as her mate, lol. Because of the number of bites, I did have an infection, ended up getting a tetanus shot and took antibiotics. Watch your wound and go to the doc if needed.

The story of the bites is my Ekkie got into my CAG's cage and was beak to beak with him. She's an expert pick lock. I intervened placing my hand between them and she unleashed her anger on me. This is why we have the dowel perch now.

Here are pics of my bites.

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[Kentuckienne]

It's not that she's afraid of hands, maybe, as much as she hates them and knows how to make them go away. You will have to teach her to want hands, that hands bring good things like treats and rides. I am guessing that might involve separating them temporarily and keeping her in a separate room and even trimming Wings so she can't fly to bite. It sounds like a challenge, and you have my sympathy and good wishes.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Ah Trish so sorry, hope your wounds heal well and soon?

As been mentioned I was going to suggest separation to a cage of her own in the short term. Thinking it may help with the hormones away from Pineapple and will be easier making some headway with her, one on one with no distractions.

Have complete faith in you, you will nail this I am sure. Hope your son is OK?

 

[Eve2]

Most of the time when you put two birds male and female together and they bond they are lost as pet birds. The bird you had before the new bird will probably will stay a pet bird but the new one never will be if the two birds stay together. Your new bird bonded right away with your bird and not with you. To her you are interfering with her family life. Hand raised birds that turn aggressive can be very aggressive because they are not afraid of you. You can leave them together and not treat her as a pet bird, or if you want to work with her you'll need to put her in a cage of her own in a different room away from your pet bird.

 

[Betrisher]

Owch! My tiny bites pale in comparison to those of yours, Taw5106! I hope they feel better soon - nothin' quite like that deep tissue damage to keep you mindful that you have a bird, is there?

My first line of defence was a bit of dowel, but that only infuriated Petrucchia even more. She hopped onto the dowel and ran along it to get at my hand. She knows where she wants to bite and she knows the difference between wood and flesh. Oh my yes, she does!

Today, I'm going to put her cage beside my desk while I study. I'll offer her treats through the bars and we'll see how that goes.

 

[Betrisher]

Plumsmum: No, poor Matt is not OK. He's convinced himself he did something to make Petrucchia dislike him and he's very down.

Eve2: I've always kept my birds in opposite-gender pairs and never had the slightest problem until this. I've never seen a bird so bent on human destruction and I've been keeping them for nearly sixty years. This one wins the gong. But I'll try everything I humanly can to help her calm down a few notches. We'll see what happens.

 

[Taw5106]

Owch! My tiny bites pale in comparison to those of yours, Taw5106! I hope they feel better soon - nothin' quite like that deep tissue damage to keep you mindful that you have a bird, is there?

My first line of defence was a bit of dowel, but that only infuriated Petrucchia even more. She hopped onto the dowel and ran along it to get at my hand. She knows where she wants to bite and she knows the difference between wood and flesh. Oh my yes, she does!

Today, I'm going to put her cage beside my desk while I study. I'll offer her treats through the bars and we'll see how that goes.

Seriously???? She traveled the perch still took you out??? [emoji33][emoji33][emoji33] Um WOW!!!! I'm Gobsmacked. You definitely have a devil bird on your hands. I am totally shocked!!!


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[plumsmum2005]

Plumsmum: No, poor Matt is not OK. He's convinced himself he did something to make Petrucchia dislike him and he's very down.

Eve2: I've always kept my birds in opposite-gender pairs and never had the slightest problem until this. I've never seen a bird so bent on human destruction and I've been keeping them for nearly sixty years. This one wins the gong. But I'll try everything I humanly can to help her calm down a few notches. We'll see what happens.

Oh very sorry to hear that Trish. So this is just for Matt OK?
"Matt, it isn't anything you have done, honestly! Petrucchia will improve, so listen to Mum and you will crack this!" Maybe Matt should read the exploits of Allee's Harry WDYT? Good luck

 

[EllenD]

Aww, this is so sad, I feel horrible for your poor son. I totally agree with the people that told you to separate the birds and to keep them in separate rooms where they can't see each other. Her hormones are going crazy and she is thinking that she's protecting her mate from you and anyone else that may come near. I'm willing to bet that if you separate them into their own cages with both having lots of different toys to play with, and then putting their cages in different rooms, she will calm down pretty quickly. Also, I'd suggest you get her on a solar schedule immediately, making her nights longer and her days shorter. This should knock her out of breeding mode. Basically put her new cage near a window in the new room she'll be in so that she can see the sunrise and sunset. At sunrise she gets up, and stays up until it starts getting dark. As the sun starts to set put her back in her cage and shut the door, she'll go to sleep. This should result in her getting between 12-14 hours of sleep a day, and the this combined with the shorter days and not seeing her mate anymore should take care of the problem completely.

Some birds are just very effected by bonding to a bird of the opposite sex, and when hormones rage she only cares about protecting him. As you said, she's loving towards her mate, so he's gotta go, lol. It's hard sometimes, in fact sometimes impossible to keep a bonded, opposite sex pair of birds as good pets.

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[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

Seriously???? She traveled the perch still took you out??? [emoji33][emoji33][emoji33] Um WOW!!!! I'm Gobsmacked. You definitely have a devil bird on your hands. I am totally shocked!!!


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Gobsmacked. My thanks. I have a new word to apply to the Rickeybird's horrors.

 

[Taw5106]

Seriously???? She traveled the perch still took you out??? [emoji33][emoji33][emoji33] Um WOW!!!! I'm Gobsmacked. You definitely have a devil bird on your hands. I am totally shocked!!!





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Gobsmacked. My thanks. I have a new word to apply to the Rickeybird's horrors.[/QUOTE]



You've never heard Gobsmacked??? It's definitely Ricky material, lol!!!


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[MosaicMadness]

Oh wow, I'm sorry. The person you got her from should have warned you. Female peachies are notorious for being very aggressive and hard to keep hand tame even after being hand fed. You have to work with them a lot and if they pair bond... well... yeah. I bred them for years and my very first PF was like yours. I started with her as a "pet" and after a few years 1:1 gave up and found her a friend. I had to be really careful when feeding/cleaning, but she was a happy bird. I don't know if it's ALL PF but in my experience, the normal greens tend to be the most aggressive, my blue factors all had much calmer personalities (dutch blue, cremino, wf violets) the orange face and normal though were more extroverted, let's say Good luck and safe fingers!

 

[Arash]

hello I'm sorry to tell my exprience maybe some people condem and pĺease be polite if anybody think it's not good or animal abuse or what ever but it's realy necessary some times. I have 7 lovebirds peach faced (I bought 4 and they breed now they are 7) and I really love all of them but 2 of them are really agressive one female that she's not tamed and scare of me so much and one male which it's tamed(these 2 are not related each other and they are in seperate cages).the male realy have tendency to bite my fingers and he did it so many times and even draw a blood! as like you. but he needs to know who is the boss here when I see he is in bite formation then I slap him(very highly controled slap to avoid any damage) and then he fears me and I can handle his doughter and his mate which they are not wild and will not bite and after a while male comes and sit on my hand beside his mate and his doughter with out trying to bite because he knows I will slap him and shout at him if he want's to bite. and never ever allow non of your birds sit on your head because they think they are boss and will act savage on you even if they are realy tamed and acting good! I never even allow them to sit on my shoulders only on my hands.
trust me it realy works shout at her and very controled slap (you must be so careful when you are punishim her their body is so small and vulnrable)when she bites you. and avoid to handle her, these kind of birds will be forever savage only handle and cudle male then she will acts better and she will come and sit on your hand it maybe takes one month or maybe more but she must afraid of you and know you are the boss fore ever.
and never allow your birds be outside when any body is not taking care of them it's realy important and dangrous! they maybe sit on floor and you must know they are on floor to avoid stepping on them or sitting on door ... and many other dangrus places plus mine realy like to chew electrical cord! you must see all these things and avoid any problem and never allow your birds be outside of cage more than 30 minutes because mine sometimes begging for being out and when I pass there cage they realy look upset but I'm always outside untile night if in weekend I allow them be out for many hours then they will feel depression during the other days of week they must use to be outside for maybe 15 or 30 minutes because if allow them one day being out for 4 hours and one day you allow them 10 minutes be outside of cage they will feel they are in prison!

 

[wrench13]

I must say your method of training these birds is typically not advised here and many other parrot forums. Hitting or as you put it smacking them is dangerous for the bird, the smallest excess force could really damage them. And animals in general, and parrots in particular, do not respond well to negative punishment. It may have worked for you in your special case, but to the OP, please refrain from using this method, or think this is a common training method. There isn't a parrot known that can not be coaxed into specific behaviour by using positive reinforcement ( ie: his favorite treat ).