Lorikeet all of a sudden has attacked me

[PinionKing]

HI,

I have a Rainbow Lorikeet who is getting close to 10 years old now. She is super healthy, the last vet that saw her said she was the healthiest Lorikeet he had ever seen. I've had her since she was 6 weeks. She is very smart and an absolute clown.

She went through a phase last year of constant egg laying. I removed her fluffy hut/house, removed all her perches and toys and completely re-did her cage. Solved that issue.

Over the past two months, twice she has flown straight at me and attacked my face. Proper attack of not letting go. She could just be sitting on me knee or my hard, and with no warning next thing I know I have a growling, screeching, flapping bird hanging off my face and getting mighty close to my eyes.

I am pretty sure it is hormonal, a couple of times she has gone head down tail up when my hand has gone near her. Instead of sitting with me on my shoulder or the back of the couch she will stand there for a minute then take off and sit on the back of a dinning chair about 1 meter away and just sit there cleaning herself, or she may go and jump on the table to play with her toys (don't got near the table or she lets you know about it). Of course she is dragging the newspaper up through the base of her cage and ripping it to shreds.

As I said, I am pretty sure it is hormones, but the attacking is something new. I have given her a couple of days in her cage to cool off since the attack.

Thoughts?

 

[wrench13]

Yeah sounds like hormones. THe level of hormines is not constant year to year, for some unkown reason, some years are much worse then others. FOr us in the North East with Amazons, the last two were killers, with this past year being relatively mild. So take the usual steps to limit (but not eliminate) the results of mating season hormones.
No touching anywhere but the head
No dark hidey places
No nesting-like materials - shredded paper, cloth, etc
12 hours of solid quiet sleep
Reduced amounts of fruit and sugar bearing veggies, like corn **

** = I know doing this with lorikeets is hard as their natural diet is heavily fruit dependent, but reduce as much as possible.

Parrots driven by hormones often have zero control over their actions. One minute happily sitting on your shoulder and out of the blue, Wham, a solid bite, only to have them return to the gentle parrot they normally are, with a look of WTF was THAT on their face. Its important to not let bad behavior exhibited during hormone season become a permanent one.

REMEMBER - This too shall pass !!

 

[Laurasea]

no fun! Especially face eek!

As above hormonal season can be different intensity.

But also
Has anything changed? Any new people, new hair style, anything new in routine?

Sometimes for unknown reasons you can have sudden fear/ loss of trust ...evrn after years together. And it really helps to try and build back trust, feed a lot of treats by hand. Talk it out. Really respect boundaries.

Also they focus more on hormones if they are a little bored, not being as active. Increasing foraging, exploring, light easy training. Secure all parts of cage including bottom tray, and roll outside in light shade and sit with them. Time outside has been proven to improve mood and wellbeing.

Here are some ideas to increase use of environment and encourage moving around

Enrichment ideas, share yours

I'm often posting how I use ceiling hooks abd heavy weight fishing line to create what I call an aerial gym. I attach foraging stuff, stuff to chew, and treats to find to keep my flock busy. So now I will share examples to inspire you. Hopefully you all will share yours to inspire me too! this...

www.parrotforums.com

 

[PinionKing]

Yeah sounds like hormones. THe level of hormines is not constant year to year, for some unkown reason, some years are much worse then others. FOr us in the North East with Amazons, the last two were killers, with this past year being relatively mild. So take the usual steps to limit (but not eliminate) the results of mating season hormones.
No touching anywhere but the head
No dark hidey places
No nesting-like materials - shredded paper, cloth, etc
12 hours of solid quiet sleep
Reduced amounts of fruit and sugar bearing veggies, like corn **

** = I know doing this with lorikeets is hard as their natural diet is heavily fruit dependent, but reduce as much as possible.

Parrots driven by hormones often have zero control over their actions. One minute happily sitting on your shoulder and out of the blue, Wham, a solid bite, only to have them return to the gentle parrot they normally are, with a look of WTF was THAT on their face. Its important to not let bad behavior exhibited during hormone season become a permanent one.

REMEMBER - This too shall pass !!

Thanks!

I learnt after her egg-laying phase to not touch her anywhere but the head. when she goes tail up I just back away until she calms back down.

I removed her hut during that time and haven't put it back in. If she trying to bury herself under something, I move it so that there is no gap to bury under anymore.

After the attacks, I do notice she is happy and chirping again as if nothing happened, but she gets put back in her cage so I can deal with the damage. The black eye was hard to explain at work.

I only normally give her corn once or twice a week because of how sweet it is. Grapes only once a month. She has pear and apples every day. If I am cutting veg for dinner I always cut a bit off for her (if it is bird safe). She is a very fussy eater she won't touch mangos, peaches, watermelon, sweet potato, beans. I don't give her citrus. I keep trialling different options but normally get rejected. Pear, apple (both she is fussy over the brand, and the brands she likes need to be rotated), peas, corn, grapes, carrot, potato she will eat. I tried her with wet mix when she was younger but she never went for it, there is always some dry mix in the cage which she will also eat, and mix with water herself.

 

[jessem101]

Thanks!

I learnt after her egg-laying phase to not touch her anywhere but the head. when she goes tail up I just back away until she calms back down.

I removed her hut during that time and haven't put it back in. If she trying to bury herself under something, I move it so that there is no gap to bury under anymore.

After the attacks, I do notice she is happy and chirping again as if nothing happened, but she gets put back in her cage so I can deal with the damage. The black eye was hard to explain at work.

I only normally give her corn once or twice a week because of how sweet it is. Grapes only once a month. She has pear and apples every day. If I am cutting veg for dinner I always cut a bit off for her (if it is bird safe). She is a very fussy eater she won't touch mangos, peaches, watermelon, sweet potato, beans. I don't give her citrus. I keep trialling different options but normally get rejected. Pear, apple (both she is fussy over the brand, and the brands she likes need to be rotated), peas, corn, grapes, carrot, potato she will eat. I tried her with wet mix when she was younger but she never went for it, there is always some dry mix in the cage which she will also eat, and mix with water herself.

as others have mentioned. its hormone related.

I learned this the hard way and got advice from vets that specialized with certain species of parrots. here are some of the tips they gave me, which should be encouraged even when they aren't in the hormone stage!

only pet around the head, beak, neck area. DO NOT pet under the wings, or stomach area. Also reframe from having your bird hanging out on your shoulders, they want to sit higher than you, as it is a dominance issue. keep them on your arm and close to your chest. you will find it difficult at times to retrieve your bird when he or she is at higher ground, so try and make sure they are perched either eye level or lower.

bird beds, get rid of it. Mirrors, beds or other nesting type of areas should be removed from the cage. Toys, perch, bowls are plenty.

also look for signs of the bird's behavior..they will usually leave a sign of do not mess with me. Slowly get them acquainted.

If you got the bird early, I.e. 6 to 8 weeks of age, it is important to introduce them to new things when they see it as a threat,. many times, if something is a threat to them, they will attack their partner to protect them (I know it seems ironic) but to them its life threatening, so they want you to get away from it ASAP. I have both a Lory and an Amazon..I am always introducing both of my birds to new things, and it seems to help tremendously. Same thing when it comes to changing their environments! need to slowly introduce them to change, or else they feel uneasy. Parrots arent as domesticated as dogs per se...they still have tons of wild instincts, understand those behaviors and it will help you train your parrot better, it has helped me.

I followed all these tips from my vet...and not once has my Amazon (DYHA that was even a rescue) has never attacked me or has bitten me. I have been training my Black Lory to do the same and she has been an absolute blast. Hope this helps you as much as it helped me.