One person bird

[jroyal]

So LuLu has been displaying signs of becoming a one person bird. It started when she bit my sister for being too close to me. Then today my dad tried to get her to step up and she would not budge. It's bad because everyone who comes to visit always wants to pet/hold the bird. And lulu will not step up for anyone but me. But I'm the only one who has dedicated time to taking her to the vet, cleaning cages and supplies,feeding, and training her. So I can understand her behavior but I think it's still unacceptable to totally ignore other people

But my sister says that when I'm not around, she'll step up and play with anyone. But when I come home she goes back to only responding to me. One day I left lulu on her playstand while I went put to do some regular errands and my dad was home watching her. When I walked in the door lulu was on my dad's shoulder but as soon as she saw me she bit him (not hard but like an overly excited nip) and wouldn't let my dad take her off his shoulder so I had to take her off.

How can I "cure" this if she won't respond to anyone

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

It sounds like Lulu is indeed responding to others in the household flock, however, you are her number 1. I'm not sure how to get that bonding to be equal among all your family members if you are the one that spends most of the time with her and bonding in an enjoyable quality way. Pritti was unusally bonded to me and my husband, even though he was exclusively with my husband from baby-hood for 10 years until we met. But, I would say it took years to get to the point of the equalness, with a lot of effort on my part to spend significan quality time with Pritti on a consistent basis. Teaching and doing things that were just "our" things, like singing certain songs, holding him a certain way, etc. Then also of course mimicking some things my husband did that were Pritti's favorites. Also equally divided the care (food, cleaning, transporting around house, etc.). Our long-standing a-vet said we were very fortunate to have this 2 person bond with as husband and wife with this one male cherry-head. Time and work.

 

[mtdoramike]

You need to practice handing her off to other people especially in your family. Then once comfortable with them, you ask friends to stop by and do the same thing. Anyone who stops by my home will usually be stuck hold either Mac or Tiki or both separately of course.

But she may not ever be totally comfortable with anyone else but you. So at the most you can hope for is that she is tolerant of it or them enough to be handled by other people.

 

[coltfire]

with getting other to step up and do the choirs your doing and spend time with her, things will never change, she see's you as her mate and your the one she wants, i have one like that, lexxy she is my girl and no one handles her unless i pass her off, my x has quite a few scar's from lexxy because she was cuddling me or just to close while lexxy was out, but she is my girl and i dont want her to change, as you have been told when your not there she is fine same as my lexxy well most times.but the others i did not make that mistake of having them a one person bird

 

[drlisaort]

I agree with the other suggestions. My husband and one son are not too keen on picking up Oliver but thank goodness my other son and girlfriend are. I also have a "handyman" who has birds and loves Oliver, so he's always kissing on Oliver (which he and his mom taught me to kiss Oliver!!! Me, the big scaredy cat of his beak now rubs beak/lip all the time with Oliver. Sorry, back to the point...anybody I can get to pick Oliver up or hand off to I do even though I am the primary caretaker--and he's very good with everyone...

 

[MonicaMc]

Just thought you might be interested in this post by Barbara Heidenreich.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151832245361974&id=301503446973

 

[maillet]

Birds display a flock mentality and with any group they view someone as leader. It is only natural to wish to be close to that leader over other people. A lot of positive are noted above but two in particular could be useful for solving this little habit I believe.

(1) When you are with other people and you are handling, hand off to other people on a regular basis. I never hold Echo more than 15 Minutes (Potty Intervals) before I have him handed off to someone else' shoulder. He knows now if he wants to be with people than he has to learn to be with whomever is chosen (and if he can choose it is of course always me... even if it means chasing me across a house when I move).

(2) Whenever you are in company: Ignore Him. Avoid all handling, and eventually he will learn that when in social company he should be going to others. He only gets to have you when you are alone. Birds like people so do what they need for attention.

 

[MikeyTN]

Gracie was like that at the beginning as she will give me a nasty bite since she prefers my partner over me. But over time when I kept handling her, she calmed down a lot and accepted me completely. Either one of us can pick up both ekkies without issues.

 

[antoinette]

You mentioned
But I'm the only one who has dedicated time to taking her to the vet, cleaning cages and supplies,feeding, and training her.
Lulu obviously has bonded to you.

Perhaps let other family members assist with the above tasks, each taking a turn.
Let other family members spend time alone with Lulu forming a bond.

 

[lpolliard]

When she bites someone, don't make the mistake of running over to collect her. If you do you just taught her to bite others to get what she wants, your attention.

 

[MeganMango]

You mentioned
But I'm the only one who has dedicated time to taking her to the vet, cleaning cages and supplies,feeding, and training her.
Lulu obviously has bonded to you.

Perhaps let other family members assist with the above tasks, each taking a turn.
Let other family members spend time alone with Lulu forming a bond.

I agree with Antoinette. Mango was showing signs of bonding only to me and ignoring Dave. He actually started to get rude, refusing to step up, screaming at him and even nipping. I backed off a little bit and let Dave take over some of the responsibilities like feeding, cleaning and especially training. I find training is a great bonding tool, and once Dave started working with Mango all those behaviors stopped. We really try to be aware if he is bonding to one of us more than the other because we want to avoid this, he is important to both of us.

 

[birdsupplies]

Just thought you might be interested in this post by Barbara Heidenreich.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151832245361974&id=301503446973

I'm new here, but I totally agree with this post. Barbara has a couple of excellent DVD resources that work very well.

 

[Pajarita]

Birds display a flock mentality and with any group they view someone as leader. It is only natural to wish to be close to that leader over other people. A lot of positive are noted above but two in particular could be useful for solving this little habit I believe.

(1) When you are with other people and you are handling, hand off to other people on a regular basis. I never hold Echo more than 15 Minutes (Potty Intervals) before I have him handed off to someone else' shoulder. He knows now if he wants to be with people than he has to learn to be with whomever is chosen (and if he can choose it is of course always me... even if it means chasing me across a house when I move).

(2) Whenever you are in company: Ignore Him. Avoid all handling, and eventually he will learn that when in social company he should be going to others. He only gets to have you when you are alone. Birds like people so do what they need for attention.

I don't meant to be disrespectful but birds do not recognize leaders. They don't live in that type of society. In a flock, you have stronger birds and weaker birds but there are no leaders or alphas.

 

[Pajarita]

I've only had one single female and one single male ekkies so I am no expert but the hen was a one-person bird all the way and attempts to 'break' her out of it failed. The male, on the other hand, did not like anybody in particular.