One year old scaly starting to show aggression

[mimi88]

So happy there is a sub forum for lorikeets now, thank you!

My year old scaly lorikeet (DNA sexed male) is pretty unhandleable (is that a word?) at the moment.. when I approach him he sways left to right, right to left, eyes pinning, mumbling, if I give him my finger at that point he usually takes a swipe and attempts to bite. This is SO unlike his usual self. He is the most docile baby i've ever owned. I can snap him out of it sometimes by distracting him but am wondering if this sounds like he is going through his "teenage hood" early? And if so, how long does this phase usually last for lorikeets? His beak looks alot less intimidating than my conures but BOY are looks decieving, he packs a mean bite LOL :16:
I'm a bit sad as he has been cage bound for a couple weeks now (I probably sound very cruel right now) due to this behaviour - I did attempt to bring him out a week ago and in the end he took a swipe at my face, so i'm hoping he will calm down soon.. within the next week or so.. what to do, what to do?

 

[MikeyTN]

Same thing happened to me and Malachai. I don't remember how long it took before he came out of it but you can tell by their stance. Once he's out of it, much more manageable. They do pack a mean bite and they go full force in attack.

 

[mimi88]

Same thing happened to me and Malachai. I don't remember how long it took before he came out of it but you can tell by their stance. Once he's out of it, much more manageable. They do pack a mean bite and they go full force in attack.

He hasn't gone into full on attack mode towards me yet, but he has gotten pretty close a couple of times. All I know is when he is doing his swaying dance and his eyes are pinning crazily it means stay away or you're gonna get a mean bite. Which seems to be every time he lays eyes on me now. So i'm assuming Malachai is a male also. Does he turn into a moody monster every spring, or is this a one time deal only? I feel that at the moment he is a bit unstable to handle, but feel bad if he is cage bound. Any recommendations about how I can give him some out time and not get bitten.. or is it pretty much impossbile?

 

[MikeyTN]

Yes Malachai is a male as well. Yes he turns into a monster during his mating moods. He will fly attack and act all crazy. For me I left him be cause he was attacking pretty bad draw blood and all. We have so many birds, since he doesn't play nice with others, he is put up especially during the crazy period. So I basically spend time with the other birds instead without dealing with the mood. I learn that long ago with my other birds during their hormone moods to stay away cause I've got bitten pretty badly several times during the hormone period.

 

[MarciaLove]

When i saw this i thought " its started dun dun dun!!" Sorry i went through the same thing with my green naped when i got him he was 1 year 4 months old and his owners said they got him at 4 months old and he was so sweet but as he turned 1 he started biting and screaming and they couldnt take it so i gladly took him in and ever day i got bit badly! He is now 1.5 months bite free and hes 2 years 4 months old he staryed getting better around 2 years old and i only gor bit like 3 times a week but they were still bad. I had to get stiches for one bite of his so be careful!!!!! This will pass its just hormones lorikeets get it bad especially males.

 

[MarciaLove]

As for time out to play during this time its not impossible just hard try to keep him occupied with other things and very busy and happy and watch for his biting signs if you think hes gonna attack either put him up before he does or step waaayyyy back mine would hiss and his pupils would dialate befoe he went to attack me, good luck!

 

[MikeyTN]

The thing with Malachai, he'll get ya before you get the chance to put him up. He flies right to you and start biting none stop. Once he's out of that mood he's as sweet as he can be.

 

[Lintini]

Yeeeeesh .....you guys crushed my future dreams of a lorikeet for awhile lol. Very helpful though, great advice for Mimi88

 

[LoryLover]

I've had a male and a female lory. Had several episodes of attack and biting frenzies with Woody, our male. None with the female and she's going on 17 years old now. Even during mating season, the female is sweet and happy. My husband suffered the biting from our male, yet Woody would be sweet to him at times and then suddenly bite him ferociously, and go back to playing.

We never put Woody in timeouts for this behavior, but we were always telling him "no biting" and like Marcia said, we would distract him to playing and doing other things... or I would take him to another place in the house for a while (in order to give my husband, who was the one getting attacked, some peace).

 

[Mike17]

I'm sure our rainbow Coco is male- he does the swaying thing with eyes pinned, and head feathers fluffed. Yet he does this sitting on my knee, and will allow me to stroke him... after a while he snaps out of it and goes into playful mode. Last week we put Joey the non-tame eccy on the verandah after he'd been stuck inside in cage for 2 weeks due to heat outside (we'd lost his "partner" to possible heat stress). Coco went ballistic, attacking in a frenzy and had Joey on his back shrieking. I got bitten trying to get Coco off him. It was a really determined attack, too, Coco really looked like he wanted to kill Joey. Strangely though, where other smaller birds break the skin easily and make me bleed, Coco's (rare) bites never do, but by crikey, they hurt!

Coco is 3 years old and has gradually become less friendly with all the other birds. He's still very playful with me. It would probably be better if he had a lori friend, but Milo the red-collared died over a year ago, and since we're moving to Tasmania and can't take loris, don't want to get any more, in fact we have to rehome Coco.

 

[LoryLover]

I'm sure our rainbow Coco is male- he does the swaying thing with eyes pinned, and head feathers fluffed. Yet he does this sitting on my knee, and will allow me to stroke him... after a while he snaps out of it and goes into playful mode. Last week we put Joey the non-tame eccy on the verandah after he'd been stuck inside in cage for 2 weeks due to heat outside (we'd lost his "partner" to possible heat stress). Coco went ballistic, attacking in a frenzy and had Joey on his back shrieking. I got bitten trying to get Coco off him. It was a really determined attack, too, Coco really looked like he wanted to kill Joey. Strangely though, where other smaller birds break the skin easily and make me bleed, Coco's (rare) bites never do, but by crikey, they hurt!

Coco is 3 years old and has gradually become less friendly with all the other birds. He's still very playful with me. It would probably be better if he had a lori friend, but Milo the red-collared died over a year ago, and since we're moving to Tasmania and can't take loris, don't want to get any more, in fact we have to rehome Coco.

Mike, in my experience and from the reading I've done over the years - I've found that lories are a very jealous bird. A friend of mine had a single lory and brought it over to my house - we thought it would be fun for my lory (the male, we named Woody, who we'd just had for about a year) and her lory to play together. But they began fighting and attacking each other. We quickly separated them and never brought them together again.

My daughter was playing with her friend's kitten - just for one day, in our house, and our lory never forgave her for that. Up to that day, my 16 year old daughter would come home from school and snuggle with our lory for a while. The lory was so jealous to see my daughter snuggling with a kitten instead.

I've read lots of other tales from other lory owners about how lories just don't get a long with other birds. One guy had a pair of wild Chattering lories that worked out a plan to attack and kill a chicken. He even got it on video. (He didn't let their plan succeed, the chicken was saved.)

I read a story in Bird Talk magazine of a lady who had a lory and several other birds. The cages were along a wall in the family room, that was open to the kitchen. One morning all the birds were on top of their cages, and she was in the kitchen and suddenly the birds began screeching. She turned to look and saw the lory viciously attacking the amazon. She rushed over and got them separated. Something in the way she separated them affected the lory and from that day forward the lory was mean towards this lady. For the next year and a half, she tried to regain the lory's trust - but it never let her get near it again.

We've only ever had one lory at a time. And no other birds during our time with a lory. Right now we have one very happy lory who has my husband and me all to herself, at her beck and call, lol.

 

[Mike17]

I don't think we'll get any more lories after we rehome Coco. They are simply too disruptive amongst a large mixed flock. Coco was fine with me after I broke up his attack on Joey. He will come to me when I have Alex (tame eccy) on me, Alex then leaves as he no longer enjoys Coco's company. The corella is totally petrified of Coco- I was patting him (the corella) yesterday when he spied Coco coming out of hiding and walking towards us so he bit me, hard. Birds!

 

[LoryLover]

I don't think we'll get any more lories after we rehome Coco. They are simply too disruptive amongst a large mixed flock. Coco was fine with me after I broke up his attack on Joey. He will come to me when I have Alex (tame eccy) on me, Alex then leaves as he no longer enjoys Coco's company. The corella is totally petrified of Coco- I was patting him (the corella) yesterday when he spied Coco coming out of hiding and walking towards us so he bit me, hard. Birds!

That's great that Coco doesn't harbor ill feelings after you stopped the attack. I wonder though how a lory (especially a baby lory) would behave if brought into the home after all the other birds were already established in the household.

We have a similar issue with our salt water tank that we've had for 12 years... when we add new fish, we have to make sure the new fish will get along with the existing fish. Because the established fish will fight to the death, a new fish that they don't like. That creates a constant "stress" atmosphere that is a threat to the health of all the fish.

 

[SharlenaSharlena]

This is all such fantastic advice! Our kiddo's are about to hit the 1 year mark and so all this info totally helps!

 

[mimi88]

Due to reading these posts I am starting to wonder if my boys behaviour is maybe a jealousy related issue, and not hormonal. When I interact with my conures the lorikeet Margarita will start to do the swaying dance, eyes pinning and lean in to bite me. He starts mumbling to himself, "hello margarita.. dance, dance, dance" and seems very irritated at me. Could it be that, rather than a hormonal issue?

Come to think of it, the first time he ever BIT me was when my father in law came over for the first time, Margarita got very vocal and did his little dance then went in for the kill with his beak towards me... ouch. Now I have been having this problem ever since that day.

 

[LoryLover]

Due to reading these posts I am starting to wonder if my boys behaviour is maybe a jealousy related issue, and not hormonal. When I interact with my conures the lorikeet Margarita will start to do the swaying dance, eyes pinning and lean in to bite me. He starts mumbling to himself, "hello margarita.. dance, dance, dance" and seems very irritated at me. Could it be that, rather than a hormonal issue?

Come to think of it, the first time he ever BIT me was when my father in law came over for the first time, Margarita got very vocal and did his little dance then went in for the kill with his beak towards me... ouch. Now I have been having this problem ever since that day.

Yep, for sure jealously is a HUGE issue with lories - I found that out early on. When Sweet Pea was just about 3 months old, she hated the telephone. If I had the phone in my hand and was holding her... the phone got attacked big time, and me too if I was in the way. I learned real quick to not hold the phone and Sweet Pea at the same time. Now get this.. the reason she hated the telephone was because of jealousy... I was paying attention to it and she wants all the attention.

Nowadays she doesn't physically attack the phone anymore, but when she sees us on the phone, she starts chanting "bye bye, see ya later" over and over. If she hears the phone ring, she says "hello", and then immediately "bye bye, see ya later".

She hates my housekeeper, and chants "bye bye" to him the whole time he's at the house cleaning. If he tried to touch her, she would lunge at him to bite him.

There are some people that she has shown favor towards though. My 33 year old daughter brought a boyfriend over to the house at Christmas - it was his first time at our house. Sweet Pea acted super nice with him, and even sat on his finger for a while.

My poor daughter though... Sweet Pea still hasn't forgiven her for showing attention to those kittens 16 years ago, and continues to act hostile towards my daughter.