Painting my nails is a gamble..

[truthfulreaction]

I have a green cheek and he has his moods like any parrot but I usually know how to handle him so that he's comfortable and satisfied. I've had him for a little over a year now and I've always painted my nails and it used to bother him at first but now he usually doesn't react to them.

I took him out of his cage this morning to go spend some time together on our deck and as soon as I tried to touch him he bit me aggressively and when I decided I'd have to grab him and put him back in his cage he gave me a nice bite and made me bleed. I've never seen him react to the colour red (current nails colour) before..

Do you think it's my nails or something else?

 

[weco]

Many birds have a problem with bright red & it's not a specie specific problem.....

 

[truthfulreaction]

hmm, okay I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

 

[JDlugosz]

I see how Diamond interacts with my hand, and I think that to him my hand is the main focus of being. He stands on my fingers and my extended thumb is neck high; he'll beak it or position it to his liking; when my hand approaches, he may grab it (with his beak, gently) and position it high for scritches or low for being picked up. My hand is about his size. Any features are seen in that scale.

So a red nail isn't a trivial feature but would be like a friend walked up to you wearing a mask.

 

[MissJD]

My partner, Matty (Klutch on these forums), has a beautiful galah who reacted violently to his newly-painted black fingernails yesterday.
She was fine while she couldn't see the color and starting hissing, swaying and lunging at Matty's hand when she could. We put this down to it being unfamiliar with this new-look hand, I didn't think it was a color-specific reaction like with the color red. I could be wrong of course..

 

[weco]

Black nails, be careful about radical changes.....you've already seen how the nails bothered his bird.....if the bird were to get upset jewelry/piercings, it could be physically dangerous if the bird tries to remove the jewelry.....my birdsitter's granddaughter came home with a multi colored hairdoo & matching makeup and my patty promptly took a chunk out of her arm & didn't settle down until she & her friends went back to her grandmother's.....a few days later, after she'd washed all that out of her hair, girl & bird were back to being best of friends.....

A friend's son came home with a Mohawk hair cut & their nanday chased him into his bedroom, until the bird was caged.....a radically different appearance will sometimes will trigger a bird's nest protection instinct, the nest being the house and they perceive the radical change as something they need to protect the nest & rest of the flock from.....

Good luck to your partner.....

 

[MissJD]

It's the first time he had painted his nails since we've had Chibi, and that's now a lesson fully learned. It's not worth undoing all of our good work with Chibi, just to make a fashion statement and we would both prefer to have a happy and comfortable bird than be able to wear radical nail polish. Last night I happily accepted the fact that I'll probably never wear drastic nail polish again and will simply stick to natural, subtle polish like beige and clear.

Life is more than looks

 

[faeryphoebe1]

Weco's absolutely right. Many birds just don't like new fingernail polish or new hair styles. Trixie (GCC) avoided me for a few days when I went from blonde hair to brown last year. Now, I can't even wear beige nail polish around her unless I want to get bitten. She also HATES the color red, lol.

 

[ShellyBorg]

I lucked out, all of my fock handle new colors, nail polish and hair cuts, even bright red hats. What they love is when company comes over to see THEM. They are so happy the sing and talk at the top of there lungs so they can be enjoyed by all. *rolls eyes* and this is why I am single and will most likely stay that way. *sigh*

 

[BillsBirds]

Another thing that I've seen birds react violently, or fearfully, to is new glasses. Other than a new change, remember, predators have big unblinking eyes.