So this is hormonal aggression!

[BoomBoom]

Well, I thought Boomer was already in his hormonal stage but I guess I was wrong, haha! He is 3.5 years old. As of 2-3 weeks ago, I started observing ramped up hormonal aggression. It only lasts a few moments then he is back to his sweet old self. But those few moments hurt! He might randomly lunge at my belly when I'm playing on the computer and he's resting on my knee - I think he doesn't like to hear my stomach churn. Or he'd crawl up my shirt to start biting my neck and chin - I'm starting to think it's the stubbles which never bothered him before. Kalidasa from this forum has been helping me deal with this and has given me top notch advice.

So I settled with two reactions when this happens. Can you tell me, from your experience, which might work better?

1. When he bites, say NO sternly, then keep him in his cage and ignore for 15 minutes. My hesitation in doing this is he might start to develop an aversion with me taking him to his cage. This will prove difficult when I'm trying to leave for work or need to put him in there when I'm cooking, etc. Kalidasa reasoned, which makes a lot of sense, that our birds are smart enough to know when they are put inside with a praise and a treat, versus when they're being put in there for being bad. What are your thoughts?

2. Distract him. As far as distractions go, I do flight recall training with him with verbal praise rewards only. I make him do 5-15 stays/comes. My hope is that he expends energy towards this versus biting me, at least until the hormonal frenzy passes. This is what I'm currently trying but my worry is this, do you think I'm rewarding his bad behavior by focusing attention on him? (Ie. Recall training and verbal praises. Your thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

 

[itchyfeet]

I'd distract him, incase he starts biting as a way to get you to put him back in the cage. With distraction you can be less predictable, so he's less likely to play cause and effect?

 

[BoomBoom]

Thanks, itchyfeet! The thing with Boomer though, he doesn't like to be in the cage when I'm home. So I don't think he'd try to bite me as a means of getting back to the cage. He will bite for other reasons in the midst of his hormonal frenzy maybe. What you mean when you wrote 'he's likely to play cause and effect?'

 

[TacoNTiki]

I am definitely not as experienced as some of the others here as we have only had Tiki about 7 weeks or so. But one other thing I read from others and have been working for us is putting Tiki on the floor when he bites and then ignoring him. We often use the putting him back in cage method too, and as he can walk or fly back to his cage at any time on his own, I have never thought of him biting to go back as an issue. And the thing I do most is try to not jerk or pull back (but that's only when it's not a super hard bite), and grab is beak and say no, or blow gently at his face. However sometimes he has such a grip with his beak that I find I have to pry his beak open and I am very concerned with this because I don't want to hurt him. I am trying to remind myself to not do this.

 

[BoomBoom]

Floor might be a better alternative than cage actually. I'll try that too, then turn my back and ignore. He'll just fly up to me no doubt. Depending on the severity of the crime, it's a cage time out or a cage lock up.

Part of what's been helping me is recognizing when the frenzy begins, before he even bites. I plan to use the recall training. Several laps to tire him out and hopefully change his course of thinking. The past few days, the bouts of frenzy are few and mild (thank god). Also not jerking back or making a big reaction when he bites is huge. I've been making big reactions because I was not used to him doing it. Hopefully when it happens I'll be ready.

 

[Mimsy01]

I know I'm the worst offender of encouraging biting with Foo. It will surprise me and I'll jump or yelp, which is bad on my side.

Most of the time I can tell she's getting in a mood and I put her on her cage top. It's more of a distraction than a punishment. If she is being super bitey and not cooperative with going back to the cage I get out the bad red toy. For some reason, the scary red toy puts her into a snuggly sweet mood instantly.

 

[BoomBoom]

Aww the bad red toy. How cute! How old is Foo? I wouldn't overdo it too much though. Bird might develop a phobia or if she's like Boomer, he'll go full on attack mode on the thing. His bad red toy is the black aviator harness. He seethes when he sees that thing. He used to even bite me if I so much as have it in my hands. I only put it on him once and he thought the harness was trying to strangle him. Actually that was my first memory of him ever biting me.

 

[Mimsy01]

We got Foo March of 2012 and they thought she was a year and half then. (we've really no idea how old she is) Generally scary toys, she eventually loses her fear and and then she likes them after repeated exposure, she doesn't seem to get angry with them.

Her anger issues are usually things like-hey I need scritches I have pin feathers and you either don't do it..and then the anger builds or you gave scritches and they were "bad scritches". My husband does bad scritches, he does construction so his hands have a lot of callouses so he doesn't have the sensitivities of feeling those little pin feathers and that makes her lose her mind.

Lastly she would like to give us scritches and we are not accepting it (cus she pinches) and that is unacceptable.

Temper tantrums are different with her, those she doesn't bite us, she bangs her beak on stuff (though sometimes that is against our hand, no bite, just beak boxing) and fluffs and chatters and thanks to my husband growls at us. (he would growl at her when she was mad and so now she believes that is the thing to do when angry) Those happen from all kinds of things-wrong food in the bowl is a big one, wrong color sleep tent (nothing rubs her feathers more wrong than a none yellow sleep hut), water bowl is not completely full...the list goes on.

That was more long winded than I meant. I do love discussing her though, like a proud parent of a terrible spoiled brat.

I'm tempted to try an aviator harness. I see it ending poorly however, I think she would agree with Boomers feelings about it all.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

I find the distraction method worked best. Georgie was a raging beast when hormonal...LOL...and I didn't handle it well at first. It would really hurt, I'd be bleeding and scream out because it hurt and Georgie seemed to "like" the negative energy.
Then when I started making her do something I could reward/praise, it seemed to help redirect her energy and she liked being able to be praised. It toned down the energy overall.
Good luck....this is my fear with my sweet little Gilbert. I can't even imagine him turning into a beast (LOL) like she was but he is 3 now....so it is possible.

 

[proudbirdmum]

Hey Guys,

All your comments have been really helpful! I don't think Gremlin is going through anything hormonal yet (he's hardly4 months old) but he's been displaying pretty aggressive behaviour suddenly so you guys might be able to give some advice. I know the cause-

1)we are babysitting a friends dog for a month, she is not bird friendly and so now my partner and I have to juggle the birds and the dog and so I think everyone is feeling slightly ignored
2) Gremlin has been left in his cage all day for the past 10 days while we've been on placement. He only got 1-2 hours a day to free fly which we know is not even close to enough time but that was our only option. We filled his cage with branches and leaves which he loves to destroy but clearly it wasn't enough.

We're back home now (have been for the past 4 days) and he gets to free fly for atleast 3-4 hours a day. He's started swooping and biting quite hard. He just bit me quite severely even though only a few minutes ago he was cuddling, kissing and listening to all my training commands. I put him back in his cage where he promptly went to his feeding bowl.

How do we revert his behaviour?
Also, I noticed a head bobbing action which he's never done before and I'm freaking out- if this is a stereotypy and what do we do to correct it ASAP?

Thanks in advance!!