So the rundown is that my father has a caique, she's a real sweetheart and they've bonded well. This bird gets along with everyone, and she isn't alltogether aggressive with me. However, she's developed a habit of attacking me, but only if I have a bag in my hand.
Now, I know she can take out a chunk if she wants to, but the most she's done is latched in and dented me, and drew some blood from my cheek once. She only exhibits this behavior towards me, and I'm rather certain she's demanding what I have, no matter how inedible. I'm pretty sure it stems from me hand feeding her a few peanuts out of a bag one day when we first met.
Her method of attack doesn't leave me much room to even offer her something, she will fly all the way across the room and land beak first in to the back of my hand and just go at it. It's worth mentioning she's a spoiled bird who usually gets whatever she wants and has relatively free roam of the house. I'm rather positive that I've somehow set up some pavlovian mechanism that has her correlating the bag with treats and is essentially trying to bully me out of it. Is there anyway to deter or reverse this behavior, or somehow encourage her to be more polite in how she asks for treats, keeping in mind she's still my dad's bird. I've been catching her in a blanket and loving on her, but to no avail, and I know disciplinary action is an absolute no go with birds. So does anyone have insight as to what might be going on to cause these bag-activated homing caique attacks and how I might be able to encourage her against this. There's really no distracting at that distance, and she's pretty intent on chewing on my fleshy bits.
Thanks for any advice.
Now, I know she can take out a chunk if she wants to, but the most she's done is latched in and dented me, and drew some blood from my cheek once. She only exhibits this behavior towards me, and I'm rather certain she's demanding what I have, no matter how inedible. I'm pretty sure it stems from me hand feeding her a few peanuts out of a bag one day when we first met.
Her method of attack doesn't leave me much room to even offer her something, she will fly all the way across the room and land beak first in to the back of my hand and just go at it. It's worth mentioning she's a spoiled bird who usually gets whatever she wants and has relatively free roam of the house. I'm rather positive that I've somehow set up some pavlovian mechanism that has her correlating the bag with treats and is essentially trying to bully me out of it. Is there anyway to deter or reverse this behavior, or somehow encourage her to be more polite in how she asks for treats, keeping in mind she's still my dad's bird. I've been catching her in a blanket and loving on her, but to no avail, and I know disciplinary action is an absolute no go with birds. So does anyone have insight as to what might be going on to cause these bag-activated homing caique attacks and how I might be able to encourage her against this. There's really no distracting at that distance, and she's pretty intent on chewing on my fleshy bits.
Thanks for any advice.
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