Sudden increase in aggression?

[gibson2503]

I have a Jenday conure who has been with us since she was about 6 months old. She is now about 7 years old. She has always been aggressive and does not like hands most of the time. So we just try to read her body language when interacting with her. Lately there has been an increase in her aggression to the point where we can barely get near her cage. She is going out of her way to bite our hands. What can we do to lower her aggression?

 

[noodles123]

It is hard to say without more information.

Do you have an shadowy areas in her cage or outside of her cage to which she has access (huts, tents, bedding, low-ledges, under furniture, boxes etc)?
Have there been any changes to your home or relationships?
How often is she out her cage daily?
What does she eat?
How much sleep does she get each night and how much sunlight does she get each day.

 

[EllenD]

I'd agree with Noodles that it sounds hormone-related, especially since it is the right time of the year for it (trust me, I know...uhg)...So if you have anything inside of her cage that creates a small, dark place like one of those damn "Happy/Snuggle Huts", any type of bed, tent, hammock, or any kind of box, etc. that she can get inside of or underneath, it needs remove...And that goes for your other 3 birds too, especially since they are females, because this behavior, once it becomes chronic, can start laying of infertile eggs...We just had a 7 year-old Sun Conure, female, who had never laid an infertile egg her entire life, and suddenly laid one, then the next was huge and she became instantly Egg-Bound, and had to have emergency open-abdominal surgery to remove the egg to save her life...That's why you're playing with fire by putting those things in their cages, along with anything that looks like nesting-material/bedding...

The other causes are typically them getting less than at least 12 hours of sleep every night, them not being on a Natural-Light Schedule like they naturally are in the wild, eating warm, mushy food, or being touched in places other than their head, face, or neck...

Other than sudden hormonal-behavior, has anything else changed in or around her cage? In your home or with the other birds? The smallest changes can set them off...

***Does she get out-of-cage-time every single day? I ask because you said you can't really handle her or interact with her, and sometimes people just leave birds like this inside of their cages 24/7, which just makes them worse and worse as far as their level of tameness goes...

Biggest question if none of this applies to your bird is does she get a complete Wellness-Exam with either a Certified Avian Vet or Avian Specialist Vet at least once a year, and that includes both full Fecal-testing and full, routine Blood-Work? If not, then at 7 years old she needs to have this done ASAP, because behavior changes in pet/captive parrots are sometimes the only sign you get that they are seriously ill for months and months before they are very, very ill and it's too late to do anything about it...