Why is my BABY aggressive?

[Tikazoo]

Hi Everyone,
So we have had Tika since October now. She 13 weeks or so and is an Orange Wing. She has been hand fed by us and is still being hand fed once a day. She went from being a baby who checks out our surroundings with her beak, who we have been directing to be gentle, to now she just thinks she can be mean. Where is the sweet baby? She is treated well and still comes for the occational head scratch, but when you try to get her to step up or reach in her cage or on top she has decided to growl and bite. Even when off the cage she spends her time nipping at you while you are carrying her. She's just so young.... I'm confused. I wasn't expecting this behavior for a few years during molting time and such. Help please how do I redirect her? I usually just put my thumb on her beak and say be gentle when she's getting too rough, but like I said now she's like lunging and growling at us. How do I show her the right way to behave? Anyone have any favorite training links?
All help appreciated.

 

[wenz2712]

Hello Tikazoo and welcome I think this is a question for Henpecked to answer. Im sure he will be along soon to give you some great advice
Im not too sure why Tika has started to do this suddenly. I have a Baby YC coming home on Sun. She will be 11 weeks old then. At the moment she is adorably friendly.
Good luck and let us know how your getting on

 

[MikeyTN]

I've said this before. By handfeeding yourself does NOT guarantee you get a sweet bird! My last two batch of babies, one from each batch I had issues with. But at least I know how to deal with it by constant training. It is very important you train them properly while young to prevent any further issues! You need to do strict training, wing clipping is a must! You have to make him work, step up after step up. Repeat routines over and over. Do the something everytime! Dont let him rest, give him several lesson per day, at 30-45 min session.

 

[henpecked]

Mikey has some good advice, give her something to do other than ride around on you to somewhere she doesn't want to go.I don't think she is biting to dominate you but biting to say no.No i don't want to come out of my cage (because it's no fun going with you). Same reason she dosen't want to leave the cage top. Practice have her step up to come out and quickly place her on top, make it fun and games with lots of cheering and such. The key is too not take her away from where she wants to be. Have her step up and then back down to where she was.(Like mickey suggested).I'll bet she doesn't bite when she want you to interact with her.Like when your eating and she wants to come over and get some.Maybe when you pick her up you flood her with attention and pets (more than she wants).In the future ,if she wants pets only give her a few seconds worth and put her back on her cage(leave her wanting more of you lovin).If she doesn't want to do what you want her to do,act like she's missing out but don't try and force her.I'd also create a fun place like a play gym or a perch with toys and such where it's the only place she gets her favorite treat, nowhere else but there. Soon she'll jump to get a ride there and biting will never enter her mind. I 'm afraid your good intentions and desire have made your baby resent you because she feels your dominating her with lovin, more than she wants.All that being said i too have run into babies that are bitey and mean, they will take alot more work and may never be cuddle bugs, like us each has it's own personality. They still can be great pets and with work and insight into their personality are worth the effort. Hope i helped somewhat and will always be around if you need me. Try and look at the world though your fid's eyes, good luck. PS ooops , welcome to the forum, hope you stay and learn how the make your fid a part of your family.Lots of good people here with good advice. EDIT i wanted to say do something with your bird other than smothering it with kisses and pets, it wants to be part of the flock but i'm afraid you've pushed yourself on her a bit too much. Please don't take offence ,it's easy to do,we all want to snuggle with our fid.

 

[Tikazoo]

Thanks to all. I will be asking a lot of questions here and appreciate all the input. I have raised many birds. I have only had one other Amazon, and she was a Lilac - so pretty docile once I tamed her (super aggressive when I first got her). Tika seems like a whole new ball of feathers though, she just never seems to want to be with us. I realized I was giving her too much play time on top of her cage, but had hoped she be a better out of the cage behaved bird if I did so from an early age.
She growls when you try to make her step up, you have to grab her feet while she bites when you try to fetch her. I am not afraid of her and show her nicely that she has to come to be, but my family is afraid and I had hoped that she would be sweeter by handfeeding. I realize there is no guarantee, but geez she bites me while I try to get her to her feeding place - silly girl. I just want to train her right and am looking for as much information as possible. Maybe I need to be using another perch for training sessions - too much cage aggression I guess?

 

[oled]

I also think you are going to fast forward, just interact where she are feeling comfortable,,

 

[lene1949]

Many times, when we get a new bird, we think what worked on the previous one, will work on this one... It's a bad mistake, as every bird is different and should be accessed as individuals.

13 weeks old sounds way too young to be positively aggressive... Could you maybe find a forum, which deals specifically with behaviours in birds, maybe an applied behaviour analysis group...

 

[roxynoodle]

Many times, when we get a new bird, we think what worked on the previous one, will work on this one... It's a bad mistake, as every bird is different and should be accessed as individuals.

This is so true. My 2 conures could not have been more different. It was nice for me though to have 2 such different personalities.

I think you could say this is true for all living things, particularly those with a certain amount of intelligence. You do have to make an effort to understand each one as an individual.

 

[MikeyTN]

IF she's that aggressive when stepping up, then yes perch training could be used! I have two birds that we own that I had to do that with. One Cockatiel male who WILL bite hard, but he is trained to step up onto a perch. Now he steps up to hands just fine without biting. He didn't used to step up! My Cockatoo was afraid of hands and will not step up and I trained her to step up onto a perch and she would go from the perch to hands now. And she no longer bites my hand when I reach for her. Different methods works on different birds. So give the perch training method a try and see what happens.

 

[henpecked]

Thanks for that article, a must read ,IMO

 

[wenz2712]

That is a great article. Thanks for posting that

 

[Tikazoo]

Thanks for all the great responses. I find she's really friendly after what feels like neglecting her a bit. Like when I'm super busy all day. She loves to be on her play top but does not want to come down when we try to get her. Funny thing is if someone else tries she definitely then decides I'm her best friend and come to me to get down. Maybe I'm just wanting too much too soon? I realize all birds have different personalities. I have fostered 8 different birds, I suppose I was just surprised to see her lunging at such an early age - the breeder said she was a handful so this may be what he meant

 

[lene1949]

After reading for about an hour, I still have a lot to read... Fantastic article... Thank you..

 

[henpecked]

I've been trying to contact Dr Hines to ask permission to post some of his articles on another forum, but no success.If someone finds a way please let me know, thanks