Bird Owners - Questions

[PhilK]

Hey all, so I have a little story and also some questions for you guys!

Recently (over the last few months) Archie my GCC has turned savage to me when in his cage. Most of the time he was fine but in the mornings and evenings he would be seeking my blood like I've never seen, literally lunging at the bars. My mum who he normally hates was able to scratch his head and even get him out on one occasion, my girlfriend and little brother could freely take him out but when he saw me he rocketed off to his happy hut and hid or attacked the bars trying to get at me... VERY curious behaviour.

Also, I have given him a little bowl of toys to play with.. in there there are wooden cubes and wooden cylinders. He throws out all the toys except one wooden cylinder then sits there banging his beak on it real fast and what I think is regurgitating (the same motion as when he is car sick) - I will refer to this as feeding as I assume that is what it is? The other day I even caught "him" on the bottom of the cage trying to sit on a wooden cube as if trying to incubate it! "He" was lifting his tail high and trying to reverse onto the block, but it was too tall for him to sit on properly - that didn't stop him from trying like crazy.. We have also noticed him doing the "feeding" to his favourite biro clipped onto his play stand and he loves doing it to my girlfriends fingers. He even was doing it to the back of my head...

Now my question here is this: is our Archie really an Annie? I am very convinced this is the case - I think he resents me for getting into his "nest", hence the cage aggression. I think he is certainly trying to feed everything, especially his little wooden child. I also think the sitting on the block was a very female thing to do. What do you guys think?

My next question is: how do we discourage his extreme aggression to me, or is it something I will have to live with? Also how do we discourage the feeding behaviour, as it isn't really desirable? Should I remove his wooden "child" and "egg" or will that just lead to him laying an egg?

Cheers all and sorry for such a long post, I didn't mean for it to be so long!

Phil

 

[Asharee133]

i just re-read it, and saw hes backing up to it. maybe HES trying to get laid? i'm not sure. i'd still get him DNA sex tested at DNA solutions, all you need to get is a feather, and it will help, and if you want, i can give you the phone number of a conure breeder i know that might no whats going on

 

[Mighty_Moose]

Phil, I had a Lovebird that did the same thing to a furry bed he would get a bit frisky and regurge on it although he was never aggressive towards us, I think your bird might be in love with that toy (not sure though) . I'm also having the similar problem with my CGCC whom has the 'devil moments' every now and then :/.

 

[morgs202]

I'd get it DNA sexed if you wanna be certain. Mine always goes crazy at night, but that's been a constant thing...

 

[justbecausewhy]

My male budgie did the same thing but with a branch...he would rub his rump, with his tail up, along the branch, his would peck the branch as he would if it was a female budgie, and would attack me if I got close to the cage...

I ended up getting him a female and he settle down, raised a couple of chicks...no more humping the branch.

 

[Colin]

its been many years since I kept and bred parrots but I did keep and breed suns, jendays, nandays and peach fronted conures as well as many other parrots. I used to find that some (especially eclectus) that I hand reared and made just a little too tame would "rebel" against me when they didnt get the attention that they were constantly used to and bite and get aggressive when they were previously very friendly.. the "male" may be a female as well so sexing would be a good idea and maybe getting him/her a mate if possible for company?

just a random parrot question.. I also used to have a pair of derbyans and several breeding pairs of madagascar lovebirds and wondering it these are relatively common or rare these days?

 

[Mighty_Moose]

Moustache parrots can be found in some bird shops but Madagascan Lovebirds don't seem to be as common as African lovebirds. I can ask my nan who is a frequenter of bird shows if there is many around.

 

[LadyJ]

Happy hut... ? Are they the little fleece 'tents' that they use? If so, hiding in the secluded warmth can bring out changes in behaviour, because it's similar to a nest and can bring hormal changes and territorial issues.
Best of luck though, keep us posted!

 

[Jay84]

Sounds like your little parrot is hitting adolescence and hormones are raging! At this time they get very moody and have massive mood swings.

As parrots are capable of feelings, emotions and moods it would be a good diea to get a book about pet and companion birds.

Australian Birdkeeper - ''Pet and companion birds'' is amazing, a real psyco analysis of pet birds.

You will need to keep on top of this behaviour before your nice little ''pet' becomes a savage lol

 

[Snakeman97404]

Colin
Derbyans are common but not as mutch as other Asiatic parrots but for the madagascar lovebirds i have not seen any at the bird sales that i went to this year so the might be getting rareer.

 

[Colin]

cheers. thanks for that.. I was just curious

 

[ShepQLD]

I cant tell you anything about your birds behaviour but I can tell you that my "male" regent parrot went through a stage of being aggressive and acting strangely.... turned out he was a she... but mostly her behaviour was just due to hormones. she is nearly ten now and every few years she has a hissy fit for a few months and then settles down again. She also thinks that I am her mate and will do her little dance to impress me lol, she seems to think that if I dont give her the attention she wants I am evil and she will scream at me. (yes she is spoilt rotten) I did try to get her a mate but she wanted nothing to do with him, she would bash him up constantly and I ended up having to keep them seperate. (he passed of cancer late last year) the point I was trying to make was that sometimes getting a mate might fix the problem but be aware that it can also make the behaviour worse depending on how bonded your bird is with you.

 

[raaaa]

My first gues is hormones ie sexual maturity. i would also try putting him to bed when the sun goes down as he may be cranky coz hes tored birds need 10 hous uninterupted sleep every night. i would also take out the block that he is feeding and sitting on as he is probably gaurding it by attacking you.

 

[Tegstep]

Happy hut... ? Are they the little fleece 'tents' that they use? If so, hiding in the secluded warmth can bring out changes in behaviour, because it's similar to a nest and can bring hormal changes and territorial issues.
Best of luck though, keep us posted!

Havent read the rest of it so dont know if anyone else has mentioned this but DO NOT USE HAPPY HUTS!
No rope toys, or anything fibrous.
These kill birds every day, especially conures, lorikeets and cockatiels as the birds chew the toys, swallow the fibres and get blockages. There's a journal article to appear very soon.
As you have worked at brisbane bird vets I'd hope you already know about this but hopefully some more people can learn from this post.

Your bird sounds horny Male or female they can act very similarly. Sounds like he/she sees you as a rival to the affections of the toys. There's plenty of ways to discourage this behaviour, pm me if you want more detailed info.

 

[FAY]

Every Spring our Superb Parrot Olly wants to kill everyone and everything!!

Definately hormones raging!

 

[PhilK]

These kill birds every day, especially conures, lorikeets and cockatiels as the birds chew the toys, swallow the fibres and get blockages. There's a journal article to appear very soon.
As you have worked at brisbane bird vets I'd hope you already know about this but hopefully some more people can learn from this post.

Nobody at Brisbane Bird Vets mentioned anything. Archie has had his happy hut for years, and has never chewed it, it is in pristine condition. He just leans against it when he sleeps and sometimes lies in it during the day. He never eats his shreddable toys either, just shreds them and drops them.