mabdewn

Thanks for the feedback. Very appreciated. I have tried this now. When I put her back in the cage, she does a certain a small whistle (I think it's her way of apologizing), but I leave her. Hopefully this will work Thanks again!

I have tried a similar strategy, but perhaps more persistency is the key!

Hi everyone, So my 2 year old CAG, Amanda loves me. Plays with me. However, her "love bites" tend to be a little bit too hard. She doesn't draw blood or anything, but hurts like hell. Anybody here a specific technique to communicate or tell the birdie to be gentle with their love bite? Cheers Sammy

I have never thought about it like that. I guess I am just reminiscent of how he was with me before, and now I have to deal with this change. Perhaps with time things will get better. Thanks again for the advice. It is much appreciated.

I have previously addressed this issue in another post months back. Since then I have tried dealing with it following the advice given to me, but to no avail. So while it is not my intention to hang about this forum moaning and complaining, it is the only place I know of where people have been able to give me some feedback. So here I am again, and will try to elaborate on what the problem is and has happened. Perhaps someone can shed some light and point out something that I am missing. Charlie is 3 years old now. I bought him when he was 4 months old, and relationship was great until I got married a year and a half ago, when he started acting weird. Inside the cage he would be resentful towards me, and outside the cage there is a strong hesistance to approach me. At times he would be on my shoulder (I would have with patience let him step on my shoulder), then he will suddenly go apeshit and jump off my shoulder, and become scared. In February I bought another CAG, Amanda, to be his companion, which has resulted beautiful in terms of Charlie's well-being. Charlie used to chew his feathers, which now fortunately has stopped. However the problem persists. Charlie is still scared of me outside the cage. In fact, when I come close to him, he will avoid me like I am sort of mobile cesspool trying to get close. He will scream and go into panic mode. Inside the cage, particularly when I come home from work, he will be all worked up, and do his mating dance for me, and lean his back up against the cage to let me scratch him. He will even do his whole food regurgitate, but he puts his beak around my finger, he will become aggressive and use more force to the point it actually hurts and actually draw blood. (which was never a problem before). Amanda also when she sees me, will always come to me, happy and do her mating dance too, this in return triggers the jealousy in Charlie and he will come and knick her for "flirting" with me, and I can feel Charlie becomes resentful and he will not even approach me, and just ignore me. And again outside the cage, he is scared of me. He will only approach me if I have a treat (convenient little bugger). He will actually seek out my wife to be around her, but if she tries to pick him up, he will bite her. Amanda outside the cage flies to me and shows her love to me and enjoys being in my company. She seems to be able to maintain that balance of being Charlie's partner and my friend. Although I don't expect it, but I pray and hope, is that I can have more or less the same relationship with Charlie. But I am completely lost as to what to do. Do male CAGs become this aggressive when they partner up with their species? Is Charlie just a complete nutjob? Am I a bad parrot dad? Please help!

It's good to know that there is still a bond between me and Charlie. Though I am not happy with his biting. I am having a bit of trouble with socialising them into "my flock". Charlie will come out, but he will not step up. He will stand on top of his cage, when I put my hand up to him, he will shy away, and let me know if the hand comes to close he will nip. When Amanda comes out she will always fly to me. This in turn makes Charlie go crazy, and unfortunately Charlie can't fly still, so he does his kamikaze jump Moreover, Amanda hates my wife with a passion, despite her attempts to give her treats to gain some favour with her, while Charlie "tolerates" her. I do tease my wife that she is like Elmyra from Looney Toons. My wife tells me, the parrots are quiet throughout the day when I go to work, and 10 mins prior to my arrival, they will start whistling and move about restlessly in their cage. I am not really sure how to integrate them. What would be the proper next step?

It's been a while, since I was here. Sitting here with an observation that I am hoping that someone could shed some light on. I've had my CAG, Charlie for 2.5 years now. Poor thing was so attached to me, he would chew his feathers and generally be quite nervous. At length it was too much for me, so I bought him a female, Amanda, and their relationship has blossomed. Charlie stopped chewing his feather and has assumed the role of a "real man", which makes me happy. Of course my relationship/connection to Charlie is not the same, as Amanda is now his numero uno. However, when I come near the cage both of them will come to greet me and do their mating dance. In conjunction with this, this is what I don't quite understand. Charlie will do his mating dance, and he will twist and turn his head all excited, and if Amanda gets close (because she wants to greet me), he will bite her or lash at her lightly to keep her away. However, he will not let me pet his head, he will try to grab my finger and then bite, not viciously but enough to draw blood. Is this an "overexcited" type of love? or is he just being coy and wants to bite me to keep me off his turf?

Small update. Things are getting better, but he only seems to come out at night. I can sit with him like old times. During the day he will be inside his cage or standing on top of it, and will avoid stepping up at all costs. Is this normal behaviour?

He doesn't do this around visitors, and even the first 2 weeks my wife was here, he didn't freak out. I have tried to expose Charlie to people as good as I could.Resulting that he is not shy to step on strangers' hands or take food from them. But after 2 weeks with my wife here something changed. My only conclusion is that he understood her stay as a visit like other people, but when he stay extended he sort of realised, that she was not going anywhere

It's jealousy. Yesterday something peculiar happened. I had woken up early in the morning before my wife, and decided to try to take Charlie out. And surprisingly enough he was all lovely and bubbly with me. I could pet him and he was in heaven from all the scratches I gave him. For a short time, things were back to normal. Then my wife woke up and came out, but went to another room. Right there, he changed completely. when I wanted to touch him, he would hiss and yell at me. If I tried to touch him he would move away from me. While this made me very sad, it also made me realise how complex these creatures really are and perhaps their world is not as simple as we would like to think it is.

suppose I could do a vet check up. But it just sounds unlikely that is the problem. I hoping it is the fear of my wife (and my scent) that is making him afraid of me, so once he accepts my wife as a part of the flock, he will go back to being normal

I am taking it as slowly as I can. He will allow me to scratch him by day as well. However, one day he was dying to get on my shoulder. So I put my hand and he goes up, and as soon as I moved my hand closer to my body, he went completely bat shit and started screaming and jumped away from me. I unfortunately have to take this medication for a while so there is nothing I can do, but hope he gets used to me My wife does try to give him treats, but he will scream and is scared of her. So I told her to start changing his water and seeds every morning but do it very cautiously, so he gets used to her being around his cage. Baby steps I suppose

Thank you for the link. That was a lot of help. I thought that greys went into the adolescent stage much later, but at least now it explains certain things. Lately things have been a little bit more different with him, so I suppose giving him the time and space he needs is ok. The bond is much better today. He will call for me if I am not in the room, and will be quiet and preen himself and talk while I am there. Yet, he is not all too happy about me coming too close

Hi everyone, Thanks again for all the support feedback. Last night again when he did his beak grinding thing before he sleeps. I actually opened the cage and I was able to pet him, and I did so for a while. After that he noticed that I was eating cake, and he is a bit of a sucker for sweet stuff, so I opened up the cage to give him some, and he quickly comes out of the cage and stands on top and eat a little piece of cake. Right after he actually called for me with this distinct whistle and sat on my shoulder for a while. Let me pet him and then he fell asleep on my shoulder. So today is a new day. He is still a bit scared of me, though he calls for me when I am in another room. I am not sure what it means. Is it a grudge? or just a competition for attention? Sammy

He gets enough sleep. I mean especially now he is inside his cage or standing on top of it and just idling/sleeping. Because he does not want to be around me. His main source of frustration was if he could not be around me. He would scream and yell until I let him out of the cage. And it was enough for him to stand on my lap or shoulder while I am in my sofa watching tv. My wife says its strong jealousy, but I don't know. Honestly, I find it very frustrating. You grow so attached to these creatures. I know that I am very attached to my bird and it aches me that things have changed. I hope it's just a phase

The only thing that has changed is the presence of my wife and the medication I started taking. And at night I don't do anything different. Don't turn into a werewolf or into a big bunny. He just stands normally grinding his beak and getting ready to sleep, and I pet him and talk to him and he enjoys it. I am not sure what's going on with him to be honest

I've had my CAG now for a 1.5 years now. got him when he was 3.5 months old. Everything was good. I had a strong bond with Charlie. I was living alone, so he was always with me. Recently I got married, and my wife arrived from abroad, and since then things sort of changed. Charlie obviously hates her guts and is a bit scared of her. And in the beginning, I could sit with him in the couch beside her and he wouldn't really mind her, if she didn't come too close. Ruffle his feathers and advance a few steps towards her. However, things changed for the worse... I started taking some prescription drugs recently and soon after that the parrot changed. I am not sure if it's a coincidence or what. I cannot get near my CAG now. If I get close he screams and runs off to avoid me. If I on a rare occasion get him to step up, he jumps right off again. And he will jump while he is screaming. Funny enough at night, when he is about to sleep, he will have no objection to me scratching him or touching him. And he will make a certain sound that he only does with me and rub his beak and head against my fingers. But as soon as daylight hits again, he is mortified. Suffice to say he is equally scared of my wife. I am not sure what is wrong. My only conclusion is that my scent has somehow changed. Either due to my wife or my medication, but that conclusion doesn't stick that by night he calms down. Does anybody know what this could mean? or been in a similar situation? I am worried and it hurts that I cannot touch and pet him like I could before. Sammy

I know a couple of grey owners personally and observed how each of the birds have their own signature behaviour/trick/sound. My grey, Charlie, has his "groan", which he does at all times. It can be a happy groan or a pissy one with a strong tone of "go away and die!". I am curious to hear what kind of hallmark that your parrot has. It's always fun to hear, how these birds bring joy to our lives

So, I figured out why my grey has developed the habit of chewing his feathers. I did address this issue a few months back, when he first started, and I have since then followed the advice, and it has toned down a lot. Some feathers have grown back. However... He still does it, and I have noticed what triggers it. My grey NEEDS to be around me constantly. As soon as I get up, and walk away for any reason. He gets all nervous. He poops, then does his whistle of dispair and gets into a take off position. Well knowingly that his buffalo wings can't carry him anywhere. It's at this point he lifts his wings and stuffs his head under one of them and starts chewing away. Needless to say it breaks my heart whenever I see this. Anyone who has experience with something similar?

I am glad to hear I am not all alone on this one! Thought I had a bird with "special needs". But he does seem very picky about his food. And even the stuff he really likes he wont use his foot to hold. He prefers the approach of sitting on my shoulder and have a bit or a sip of whatever I am consuming

@pearllyn: haha not wanting messy feet. That may well be. I never thought about it like that @dhorje: Glad to hear that I am not alone on this. Has your grey always been like this? or did she start using her feet more as she got older?

Hi, Just a small question. I've had my grey for a few months now. He is 8 months old. All around a lovely bird. One thing that strikes me as odd, he doesn't hold his food with his foot like any other parrot I've seen do. He will just drop it in front of him. If he is standing on a table or eating with me. It's not that much of an issue. In his own cage, the bottom of the cage gets bombarded with the fresh fruit from his bowl, because he takes a bite and lets it drop, and moves on to the next piece. Funnily enough, if I give him a chew toy, he will hold it with his foot. Anyone experienced anything similar? Sammy

Thanks for the responses. I was a bit worried about me maybe having unawarely overindulged some sort of bad behaviour. The Hitler type lol. I've tried that. Charlie doesn't respond well to that. He is a very stubborn (like me). The gentle approach just seems to work. It's like taking care of Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman. Only with feathers

Charlie never bites me. However lately when he is on my shoulder where he seems to be most comfortable, at times when I ask him to step up so I can put him in his cage, perhaps to eat and drink, he objects. He will do this sound I have come to recognise as his pissy attitude sound. If I insist on asking me to step up, he will bite. What I generally do now is just let him be for a few minutes, then gently talking to him and scratching him. Then he steps up. Has anyone experienced something like this? and is it really healthy for a bird to only want to stay around its owners shoulder all day? Cheers

Thank you so much for the feedback. Do you tend to mix the seeds with whatever foods you give your bird? or keep it separately? Cheers