Change in behavior and biting

[Teresa69]

Hello All:

I have a 4 year old CAG male named Marley. He mostly loves my husband but started to like me after a while. He would step up, I would give him a peanut and he would go on his playstand. When it was time for bed he would step up on my husbands hand and go to his cage. This happened for the last two years that we've had him with my husband handling him at night. He won't step up for me on the playstand.

Now he's had a sudden change in behavior. When he's on his playstand, he no longer will go into his cage willingly. he will fly away and we had to towel him, which I will never do anymore because it scared him. Now he lets us pet him in his cage. We open the cage door he comes out on to the door ledge. When we ask him to step up with a peanut, he lunges and bites us, both my husband and myself. How do I get him to stop biting? Why a sudden change in behavior? I don't want him in a cage all day long, but he seems to want that now, and doesn't want us handling him. Any suggestions?

[danmcq]

It sounds like trust was lost somehow. The toweling added to the issue a now and it is going take a little coaxing and doing things a little differently to regain that trust. At 4 he is starting to mature, has his preferences and is starting to become more independent and will wanted to just chill by himself more and more.

 

To get him back in the cage without toweling, at night turn the lights off and have him step up with a sweet coaxing voice. If it's daylight, try using his favorite treat to get a step-up and hold it in front of him as you walk to the cage and place him in it or place the treat in the cage and perhaps he will go in after it. At htis point it is most important to give him space, avoid any situation that you know will perhaps result in a bite and watch his body language closely. It may be hard to see sometimes, because at 4 they are the masters of disguising their body language and can bite before you realize you've been nailed.

[chezron]

Good advice. Turning off all the lights at night before putting the grey to bed works great for us when we know Brutus is being ornery. Greys can't see as well as we can at night, so they are disadvantaged and more trusting of a hand in the dark. You might also try giving him something to chew on while getting him to step up, that way his mouth is too busy to bite. I think the sooner you can keep biting from being an automatic response the better, so that the behavior does not become hard-wired into his brain.

This may seem a little off-topic, but getting my grey out in the sunshine for at least 15 minutes a day really mellows him out, and he becomes a love-puppy. It may work for your grey.

 

You also might try asking his permission before getting him to do anything. If I ask Brutus if he wants his head scratched, for example, and he doesn't give me strong affirmation in body language, I refrain from scratching at that moment. I always know when he wants me to scratch his head because when I ask he fluffs up the feathers on his head in response to the question. I guess your grey needs to know he is loved, respected with choice, and can trust you. Another thing, try to outsmart him and turn a bad situation into a better choice. For example, if I want to get Brutus into his travel cage and I can tell he will not willingly go, I delay getting him up in the morning, and place the open travel cage into the door of his cage, that way he can "choose" to get out of his cage by climbing into his travel cage. That way it is all on him and not a battle of the wills. He can either stay in the cage or change the scenery. He usually is anxious to get out of his cage in the morning, so he goes. Another trick, that works most of time, is to entice him with toys or food into a smallish room, like a bathroom, then turn of the lights and pick him up and place him in the travel cage.

 

I don't know if it is possible for you and maybe your bird is completely different, but we sometimes just leave him out while we step out because he normally just sits and waits for us in the same spot. I cannot count the times he is in exactly the same place as we left him. He shows no inclination to do much more than vegetate while we are gone. He only gets adventuresome when he has a witness. So I guess what I am saying is weigh the importance or necessity of getting him to do something he clearly does not want to do before resorting to extreme measures like toweling. good luck