Tybalt: Making Progress But We Have a New Issue

[MarcusCAG]

Hello,

 

I debated posting this in the Training room, but considering everything it might do better here...

 

Tybalt, as many of you know, is a green Indian Ringneck parakeet whom we adopted a little over six months ago. He is between three and four years old at this point, in beautiful feather, and has a ton of energy. A ton. He, more than any of our other parrots, enjoys zooming around the house. He is gorgeous in flight and standing still, perching or eating one of his favorite treats. He is also very affectionate and--barring his new and incomprehensible dislike of Bunsen (he started out adoring her)--he is very friendly with our other birds. Beaker in particular is a good buddy of his.

 

Slowly, my husband and I have been creating tentative friendships with Tybalt, too. We are his third home, supposedly, after he spent about half a year with a nice family (the wife was allergic to him), and before that he lived with a man, I believe, who also owned a Quaker and a Military Macaw. So Tybalt has been around. I believe his former daddy in his last home made some good headway with him, but I get the impression Tybalt really hasn't been handled since he left the breeder's. (He has a band on his leg that I understand is the type that they put on baby birds.)

 

Anyway, I don't mean to ramble, I just want to give enough back story for this situation... and I specifically have been making some headway with our Tybalt lately. He will fly across the room to land near me anymore, and sometimes on me, but he has only stepped-up once or twice onto my arm and will not allow anyone to physically touch him (as in a kiss or a head-tickle). I may have made a big mistake in allowing him to drink from a Pyrex measuring cup in the summer time, when I would greatly dilute some freshly-juiced carrot and apple juice and offer some to Marcus. Marcus loves it! and apparently it caught Tybalt's interest too, although not to the same degree. That would be fine, except that since then Tybalt seems to want to "attack" anything in our hands that even vaguely resembles a cup. And it's not as if he's just trying to drink from it, he'll bite fingers and things just because it's near the cup. The same thing goes for bottles (we keep two Perrier glass bottles perpetually filled in the fridge for cold water, and if he's out when we drink from one, you have to dance around because he'll try to land on it and scream at it as he's biting it).

 

He's generally pretty good with treats, he'll take almonds from our fingers without issue... but recently, as he's been getting more and more jealous of my interactions with the other parrots (even Marcus!) he's decided to come closer and closer. He'll land on my shoulder, he'll land on my head, my back, whatever... okay, fine. Except that today when he landed on my knees, I started talking to him and I asked him if he wanted to step-up. He lunged forward gently, as if to test the solidarity of his 'perch' (my arm), and then he bit me and took off some skin--and ate it! When this happened again, I did more than say, "No, that hurts!" and I showed him how I was bleeding. He was completely nonplussed about it all and proceeded to eat some more of my skin! You should see my arms--I look like something out of a war movie or something, covered with weird scabs and welts!

 

I'm wondering, is he thinking he's grooming me? Because at one point he pulled off some hair from my arm and ate that, too (or at least chewed it). Or maybe I just taste good?... I put a little bit of natural lotion on earlier, but I really can't imagine that being it! My husband says I should react more strongly and let him know in no uncertain terms that he can't bite like that, that it really hurts me, it's unacceptable. I just don't want to scare him and have him not want to be near me at all anymore. I've been enjoying very much our little green boy putting forth the effort to perch near me these past couple of weeks, and "talk" to me... and speaking of talking, when I was out today my husband texted me and said that he heard Tybalt say "Good boooooyyyy!"--which is a first! So I know he's feeling more comfortable with us and I am so happy he is, I just don't know what to do about this new issue. He can't be a carnivorous parrot, I'm sorry! So I just thought I'd share our story here and see if anyone else has any insight into the wacky actions of this lovely, rehomed little Ringneck of ours. Thanks for reading, anyway...

[birdhouse]

Wow, Congratulations. I think I nominate you for one of the more interesting challenges of the week. "How to get the fid to stop eating it's mother?" Short of bugs, the problem is most often the other way around. Hope you're smiling. A sense of humor always help me, especially w/the most perplexing problems.

 

No one has ever taken a friendly chunk out of me before. And no one has ever eaten any when they did. If Tybalt's body language isn't aggressive, then I'm going to guess he's after the lotion (which btw may not be good for him even if it is all natural) Be very, very interested to hear the feed back about this problem. lol

[MarcusCAG]

Haha, thanks birdhouse. Yes, I figure you don't hear that too much--parrot eating its mommy! He really is eating the bits he's taken off, though (although the hair is questionable), and his body language is very friendly and attentive, no lunging or hissing or anything! I put the lotion on a while ago and figure it's absorbed so, again, I don't think it's that but I figure I'll leave it off for the next couple of days and see if that makes a difference. Hope so... I'll let you guys know.

[Talon]

Did he actually bite you and draw blood? My amazon knibbles on my skin, sometimes trying to pick a freckle off ( I have many) She does nibbles, and sometimes it can get a bit uncomfortavle, I just distract her by moving her and looking her I the eye and having a sweet conversation with her to change her thinking so she will do something else.

[Wingy]

If he does it again you should switch to wearing long sleeves or a sweater until you can persuade him that biting is not acceptable. As for the attack on or around the containers have you tried giving what ever your holding a good shake when Tybalt starts after it or your hands. Is there a sound you can make that he doesn't like to help make the action unattractive? If that doesn't work maybe fill cups you use with something he hates so he learns to associate your cups with yuck bad but designate a cup for him with his favorites so he associates that with yummy good. He should start to leave your cup alone and want only his.

[Ray P]

I beleve the most important think your parrot should know is step up and they should know this befor they go on any part of your body.

When they step up I always praise them so when they start to get onto trouble I say step up and it keeps them out of trouble. Also distraction if they start to bite your arm roll your arm back and forth to put them off balance and to keep their balance they will stop the bite and than praise them because they stoped the bite.

This is a simple and kind way to get results and it works.

[Gwen]

WOW Karen... I read your post & my heart sank !!! This is definately behavior that needs to be changed.

 

There are some excellent suggestions here. Wear long sleeves... Also when I'm carrying Roscoe back to his cage, I can tell If he's going to bite me 'cause he bends down instead of reaching for the top of his door. I agree w/ Ray, regarding "earthquake" -- that is, rolling or shaking your arm. It should work with the cup or biting.

 

Please keep us posted on your situation !!

[Morana]

"How to get the fid to stop eating it's mother?"

I must say that this made me laugh sooo hard!! Lol

Well MarcusCAG, is your bird hungry? Maybe you don't feed him enough:-P ..No sorry, I'm just joking..;-)

 

I just wanted to say for the cup thing that you may offer his daily food in a cup, and especially treats and see how that goes. Can imagine why is he attacking bottles and cups. I'm not clear with something,- did he attacked a Pyrex measuring cup in the summer time or not? I don't think juice triggered it. IMO it should be a great distaste for something or fear to cause this kind of reaction. I have one item that triggers that in Zak-his t-scale perch. He acts really, really mad toward it and attacks it and anyone that holds it but I think it is because he is really afraid of it. It is made from PVC, not wood as his other stands are.. I also noticed Zak attacks any thing or person holding the thing which is relatively small but makes him afraid or wires him up for some other reason. He is too afraid to get near big scary things but to small he can deliver preemptive strike;-)

[birdhouse]

I could be wrong & I apologize, but I'd still think it was kind of funny if it weren't painful. But not serious. Karen said Tybalt was not being any kind of hostile while he was trying to eat her alive. So, the normal, friendly activity closest to this would be grooming off dead skin like around nail beds, for instance. I've never seen anything where a fid has actually been eating much of what he's removing, though.

 

If Tybalt is being scent driven by the yummy lotion, then he has no concept at all that he's eating Karen's skin. Birds don't have human logic & it's fairly hard for us to see that sometimes. But he isn't going to understand why if he gets a "Don't bite me!!!" reaction. He's then going to backslide because he's afraid of the incomprehensible feed back.

 

So Karen can wear long sleeves. But Tybalt is likely going to start after the shirt because it's going to smell good, too. She can unbalance him each time. But he'll just keep coming because he can still smell something good to eat or maybe he'll stop wanting to land on her at all. OR she can stop using the lotion if that's what's motivating him. Then there's no need for anything but positive reinforcement & everybody's happy.

 

To me, it just doesn't seem from what's posted that Tybalt's got a behavior problem, here. So, I'd kind of be afraid that acting like it is will actually cause a problem where none existed. Misunderstanding & overreacting causes so many problems & this may just be one of those circumstances.

[Morana]

 

To me, it just doesn't seem from what's posted that Tybalt's got a behavior problem, here. S

No, it sounds more like a skin problem (for Karen)! :-P

 

But eating his mommy alive doesn't seem like a misunderstanding.. You can't say "oh sorry I ate you alive because I misunderstood you"... Karen, lose the lotion and then we'll see;-)

[MarcusCAG]

My, thank you for all of the feedback!! And to answer some of your questions, Yes, I was bleeding after our little session together yesterday, and my forearms are a little puffy in other places where he bit into me but didn't break the skin. He didn't actually start eating any of my skin until yesterday, but a couple of days ago he seemed to be "testing the waters" and started biting at my flesh around my biceps, and left little 'hot iron' beak-shaped marks there too. Of course, when he did that I tried to deter him too and said "No biting!" and whatever at the time... again, I just haven't been wanting to scare him, just discourage him from that behavior, because he hasn't been angry when he does this. It's like he only thinks my head is 'me' or something, and the rest of me is to be tugged and played with and bitten like a toy or something. (He started doing that to my pajama pants a bit yesterday, too, and I said "No chewing!" because I didn't want a bunch of unnecessary holes in my clothes. So a part of me thinks he's just very aggressively curious with his beak, in a way that the other parrots are not.)

 

The incident with the Pyrex cup in the summer, initially, was fine. He landed on the edge and took a little drink and, I guess, he decided he didn't like it nearly as much as Marcus does. But now any cup is "his" and he gets aggressive around them, except that he'll bite my fingers instead of trying to actually drink from the cup; he does this with apples too. For a long while, he would land on my wrist and I would offer him a bit of apple, which he would eat very politely. Since around the summer, I guess, he's started getting funny with that too. He seems to get so excited about the potential apple in his tummy that he lands on my hand and will just start biting excitedly--missing the apple most of the time, and biting me! Tybalt has done this to my husband, too. So I generally just try to walk up to him and offer him his treats, almond, sweet pepper, whatever. Because then he doesn't feel the need to fly to me, land on me, and go absolutely crazy for the food he's so excited to see in my hand.

 

Usually, though, when he does land on my shoulder anymore (and that was a big step forward recently!), Tybalt is very sweet. He is relatively gentle with me. He nibbled on my ear once, but I said that it hurt and he really seems to listen when he's level with my head. Since yesterday, I will admit I've been a little nervous when he gives me his adoring eyes, perched on my shoulder, because I wonder if he'll suddenly start biting my face like he did my arms? But again, it seems to me that Tybalt doesn't realize the rest of my body belongs to me, too... is that possible?

 

Birdhouse, I shared with my hubby what you wrote and he said that it was "some good advice" (with a happy face included afterward!). I, too, believe that Tybalt does not have a behavioral problem per se--he's just acting weird right now! I do think I need to somehow teach him that my arms are a part of me, too. (Beaker, conversely, seems to realize this and doesn't care, which is why his Daddy physically handles him the vast majority of the time anymore, being the favorite.) And I didn't put on any of the lotion today, and I've been wearing long sleeves. Tybalt has been stepping up for me onto my arm about half of the times that I offer it to him. Once, he started tugging on my sleeve, and I said, "No chewing!" and he stopped. So I think he wants to be a good boy, and be adored and a nice part of our flock. He is very attentive when I interact with Marcus and Bunsen, and by his flying to me so often anymore I think he's feeling a desire to be close to me like they are, too. So I'm definitely giving him the benefit of the doubt and thinking that he just doesn't realize what he's doing. So I just have to find a way to teach him that won't make him nervous around me again. (And my husband offered his arm once yesterday after I got 'punched full of holes', and Tybalt bit at him--but I kind of wonder if that was an aggressive lunge, since Tybalt likes him but is obviously more comfortable interacting with me at this point. But then, why would he associate my husband's arm with his head/face?) The idea of Tybalt grooming me is interesting, it could be, but it hurts so much I can't imagine another parrot tolerating such a thing well! But then, I don't have feathers covering me, either...

 

Anyway, birdhouse, Gwen, Talon, Morana, Ray, Wingy... thank you for reading and posting your kind thoughts and comments and ideas, I'll let you know how this works out over the next few days. Hopefully this issue will resolve itself sooner than later.

 

P.S.--And about the bottles from the fridge, Tybalt just attacks those. We've thrown around ideas that maybe in his first home, when he was with the other parrots, the owner drank a lot of beer or something (the Perrier bottles are green) and that maybe they signified something bad for him. (????) I have no clue. But Tybalt will try and land on the cups we hold, and go crazy on our fingers, but he'll just scream and attack the Perrier water bottles. So, perhaps he is afraid of them, or angry at them, or something. I am going to try to become more aware of not drinking from them in front of him, though, so as not to upset him unnecessarily.

 

P.P.S.--You know, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe he did think the lotion was yummy. (?) Because like I said, he's been nipping me sharply lately, but he didn't actually start eating my skin until yesterday. And I haven't given him the chance to bite my arms today, wearing long sleeves, and I don't have the lotion on today. But, again, he didn't break the skin on my upper arm, either, he just left little hot-iron beak shapes there. Woof! I never thought I'd have to tumble around such a concept as this, living with our Tybalt!

Edited April 1, 2016 by MarcusCAG

[Morana]

Or get another bottle of water;-) Transparent one, maybe..

[Morana]

Oh. I didn't realize that. So you mostli have bottles made out of glass? Here is not like that. And what is wrong with the plastic bottles? Sorry if I'm going out of topic..

[Gwen]

Karen... Interesting !!!

 

Yes, I definately like the idea of long sleeves AND not using the lotion.

What about a "keep cold" sleeve for your Perrier ??? It would hide the color & the bottle...

 

Experimenting, trial & error, changing behavior.......... Keep brainstorming, you'll figure it out

[thenabrd]

it just may be the green bottles remind him of something from his past. is it just green bottles, or anything green? i know birds can see in the spectrums we can't, so maybe the lotion made your skin "look" different to him?! athena has an issue with my hands, she has a "favorite" and will attack her non favorite hand at times, especially if she sees both hands closer together than she thinks they should be. lol, she's my little nut sometimes!! so when she's in one of those moods, we try to keep the offending hand out of sight or far away from the favorite hand. athena also gets very excited if she happens to be out with us and we have food or a drink, and in her excitement and rush to get some, she bites. sometimes, whether the girls are out with us or we're sharing with them while they're in their cages, they're just so excited and in a hurry they bite our fingers.

 

i know we're talking birds here, but we had a husky mix rescue that was 1 year old when we got her. she had lots of issues, most of which over time we were able to ease her through. the strangest one was her absolute terror of oranges or any citrus fruit!!! we had no idea this was an issue for her until the first time my husband started peeling an orange to eat. she leaped up, the hair down her back raised, tail tightly tucked under her belly and literally fled the room and hid!!!! we never figured out why she had this fear. it could be that her previous owners threw oranges at her to make her "mind", who knows! however, in time, she was able to learn that she was "safe" from citrus fruit. she finally got to where she wouldn't leave the room, but would watch my husband intently, in a state of alert, just in case she needed to run and hide. it was the strangest behavior i've ever seen!!

[MarcusCAG]

Well, today kind of went SPLAT! in terms of my experiment with dear Mr. Tybalt. I put on the lotion last night after my shower, went to bed, and then was kind of lazy and walked around in my jammies for most of the morning, and didn't shower and change until later--and Tybalt kept trying to chew through my pajama shirt and kept nipping my skin all morning, and I was like, Okay, it must be something about the lotion! Because yesterday the lotion-less me with the long sleeves didn't have nearly as much trouble with him trying to eat me alive. When I called my mom earlier today and talked to her on the phone a bit, I mentioned specifically, too, that the lotion is made by a woman who owns her own small business that makes lotions and other beauty products out of her own dwarf goats' milk. My mom said that maybe Tybalt was going crazy for the lotion because of the protein in the milk, and that I should make him up a hard-boiled egg or something for more protein in his diet. So I did... and he took to it quite well, I mashed it up with sweet potato and garbanzo beans and some pomegranate arils. Yum! You can see a pic of him here with Beaker, I just couldn't resist:

 

 

So hopefully I'm on to a workable solution now, avoiding my lovely lotion even at bedtime (sigh!) and wearing the long sleeves and giving Tybalt a little more protein in his diet. We'll see what happens in a few days; hopefully it will all add up to him acting relatively 'normal' (albeit more and more affectionate, as is becoming the norm!) around me again. Believe me, you do NOT want an Indian Ringneck trying to eat you alive at almost every available opportunity!

Edited December 30, 2011 by MarcusCAG

[MarcusCAG]

Oh, I'm so sorry, I meant to address the other posts too: Regarding water bottles, most things over here in the US (at least, where we live) are bottled in plastic anymore. Relatively recently, there has been a push to use a special kind of plastic in bottles that... erm... doesn't leach out bad contaminants into the water, like the old types of plastic would, which ended up being proven carcinogens or something like that. It's called BPA or something, aren't I observant?? But I use a stainless steel water bottle when I'm away form the house and want to carry water with me, personally--no plastic issue and no fear of breaking a glass bottle, yay! Haha. Anyway, there are a few things like beer and some brands of mineral water that are still bottled in glass, but compared to everything else the glass bottles are hard to come by. I will have to see if it's just the green bottles that freak Tybalt out, but I want to say I remember pulling out an amber-colored bottle of beer once (I like one with dinner sometimes when it's reallllly hot out!) and Tybalt went after that one, too.

 

And that orange story... oh, my! I guess with our rehomes anything's possible in their pasts and we have to deal with all the subsequent question marks, but at least when our babies find their forever homes with us we can consciously mold their future into as happy a situation as we are able to.

Edited December 30, 2011 by MarcusCAG

[MarcusCAG]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to "update" things with our Tybalt!

 

Occasionally, he will still eat my skin but I've come to think he needs a lot more protein than I have generally been giving him. Whether or not I wear the lotion seems to make little difference anymore... he has been acting very feisty and hormonal (which just makes me crazy with Marcus in the same boat right now and they're both so often making trouble because of it, yikes!). But I've been giving him hard-boiled egg or small pieces of chicken every other day or so now, and that seems to be helping. Sometimes he will land on my arm now and look at my skin, as if he's thinking, "Hmmm..." but I'll say "No!" and he'll generally look up and just kind of squawk at me in his happy voice. He seems to be adding new inflections anymore, like he's really communicating something besides his normal "Meek-meep!" My husband calls him a muppet anymore, hehe...

 

I do think it's interesting though, recently online I read that in India, sometimes they'll capture Ringnecks from the wild to keep as pets and "tame" them by stroking them on the head... my husband had just started attempting that a little while ago (petting his head), and Tybalt now seems to be falling in love with him, he is so flirty and attentive with him anymore! (Granted, it might be the hormones and whatnot these days, too.) So when I read that bit online about the Ringneck head-petting it was a bit of a lightbulb moment, and occasionally I can even get away with stealing a few "head tickles" from Tybalt now, as well.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Karen, definitely, lose the lotion. Stepup, is an absolute MUST! You need to let your baby know, eating you, is a NO! NO! (sorry... lol!) Now in all seriousness, new birds to you, should have wrist status only. Never on the shoulder, until they deserve that. Be firm with your beliefs... do it over and over. Nancy