Help with training our new adoptee

[SaladNinja]

Hello!

 

My name is Christine, and in November my fiance Cody and I adopted a rescued Grey we named Noodle. I love how our little family is growing! Noodle has made great progress since we adopted him. He has grown back all of his breast feathers and some of the old ratty/broken tail and wing feathers have grown out to be replaced by beautiful new ones! He has really bonded with Cody, and I mean REALLY! He will give him kisses, allow him to pick him up, cuddle with him, even hold him on his back to play. Every time Cody comes home from work, Noodle will work up a crazy, excited racket and ring a bell on his favorite toy until Cody comes to see him and play with him. All of this is great, except that Noodle doesn't share his affection with anyone else, especially women...which is bad news for me. We were told when we adopted him that his previous owner, a woman, had been very neglectful and that his environment had been very stressful (hence the plucking). I knew that he would take a long time to adjust to his new home and especially to me, but I'm starting to worry that he isn't making much progress.

 

Whenever Cody is around, Noodle is completely fine with me. He will bow his head to let me rub him, and even likes cuddling on rare occasions. However, he is prone to lunging and biting viciously without warning. When I'm alone with Noodle, I can't get within 3 feet of him without him getting scared or trying to bite me. From the beginning we have made sure that Noodle can see that I feed him and give him treats, I talk to him, and I always reward him for good behavior. We made a decision to never yell at Noodle since we didn't want to add stress or teach him bad habits. However, the biting has GOT to stop! We have tried repeating "no bite" calmly but firmly as well as tapping him on the back, but neither seems to work.

 

Any suggestions on how I can better bond with my new baby, and how to stop the biting?

 

 

Info on Noodle (or at least as much as we know)

- About 3 years old

- Male

- Average size

- History of stress-induced plucking

- Has a weird head twitch which has gotten significantly better since we got him; the vet says it may be epilepsy but shouldn't be dangerous

- Knew how to say "Hello" and "get out of my way" as well as about 30 different electronic beeping noises before we got him, and has picked up on several new sounds but no new words yet

 

Thanks!

[judygram]

Noodle has obviously picked Cody as his favorite person and many greys will do that which means you take a back seat but not all is lost. You continue to be the one to feed and give him treats but when a grey picks a favorite there is not much you can do to change it, they have a mind of their own and the fact that his previous owner was a female and mistreated him doesn't help either.

Pay attention to his body language and if he is showing back off then do so, never force yourself on him or try to make him do what he doesn't want to do for he is telling you in his way, by biting, he doesn't like it. Ignore the bad behavior and reward the good, if he bites tell him No then turn your back on him, they don't like to be ignored but never use physical punishment as it will only backfire on you, you will lose trust with him.

One thing though is the biting will never stop completely, a bird bites, that is their way of telling you they don't like something, you can cut down the frequency and severity of the bites but as long as you have a wild animal and a bird is a wild animal there is always going to be the potential for an occasional bite.

[SaladNinja]

I'm completely okay with occasional bites (we had a sun conure when I was growing up), but what I'm worried about is the severity of the bites. He draws blood on me every time, less so on Cody because his hands are extremely tough from work as a welder. I am also worried about the random times he decides to lash out. He could be completely fine in a situation, all fluffy and wanting to be petted, and I won't even move my hand from where I'm rubbing him and out of nowhere he'll lunge at me. Sometimes he even goes for my face, pretending he wants to be picked up and then biting as soon as I get him up on my shoulder. Another thing I was hoping to find out about is alternative forms of positive reinforcement besides just treats, praise, and petting him.

[TWIX]

Relax! Twix is 5 months old, he was never abused and i am his favorite person. Twix does not accept my little girl TIA and he hardly accepts my wife LINA too. I can touch him anywhere i want including his wings and tail, but he does not like it when i do that. He warns me when i go beyond his neck and back by biting one of my fingers, so that's his way of telling me i don't like to be touched there.

Lina wants to play with him and Tia too, but he always prefers me over anyone around. I told my wife to start giving him some fruits and veggies three times a day, say hi to him and maybe he will accept her eventually.

The reason why he doesn't like my little girl is because she gets so excited when she comes near him and her voice is a bit loud, so he get scared and wants her to keep away from him.

The only way to stop biting is to talk to them in a low tone, from a distance, give them food and eventually come closer but slowly slowly!

 

I assure you Noodle will accept you too and will play with you as much as he does with Cody

 

Noodle is a great looking Grey

 

Ismail

[Dave007]

It's not a good idea to tell a person that their bird will act like another bird when one of those birds is a rehomed adolscent/adult bird that has a certain type of developed personality as opposed to a baby bird that's still an extremely young bird who is now living with it's very first owner. Doing something like that can cause problems for the person owning that rehomed bird. Some people will be disappointed. It's much better to find out about the personality of a species, in this case greys. Greys don't like children. That's been proven over and over. As far as giving certain foods, that rehomed bird may have already developed a dislike for certain catagories of food and that dislike may have developed in a previous home and telling a person that the bird will come around and achieve certain results by doing certain things is fine. What isn't fine is telling that person you can assure them that this or that will happen. A person needs lots of experience with adult birds before certain facts can be talked about.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Dave007

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Of course, a rehomed bird, will always have " baggage", but... they CAN learn to trust you and the family. Sure, I have to wear my white terry cloth bathrobe, to pick up sunny, my sunconure. If I wear the " black" one, he will bite. They are the same bathrobe! In Sunny's mind, the white bathrobe, he steps up, and is an angel! If I wear the black bathrobe...he is the devil child! Who knows, why he stepsup for the white robe!

As far as "greys", not liking children, Ryan was nine, Sean was six, when we adopted Sophie. Within six months, she loved them both. Now they are 17 and 21. Ryan will be home from college next week. Just the mention of his name, gets Sophie's tail wagging. She will start repeating his name over and over! I am so excited for Sophie!She is in for a very happy surprise. Of course, I will be put on the " back burner", which is fine with me, because she will be ecstatic to see Ryan. Nancy