My CAG is anti-social - bites HARD!

[Ashitaka]

OK, Joey`s 8 months old now, and he`s getting very bad. I can`t take him out in a group, I used to be able to, had people over, etc. Now, when I get home from work he`s only looking for me, and will BITE (hard!) anyone who tries to put their finger near him. Also...if I try to take him outside or into a group of people, he screams, fidgets, tries to get off my hand, and will often bite me as hard as he can! Can someone give me a clue as to what`s happening?!

Is this a "phase" he`s going through, or is there something I can do to make him better suited for people?!

Thanks in advance - this is really BAD.

[younger]

instead of made to be sociable?

[pjsterner]

you and he, just talking and spending quiet times together. The people here who have confident, socialized (with human) birds have spent hundreds of hours interacting with them 1+1 saying their names, singing and talking to them. You`ve got to put the time in with the bird and at eight months your bird is developing as a baby *bird*. He`s probably overloaded with external stimulation and expectations and he`s telling you to cool it. Please listen to him. Go to Bey the Grey and his human family page and you`ll see his human`s cuddling and just resting with him. Put the time in and create a shared and equal relationship *then* after a few years you`ll have the bird you want.

[killah]

is a defense mechanism. Building confidence in a Grey is the most important step it seems to doing away with undersireable behaviors. In confidence, I mean making sure that everything in your bird`s world is something he/she feels safe with. If your Grey doesn`t feel safe with anything or anyone but you, then itz gonna bite anything and anyone but you (maybe even you too if upset enough). So take things in baby steps... after all he/she is a baby still.

I think Tsunami isn`t going to be an instant social success either... he`s a little fussy as is. So I am aprehensive of taking him to meet everyone as soon as I get off the plane. He`ll be overwhelmed initally just with a new change of scenary... hence, so much stuff unknown = so much to be afraid of. I am hoping if I introduce him to new things gradually, he will develop the inner confidence in the outer world knowing that everything is more or less safe, and thus won`t feel a need to bite back. ... only theories so far!

[Jepri]

how old was he when you got him and are you his original guardian? When you had people over, did they physically interact with him? He sounds very possessive of you IMO,and will bite you maybe to get his way?(just the two of you) Tell us more. later, tika

[goingphishin]

uses that as a final resort when I`m ignoring "requests." Example would be in the morning, in bed, she`ll preen my head and herself for quite a while and then at some point decide she wants a ride back to the cage. She knows she should wait for me to indicate she can get on my shoulder, but once she`s on it, if I don`t get going within a minute or two, she tugs on my t-shirt. She`s patient but if I don`t move each tug (15-30 seconds apart, I`d guess) gets more forceful, and if I continue to ignore her I`ll eventually get a significant pinch!

[Jepri]

Yeah, and I`ll bet you listen to the master after that! They are so intellegent, ours has us trained(to a point No cheeseburgers and french fries for her, but actually, she has us trained not to eat that in front of her! Later, tika

[goingphishin]

never have her as nice as I suspect she would have been had I gotten her as a baby (but no complaints). She came already talking and although she liked me (I purchased her, in part, because when I entered the pet shop she took one look, rushed to the front of her cage and started begging me to visit and scratch her head by calling out "Hello, baby!") calming her down took years and I don`t think I`ll ever get to the point where I can simply reach over and start scratching her "behind the ears" without risking a nip. One of the things I decided to do was encourage bird behaviors and noises (I`m proficient in conure now) and although when I got her she would try to get at whatever I was eating, that is long over. She`s often interested in what I`m drinking because I give her fruit juice in the a.m. in a little cup (and have my own mug of same) but no interest any more in what I`m eating (unless it`s patently bird-interesting, like rice cakes or crackers). She loves pine nuts held in my lips (or anyone else`s) and really gets a kick out of me picking out her favorites from a new bowl of food in the morning, before I place it back inside the cage, but long gone are the days when she`d come a hunting and test a shrimp from a salad or something like that!

I`d guess a bigger bird like an African Grey would find larger people food like fries and burgers more manageable and therefore more interesting.

Well, I may find out, one of these years. I`ve been hanging out in here for quite a while to learn more about Greys because when that unfortunate day comes, I think I would like to go with a Grey next. I love the Web sites with pictures and video and the interesting things people relate about their own experiences with the birds.

[younger]

I guess keeping birds makes you look at your diet and modify it so that you are eating healthily to set an example lol.

[Jepri]

yeah, I guess she`s so interested in everything we eat because at night for dinner she sits on her table height perch with her own bowl on the table. she will normally take a couple of bites then jump on the table to eat out of our plates. I`m sure she sees that she is not served exactly the same thing. You gotta watch her too, she`ll sometimes throw a tantrum in the form of flinging her bowl off the table. she gets away with it once sometimes, never twice. after that she has to eat on her perch with the screw on bowls. We are not there yet! Oh molly you are right, I never really paid that much attention to what I eat when I`m alone(hubby cooks,cleaning is not my favorite thing to do but I gladly clean the mess) Makes you think when you are eating junk and won`t give it to the bird! I have to hide to eat junk with little miss `I see what you are eating` always lurking about! Gotta luv em, tika

[hobbitlover]

At 8 months of age, a grey cannot bite hard enough to really hurt you - are you sure that she is "biting", or just trying to steady herself (and you then over-react, thinking you were "bitten").?

The best thing to do is get the bird into a home where someone is familiar with these birds, and how to handle them -- if you have lost control of, and fear an 8 month old grey, you are not qualified to deal with these minor issues. Once the bird is properly socialized, it may be possible for you to learn how to handle her, and maintain her training / tameness. THis bird is a baby, it is shoulsd not be so out of control at this stage....this is a "person" problem, not a bird problem

[goingphishin]

Nanday-Janday mix from one parent, and the other was a Sun. She`s gorgeous: dark blue-black flight feathers, tail feathers tipped with same the blue which changes quickly through green to a gold-olive. Dark red head, dark but bright green wings with a tint of olive, and yellow epaulettes ending in orange tips. Her breast is light mint green which goes from yellow to orange on the belly with bright orange leggings on pink feet! She has lemon yellow underwings, the skin around the eyes is white, and her underwear is grey.

She had been fully flighted for a quite some time when I started working from home and although she was free all the time while I was in, I would ask her back to her cage and close it when out for any length of time. On my second to last long vacation (2-3 weeks) she went into a big depression (meaning, she ended up sitting on the floor of her cage in a faux nest, hatching a few unshelled peanuts, no longer talking to the sitters or apparently moving about much) and at some point after that I though, why shut her up when I`m gone? She`s fully housetrained (only poops in cage or on paper below cage door) and does nothing destructive at all, except in designated places (the "bird" blanket at the foot of the bed and a stuffed toy or two). I started leaving her loose all the time (except when bad!) and when I next took a 3-week vacation in Paris and left her loose, she did much better mentally.

I`ll be off for 16 days soon and am not at all worried about her this time. My sitters are excellent and although I know she`ll miss me, she was doing great last time I left -- meaning, she was overjoyed to see me when I walked back in the door, but the clingy deal wore off in minutes (!) and she very rapidly went back to "normal" bird mode; and I did not get even one "you dirty rat" type notification bite in the days immediately following my return!

I have had a variety of pets in my life and not one comes even close to her. Comparing is not fair. Sometimes I think she IS a bird brain and then she does something which floors me. I`m so glad I took the chance and purchased her long ago.

[younger]

bird off me, had your common sense and caring attitude, I would be a very happy woman.

[Jepri]

wow, that`s a lot of colors! Do you have pictures? tika