Bites my boyfriend

[Roonil Wazlib]

This is a question you see often, hu?

Tim doesn't appear (i say appear because i can't tell what hes doing) to do anything that causes a bite, and I'm not able to read Julian's body language in these cases. This morning, he gave Julian a nut, eating out of his hand, and all was fine, until he finished and Tim moved his hand slightly, and Julian bit him on the thumb. Now, i'm sure this means "give me more" or "don't go yet" but he wouldn't do it to me, even if i took a whole nut with me. I can man handle him (we are working on flipping him on his back in my hand - which he does fine, but having trust issues letting go of my finger ) so i can pretty much do anything with him and he won't bite me, once or twice its happened, but that was just playing/exploring.

now, you guys are probably going to down me for this, but i let our cats and him out at the same time sometimes (only under strict supervision) and yesterday, he was sitting on Tim's arm, and suddenly charged up to his shoulder and bit him on the lip (drawing blood) - this was while Tim was giving attention to the cat - the only reason i can think of is because he was either jealous he wasn't getting attention, or was annoyed/jealous that Tim could touch the cat, but Julian couldn't (as he was trying). - but again, I've been in the same situation ans he wouldn't bite me. This is, obviously, because I'm his chosen person, and i get treated specially. It would seem Julian doesn't bite Tim out of Jealously over me, because he doesn't attack when Tim and I are cuddling or kissing.

I do spend a tone more time with Julian over Tim. He doesn't bite my mum or dad, but seems to like my mum more - he could have an issue with males, i don't think the previous owner had a male in the household, and I don't know what his first six months of life were - he has stress bars from that time, so perhaps a male influence wasn't treating him the right way.

Julian can be sweet as pie with TIm, giving him kisses, and flying to be with him, but, as it seems, 'randomly' will bite him. Should we try and get Julian to spend more time with him without me around, or should Tim back off a bit for a while, and try in a couple of months to interact with him on a more personal level again?
Thanks Guys

[liz]

Jealousy is probably it. I have 5 dogs and 4 cats but she only likes one of each. When I pet them Myrtle wants to pet them too. I really have to watch out for their tails. Any other critter on me and she torments me until I put them down.

[Wolf]

I agree that the issue here is probably one of jealousy. I think that the fact that the eclectus has a different set of breeding behaviors than many other parrots may be working to your advantage here as if it were with a Senegal, for instance the bites would be much more severe in intensity as well as frequency. With most parrots once the bond is established others are strongly discouraged by the bird, but with the eclectus, there are several males taking care of each female, each of which may also have their own female mate in another nest.
None of my birds take kindly to me showing affection to my Lady in their presence and will correct me if they can't get to her to drive her away from me.
I think that I would not be so affectionate to your boyfriend in sight of your bird, but at the same time I think that I would encourage him to work with the bird.

[Pajarita]

No, I don't think this is jealousy because, for one thing, the bird is a juvenile so there is no mate-bonding to one human and, for another, no breeding behaviors (no sexual hormones). Personally, I think that he treats Roonil as his mother and Tim as a flock member -only thing is, for what I understand, they don't really develop close bonds with flock members while juveniles, this only happens (when it happens -because captivity does distort natural behaviors) when they are adults. When they are babies or juveniles, they stay close to their immediate family and hardly interact with the res of the flock. I also don't think that he bit Tim's thumb because he was asking for more (babies don't use bites to ask for food, they use the feeding response), because he did not want him to go, or that he climbed up to Tim's shoulder and bit him because he was petting the cat because this would be the behavior a parrot would have with the chosen one (to warn her/him of either danger or the possible interference from a third party) and we have already establish that Tim is not the chosen one (whether this means mother or mate, at this point in time).

I think that Tim needs to slow down his interactions with Julian and to treat him as a flock member and not a parent or the chosen one.

[Wolf]

Pajarita may very well be right as it makes sense when I read it. I don't have any hands on experience with this species of parrot and am extrapolating somewhat from experience with other parrot species, trying to take into account the differences in their natural behaviors as I have read about them. Not always very accurate method.

[Pajarita]

Wolf, I am also extrapolating as I've never had a juvenile ekkie (both of mine were adults when they came to me) so I could be wrong, too. Birds are real hard to read and harder still to figure out...

[Roonil Wazlib]

hummn ok, i guess we will monitor further and take it easy on the interaction. Thanksguys