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Green Cheek biting issue

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby Pajarita » Fri Aug 05, 2016 12:25 pm

Yep, I do the same thing only I get up when there is the barest amount of light beginning to light up the sky because the birds in the living room have their cage in front of a bay window and there is a lamp across the street so I have no choice but to cover them with black-out material. This time of the year (this is to give you an idea) I uncover the cages in the living room at 5:30 am, turn on the overhead lights at around 8 am and off at around 5 pm, covering the cages at 8:30 pm (I like for them to have 'bad' light for a few hours because the full spectrums I have in the ceiling fixtures are 'noon' light and I don't want them to have it on for too many hours as it would not be natural, right?).

Unfortunately, there is no way we can reproduce the kind of light that happens at twilight.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby Perroquet » Sat Aug 06, 2016 7:50 pm

Green Cheeks can go through biting phases but if you persevere they get over it. My oldest one, Lucy is mostly past being nippy but can still get jealous and grouchy from time to time.
Perroquet
Parrotlet
 
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Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby Pajarita » Sun Aug 07, 2016 10:48 am

Why don't you tell us about your birds, Perroquet? Age, gender, length of time you've had them, diet, light schedule, personalities, etc. We love to hear about everybody's birds...
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby gophynna » Sat Aug 13, 2016 2:55 pm

Well,

I had surgery this week on the 8th and just got out of the hospital yesterday. During this time, our GCC started viciously attacking my boyfriend. I witnessed the attack myself yesterday. HE went to let her out of the cage. She poofed up like a male lion, hissed, and then struck out of him over and over ripping the flesh on his hand and arm. We do not know what happened in the few days that I was in the hospital. However, for a few days before this whenever he went to change her water, she would try to nip him through the door to the water bowl, but in the evening would still come out for him and ride on his shoulder. This is kind of the last straw for my boyfriend. My heart is pretty broken, but we are most likely going to have to find a new home for her since a life in a cage is not the life she deserves. I am on blood thinners to avoid developing blood clots so I can't risk her biting me right now. I'm in tears but I feel like I've tried so hard to develop her trust in humans.

I don't want to just put her on craigslist, but I don't know of anywhere in my state that rehomes birds. I live in Arkansas. According to my fellow, she needs to go...now.
gophynna
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby Pajarita » Sun Aug 14, 2016 11:18 am

Oh, gee... that's real bad news! Wouldn't he consider trying a bit longer? GCCs need A LOT of hours of one-on-one and a very low protein diet or they do get aggressive, is it possible that she was been free-fed high protein and kept at a human light schedule?
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby gophynna » Mon Aug 15, 2016 7:21 am

She eats Roudy small pellets exclusively and gets millet occasionally as a treat like one day a week. Is that too high protein? We've been trying to settle her in at 7:30 now. It's still slightly light outside but starting to move into dusk. He really loves her, too. I think he was just really upset when she attacked him, but he's willing to hang in there. We are worried her next family won't take her as serious as we do. We know a lot of people who think having a bird is just keeping it in a cage and feeding it. He missed his buddy a lot this weekend. She use to watch TV with him on Saturday and she'd cuddle in our hands.
gophynna
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby Wolf » Mon Aug 15, 2016 8:53 am

Unfortunately that is way too much protein and millet is a good treat as they all tend to like it but it is mostly just empty carbohydrates with very little nutritional value.

Let me try to explain it this way and see if it helps. Years ago, before there were pellets, most people fed their birds a diet that was mostly all seeds. It was easy to do, but our birds died at young ages due to heart disease, liver disease and kidney failure. Then pellets were developed and were put forth as a complete diet for parrots. that our birds would not need to eat anything other than these pellets. They were an improvement as our birds could no longer pick and choose what they wanted to eat as it was all ground up, mixed together and turned into a hard lump, but our parrots still kept dying at the same younger ages and from the very same reasons. Something was still not right in wonderland.

Today, although pellets have improved dramatically, we know that they should never exceed more than 30% of our birds daily diet and less in many cases. This also is true with seeds, they should not exceed more than 30% of the birds daily intake of food.

Our parrots require a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables as well as in variety of these fruits and vegetables, but again about 30% seems to work best with the remainder of their diet consisting of whole grains and legumes such as lentils, sprouted seeds are also great for them along with some nuts( tree nuts, not peanuts).

We are all very aware of how difficult it is to get most of our birds to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables or any foods other than the seeds or pellets that they were eating when we first got them. This is because they were not taught to eat these other more healthy foods, when they should have been taught to. To make matters worse neither the breeders nor the people at the pet store tell you that you are taking on the role of the birds parents and that you need to teach your bird what foods to eat, or how to go about teaching them. I know that you got your bird at around 2 years of age, but the reason that it does not eat properly is still for the reason that I have explained to you. Now it is up to you to teach the bird to eat a variety of foods other than just pellets and millet.

I feed all of my birds fresh raw fruits and vegetables and gloop ( look in the health, nutrition and diet section) for breakfast and all day feeding and then a seed mix and a nut or so for their dinner.
Wolf
Macaw
 
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Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby Pajarita » Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:15 am

Wolf's general parrot diet 101 is correct but I will like to add something to it. What a parrot should eat in the sense of what is too much or too little of any one nutritional component in their diet depends entirely on the diet they evolved to eat. In the case of GCCs, they are mainly fruit eaters and this tells us that their diet needs to be low protein, low fat, high moisture and high fiber. Unfortunately, free-feeding pellets is wrong for them. They are waaaayy too dry (90% moisture in natural diet vs max 10% in pellets), too high in protein even if one knew how much protein was in them (they are all min 15 or 17% while a GCC should not eat more than 12% and then in a measured amount), the fiber they use has been shown not to 'clean up' their systems adequately, etc. High protein and high carbs (the millet) brings them into breeding condition which, usually, means aggression and, if you add the soy in them and the light schedule, the problem intensifies.

So I would say that she is reacting to sexual hormones and the fact that she was 'abandoned' by you for days and days. But the good news is that it's perfectly 'fixable'! It won't happen overnight or even in a week but if you really stick to the solar schedule (she needs the twilight for, at least, 1.5 hour - just to give you an idea, I turn off the overhead lights around 4:30 pm these days and feed them dinner at 6 pm) and reduce her protein intake by feeding more raw produce and something different for breakfast and all day picking (like gloop or mash or chop, for example), she will calm down and stop biting. But, remember, she is an only 'child' so she needs, at the very least, 5 solid hours of out-of-cage (with as much flying as you can make it) and 3 hours of one-on-one every single day. Oh, and steady routines! They comfort them and reduce anxiety and stress.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby gophynna » Tue Aug 16, 2016 4:43 am

Well, I used a recipe from another parrot forum to make her a nice fruit and veggie mash. She pretty much gave me the stink eye. I removed her pellets, so I am not sure if this was part of the problem. She was very upset. She tried it a couple times and I am pretty sure she growled at me. She even made the most pathetic sounds before resorting to screaming at me. Was she more upset that her pellets were gone? I ended up feeling bad before covering her so I gave her regular pellets back which she gobbled on even after I had her covered up and lights out.

My dove on the hand seemed to love his little cup of it.
gophynna
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Re: Green Cheek biting issue

Postby Wolf » Tue Aug 16, 2016 6:58 am

I am glad that you made her a mash but she will probably not like the change very much and it is usually best to make dietary changes slowly instead of quickly. You might consider mixing her pellets in with the mash and as she tries to pick the pellets out of the mash she will also start getting the taste of the mash and will gradually start eating more of the mash itself and then you begin reducing the amount of pellets in the mash that you feed her in the morning until it is only the mash and then just feed the pellets alone in the evening and the mash in the mornings. I would suggest that to begin with that there be no more than a half and half mix of the pellets and mash and reduce the pellets until there are none in the mix.

Your bird will be happier and less hungry and less stressed by doing it this way.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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