by Pajarita » Sun Mar 03, 2019 10:36 am
Welcome to the forum! The problem is not training, the problem is hormones and, most likely, neglect. GCCs are one of the sweetest species of parrots, very loving, very forgiving... but they are intensely needy and, if you don't spend hours and hours and hours with them, they resent it. Also, free-feeding protein food (seeds, pellets, avicakes, nutriberries, nuts, etc) and keeping them to a human light schedule, instead of a strict solar one with full exposure to dawn and dusk will make them overly hormonal which equals aggression, especially in males.
Please discontinue your targeting training. It won't do any good and it might even backfire on you (actuallt, it already is with him biting the target stick and you do NOT want to get him used to his using aggression to get his point accross). Parrots are not like dogs, they are NOT people oriented, they don't belong to hierarchical societies so they don't understand discipline or obedience BUT they are highly social and very loving so the ONLY way to tame one correctly is to make the bird trust you, first, and then love you. Once he trusts you and loves you, you can start training him but, until then, you need to concentrate on a good diet (GCCs are mainly fruit eaters in the wild so their diet needs to be a fresh food one with large portions if fruits, veggies, greens and very low protein and fat). I've have four of them, they all came to me because of aggression issues and they all got better and ended up being the sweetest things through good husbandry and not any training whatsoever. Mine eats gloop with raw produce for breakfast and one single level tablespoon of budgie seed for dinner.
A rehomed bird will be in its honeymoon period for the first few months - this is the time when the bird is at its best behavior and when even chronic biters will think twice before they show an aggressive behavior so the fact that yours is showing aggression when you've had him for only a few days tells me that he is being asked to do things he does NOT want to do. So, stand back and observe his behavior as objectively as you can so you can avoid all instances when he feels he needs to be 'mean' to get his point accross to you. Don't ask him to step up (this implies the bird trusting a person he doesn't know), just open his cage and let him out. Do not interact physically with him (it's akin to asking a person to accept a physical interaction from a stranger), the most you should do at this point in time is offer him a treat every now and then (but, if he doesnt take it, leave it where he can reach it when you walk away because this is not a reward for good behavior, it's gift from you to him as a token of your friendship). Don't think of him as an 'animal' who has to put up with whatever you desire -parrots are VERY smart, they put two and two together and get a result of four, they observe, analyze and make conclusions so you want him to arrive at the conclusion that he is in a safe place, where he is treated right and respected. This time is the foundation for your entire future reationship with him so you want it to be strong and steady so you can build on it. Do not get him used to seeing you as somebody who will not 'listen' to him and make him bite - it will be very difficult to break him of this habit (which, by the way, he already has from his previous home so it truly behooves you to prove, from day one, that you are NOT like them).
If you take your time, feed him the right kind of diet, keep him at a solar light schedule so his endocrine system can go back on track and respect him, only moving the relationship forward at his pace, he will reward you with unconditional love and the sweetest temperament ever (my Codee is so sweet, she is the only bird that I allow my grandkids to handle).
One more thing, he can be friendly with everybody in the family but he will not be a family pet, no parrot is. He will choose his human and bond deeply only to that one -and this human will be the only one that will be able to take liberties with its body so you need to figure out who this person is in your household but you will not know for sure until months after the honeymoon period is over.