cockatoo is out of control

[BirdCrazy1988]

I have a bare eyed cockatoo at home and it seems that the only time that i can keep him somewhat under control is when i get his wings and nails clipped. It seems that as though he is mad or something at me and is NOT so insane lol.
I normally post on http://www.MeetTheParrots.com but i figured that the more i shoot the more points i will make...so i need to get some suggestions from different sites and then see what the most popular answer or suggestion is ? you know?
anywho..
the bird gets outta control when he has his wings and when his nails are not clipped...attacks my african grey and such, any suggestions?

[Kathleen]

So the bird is clipped right now or it's been unclipped and "out of control"?

It's your decision whether to clip your cockatoo or not, but there are some people in the parrot community that believe clipping increases aggression and biting.

There are reasons for the bird acting this way. What are the circumstances that lead to the behavior and lead to it attacking your other bird? If I had to guess, it's probably territorial aggression but I'm not sure.

You should probably try some socialization training in a neutral territory. This could mean taking the birds into a new room, or someone else's house, etc. and then cuing the birds to perform tricks or feeding them meals near each other.

If you talk more and give more details about the bird's behavior and what leads to it behaving this way, I could probably offer more suggestions.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Can you be more specific about what you mean? What are the symptoms of "out of control" and what do you do when it happens?

As long as you aren't talking about over-clipping the nails, I'd consider it normal care to keep them trimmed so they aren't super sharp. Wing clipping is not the norm on this board, although my birds are clipped for safety reasons, but if you have a situation where being able to control where the bird can go is important, I honestly don't think the birds get as emotionally involved in it as the humans do, as long as it is a normal wing clip that allows a controlled landing, not a severe clip that makes the bird drop like a rock.

IMO it is much more difficult to train birds (any animal really) to NOT do things than it is to train them TO do things, and especially if you have a bird that is not well socialized to start with, you may want to concentrate on finding positive interactions you can have with the bird at first before you try to tackle the bigger issue. By definition, training to reduce a behavior involves punishment, and punishment is a technique that is very difficult to use successfully, it is very easy to introduce confusion or fear and make things worse. You definitely want a good relationship based on trust before you even consider working on the "don'ts". MHO.