Parrotlet crazy searching for seeds when angry?

[Jenabee]

When our parrotlet becomes, what I think may be overstimulated by his surroundings, he begins to frantically peck whatever surface he happens to be on. It looks as though he is searching for seeds. It's more of a problem when he's on our shoulder and pecks too hard, biting the neck and alarming whomever's neck he has just bitten-- then HE gets even more upset and freaks out, nipping and screaming.

Has anyone else ever seen this behaviour in parrotlets? Is it common? Part of me thinks that he's hungry and is actually looking for seeds, but is too stubborn to go back to his cage. He won't eat if he's not in the safety of his cage.
What to do?

[pionus]

Well i'm not sure about parrotlets, but cockatiels will peck on surfaces to establish their territory, or claim it theirs.
maybe your parrotlet feels insecure and is trying to establish ownership?

sorry i can't help any more.

[Jenabee]

Thank you, Plonus.

It does make sense. Claiming territory and staking ground. I was just wondering if it was typical parrotlet behaviour. They seems to have many of the same fetishes (kleenex, plastic bags etc...) I was just wondering if this pas simply part and parcel of their behavioural structure.

[Pricey_boy]

have you tried feeding him before you take him out, is he hand tamed and trick trained.maybe he is a one person bird and when he is on someones shoulder other then your own he becomes teritorial and starts displaying his dominance.

is your parrot flighted or clipped maybe teaching him to fly to you rather than him stepping up to you would be better if you target trained and taught him flight recall whenever he freaks out on somebodies shoulder you could get him to fly to you and get him to fly back to his cage

[Dave & Karen]

Ours does the same thing when angry or frustrated... He really loves me to play youtubes of other parrotlets on my phone but can go totally berserk when an ad comes on and he's expecting something else, or sometimes he hears the other bird and for whatever reason he will start this loud and fast chirping and pecking at the ground (whatever he's standing on at the time) as well as fiercely attacking the phone.

So from what you describe, it sounds like something might be triggering him to go totally nuts.. it could be a certain tv show or commercial, a song or commercial on the radio he doesn't like, or it could just simply be triggered by a gesture or a word you say if he don't like it for any reason.

These guys are very jealous as well and I've found this out after bring home our second bird, a 6 month old female IRN. I haven't tried to socialize the 2 yet, but if I talk to her in his prescence he'll flip out, and especially when I had her out for a short training session... he was in his cage just flipping out while I had this other bird on HIS pllay penn on the bed teaching her that I'm not there to harm her so no touch contact was made, but he was definitely showing me his disaproval.

He was fine after I put her up and brought him out, but his beavior is very similar to what you described... try to see what triggers him, see what commercials are playing if a tv or radio is in the room, see if he does it after hearing a certain word, or seeing a certain gesture etc... lots of things can trigger these outbursts... for ours, it's usually a commercial when he wants to see something on youtube... lol

[Jenabee]

Thanks for all the info...

Yes-- parrotlets are jealous and they CAN be 1 person birds. Marvin is pretty good at sharing us, tho. One day he only wants me, but most days he just wants my SO. He works from home, so Marvin spends a good chunk of his say perched in his shoulder. If we hug or kiss, Marvin gets mad and tries to attack whomever he sees to be the offender (aggressor). So that is definitely a factor.
And it's funny-- he also loves the you tube videos. We call it "Parrotlet Porn". I think the sound of the commercials pisses him off, too cuz he gets really impatient. One of them had a female parrotlet who was singing and Marvin began to squeak uncontrollably and then gave her the wolf whistle!

Do your parrotlets love kleenex, too?

[Dave & Karen]

Yup... Kleenex, toilet paper, paper towels etc... He loves them and loves to chew and shred it too.
Ours is also a male and if I find a youtube of a female he gets very intrigued and he was even on his play pen doing hte neck dance after hearing one chasing after and attacking a pill bottle, His favorite youtubes are a parrotlet named Koolaid playing peek a boo... which he sometimes repeats the word after hearing the other bird saying it, but always comes to attention when that vid is playing. Then if you search parrotlets singing, there's one named Mango singing away and he likes hearing that one over and over, or Sonny the singing parrotlet... he sings that song when he thinks I'm not listening or in the other room, he won't sing it in front of me yet but definitely sings it when he thinks I can't see or hear him... lol.. I've also heard him singing "sing the birdie..." in the middle of his chatters and baby talks but the same thing, he goes quiet most the time when I look at him or come into the room.

But yeah, if an ad comes on instead of his favorite youtubes, he will totally flip out and attack the phone, not to mention it's a huge challenge trying to text when my wife sends me texts and he's attacking the phone or keeps nudging it trying to figure out how to make the videos come back on .