Galah behaviour

[Huff]

Hi everyone,

I am the proud parent of a 5 month old galah. I brought him home at about six weeks after he was hand raised by a reputable bird specialist store in the Sydney region. His name is Albi, I refer to Albi as him but he has not been DNA tested so I'm not really certain if he is a boy or girl. I have previously, and still do, own budgies and lorikeets which I would define as semi-tame. I wanted to own something a bit bigger so decided to get Albi.

When we first bought Albi home, he was easily handled by all family members. Both my children, 1 and 6, would pat and feed him. He sleeps inside nightly and has reasonably large cage outside were he lives during the day. He seems quite happy with this and either plays or sleeps the day away. His diet is a mixture of parrot mix, nuts, pellets and fresh vegetables and fruit. He is not overly noisy only screaming a little bit in the afternoon when the local wild galahs fly over. Every night he comes out for at least 1 to 2 hours of cuddles, scratching and free time. He steps up but usually in his own time.

Over the past 2 to 3 weeks he has began to get nippy. He hisses at the kids and bites them unless he is getting a scratch. My wife carries him outside each day and occasionally he will play up and nip her. When I handle him, he does nip a little bit, but usually only at edges of clothing, ears, fingernails and any freckles he sees on my arms or legs. This behaviour came on quite suddenly with nothing major happening which may have scared him and ruined any trust. The only difference in him is the new growth of feathers which are sprouting out. Not sure if is irritating him and causing him some frustration. Any ideas on why the sudden behaviour change? It's not overly aggressive behaviour, but I did want him to be able to be handled by my wife and, to a lesser degree, my 6 year old. My wife believes he is bonded to me as he rarely nips me as hard as he nips them.

Another thing is, he won't go near his bath bowl. I put him in the shower, or spray him with a spray bottle, and while he tolerates it, you can tell that he is not enjoying himself. Other than that, he plays well, eats well, destroys his toys well and is a great new addition to our family.

Any thoughts, advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. Craig

[Wolf]

I don't have a lot of information on Galahs or cockatoos in general but will share what I do know. This being a young bird, I suspect that it is beaking. This is like a gentle nibbleing mostly and probably accented with an occasional harder bite as it tests its boundaries.

The hissing and biting of your children is another matter, simply put, it doesn't want to be touched by them. Actually this is quite normal for most birds as kids move both quickly and unexpectantly. This scares the birds.

New feathers coming in are very tender and are prone to damage. I also suspect that they are irritating for the bird during this stage, but don't know for sure.

Bathing is not done a lot in their normal habitat as they live in the arid places in the interior of Australia.

That is about all I know about these birds except that being ground feeders are often more prone to worms than other species.

[Pajarita]

I think you mistook the timidity of a little baby with a permanent good temper and that you over-exposed him. Little babies take a lot of stuff they don't like without complaining but, once they start growing up, they will let you know what's what. Galahs are known here in the States as a one person birds and I've seen two of them attack the owner's children out of jealousy - only these children were teenage boys that were as big as an adult (they attacked me, too, but I am real good at dodging birds that fly at my head -LOL) so you might have chosen the wrong species if what you wanted was a bird that would go to everybody (not that's safe to have any species of parrot around small children). The fact that he lives outside (and not 'within' the flock -your family) makes a difference too because, at 5 months of age, he's still a baby that would spend all his time with his parents so, although this practice might work for you, it's dis-attaching him from the family and he might be mighty lonely out there on his own.

If I were you, I would keep the children away from him (I don't allow my grandchildren to interact with any of my parrots, I would not risk it).