GCC Attacking Houseguest?

[shiraartain]

So, as Parjarita advised, we don't introduce Fajr to new people unless they're people who are around frequently. (This was not her exact advice, it's how I implemented it.) He has only been introduced to our cousins who were spending the weekend about a month ago and 2 childhood friends who are over frequently.

That said, he was fine with all of them and went to them for scratches. We kept a close eye on him, and took him away the second he seemed uneasy. (Usually he was being given scritches the entire time though and was making content noises.)

Right now, we have a houseguest over for the weekend whom he has never met before. They can be in the same room but we have to be on alert since he will raise his feathers and then head over to her to attack her. Yesterday he bit her hands, and today he went for her face. He was taken away and went for her face two more times!

My best guess is that it is a combination of her being a stranger and him being jealous. My dad likes to bring him to the dinner table and have him eat his own dinner alongside us (It's Ramadan, and we break our fasts around sunset) and then he is sent to bed. The first day our guest was here, Fajr was trying to steal from plates and demanding more attention than usual and so was sent to his cage with his food (He is always sent to his cage with his food after meals, so it wasn't too far a break from the usual routine). The next day, she attempted to feed him a walnut (his favorite treat), but he bit her anyways

Any suggestions on how to get him used to her? She will probably be coming around this entire summer.

[Wolf]

Mostly patience and vigilance, it appears to me, from your story that he feels that he was unjustly punished for what he thought was a normal behavior and since she was the different factor he blames her for it. He will probably forgive her in time.

[Pajarita]

I think it's most likely that he is growing up and getting more assertive. Baby birds will not bite strangers because they are unsure of themselves but once they reach puberty, this changes and they get more and more self-assured as they get older.

I have no advice on how to correct this because I don't think that parrots should be exposed to strangers.

[shiraartain]

Her last day here this week he seemed to have calmed down and we distracted him every time he noticed her or started to head towards wherever he was.

His behavior is back to normal now-if anything, he's more affectionate than usual since he has many pin feathers coming out on his head and wants to be petted as much as possible.

[Wolf]

Been thinking about this some, but waited as I was hoping to hear more from you on this. Is it possible that this could be a scent related issue? By this, I am referring to scented products such as perfumes, hair products, scented soaps and deodorants, this type of thing. Just wondering.

[moderndaydinosaurs]

Scent is the weakest sense for parrots so I think that's probably unlikely. Could it be something about how she dresses or styles her hair?

[shiraartain]

She dressed in the same manner as the rest of us, and I noticed no scent coming from her. I did have one original theory that I haven't mentioned, and that is her hand. He ignored her on her first day here, and we didn't introduce them. He was just being pet by my dad when she arrived.

He didn't start attacking her until she offered her fingers to him the following day. (We usually offer our fingers, say "you wanna pet?" And if he does, he'll put his face against our fingers. If not, he turns away.) He became very angry and started attacking her and and that was when it started.

Her hand is noticeably larger than those of the members of our family. Perhaps he was intimidated by such a large and unfamiliarly shaped hand? The more I think on it, the more it stands out as the top contender.

The only other person whose hand he will not allow to pet him is my mom, if that helps. Her hands were harmed from the use of household cleaning products (always use gloves!!!!) And have never fully recovered. They have cracks and aren't very pretty. But even then, he has never attacked her face. Just a warning bite when she offers to pet him.

[marie83]

I tend to disagree with the socialisation aspect, I think its important- at least it has been my experience that my socialised birds have been much calmer and comfortable with strangers than the ones that were suddenly exposed to new people when they had to be.

ollie my slightly socialised gcc will go to anyone on his own free will- even people who are completely new to him and he seems to get annoyed if he can't say hello. Harlie my cockatiel is one to hide in her cage if somethings upsetting her, it was years before even I could get near her due to her past. Even more recently she was returning to her cage if something was making her wary. She will now even come out when strangers/semi strangers are in the room, although she won't yet venture more than a couple of feet away she will accept food from them if they stretch their arm out.

[Wolf]

On the issue of socialization, I have mostly said as little as possible. I do think that socialization is good for them as long as you are present and are able to maintain control of the situation. In this manner, if the bird starts to become irritable or frustrated you can safely remove it from the problem. I would definitely not socialize a bird with a large number of people present but one or two at a time only.
The problem with this is as Pajarita has said many times over , stress. Stress can cause all sorts of difficulties for both you and your bird. These problems are not only emotional in nature but also physical in nature. But then, we also need to recognize that a certain amount of stress can be a good thing as well. It can help keep the mind sharp and help us to be able to adapt quickly and calmly to new situations. Even laughter is a form of stress and for all practical purposes the body does not appear to differentiate between the various types of stress. It seems that the problem with stress is in its intensity and its duration. The body releases certain chemicals when stress is present and while small doses of these chemicals seem to be beneficial, larger doses or prolonged exposure to them becomes harmful to all systems in the body.
So some socialization can be quite beneficial to the well being of your bird, but too much of it can cause damage that we can't undo. This is mt understanding of this topic and it holds the answer to how to approach any situation that one may encounter, at least in my opinion.
Hope this helps some.

[Pajarita]

I don't think that the size or look of a hand makes a difference to them. They either accept any hand, they only accept certain people's hands or they don't like any hand at all.

As to stress, the problem with it is that, because they are 'programmed' to hide 'problems' (pain, general malaise, depression, etc), we can't really tell when they are stressed out unless we are talking about super high stress that manifests itself in either acute depression or distress - and that even mild stress takes its toll (we now have studies about this). My biggest problem with stress and parrots is that captivity, even in the best of circumstances (cage-free, flighted, good fresh food diet, solar schedule, flock, etc), already puts them under both physical and emotional stress and, taking into consideration that stress kills, I opt for eliminating any extra and unnecessary stressors to their lives.

People compare a parrot life in captivity and life in the wild and reach the conclusion that life in the wild must be more or equally stressful than captivity because of predators, weather events, lack of food at hand, etc but what they don't take into consideration is that these animals took millions of years evolving to live under those specific conditions and that, throughout the millennia, nature tweaked and tweaked until she could provide them with coping mechanisms for them. To us, it appears that it's more stressful to live in, say, the Amazonian jungle than to live in a living room in NYC but that's only because the Amazonian jungle is not our natural habitat.