SERIOUSLY grumpy feather-butt

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Anyone else ever have their bird turn into a fire-breathing dragon after a trip? No, not Scotty... Scooter. We got home last night from 5 days at the World Equestrian Games --- great trip! We have been away from Scooter before, and longer, with the same sitter setup, but it was the first time we'd left Scotty and I was worried about him. Well he seems quite happy to see us and spent time hanging out companionably with Bill this morning. Scooter, on the other hand, is in a STATE.

Every time I get near the cage and talk to him, he fluffs up and gets that "go away" look. I made the mistake of letting him climb out the feeder door while I was changing his food and putting him back in cost me blood. Then I made the mistake of putting my hand in there to see if he really meant it... and it cost me blood on the other hand! I sure hope he gets over this soon! He's usually such a happy friendly guy! I now plan to leave him in there until he asks to come out!

I know they are smart, but I don't want to over-anthropomorphize -- could he be really mad at us for going away? He was apparently good for the sitter, but he started this behavior as soon as we got home last night -- after calling to us and verifying it was us. He ran around the cage saying "Pretty Scoo-scoo" when we first got home, then fluffed up and used it as an apparent attack call!

Does your bird go on a tear when you go away and come home? Has he lost his little feathered mind?

Oh, now he's over there asking me to come and get him! Do I dare?

(The answer to that was, shouldn't have...)

[Azure Hanyo]

Ohhh. I do not doubt one bit animals can be mad at us! Galileo is livid about Jovie being here. Absolutely livid. If she catches a glimpse of Jovie she does a crazy dance and will bite anyone or anything near her. I keep Jovie in the bedroom, and she seems very happy there! I have the TV on for sound so she isn't lonely when I am not in there with her, and soon I plan to move Cloud into that room too so she has company.

Galileo is a grumpy featherbutt for sure some days. Last night she was very affectionate, and even laid down on her belly in my hand for scritches and started to preen me. This morning... Not so much. She did not even want to come greet me when I presented her a peace-offering grape. I wouldn't think too much on it. Just let Scooter be a grumpy-puss and leave him alone. He'll come around! (I have plenty of experience with a Class A grumpy featherbutt: Seargeant Grumpy Featherbutt Galileo. lol! She gets over it soon enough.)

Hope he is his happy self soon!

[pchela]

I also believe that they can be angry with us and can hold grudges.

Pippin loves me and very rarely bites me. When he does, it is a fear bite or a bite to get me away from what he perceives as danger. He has never given me a bite in anger... until two days ago. I put him in his cage so that I could do some target training with Rupert. He couldn't see us but he could hear me doing the training. Anyway, when I went to let Pippin out, I stuck my hand in his cage for him to step up as usual and he bit the $%#! out of my thumb! I mean, hard. He has never done that before. I absolutely believe that he was pissed off at me for training the other bird and sticking him in his cage. Previously I had only trained them together.

[ptuga72]

Jake is the same way. Heaven help my hands if I dare give Griffith and Alta a treat before him or let Scarlet downstairs before him. When we went away for our anniversary (only 3 days) I was so worried about Scarlet, but I thought Jake would be fine since he's been sat by my sister many times before. When we got home Scarlet was so happy to see us, she promptly greeted us and wanted to come hang out with us. Jake on the other hand yelled at me for 10 mins then turned his back on me! Luckily he has a short attention span and by the next day he was fine. Hopefully Scooter will forget about being left with Scotty sooner, rather than later

[Giantmoa]

I find bribery works the best when rainbow is mad at me I shamelessly take advantage of her often one-track mind when it comes to food. Since Rainbow got tons of attention this summer, she acted pissy for a few weeks after I started school again. Once she's off the cage she is ussually fine though. I'm wondering if part of the problem is that she's starting to get mildly cage territorial? Luckily for me she almost never draws blood when she bites! She'll grind a bit and repeatedly nip if I've really done something wrong or bite extremely hard for such a little beak if I'm holding one of her enemies (most cases a pill bottle or a bell, she chases after those maniacly and I often get bit instead ) but its very rare for her to get close to drawing blood which makes me very happy
good luck with Scooter!

[entrancedbymyGCC]

He finally let me pick him up without bloodshed... I gave him a bit of a head scratch, but he's certainly not his normal self yet. I'd let him let himself out onto the playtop for a bit and I needed him to go back inside. I was actually going to use a perch for this, but he was not happy with that and he did step up for me to give him a little scritch and put him back inside to have his sprouts.

This is no ordinary nipping, he's been really going after me quite aggressively. As in running towards and stretching full out in order to clamp the beak full strength. I hope now we are past the worst of it, but I wish he really could talk right about now. What a huge personality change. I was thinking in this case we really were going to have to start over with Taming 101. Yet may, but I'm hoping this was a good sign.

I'm going to be very careful about handling him until he seems more settled. And I'm going to try to keep as much of a normal routine as we can given that we aren't really normal-routine people... There aren't any medical conditions that would cause such behavior are there? I'm beginning to understand why a person might believe in demonic posession. You can't see much in GCC eyes, but when they are THIS PO'd, you can see it somehow.

[pchela]

How old is Scooter now?

[Giantmoa]

I'm beginning to understand why a person might believe in demonic posession. You can't see much in GCC eyes, but when they are THIS PO'd, you can see it somehow.

amazons are the birds I'd say look the most like they're demonically possessed when they are angry and yet I love them anyway!


anyhow, I wonder if something happened when you were away or if its just a combo of age and being gone for a while? Lately Rainbow has been stubborn and less willing to step up, etc, though shes still very ppl oriented and loves attention... I've had to regress a few steps and work with her on the basics

[entrancedbymyGCC]

How old is Scooter now?

19 months.... yes, that could be a factor. And Giantmoa, I do wonder if something happened while we were gone, but according to the sitter, no... if it persists for more than another 24 - 48 hours, I'll be starting some remedial training... this is WAY worse than what Scotty was doing with Bill. Infinitely worse. Fortunately using a much smaller beak, but in terms of pure behavior, this worries me more.

It also started raining yesterday before we came home, and Scooter does get more moody when it is dark out. May just be a perfect storm of various factors.

[pchela]

Yes, most definitely the right age for the terrible twos. Sometimes you just have to weather the storm. I do hope Scooter is back to his loving self soon!