Hello and Request for Help :)

[Wolf]

That was me and I suggested that you might be missing his warnings. There is a big difference between that and saying that it was just you missing them. You really can't get to the possibility of there being no warnings until you look for them so you must rule out your missing them first. There really is a logic and a progression involved in this entire story, beginning with the ruling out of certain behaviors from both sides yours and his. That is how together we can arrive at what is actually happening. Personally it is an examination that I make each and every time that I get bitten by any of my birds. I do this to make certain that I pay very close attention to my birds. But that is just me and how I proceed.

[mikella]

I think it's always a good thing to think things over carefully - but he bites habitually and SO often that I can't find reasons... Know what I mean? For example, now that I can sometimes sit with him, he will back up on my lap so that he's leaning against my hand (his doing), he will sit there without me moving, and rub his face/head against my hand/fingers (his doing), then briefly attack, then go immediately back to nuzzling - all within seconds.

He's more bitey with my husband too.

I'm sure it's just part of the progression, but it's tricky none the less.

Another thing that's happening is when I react to his biting, he gets all wound up, swaying and strutting. It doesn't help at all.

[Wolf]

When Kiki first arrived she did the same type of things. Unfortunately, I didn't know anything about parrots when she came. It took about three weeks for me to find out what kind of parrot she was and I learned a lot from that point very quickly. So, at first, I thought that it was because she was new and didn't trust us. Then she chose my Lady for her special person and continued to be the vampire bird from hell to me, So then I thought it was that she just wanted my Lady and not me, but this didn't quite fit so I thought that she was hormonal. Actually she was very hormonal and I know that this was a factor and then she switched to me being her human, but the bites continued and now she was also biting my Lady. It was all very confusing and in all the time since then I still haven't figured out the why for her aggression. I think that it was a combination of all of the factors mentioned, on top of the treatment that she had been receiving prior to her coming here. It took a long time for her to stop all of this biting and I am pretty certain that it was just as confusing of a time for her as it was for us. The good thing is that she no longer acts this same way any more.

[mikella]

Wolf, that sounds like what's going on here. The ups and downs, etc. How long did it take for Kiki to come around? And how are things currently?

He attacked my husband twice tonight, immediately after us getting home and him taking him out. Actual aggression. Put him in, waited, then tried again and immediate attack again. His face/neck/ears both times.

Ugh.

[Wolf]

I don't remember how long, but it was several months. She couldn't be any sweeter than she is now if she tried.

[mikella]

Awww... Well I can't wait until we reach that point She's nice to your wife too?

It's been about 3 months. Literally some of the most difficult months of my life. I hope hope hope that we will hit a real positive point in the near future.

The aggression he's now showing my husband makes this an even bigger problem... Before, he would be aggressive with me but at least had 'reprieve' fun time with him. As of right now, he's got no one he can relax around and not be reprimanded by every two seconds. More stressful for me, too... And my husband.

[Wolf]

My Lady get bitten a lot by Kiki. This is more her own doing than Kiki's as my Lady is a bit hyper and doesn't slow down for Kiki to interact with her so she just never sees Kiki trying to ask her to mellow out. When she does slow down and pays attention to Kiki, they are able to get along just fine with no biting. Kiki really does try to be patient with her.

[mikella]

Quigley attacked my husband again today. He can't handle him now, and me being able to handle him is still pretty limited. The poor guy really needs to stop..... He screams if he's not on us, yet he can't really be on us (and yes, this goes on all day with me and him, same story past three months... Me trying to handle him for a few minutes, putting him down within sight when he's too much or aggressive, screaming, handle him again, cage time, he screams, try to handle him again...)..... Hormones are still very much ruling him. Please remind me - how much longer? They WILL start to decrease in a few weeks, correct?? Things are worse...

[Wolf]

I have a female and you have a male and this sounds so familiar to me in many ways. Such as with Kiki she bit us a lot even though she wanted to be with and on my Lady and I was the one at home doing all of the feeding, watering and cage cleaning and I could not touch her without getting eaten alive, Then she changed her alliegences and my Lady could not touch her and although she was now coming to me and biting less severely we still had a ways to go. By this time I did not trust her to not bite and take hunks of me so I would not let her be on me very long at all. I kept talking to her but at the first sign that she might bite, I put her down and walked away from her. That did not seem to be working as she was fully flighted when she came and I have never clipped her wings so she would fly after me and I would duck her. The only place I let her be on me was covered so that she would not bite me or open one of the places that was healing. That was a revelation to me when I was thinking about it one day, a lot of the bites were not actually bites. They felt like bites but they were actually her ripping the scabs off of a previous bite, so as I protected these places by not allowing her to go near them the number of bite was dramatically less. Then one day she suddenly just quit biting me.
I don't know if it will work that way with Quigley or not. He may gradually quit or it may be all at once but he will quit. I really don't remember but it may have been August or September when she quit biting and we were able to start working on establishing a mutual trust. I know that it seemed to go on for at least half of forever.

[mikella]

Ok... I hope this doesn't go on too much longer........ At least before, he could have happy time with my husband and that gave me a break too. Every day I would just pass time and count down the hours until he would be home... And now we don't have that even I feel so sad for Quigley.... And obviously, I have had no quality of life for the past three months, which isn't good either... But I just feel so bad for him that his life is going to be so empty and stressful until he stops attacking one of us at least... He loves hubby. This has really thrown my husband for a loop - he's been aggressive with him for TWO DAYS and he's lost all trust and is worried about things and frustrated, etc...... I need him to relax about it. Who knows, maybe he will go back to 'normal' in two more days! He had progressively been getting more and more bitey with him though over the last while. These attacks are a new ballgame though.

When it comes to biting at scabs - not the case with Q. I had one scab on the back of my hand and he started at that the other day, but other than that I don't have open spots from his bites right now - he's not breaking the skin either at all or enough to bleed. How, I don't know haha

I have a bunch of questions about this that I will ask another time (it's 3 am... Insomnia, story of my life) - but in my mind, it makes sense that hormones would increase until the length of day begins to decrease. Not so?