hi i have an african grey with issues..

[TheMatikas]

hi my african grey is a lovely bird... when he is not dive bombing me, he used to be the soppiest lil fella ever with me best parrot some1 could wish for, since i went away for my 21st bday in june 6 2011, ever since then his behavoir has got really bad toward me, by bad i mean aggressive, he bites, when i go to give him treats he leaps on my hand and trys to maul it, i have to give him something just so i can change his food and water bowl, i have no idea why he is doing this and im seriously thinking im going to have to get rid of him, ive had him for about 3 years he is roughly about ten years old and his behavoir is just getting worse, he has a nice cage that is kept clean i move his toys around a little bit like every 6 months so he doesnt get bored. any advice would be great as i seriously do not want to have to get rid of my lil baby boy

thanks ahead for any replies

[Polarn]

wait a second, you move his toys every 6 month so he doesnt get boored? I dont think that is nearly enough to keep a bird occupied and entertained with toys.

Personally I rotate toys, I usually leave each toy up for two weeks before removing them and I add new ones each week, currently I am at 8 big major toys in the birdroom where I have 20+ toys in the bunch atm wich means since i leave every toy up for 2 weeks they will then be down for quite some time before I have to present the same toys again, besides these bigger toys there is always new foraging stuffs, shreddable toys, toys that are made to be broken down etc etc, so all in all I probably put up 10-15 new items each week, some are there to last 5 minutes others a couple of hours.

But yeah with a 6month rotation, well not even a rotation but a relocation I think you might see plenty of improvement simply by enriching this birds life. Saying this though you generally need to take it slow with a grey introducing him to new items, but the more times you do it the easier it goes up until the point where new items doesnt really bother him.

[marie83]

Agree with polarn. He needs much much more than a 6 monthly change, the toys need rotating AND moving around, a minimum of every couple of weeks. However as you bird isn't young and has probably been in a set routine for those years you have had him your going to need to change things slowly to avoid freaking him out even more. Start with changing/moving just 1 toy every couple of weeks, then move on to two toys and so on.

So in the 3 years you had him have you ever gone away before? if so what was his reaction?
Have you taken him to the vet? Some behaviour changes are down to medical issues.

I would also suggest starting from scratch with the taming and training, also try not to make a fuss when he bites otherwise you risk reinforcing them.

[friend2parrots]

welcome to the forum. its possible that your african grey was stressed by your absence. As marie83 pointed out above, a return to basic training and watching the birds body language to avoid bites is absolutely vital. After a while, i think your grey wil come back to normal, but it may take a LONG while, and you need to be patient.

I am having a similar problem with my GCC who was a perfectly sweet bird his whole life. But he got spooked by roadwork noise six months ago and became an almost vicious biter, attacking both my and my husband. But he is definitely getting better, as I have been working with him for six months clicker training him. it takes a long time for the bird to regain its confidence after an emotional upheaval. but you need to have faith in the bird and don't give up on him. the main thing, in my opinion, is avoiding the bites because once it becomes habitual, it is very hard to undo. but even then it can be done.

this may require some training through the cage bars with the target stick, etc. check out these training methods as they are detailed elsewhere on this forum and blog.

Good luck with your bird!!

[friend2parrots]

hi again - just a note that i edited my previous message (right above this one) to get rid of all the "you should" and "i think" preaching and advice from the former version. it reads more tentative now, which is probably best, because I realized I really don't know the full story of what's gong on with your grey. I'm new here and I think the close similiarity to my own situation led me to believe its a similar problem, when in reality it could be totally differeent.

i know its tough to see a previously sweet bird turn on you. ive been there!! so here's my new advice: read up, read up, read up on everything and anything about parrot behavior. i think your main challenge is to first figure out what's going on with your bird before you can strategize a solution to helping him get back to the sweet bird he used to be.

hope that helps! good luck again

[charlieandkiwi]

I agree completely with what previous posters have said. Here are some links to the forum owner's training info, which you might find helpful. If you scroll through the second link, you can find articles with videos of things like clicker training, taming etc. The first is a complete run down of training.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

http://trainedparrot.com/Taming/

http://trainedparrot.com/sitemap.php

[liz]

These little bird brains think. No telling what he thought about while you were gone. You can't beat yourself up and you can't hold it against him since you are suspiciouse of when he changed.

You brought him into your home before - just do it again. I wish you luck in restoring your friendship. It is not easy to know what they are thinking.

Rambo is the only one who can make it known what he wants. With the others it is a guessing game.