Bird has... PMS?

[Jenabee]

Help! Is it hormones???

Our 2 year old parrotlet was sweet as pie before the holidays. He was so well behaved that we had him out of his cage all day every day and he really seemed to be bonding with us. Then suddenly, a week or two ago, he began having tantrums after being out of his cage for a little while. By tantrums, I mean flying frantically at my SO's neck and biting it hard enough to draw blood, screaming constantly and attacking to the point of almost harming himself and us.

He has a few pin feathers that we thought might be bothering him, but we try to give him scratchies and he just nips at us or flies away, whereas before, he was a little scratchy whore.

Can anyone help us with some ideas as to why he is acting this way? Is he hormonal, or just Satan Bird?

[GreenWing]

Eh it sounds hormonal, definitely.

[Michael]

[Jenabee]

He seems better today, but the last few days have been AWFUL. Impossible to connect with him because he's so nippy and wants to scream all the time. I wondered if anyone else has had this same occurrence with their birds, specifically males. (male birds, not bird owners )

[Jenabee]

Well, Marvin has returned to his sweet scratchy whore self. Full of kisses, little head nudges and little lovey dovey noises. Must have been PMS after all!

[friend2parrots]

first off, i'm delighted to hear that Marvins back to his usual self!!

actually, from reading this post, i'm suspecting that it may not have been hormonal after all... i think birds' breeding cycles are generally longer than the nine days that have transpired since his aggression began.... also, the fact that he's come back to normal so quickly suggests to me that his sudden extreme aggression were not "tantrums" but rather, might have been the result of excessive stress hormones in his bloodstream caused by a spookout. there might have been something in his environment way back, on January 16th when the aggression started, that spooked him out. sometimes previously gentle birds who have been spooked out act the way your parrotlet had acted since Jan 16th.

my GCC before his spookout, had been perfectly sweet for five years. then suddenly extreme aggression quite similiar to what Marvin exhibited.

if Marvin indeed did have a spookout, then I have to congratulate you, for the following reason: you were able to bring him back to normal in two weeks. thats a pretty short time. that means you were doing things right, and not reinforcing the biting, etc.

this is just my guesss -in any case, really glad to hear he's bounced back

[Jenabee]

Thanks Friend2Parrots,

I'm having a hard time recalling if there was anything that "spooked" him. Nothing in particular comes to mind, unless it was something that scared him in his cage while we were out. The bad behaviour actually started before I wrote this post. Prob around Jan 2 and he seemed to get better around the 25th. Would that be long enough to qualify as a breeding period?

He also doesn't like to be handled as much when he has lots of pinnies. I thought he'd like being scratched. We even bought him a toothbrush for scratchies, but he hates it. As soon as we pick it up he runs for the hills.

He has gone through phases like this before and we just try to bring him out and spend time with him. As soon as he's bad, though, we gently cover him with a clean tea towel and carry him back to his cage. He's usually very overexcited at this point and I've found that the momentary darkness and cradling both help to calm him (and me) when he has his spazz attack.

But we are very glad to have Good Marvin back in the house

[friend2parrots]

i'm not really sure about how long the breeding periods of parrotlets are - i find any info about it i will let you know.

from what you've written, its hard to say for sure whether it was a spookout either, esp. if he's had similar phases like this before....hmmm....

you may want to reconsider placing him in his cage when he's "bad" however, as it may lead him to dislike being caged. maybe placing him down gently and walking away might be a better? that way he'll realize that the fun times he has with you stop when he misbehaves.

all the best with Marvin, and let us know how he does in the future!

[Jenabee]

Just an update and a few questions for anyone who may have an answer. I'd appreciate any help or opinions. As my sweet little boy has turned into Satan again.

I've been trying to chart when Marvin's outbursts occur to draw conclusions as to why he is having these episodes. The last one was early December (as posted here earlier). There was nothing we can think of that would have spooked him. He's out of his cage for at least three hours every day and up to 6 depending on his behaviour.

So yesterday, he began freaking out again. He latched on to my finger and drew blood. Nothing specific happened: I was putting some cream on my neck and he just lunged at me. Then today, we were hanging out and I went to the kitchen to get a snack. He chomped down on my neck (behind my right ear) and then fluttered in mid air while attacking my little pearl earring. I was afraid he was going to peck my eyeballs out!!

The last time this happened, my boyfriend was the victim. Now it's me. We don't know how to handle the problem when it arises because he seems to get back to normal in a week or so. Could it be seasonal? It seems he gets like this every four months, two weeks or so before the solstice. We thought a blackout cover for his cage might be good to keep his exposure to the sunlight more even??

Any help would be wonderful. I Iove my little Chicken and don't know why he does this.

[Jenabee]

Apologies... looking back on my other posts, it seems that the last outburst was just AFTER the winter solstice, so maybe it's not related to changes in sunlight??? So confused.