Bird has... PMS?

[Eurycerus]

Avoid getting your parrot in a place where you are vulnerable. I never let Nika on my shoulder, particularly during the first six months. Now sometimes she'll fly there but I still remove her quickly. The face and neck is vulnerable and particularly sensitive. Not to say that hands don't hurt, but it's not the same. I too was unable to figure out what caused some of the vicious bites. I'm sorry that that's happening :/ Even still I found out that I can't just hang out with Nika otherwise she can get a little too excited if I'm paying attention to something other than her. You might need to try only focused attention time for a while and don't let your parrot just hang out with you when you aren't playing with him. If you parrot isn't already trained I would try following Michael's guidance. Good luck!

[friend2parrots]

I agree with Eurycerus's advice above.

also, just wanted to share what I do when my GCC gets into one of his moods, even when i dont know whats causing it.

when i see him starting to get all wired and potentially nippy (anything can trigger it sometimes) i make him do flight recalls until he is completely exhausted. then I place a bowl of cool water in front of him to bathe, and he jumps in and splashes like mad, because he is so hot from all the exercise. after his bath, he sits and preens for a little while, and by then he's usually sleepy and takes a nap. after the nap, his mood is SO much better.

hope this helps - all the best with marvin and let us know how he's doing

( and Michaels blog offers a lot of guidance on teaching flight recall, if marvin doesnt know it yet)

[Jenabee]

Thanks Guys,

Marvin has not been trained to do flight recall. I'll look into that. Can you still train a 2 year old bird? We got him as a rescue and have had him for 1 year now. Problem is, he doesn't respond to rewards. He hates all food and will not eat if out of his cage. The only thing we can use to bribe him is a kleenex or paper bag (which just makes him more excited.)

Also, he was one of two when his previous owner got him. His friend was smothered when this old owner fell asleep with them out of their cage. If they were on her shoulder when this happened, would this be contributing to the problem? Do birds have memory that far back?

Thanks so much!

[Andromeda]

There is already some good advice on here so I will just add my two cents.

Marvin has not been trained to do flight recall. I'll look into that. Can you still train a 2 year old bird?

You can absolutely train an older bird, mine were 6 and ~5 (Poi's exact age is unknown) before I started training. They now know several tricks and I am always working on teaching them more.

Problem is, he doesn't respond to rewards. He hates all food and will not eat if out of his cage.

What is his current diet?

You can train targeting inside the cage. Then if he still won't eat outside of his cage the next step in training would be to slowly teach him to accept rewards outside of his cage.

Most smaller birds LOVE millet. I am really surprised your parrotlet doesn't like it. There is definitely some type of food that will motivate your bird; you just have to find out what it is. Once you determine his favorite treat you remove it from his diet and offer it only as a reward when training.

If he really won't respond at all, since he is an adult you can also establish motivation by removing food for a period of time (up to six hours) prior to trying to train him because a hungry bird is a motivated bird. You can also train when he is at his hungriest which is first thing in the morning before you offer his usual food.

The only thing we can use to bribe him is a kleenex or paper bag (which just makes him more excited.)

This must be a parrotlet thing; I had a parrotlet years ago that was obsessed with tissues and paper bags!

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.

I understand your motivations but you are implementing something called "positive punishment" and birds do not respond well to punishment in the sense that they generally do not make a connection between the undesired behavior and its consequence; therefore punishment is unlikely to decrease the undesired behavior (as it does in humans). Furthermore punishment can backfire because the bird can actually learn to attack as a way of saying "I want to go back to my cage."

Lastly using a towel and the cage as punishment has drawbacks as the bird may develop a negative connotation with those objects. If your bird needs to be toweled by you or a vet in an emergency it's bad if he views a towel with negative connotations. The same goes for the cage; since the cage is pretty much the bird's home you want it to be a happy place and not a place where he does when he's bad.

I've been trying to chart when Marvin's outbursts occur to draw conclusions as to why he is having these episodes.

This is an excellent strategy. I have a book on aggression in parrots by Barbara Heidenreich and one thing she suggests is keeping a journal of aggression to try to look for patterns.

I know initially he was attacking your SO but the last attacks were against you. Was your SO around at the time? For example did he walk by the door or into the room when you were attacked, or did you walk into the room where your SO was located when the attack occurred?

You were attacked when putting cream on your neck so maybe he didn't like the cream or the action of you rubbing your hand against your neck.

He's out of his cage for at least three hours every day and up to 6 depending on his behaviour.

A bird doesn't understand "I get more out of cage time when I'm good." However, a bird does understand positive reinforcement (a desired behavior is followed immediately by a food reward) and this is the best tool you have to modify behavior.

When dealing with aggression your best strategy is to reinforce any behavior other than aggression and teach your bird to do behaviors that are incompatible with aggression. A bird that knows a variety of "good" behaviors that have been reinforced using positive reinforcement is less likely to aggress. When the bird does aggress you can cue a simple behavior it knows repeatedly (flight recall or even something like wave or turn in a circle) and that not only distracts the bird but also changes its mindset so suddenly it's happy because it's doing nice things and getting treats and it forgets about the aggression.

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

There are several different types of aggression but attacking your boyfriend sounds like "social or territorial aggression" (your bird is bonded to you and is defending you or what he perceives as his territory). Attacking you is harder to pin down but it might be "redirected aggression" meaning the bird saw a person (such as your boyfriend) or even an object it didn't like and just attacked you (instead of the person or object) because you were readily available.

[Jenabee]

Thank you all for your replies. Wow... you've been so helpful! We're going to try a few of those things. It's also good to know some of the things we shouldn't be doing. We really love Marvin and most of the time he's a great pet. We're just trying to learn how to navigate his moods. Neither one of us knew a lot about birds before we rescued him, but patience and the help we've received on the forum have definitely helped.

As for food, though... there is nothing he likes. The millet spray in his cage has been untouched for three days. But we will be taking the sunflower seeds out of his seed mix and see if that works!

[Andromeda]

Wow... you've been so helpful! We're going to try a few of those things. It's also good to know some of the things we shouldn't be doing. We really love Marvin and most of the time he's a great pet. We're just trying to learn how to navigate his moods. Neither one of us knew a lot about birds before we rescued him, but patience and the help we've received on the forum have definitely helped.

Everyone that keeps birds is always learning something, no matter how long they've had birds. I'm glad that even though you are new to birds you are seeking out information on how to address Marvin's aggression.

A lot of times people have no idea what it's like to own a bird and then if they start encountering behavioral problems---often (but not always) their own fault---they either re-home the bird or just start keeping in its cage all the time. It's so great that you are willing to be patient and work with Marvin.

As for food, though... there is nothing he likes. The millet spray in his cage has been untouched for three days. But we will be taking the sunflower seeds out of his seed mix and see if that works!

That is a great place to start! Let us know how it goes.