Reply With Quoteinstead of made to be sociable?
OK, Joey`s 8 months old now, and he`s getting very bad. I can`t take him out in a group, I used to be able to, had people over, etc. Now, when I get home from work he`s only looking for me, and will BITE (hard!) anyone who tries to put their finger near him. Also...if I try to take him outside or into a group of people, he screams, fidgets, tries to get off my hand, and will often bite me as hard as he can! Can someone give me a clue as to what`s happening?!
Is this a "phase" he`s going through, or is there something I can do to make him better suited for people?!
Thanks in advance - this is really BAD.
instead of made to be sociable?
you and he, just talking and spending quiet times together. The people here who have confident, socialized (with human) birds have spent hundreds of hours interacting with them 1+1 saying their names, singing and talking to them. You`ve got to put the time in with the bird and at eight months your bird is developing as a baby *bird*. He`s probably overloaded with external stimulation and expectations and he`s telling you to cool it. Please listen to him. Go to Bey the Grey and his human family page and you`ll see his human`s cuddling and just resting with him. Put the time in and create a shared and equal relationship *then* after a few years you`ll have the bird you want.
is a defense mechanism. Building confidence in a Grey is the most important step it seems to doing away with undersireable behaviors. In confidence, I mean making sure that everything in your bird`s world is something he/she feels safe with. If your Grey doesn`t feel safe with anything or anyone but you, then itz gonna bite anything and anyone but you (maybe even you too if upset enough). So take things in baby steps... after all he/she is a baby still.
I think Tsunami isn`t going to be an instant social success either... he`s a little fussy as is. So I am aprehensive of taking him to meet everyone as soon as I get off the plane. He`ll be overwhelmed initally just with a new change of scenary... hence, so much stuff unknown = so much to be afraid of. I am hoping if I introduce him to new things gradually, he will develop the inner confidence in the outer world knowing that everything is more or less safe, and thus won`t feel a need to bite back. ... only theories so far!
how old was he when you got him and are you his original guardian? When you had people over, did they physically interact with him? He sounds very possessive of you IMO,and will bite you maybe to get his way?(just the two of you) Tell us more. later, tika
uses that as a final resort when I`m ignoring "requests." Example would be in the morning, in bed, she`ll preen my head and herself for quite a while and then at some point decide she wants a ride back to the cage. She knows she should wait for me to indicate she can get on my shoulder, but once she`s on it, if I don`t get going within a minute or two, she tugs on my t-shirt. She`s patient but if I don`t move each tug (15-30 seconds apart, I`d guess) gets more forceful, and if I continue to ignore her I`ll eventually get a significant pinch!
Yeah, and I`ll bet you listen to the master after that! They are so intellegent, ours has us trained(to a pointNo cheeseburgers and french fries for her, but actually, she has us trained not to eat that in front of her! Later, tika
never have her as nice as I suspect she would have been had I gotten her as a baby (but no complaints). She came already talking and although she liked me (I purchased her, in part, because when I entered the pet shop she took one look, rushed to the front of her cage and started begging me to visit and scratch her head by calling out "Hello, baby!") calming her down took years and I don`t think I`ll ever get to the point where I can simply reach over and start scratching her "behind the ears" without risking a nip. One of the things I decided to do was encourage bird behaviors and noises (I`m proficient in conure now) and although when I got her she would try to get at whatever I was eating, that is long over. She`s often interested in what I`m drinking because I give her fruit juice in the a.m. in a little cup (and have my own mug of same) but no interest any more in what I`m eating (unless it`s patently bird-interesting, like rice cakes or crackers). She loves pine nuts held in my lips (or anyone else`s) and really gets a kick out of me picking out her favorites from a new bowl of food in the morning, before I place it back inside the cage, but long gone are the days when she`d come a hunting and test a shrimp from a salad or something like that!
I`d guess a bigger bird like an African Grey would find larger people food like fries and burgers more manageable and therefore more interesting.
Well, I may find out, one of these years. I`ve been hanging out in here for quite a while to learn more about Greys because when that unfortunate day comes, I think I would like to go with a Grey next. I love the Web sites with pictures and video and the interesting things people relate about their own experiences with the birds.
I guess keeping birds makes you look at your diet and modify it so that you are eating healthily to set an example lol.
yeah, I guess she`s so interested in everything we eat because at night for dinner she sits on her table height perch with her own bowl on the table. she will normally take a couple of bites then jump on the table to eat out of our plates. I`m sure she sees that she is not served exactly the same thing. You gotta watch her too, she`ll sometimes throw a tantrum in the form of flinging her bowl off the table. she gets away with it once sometimes, never twice. after that she has to eat on her perch with the screw on bowls. We are not there yet! Oh molly you are right, I never really paid that much attention to what I eat when I`m alone(hubby cooks,cleaning is not my favorite thing to do but I gladly clean the mess) Makes you think when you are eating junk and won`t give it to the bird! I have to hide to eat junk with little miss `I see what you are eating` always lurking about! Gotta luv em, tika
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