DerbyBirdy
Meeting neighbors
So! We've had Dinah for about a month now. (Here's her story: We may have fallen in love..... | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum Things were going great the first week, but after that... it's been a whole different story.
At the bird shop, she was super sweet. We first met her out of her cage. One of the employees just handed her to us, explaining that she's been working on socializing her and the little linnie had been doing a good job! She perched patiently on our hands, let us hold her on her back in our hands, and even hung upside down for us! When we did get close to her cage, she did have a tendency to get "flighty" and try to fly to her cage. We found that she was really fast on the ground and wasn't super eager to step up from the floor. She was real timid whenever we tried to get her to step up, and it was more difficult trying to get her to come out of her cage; we would have to grab her... then she's totally fine with us handling her once we caught her. We were smitten, so we spent some more time with her some days after and took her home a week later.
The first week Dinah came home was fine... her behavior was the same as it was when she was in the shop. But then, a switch flipped. One day I was trying to get her out of her cage to have some outside bonding time. She did her usual thing of trying to run and hop away, but then she started screaming at my hand! She was a really quiet girl at the start, and I had never heard her yell at me.
Since then, she's become extremely bitey! She starts getting defensive and making angry noises whenever our hands get near her or her cage. I even have trouble opening her cage door to change her food/water. When before she would just run away from our hands when we asked her to step up... now she lunges and chases our hands. And when she does bite, it hurts!! I know we're supposed to NOT react when a bird bites you... but her bites are nothing compared to Ollie (our tiel); she will grab on and bite at our knuckles, cuticles, and the webbing between fingers... like she knows what hurts! Jack's fingers (and nose!) are so cut up from her bites!
Also, she's not eating right!! At the shop, they fed her a house mix of Zupreem pellets and seed mix. We wanted to take her off the Zupreem and onto Tops pellets (the Zupreem was making her poop red!) But now, all she eats is seeds. We've tried switching to Lafebers avi-cakes, but she picks out all the seeds and leaves the pellets! When we took her to her first vet visit (and follow-up 2 weeks later), the vet suggested we try Harrison's pellets since they were small... but Dinah wouldn't touch them! She would whine and skitter around her cage until we put something more palatable in her bowl.
My hope is that she's going through a hormonal period. She's just hitting 11 months. But it worries me a lot that it happened so soon after bringing her home. I just want her to be happy. She just seems so bored in her cage, even though I leave her toys to chew on and foraging treats. I want her to spend some more time with me and Jack so that she can be more comfortable... but she just gets so mad when the fingers appear!! We will sometimes towel her (she is more calm that way) and give her love and attention with our hands to show that Fingers Are Friends!
Sorry for the long rant, but I'm really worried. Did we do something wrong? Did we take her home too soon since she was just learning how to socialize? Should we have left her alone for the first month?
At the bird shop, she was super sweet. We first met her out of her cage. One of the employees just handed her to us, explaining that she's been working on socializing her and the little linnie had been doing a good job! She perched patiently on our hands, let us hold her on her back in our hands, and even hung upside down for us! When we did get close to her cage, she did have a tendency to get "flighty" and try to fly to her cage. We found that she was really fast on the ground and wasn't super eager to step up from the floor. She was real timid whenever we tried to get her to step up, and it was more difficult trying to get her to come out of her cage; we would have to grab her... then she's totally fine with us handling her once we caught her. We were smitten, so we spent some more time with her some days after and took her home a week later.
The first week Dinah came home was fine... her behavior was the same as it was when she was in the shop. But then, a switch flipped. One day I was trying to get her out of her cage to have some outside bonding time. She did her usual thing of trying to run and hop away, but then she started screaming at my hand! She was a really quiet girl at the start, and I had never heard her yell at me.
Since then, she's become extremely bitey! She starts getting defensive and making angry noises whenever our hands get near her or her cage. I even have trouble opening her cage door to change her food/water. When before she would just run away from our hands when we asked her to step up... now she lunges and chases our hands. And when she does bite, it hurts!! I know we're supposed to NOT react when a bird bites you... but her bites are nothing compared to Ollie (our tiel); she will grab on and bite at our knuckles, cuticles, and the webbing between fingers... like she knows what hurts! Jack's fingers (and nose!) are so cut up from her bites!
Also, she's not eating right!! At the shop, they fed her a house mix of Zupreem pellets and seed mix. We wanted to take her off the Zupreem and onto Tops pellets (the Zupreem was making her poop red!) But now, all she eats is seeds. We've tried switching to Lafebers avi-cakes, but she picks out all the seeds and leaves the pellets! When we took her to her first vet visit (and follow-up 2 weeks later), the vet suggested we try Harrison's pellets since they were small... but Dinah wouldn't touch them! She would whine and skitter around her cage until we put something more palatable in her bowl.
My hope is that she's going through a hormonal period. She's just hitting 11 months. But it worries me a lot that it happened so soon after bringing her home. I just want her to be happy. She just seems so bored in her cage, even though I leave her toys to chew on and foraging treats. I want her to spend some more time with me and Jack so that she can be more comfortable... but she just gets so mad when the fingers appear!! We will sometimes towel her (she is more calm that way) and give her love and attention with our hands to show that Fingers Are Friends!
Sorry for the long rant, but I'm really worried. Did we do something wrong? Did we take her home too soon since she was just learning how to socialize? Should we have left her alone for the first month?