My bird seems to hate me but also humps my hand?

[Leira]

My cockatiel Rocky is super aggressive towards everyone, including myself. He seems to hate hands, if I stand by his cage and bring up a hand to scratch my face he'll lunge and start hissing. However, when I put my hand into his cage, he rushes over and starts to hump my hand. I'll try to put him down but he just hops back on and tries to continue. I don't know if he would do this to anyone else, as everyone in my family says his bites hurt too much and they're scared to try haha. I've tried looking online for this, and most things say things like "he's bonded to you" but he has never let me do anything and hisses at me when I walk past his cage! It's winter right now and I thought mating season was in the spring, so I'm also confused about that? How can I go about preventing this behaviour and actually start taming him? I can't even try to feed him millet as he ignores it and goes straight to my hand. Any help would be appreciated !!!

 

[Sylvester]

He is hormonal right now, which may explain his unpleasant mood. Please do not allow him to continue to masturbate on your hand. Try to distract him. Get him to play with his toys whenever that happens.

 

[Leira]

He is hormonal right now, which may explain his unpleasant mood. Please do not allow him to continue to masturbate on your hand. Try to distract him. Get him to play with his toys whenever that happens.

ahh I see, do you know how long this lasts for? So far it's been a month, ever since we got him.

 

[Sylvester]

ahh I see, do you know how long this lasts for? So far it's been a month, ever since we got him.

How old is he?

 

[Leira]

How old is he?

We recently got him from another owner who had him for a year, but they didn't know how old he was. They also had another bird that stayed with him, and the vet guesses she's about 15-18. I'm not sure if this is the case for Rocky though. If anything from his behaviour might give clues, he's very noisy and active. He makes clicking noises and "woot-woot" noises occasionally which I feel like is a mating practice but I'm not sure, and he whistles quite a bit too. I'm not sure what's associated with old birds, haha.

 

[Lady Jane]

Hate is a human emotion. Birds do not know hate, just hormones. Give him love and understanding, not your hands.

 

[Sylvester]

We recently got him from another owner who had him for a year, but they didn't know how old he was. They also had another bird that stayed with him, and the vet guesses she's about 15-18. I'm not sure if this is the case for Rocky though. If anything from his behaviour might give clues, he's very noisy and active. He makes clicking noises and "woot-woot" noises occasionally which I feel like is a mating practice but I'm not sure, and he whistles quite a bit too. I'm not sure what's associated with old birds, haha.

Okay, so he is way pass puberty. I would just sit outside his cage and talk softly to him, read to him if you have to. Just let him get to know you. Make sure during these periods of hormones that he gets plenty of rest, with no disturbances. I would feed chickpeas to my cockatoo, which seem to calm the hormones down.

 

[Leira]

ahh okay! I'll try that out. Thank you!

 

[Fergus Mom]

I just wanted to say I hope you can figure out a way to distract him when he humps your hand. I guess it's possible that the former owner thought it was comical and encouraged it... ugh. In any case, hope you can get him to settle in and curb the aggression.

 

[sunnysmom]

How much sleep dose he get? Tiels need 10-12 hours. If he's not getting that he should. If he is, you can try increasing by 2 more hours for a couple of weeks to see if it helps get his hormones back in check. (My cockatoo is hormonal right now also.)

 

[Sylvester]

ahh okay! I'll try that out. Thank you!

Chickpeas worked like a charm every time, in my bird's case. Served slightly warm or at room temperature is fine. Please keep us posted.