New / odd behavior from my Pineapple GCC

[BrianB]

My GCC Nibbles turns 7 months tomorrow. The last week or so there has been some new / odd behavior. She no longer wants to be petted. She has also picked up a new sound. It sounds like a tennis shoe squeaking on a tile floor. It's loud and I have no idea where she picked it up. It isn't the call she uses for attention, so I'm not sure what the purpose is. For the longest time I could get her onto my finger and hold her in front of me and say Jump. She would leap to my shoulder. Now she turns around the other way and refuses to do it at all. Nothing has changed in the house that I can pinpoint. I work from home, so I get a lot of interaction with her on a daily basis. There is less on the weekend because I'm not working so I don't sit in front of the computer. It's been this way since the day we brought her home. This evening she was fairly obnoxious with it. I tried to play with her to see if I could figure out what it is, but I have no clue. I tried ignoring the noise and turning my back, but that didn't help. Eventually I put her back in the cage and turned the light down. She basically had a temper tantrum and when she was done she went to bed. She seems to want something, but I'm not picking it up. Any ideas ? A friend who raises parrots and conures suggested it could be hormonal and I just have to wait it out.

 

[CrazyBirdChick]

Just a wild guess but is she maybe starting her first molt?

 

[BrianB]

She started her first molt about a month ago, but it didn't seem like a full molt. There were a lot of small fluffy feathers that were replaced, and the flight feathers we clipped earlier. She does have an odd tail feather. It seems bent and sticking out to the side from the others. I try to keep the daily routing the same. I have a cat that's mental and a disruption in his routing makes him one nasty cat, so I try to be consistent with both. I normally start working at 6am, and take her out of the cage at 7am. This gives me a chance to get the day started with work and have minimal disruption. Now she wants out as soon as I sit down, and will bang on the cage door to get my attention. If I take her out and put her on the play branch, then she's ok, if not she has a tantrum until I do. It's like the terrible two's with a bird instead of a child.

 

[Skipper]

They don't stay babies forever. Some birds stay sweet and cuddly, others grow to not want to be touched. At one time I could do anything to Gilligan, head scratches, pin feathers, he was quite docile. But that changed with time. He now only accepts head scratches once in a while, and only steps up to my finger when it is in his interest. Most of the time I have to use a small stick to pick him. He still likes me and loves riding around the house on my shoulder. Sometimes if I leave the room he will fly after me and land on my head. But cuddly or playful he is not. They all grow up different.

Also, as they grow up, they sometimes become defensive of their cages, food, and play areas. That is their turf. I respect Gilligan's space in the cage, and he lets me reach inside to do work, as long as I keep my distance from him. All in the range of perfectly normal bird behavior. Our Cockatoo you can do anything to, but the Macaw is like a angry pit bull in his cage.

You are right about a two year old. Parrots have been described as having the intelligence of 3 year old, and temper of a 2 year old. It is a bad combination!

 

[Lesley Yeung]

Bird gets really obnoxiously annoyed by little messes. (Which I find pretty rich coming from a guy who aims to poop on our things or us). It doesn't even need to be an actual mess. Just something where he thinks it should not be. Flying bugs also make Bird mad and ornery. No matter how tiny they are.

My husband takes Bird around the room and Bird will bop his head at whatever it is that he is ticked off at. If its a bug he pretends to get it by swinging his arms around.

I don't read Bird's body language as well, nor do a worry too much if Bird thinks my book shouldn't be on the coffee table. But it is worth a try.

 

[BrianB]

Yesterday evening I added a sleep hut to her cage. She normally sleeps on a wooden rope ladder up against the side of the cage. She acted really weird about it, and as soon as I turned my back, she was inside sleeping. Just like my cat who was terrified of plastic bas, but if I left one on the floor, within minutes she would be asleep on it. There was less of the new sound yesterday during the day, so maybe it was just a passing thing. She did pick up a new sound during the summer when we had all of the conures in the house due to the high heat we had here in Phoenix. That wasn't really an issue. This other one was obnoxious, but hopefully, like any child going through the terrible two's it is just a phase.

I know what you mean about being territorial with their cages. The Blue Crown came to us with a cage, and he's very defensive of it. Seemed really happy when we gave it a good scrubbing because it wasn't clean enough for me when we brought him home. I took the opportunity to remove some really filthy things from it, and clean up some others. The only thing I put my hand in there for is to grab a food / water dish. He's ok with that, but anything else and he tries to bite, or he bangs his swing around.

 

[webchirp]

You could be heading into hormones...a little early but I think I remember asking when Zephyr was 8 months or 9 months. Be careful with sleep huts and threads.

 

[BrianB]

I have my sweet bird back for the most part. She's back to jumping on command, but doesn't want her head scratched anymore. She's taken to her sleep hut very well. She's inside now making a soft quacking noise. My other half thought it was silly, but she really likes it. The new sound is still there, and louder than before. Now I ignore it and only respond when she uses the previous one. I'm pretty sure it was a new call sound, but I don't answer do it so maybe that will get her to stop. It really does feel like the terrible two's. I love you today, but I'll probably hate you tomorrow. Who knows what the day after will be.

 

[Lodah]

I wouldn't focus on the bad habit if you can... it will pass as long as your fid has lots to do, plenty of room, good diet, undisturbed sleep and quality time with you.

 

[BrianB]

It's been a while, but it seems like bird puberty may be the answer here. She's been a complete demanding witch the last week or so. I haven't interrupted her morning routine, but she demands to be out of the cage as soon as I start working instead of an hour later. She bangs on the door, screams at me, slams her swing back and forth. What she's doing now is I take her out on my finger. Get her to jump to my shoulder. She talks to me a bit and then I put her on the play stand. In the evening, I take her down, and we go through the same routine. Moving from hand to hand, jumping to my shoulder, and to anyone else who happens to be in the room. Last night, she crawled all over my hand until she was on my index finger with my thumb next to her. She puffed herself up and started rubbing against me, and rubbing her vent against my index finger. It didn't take long to figure out what she was doing, so I immediately put her in the cage and let the office. Not a happy bird at all. She tried again this morning and as soon as she started I put her on the play pen and off of my hand. I don't know for certain that the bird is even female, but I plan on getting her DNA tested before the end of the year. Friends of mine who own a bird store and have been breeding hook bills for the last 20 years think it's a female base on their experience, behavior, and attitude. I adopted "She" for convenience.

So, how do I continue physical interaction, while discouraging the mating behavior ?

 

[Skipper]

All you can do is put her down as soon as she starts to discourage it. Gilligan went through the humping stage for a few months. He rubbed everything is sight. Our 26 plus year old female Cockatoo sticks her butt in my face and shakes it whenever she is on top the cage and I am trying to change bowls, so some just never give up.