My boy went through years of aggressive angry behavior. He is now 11 and I think we are past the worst of it, but this is partly because I have changed how I do things. It took me awhile to learn why he was so angry at me. He was angry that I did not pay as much attn. to him as he wanted. He became angry at me for talking on the cell phone and "ignoring" him, not taking him out of the cage right away when I got home etc. He was incredibly stubborn and determined and would stalk me. He would hold grudges for hours.
I now realize that all of this is because he is so focused on me. I am all he has in his confined world, which is defined by walls and a cage. It is not supposed to be like this for him. He is supposed to be living his life with his family and mate, not locked for hours in a cage. While my conure seems to thrive on my relationship and lifestyle, my caique needs more. My conure likes to come out of her cage, but she is also happy to stay in. My caique wants out ALWAYS.
I only have experience with one caique, but this is what I would recommend:
-getting a second vet opinion
-giving him interactive time where it is just the two of you.
-involving both caiques in as much of your life as you can. They really seem to really need the interaction and change in monotony. They also seem to thrive on routine. My caique has coffee with me in the AM. He plays on the shower stall while I shower before work. He plays on the bathroom counter while I get ready. When I get home, he plays on the counter while I make dinner. We eat dinner together in the same room. He plays again while I shower, get ready for bed, etc. In essence, when I am home on a work day, he is out with me. He sleeps in a night cage in the master bath/closet area. On weekends, he plays, grooms,etc while I drink my coffee, check my email, etc. I take him for walks around the house. We investigate closets, drawers, inside of the oven, the laundry room, etc. I let him explore the house (supervised). He loves to take off and look out the arcadia doors, march around his terrain, etc. I put toys on the floor for him to chew on, play with.
-We snuggle a LOT. This seems to reinforce our bond. He will whine and cry when he wants me to cuddle him. He LOVES the attn. At night, I rock him and snuggle him before bed, while he lays on his back in my hand. He EXPECTS this every night. When he is angry, I have trained him to let me lightly drape a tee shirt or light towel over him. He may attack the shirt, but if I do it right, I can pick him right up. I lightly wrap him and snuggle him. He generally calms down right away.
-provide the largest cage you can. My boy has a 4 ft. wide cage. It is packed with toys, especially shreddable toys from igaw.com and oliversgarden.com. He also like toys that he can hang from upside down and fight.
-Personally, if he is losing weight and not eating pellets, I would try mixing in a few seeds and nutriberries. I do not feed pellets (I have tried every brand), but my vet says as long as I provide vegetables and a varied diet than they should be fine. I do give nutriberries, which they eat. Their blood tests have always had normal values.
-Let him eat with you. Set up a space in the kitchen/dining room so that the caiques can eat while you do. Both my conure and caique love to eat when I do. I think eating together is a flock activity. Although they always have food in their cages, whenever I am home and eating, I make them something too. They have cages in the dining room that I got on CL that they eat on top of and it works great.
-Try a night cage. It may help to break up the monotony of his day cage. Be sure to include fresh water and light food in it also.
I really think that these birds can form a very strong bond to their human. They dont understand why they are confined to a cage when they belong with you. Because of this, I think my caique would get very angry at me. Now that I am more responsive to him, the aggressive behavior has significantly lessened. He still gets angry, but the biting has really decreased. I am also more avoidant of him when he is angry. If I see the behavioral changes before bed, for instance, I will still snuggle him, but wrapped in a towel so that I have control over him.
Good luck with your bird. Caiques can be very challenging animals as pets!
All of this just talked me out of the cakes for the future! Good luck geez!
