Clopin's Trust and Aggression

[chompie_puppy]

For those who don't know, Clopin is my Plum-headed Parakeet.

I would really like some help on some recent behaviour she displayed tonight. Firstly I'll give some background information in case it is important.

I met Clopin in 2007 in a small pet shop. She was kept in a cage that was knee level for adults and perfect tormenting level for children. So as you can imagine, little kids would bang on her cage every day.

Fast-forward 10 months and I visit the pet shop again. Clopin is still there. I talk to the owner of the shop and I am told she has been there for 18 months already. So my partner negotiates her price down to something I could afford (less than 50% her original asking price!).

We arrange with the owner that I will pay for Clopin over a period of 6 months. This means that I will take Clopin home on 20 December 2008. In August 2008 I go in to make another payment towards Clopin's cost only to find that the pet shop has closed down and all the products and animals are gone. No-one knows where the owner went. She owes a lot of people a lot of money.

It takes me and my partner 5 weeks to track the owner down. We finally come to an agreement and Clopin comes home to me on 14 October 2008. She was kept in an exceptionally tiny cage. You guys know the ones...

So I have no idea how she was treated in that time. However, I know she has trust issues.

It takes a full year of clicker training to get Clopin to come out of her cage, accept treats from my hands, fly to me on command (using a handheld perch), and various other little tricks. She refused to step up on hands. She is very scared of them. I've tried many, many times and she just does not like hands.

Clopin does, however, enjoy sharing my food and will swoop over my head if I don't walk over to her cage and share.

Clopin has never, ever bitten me or anyone else. Not even when I fail to read her body language and get into her face. Instead, she prefers to mock lunge.

Last week Clopin met the lorikeets for the first time (both of them are very human friendly and enjoy hands and sitting on my shoulders).

Clopin looked mildly interested.

Now to the issue I had tonight.

I took the lorikeets over to Clopin's cage and let her out as well. It looked like Clopin wanted to come closer to me so I offered her my hand (not expecting much) and... SHE STEPPED RIGHT UP!

However, she then proceeded to bite the living daylights out of my fingers. She would not stop! I didn't react to the bites at all. I just stood there holding her until she lost her nerve and flew off again.

When I offered her my hand again she immediately stepped up on it and proceeded to bite me again. Very aggressively. She has an exceptionally hard bite and I have a couple of band-aids on my fingers now.

This happened about 6 times. Eventually I asked her to go back to her cage for sleep time and she did so with no problem (I rewarded her with a sunflower seed for this).

So, why would Clopin suddenly get over her fear of hands? And why would she bite me like that?

Was it jealousy because of the lorikeets? If so, I didn't realise that I meant that much to Clopin. I always thought she just tolerated me. She never wants to be on my shoulder to have a walk around the house.

More importantly, what can I do to improve the situation?

Any insight into this new behaviour is greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!

 

[JLcribber]

Having the other birds around when your trying to gain her trust and build a relationship is not a good idea. That needs to be done one on one.

 

[chompie_puppy]

Thank you! However, I wasn't really looking to build trust and bond tonight. I just wanted to take the lorikeets over for a visit as I don't like that Clopin is the only one of her kind in the house. I think it's good for her to see and hear other birdy companions, even if they don't bond with each other or are the same species.

I've had Clopin for over a year now and I thought our relationship had a pretty solid foundation. Tonight just showed me that she will step out of her comfort zone unexpectedly.

I guess I thought it would be similar to my budgies. When a new and scared budgie sees me handling a tame budgie, then the new one usually becomes less scared and might even come over to play. Kind of like a "monkey see, monkey do" situation.

If Clopin saw that the lorikeets were climbing all over me without fear, then perhaps she would realise my hands aren't so scary?

Did it work too well?

Should I stop these sessions where I bring the lorikeets over for a visit? Or perhaps just not offer her my hand?

 

[BraveheartDogs]

For those who don't know, Clopin is my Plum-headed Parakeet.



I would really like some help on some recent behaviour she displayed tonight. Firstly I'll give some background information in case it is important.

I met Clopin in 2007 in a small pet shop. She was kept in a cage that was knee level for adults and perfect tormenting level for children. So as you can imagine, little kids would bang on her cage every day.

Fast-forward 10 months and I visit the pet shop again. Clopin is still there. I talk to the owner of the shop and I am told she has been there for 18 months already. So my partner negotiates her price down to something I could afford (less than 50% her original asking price!).

We arrange with the owner that I will pay for Clopin over a period of 6 months. This means that I will take Clopin home on 20 December 2008. In August 2008 I go in to make another payment towards Clopin's cost only to find that the pet shop has closed down and all the products and animals are gone. No-one knows where the owner went. She owes a lot of people a lot of money.

It takes me and my partner 5 weeks to track the owner down. We finally come to an agreement and Clopin comes home to me on 14 October 2008. She was kept in an exceptionally tiny cage. You guys know the ones...



So I have no idea how she was treated in that time. However, I know she has trust issues.

It takes a full year of clicker training to get Clopin to come out of her cage, accept treats from my hands, fly to me on command (using a handheld perch), and various other little tricks. She refused to step up on hands. She is very scared of them. I've tried many, many times and she just does not like hands.

Clopin does, however, enjoy sharing my food and will swoop over my head if I don't walk over to her cage and share.

Clopin has never, ever bitten me or anyone else. Not even when I fail to read her body language and get into her face. Instead, she prefers to mock lunge.

Last week Clopin met the lorikeets for the first time (both of them are very human friendly and enjoy hands and sitting on my shoulders).

Clopin looked mildly interested.

Now to the issue I had tonight.

I took the lorikeets over to Clopin's cage and let her out as well. It looked like Clopin wanted to come closer to me so I offered her my hand (not expecting much) and... SHE STEPPED RIGHT UP!

However, she then proceeded to bite the living daylights out of my fingers. She would not stop! I didn't react to the bites at all. I just stood there holding her until she lost her nerve and flew off again.

When I offered her my hand again she immediately stepped up on it and proceeded to bite me again. Very aggressively. She has an exceptionally hard bite and I have a couple of band-aids on my fingers now.

This happened about 6 times. Eventually I asked her to go back to her cage for sleep time and she did so with no problem (I rewarded her with a sunflower seed for this).

So, why would Clopin suddenly get over her fear of hands? And why would she bite me like that?

Was it jealousy because of the lorikeets? If so, I didn't realise that I meant that much to Clopin. I always thought she just tolerated me. She never wants to be on my shoulder to have a walk around the house.

More importantly, what can I do to improve the situation?

Any insight into this new behaviour is greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!

Clopin did not get over her fear of hands at all. She is still absolutely fearful of hands. When the other birds were close she probably stepped up and just needed to be closer to them or wanted to move away or something and then once on your hands became afraid and defensive. I would continue working with Clopin on her own. The other birds being that close are detrimental to the work you are doing with your relationship with her I think.

 

[BraveheartDogs]

Thank you! However, I wasn't really looking to build trust and bond tonight. I just wanted to take the lorikeets over for a visit as I don't like that Clopin is the only one of her kind in the house. I think it's good for her to see and hear other birdy companions, even if they don't bond with each other or are the same species.

I've had Clopin for over a year now and I thought our relationship had a pretty solid foundation. Tonight just showed me that she will step out of her comfort zone unexpectedly.

I guess I thought it would be similar to my budgies. When a new and scared budgie sees me handling a tame budgie, then the new one usually becomes less scared and might even come over to play. Kind of like a "monkey see, monkey do" situation.

If Clopin saw that the lorikeets were climbing all over me without fear, then perhaps she would realise my hands aren't so scary?

Did it work too well?

Should I stop these sessions where I bring the lorikeets over for a visit? Or perhaps just not offer her my hand?

I don't think she stepped out of her comfort zone, I think she stepped into her discomfort zone if that makes any sense. If you are going to allow Clopin and the others to interact you should definitely not use your hands around her, instead maybe have her step onto a stick.

 

[BraveheartDogs]

However, I wasn't really looking to build trust and bond tonight.

I totally get what you are saying here, but every single time you interact with her you are working on your relationship with her. Every interaction you have teaches her to trust or not to. Even when we aren't in "training" mode, animals are still reading us, learning from us and building a learning history, good or bad.

I am not saying you did anything wrong, you had no idea what would happen or what Clopin would do, but I think that these two events have taught you some important information mainly that offering your hand when the other birds are nearby isn't a good idea

 

[chompie_puppy]

Thank you for all the help!

So I can still let them all interact together? I should just not offer my hand to Clopin?

I'm a bit confused about her recent body language though. Since she's been introduced to the lorikeets she seems to want to get closer to me. She will sit on her cage door and then try to fly over to me (like she would if I was eating something she wanted). This is without the lorikeets being out or on me.

When I move closer she will mock lunge at me once or twice and then she will sit and nibble my shirt sleeve. She just sits and nibbles. It's not aggressive at all. Just something to chew I guess.