Dive Bombing Favorite Person (need help!)

[Monica]

Free feeding is "ok" as long as his favorite treats/foods are not in his dish while training, and he's not full of food when she tries training him. She could easily remove his food at night, do training first thing in the morning, then put his food back in.


Has his cage location changed at all? New furniture?

 

[CheekyBeaks]

If would definitely be recommending cutting out the pasta and feeding the beans in moderation ( I only offer cooked beans a couple of times per month), also foods such as corn, banana, eggs should also be cut back or eliminated. Nuts are ok but for a Too and especially one that is part galah I would only give 1 or 2 per day at the most. Dried fruit and vege are fine but again in moderation.
Reducing the high energy foods will most likely have an effect on behaviour and may help to mellow him out a little and control hormones.

 

[Bokkapooh]

Im going to print this thread off before this weekend. So if anyone has ideas/input, please add them. Im hoping come this weekend, we find a solution.

 

[CheekyBeaks]

Yeah Im afraid a clip is whats needed.

I don't think clipping is going to be an answer here it's just a bandaid and a quick fix.

 

[Bokkapooh]

Ffeeding is "ok" as long as his favorite treats/foods are not in his dish while training, and he's not full of food when she tries training him. She could easily remove his food at night, do training first thing in the morning, then put his food back in.


Has his cage location changed at all? New furniture?

From my experience, Pinkys favorite foods are definetly nuts.

His caged went from one wall (near office door) to other wall near TV. But this happened probably back in May or June.

 

[JLcribber]

I don't think clipping is going to be an answer here it's just a bandaid and a quick fix.

You're quite right. It's not the answer but right now this woman needs a band aid. When I said "clip" I did not mean "grounding" the bird. Just reducing the horsepower in those wings. And only temporarily.

If you give a teenager a car with 450 horsepower I can guarantee that kid is going drive way beyond his means and cause trouble or crash and wreck. If you give the teenager a 90 horsepower toyota, he can drive it any way he wants because it doesn't have the power to do the things he could with the hot rod. He can still drive from A to B just fine. Just can't burn rubber getting there.

 

[Monica]

If it's definitely nuts, she should try using nuts *only* for training, and a small piece at that. Something the size of half a sunflower seed, if not smaller.

It might be worth it to try moving the cage back?

 

[Cara]

This probably won't be popular, but I think she needs to clip a few flight feathers. Pooka (LSC2) is an awesome bird, but when he is flighted for a long period of time, he is a menace. He goes after the other (much larger) birds. He bites, hard. We let his wings grow out and give him an opportunity to fly, but the second his attitude shows up, he gets a few feathers clipped. This has been the only answer to the behavioral problems. If we were home all time, I could better manage the 'out' time. However, even when the others are contained, he will fly to their cages or go after them on a swing or gym. He's already had a really bad bite from one of the macaws (he was the aggressor) and is missing 3 toes (not from any interaction from another bird). We don't want to lose any more.

I wouldn't even call Pooka's behavior aggressive. It's more a case of "everything within my line of vision is MINE" and a sort of delight that he can make the other birds react. Kirby is terrified of him. The others avoid him, but if he doesn't back down, they will bite.

 

[Jenphilly]

Just catching up on posts. We went thru flying attacks with Folger for a bit.

Just in my opinion. ... clip the wings and take the first 5 careful to avoid any new blood feathers coming in. I would move the cage from next to the tv, may affect sleep or something being watched could be annoying (sounds or music etc) . If there is a spare room, move the cage there where it's truly quiet. To see if it's hormonal I would stop all warm foods and reduce nuts, those are two triggers that it's nesting time.

The cage needs to be taken out of the equation. When the bird is out, it's on a playstand, if the bird is allowed to come in and out or play on its cage you could be seeing protective behavior of the 'nest'.

I think this bird also needs to learn it's not the flock alpha.... The human is. So much like in flock dynamics, the bad behavior needs to be rebuffed and the bird put in its place. Is there anyone who can safely handle the bird? Is the bird really biting or is this more chase behavior? Sorry if you answered that question, I just skimmed thru all replies and posts looking for other thoughts and questions.

The target training can be attempted again. .. but no tv, no dogs, out of cage and bird needs to focus on just training session. What ever this birds favorite food or treat is needs to be removed from diet abs only given during training or when bird is behaving really well.

 

[Monica]

This blog from Lara Joseph talks about station training one of her cockatoos because he was dive bombing another one. Not quite the same situation (similar at least!), but it goes over how important training really can be to change and shape behavior. She was able to stop the dive bomber from dive bombing the other 'too without clipping his wings.

Training a Bird to Station & Its Importance | Lara Joseph