As many of you know I got Cooper the GCC on December 1st. I had no idea the situation he was coming from until I've spent more time with him. Most of the time he's okay, but I have a few things I get irritated with that he does, no matter how I try to get him to stop.
1 THE BITING I'm not talking about beaking (he does that too sometimes); I'm talking about us hanging out with my mom in the basement and all of a sudden he gets mean and bites anyone he's near. All of us have to wear socks around him now when he's out; I've been bitten on the lip twice and he broke skin once. I can't just let him bite me or shake him off because 9/10 he's made me bleed. It's nothing that we're doing either. It's like he's got aggressive mood swings and he can only be out for about 15-45 minutes at a time before he bites someone, and sometimes even less than that.
What I've been doing is when he bites I take him back and put him in his cage. I wait a few minutes (like a half hour) just to see if he needed some time alone, and then I take him back out again. But when I try to take him back out he tries to bite my arms, my jacket, my hands, etc. When he tries to bite me it's like he's angry at me for punishing him? I don't know how to explain it, but I need serious advice. There has to be a way to teach him that biting isn't okay, because I'm at my wits end.
2 CAGE AGGRESSION When I first posted about this one, I was told it wasn't cage aggression - that he was just in a new place and his cage was all he had so he felt safe in there? That's not at all how it is. He tries to bite my fingers whenever I go near the lock, he tries to bite the back of my neck when I clean out the tray, he puffs up and gets aggressive if I come near the cage to talk to him. How do I solve this one? I was thinking about getting him a new cage (his cage is outdated and disgusting because we haven't had the chance to spray it; but we can't in the winter), will that help the situation or make it worse? I want him to know that me (or my family members) coming near his cage isn't an attack on his territory.
The budgies' cage and his used to be adjacent, but I put a book case in between them. It helped him from being so stressed out and doing that wing shake thing he used to do a lot. I was told by his previous owner that they'd tried to get him to interact with other birds and that he even lived with other birds for a time (it wasn't specified what kind), and that he was bullied.
3 THE CONSTANT CONTACT CALLING I know that it's contact calling because my budgies do it when I come home from work. It's high-pitched, irritating and doesn't make any sense that he's doing it? I understand that he's excited to see me when I come home from work, but if he can't see me from his cage (if I step into my bathroom for more than a millisecond) he immediately starts contact calling me like I've abandoned him. Again, I don't know what his previous owner did to him to make him like this, but it's awful! And sometimes when I go to get him out, because I've just woken up or he hasn't been out yet, he'll try to bite me - so why is he contact calling like he wants me to take him out?
4 HE'S SCARED OF ANY TOY I TRY TO SHOW HIM HOW TO PLAY WITH When I go bird shopping I often times get willow balls from the small animal section (my budgies love them), or tiny puppy kongs that I put seed into as a foraging toy? He's got several wood and plastic toys hung in his cage, and I've tried showing him that they aren't going to hurt him, but he just steps away when I try to. How do I effectively show him that the toys in his cage are fun, and that they'll help him from being bored when I'm at work. (I believe that may be a part of the problem. I can't always be home and when I am about half the time I'm sleeping or doing something that's unsafe for him.) So really give me ways that I can show him how to entertain himself.
5 HE DOESN'T LIKE TO FLY? He only flies off and comes back to me when he gets spooked, or when he wants to follow me upstairs. I don't get why he's not eager to fly like the budgies, because his previous owner said he used to fly all over the house. So I need a tad bit of help with this as well, because I want to start doing positive reinforcement training (next week after I graduate and am home more) and I want to recall flight train him (just indoors, I live somewhere too cold to do it outdoors).
Thanks for any advice given. I'm just frustrated because I didn't think he would come from a home that neglected him for so long, and let his bad behaviors run rampant like this. I'll try anything to get him to be the sweet bird he is 17% of the time.
1 THE BITING I'm not talking about beaking (he does that too sometimes); I'm talking about us hanging out with my mom in the basement and all of a sudden he gets mean and bites anyone he's near. All of us have to wear socks around him now when he's out; I've been bitten on the lip twice and he broke skin once. I can't just let him bite me or shake him off because 9/10 he's made me bleed. It's nothing that we're doing either. It's like he's got aggressive mood swings and he can only be out for about 15-45 minutes at a time before he bites someone, and sometimes even less than that.
What I've been doing is when he bites I take him back and put him in his cage. I wait a few minutes (like a half hour) just to see if he needed some time alone, and then I take him back out again. But when I try to take him back out he tries to bite my arms, my jacket, my hands, etc. When he tries to bite me it's like he's angry at me for punishing him? I don't know how to explain it, but I need serious advice. There has to be a way to teach him that biting isn't okay, because I'm at my wits end.
2 CAGE AGGRESSION When I first posted about this one, I was told it wasn't cage aggression - that he was just in a new place and his cage was all he had so he felt safe in there? That's not at all how it is. He tries to bite my fingers whenever I go near the lock, he tries to bite the back of my neck when I clean out the tray, he puffs up and gets aggressive if I come near the cage to talk to him. How do I solve this one? I was thinking about getting him a new cage (his cage is outdated and disgusting because we haven't had the chance to spray it; but we can't in the winter), will that help the situation or make it worse? I want him to know that me (or my family members) coming near his cage isn't an attack on his territory.
The budgies' cage and his used to be adjacent, but I put a book case in between them. It helped him from being so stressed out and doing that wing shake thing he used to do a lot. I was told by his previous owner that they'd tried to get him to interact with other birds and that he even lived with other birds for a time (it wasn't specified what kind), and that he was bullied.
3 THE CONSTANT CONTACT CALLING I know that it's contact calling because my budgies do it when I come home from work. It's high-pitched, irritating and doesn't make any sense that he's doing it? I understand that he's excited to see me when I come home from work, but if he can't see me from his cage (if I step into my bathroom for more than a millisecond) he immediately starts contact calling me like I've abandoned him. Again, I don't know what his previous owner did to him to make him like this, but it's awful! And sometimes when I go to get him out, because I've just woken up or he hasn't been out yet, he'll try to bite me - so why is he contact calling like he wants me to take him out?
4 HE'S SCARED OF ANY TOY I TRY TO SHOW HIM HOW TO PLAY WITH When I go bird shopping I often times get willow balls from the small animal section (my budgies love them), or tiny puppy kongs that I put seed into as a foraging toy? He's got several wood and plastic toys hung in his cage, and I've tried showing him that they aren't going to hurt him, but he just steps away when I try to. How do I effectively show him that the toys in his cage are fun, and that they'll help him from being bored when I'm at work. (I believe that may be a part of the problem. I can't always be home and when I am about half the time I'm sleeping or doing something that's unsafe for him.) So really give me ways that I can show him how to entertain himself.
5 HE DOESN'T LIKE TO FLY? He only flies off and comes back to me when he gets spooked, or when he wants to follow me upstairs. I don't get why he's not eager to fly like the budgies, because his previous owner said he used to fly all over the house. So I need a tad bit of help with this as well, because I want to start doing positive reinforcement training (next week after I graduate and am home more) and I want to recall flight train him (just indoors, I live somewhere too cold to do it outdoors).
Thanks for any advice given. I'm just frustrated because I didn't think he would come from a home that neglected him for so long, and let his bad behaviors run rampant like this. I'll try anything to get him to be the sweet bird he is 17% of the time.