Nanday's getting a little big for her britches

[voxxa]

Our Nanday conure, Miko, (we think she's a she) just turned a year old a few weeks ago. Right about then she started getting the be a handful. I was wondering if you all could give me some pointers on how to handle it so we can nip this thing in the bud.

Normally she's a pretty good bird. She has her screamy parts of the day, but hey- she's a nanday. She loves to be touched and cuddled and plays up a storm. Her wings were clipped when we got her last October and they haven't grown back. She gets her toys rotated out every 3 weeks or so.

Problems:
She'll literally lunge and tries to attack your hand when you reach in for her food dish and she's near it. Its gotten so bad we have to trick her to go somewhere else in her cage to get the dish out during feeding time.

She gets *very* mad at certain objects - the TV remote, my iphone, occasionally her toys, tissue paper if we're trying to wipe up her poo....this isn't playing...it's pure 'omgihateyou' aggression towards these objects. I can't find any correlation between them.

Our 6 yo cockatiel, Akira. He likes her, but she does not care for him. We've tried, he wants to sing to her, she wants to taste him. His cage is in another room, but he comes in to visit occasionally. Akira likes to graze under her cage on the floor for seed she's dropped. Miko will scream at him and, if her cage door is open, will hang upside down from the door, flapping her wings like mad trying to get him away. I'm not sure if this is his or her fault.

Random snapping is another problem. When she's being held, occasionally I'll do something she doesn't like for some reason only known to her, and will scream at me and try to bite me (though she never bites down hard when she does.) I almost feel like she's testing me to see how much she can get away with. I try not to react too much when she does this, but I don't know if I should continue holding her normally, hold her in a restrictive way (like a hot dog), or put her back in her cage.

Her daily routine (maybe I'm doing something wrong):

Wake up, get some seed. Stay in her cage and play, eat more seed. A couple of hours into the day I'll open up her cage and let her come out. She usually climbs around on the outside (since she can't fly) or I"ll put her jungle gym up top and let her play on it. Sometimes she'll have a fit about something (an unidentified bird emergency, my bf comes into the room with a blue cup she doesn't like, or a passing car reflecting light onto the walls) and I will close her back up in her cage for a while. On and off through the day she gets cuddles and scratches. Around 9 or 10 she starts getting fussy and screamy, a sign she's tired and wants to go to bed.

I'd appreciate any tips on what I can change or am doing wrong. I want to keep her our good little bird instead of a trouble maker!

 

[Eliza]

Problem(s):
She'll literally lunge and tries to attack your hand when you reach in for her food dish and she's near it. Its gotten so bad we have to trick her to go somewhere else in her cage to get the dish out during feeding time.

Honestly? Taking her out of the cage isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some people clicker train their parrots to "station" (someone correct me if I am using this term improperly) in one part of the cage so that dishes can be changed.

Beetle (PFLB) used to get kind of fiesty when I'd want to swap out his food & water dishes. If I had him step up to the top of the cage or moved him away from the cage entirely, he'd get busy doing something else and I was free to do what I wanted. Eventually he moved on from that and stopped rushing the front of the cage.

Pickle is much the same way only he makes no bones about wanting to bite you if you mess with his food dishes, toys, etc.

As for her being aggressive towards random objects, it could be a fear thing. Pickle really does not care for bright pink or bring yellow toys. He darn near projected himself across the room when I showed him a bright pink & yellow jingle toy. You can try slowly reintroducing her to things that she consistently seems to fear. Put the object within sight but far from the cage (across the room). Leave it be for a few days. Gradually move it closer.

As for her biting you, that's the million dollar question and others will surely share advice and experiences with you. Sometimes a parrot bites his or her human to protect them from a perceived threat -- the parrot is trying to warn you of danger and bites you in an attempt to get you to fly away from the danger. Does that makes sense?

Here is a link that you might find helpful: The Rational Parrot

Best of luck!

 

[Billie Faye]

Sounds like a typical Nanday!LOL
You are in HER territory when getting her bowls/etc and she is letting you know she doesn't like this.... (cage with doors for the food /water are best and saves you getting bites)
9/10 PM at night is LATE for birds....birds or at least mine, want to get up with the sun and go to bed when sun goes down....Mine get REALLY cranky when I don't turn off the lights about 7PM and let nature turn them down...
I have found that most people don't have proper lighting in their bird's room and this puts everything in the "shadows" for birds...so they react/bite when things are "flashed" / deeper shadows...etc....
I have a MINIUM of 2 shoplights (4ft) in my birds room with Sun lights bulbs...this really makes a difference in their behavior/eating/playing/etc...

 

[Magic]

our nanday has just turned a year also and she hates her food bowl messed with but my hubby puts his hand and fingers in her seed bowl and she will come over and try to bite him or pull his hand out and tell him no and he gets after her and tells her no then rattles a bell she forgets the food dish then runs to the bell its kinda his way of tricking her to get the bowl sometimes and by the time she relizes the bowls gone its to late as for me i can get the bowl any time and not get bit there kinda weird like that now she will flap on the cage door when out but mine is trying to close her cage door or to open it and she is a huge tattle tale she tells on any of the birds by screaming about it