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New baby coming! Once Question*

KoS_Kagaru

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I’ll be taking home my newest baby probably in a couple weeks.
She’s a female ekkie!
I visit the breeders home nearly everyday and spend HOURS with her.

My question is, now that she’s around 12 weeks, her personality is coming out and when I go into the cage to get her she lunges hard and bites. I’m just worried she’s decided I suck. She should know me, shouldn’t she?

side note: Once she’s out and some time after she calms down.
 

Destiny

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I don't think she hates you. But she doesn't like what you are doing. It sounds like defensive behavior to me. Perhaps she is feeling threatened by your intrusion into her safe space. Biting and lunging is one way parrots communicate that they want you to back off or stop doing something. There is usually a trigger for the behavior. If you can correctly identify the trigger and work out a way around it, you can avoid creating a situation that forces the bird to react defensively.

It is important to not simply ignore the biting and hope it goes away on its own. You might be able to get away with this for a while, but your bird is still feeling threatened and wants you to stop. Ignoring the problem is a great way to teach your bird to bite unpredictably, but a terrible way to solve the root of the problem. Instead of ignoring it, try to learn as much as you can from each incident, so you understand your bird better and start anticipating their responses.

One thing you might try is opening the cage and allowing the bird to exit on her own, if that is an option. Then you are not invading her space in a way that she could perceive as threatening.
 

Monaco

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That's good advice. It's definitely important to respect her body language and bond on her terms.
 

KoS_Kagaru

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@Destiny @Monaco

I absolutely see what you’re saying and these are practices I have put into my current birbs I have at home, which has worked great.

I’m not sure what I could be doing that she doesn’t like. I haven’t done anything different in the last 10+ weeks. She knows how to step up.
I’m not there 60 seconds and my hand is 2 feet away coming for a step up and she goes into guard mode, but once she is with me (due to the Breeder helping her out) she is begging for head scratches and beak rubs, and doesn’t want me to leave.

Once she’s home it’ll be different, I suppose.
 

camelotshadow

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She is getting older & knows the breeder who is her source of life. You visit & play with her but are still a visitor. Female ekkies can be a handful. My bird store lady was handfeeding a female. She was always standoffish at a age younger than yours & the tiels & GCC would be more outgoing & friendly.

I imagine she is attached to the one who has taken care of her all this time.


Its definitely good you have visited her for so long so she is familiar with you & should make it easier when you take her home.

Try not to overstep her comfort for her to bite. You don;t want to be associated so early as a threat to bite.

If it works better then let the breeder take her out of the cage & give her to you.

You will have to begin all over when she comes home to establish a new good bond.
 

Destiny

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From what I've read, this kind of thing can be pretty common with baby birds. They are developing and learning very rapidly. Their comfort zones can change suddenly. Maybe something minor happened a few visits ago when you were taking her out of the cage and she has developed an aversion because of that incident. It might be something you didn't even notice at the time, but it was important or scary to the bird so she remembers.

Or maybe she is just getting older and less trusting of visitors. Babies are usually more tolerant of handling than older parrots, so you can interact with them more freely and take extra liberties without provoking a negative response. This might lead you to believe that the baby parrot trusts you to do these things. But that "bond" will go away as the baby matures and more survival instincts start coming on-line.

It is not unusual to need to stop and take a few steps back to re-establish trust with young birds as they get older and more emotionally complex. It is important to keep this in mind, because it is likely that something similar will happen when the bird reaches sexual maturity and those dreaded hormones kick into high gear.
 
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