Words that trigger violent aggression.

[Weirsh Bird]

My Quaker, Rima, has a number of trigger words that incite attacks on me if I say them around her. Some of them are things like items that she loves such as "carrot" or "broccoli". Some are items that I don't let her have like "tea". Some are just certain noises without any positive/negative associations, like certain clicking sounds or "rolling" your tongue. If I happen to be handling her when she hears one of these words, she immediately bites me REALLY hard. She has done this for years, and no response I have come up with has made her quit, so I try to avoid doing those things for the most part when shes out. Does anyone else have birds that do this, or is she really just the Mean Green Machine? hehe

 

[KimKimWilliamson]

Strange!!! Maybe its not the words, but the actions associated with them that cause her aggression......hard to handle until you identify EXACTLY what it is thats upsetting her. Tricky one! Good Luck correcting that

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

I have had an act off aggression triggered by the words 'no bite' from Percy he would bite again he nipped me 21 times in a row before he and I stopped the pattern after reading about you I know it was the words that triggered him to bite again it may be in your tone of voice as well is it monatone or excited

 

[Weirsh Bird]

I've actually experimented with tone and body language when saying these words, and it doesn't seem to alter the response. I've had her for 8 years,since she was a fledgling, and she started doing this years ago. It's the weirdest thing! It doesn't matter if I have a carrot that she wants when I say "carrot" or if I have nothing. She also loves bread, but the word doesn't trigger an attack. She loves Coke(the cold condensation off the side of the can is Coke lol), but talks about it with me all day, and doesn't attack. So weird.

I forgot one of her major triggers...the words "budgie" and "parrot". If I say these even when she's inside the cage, she will attack the nearest objects and beats them. She has always had issues with rage, as a fledgling she would seriously fly into a biting, chasing, beak open and hissing rage and act almost crazed with aggression. It was literally always out of the blue. I've never seen anything like it. We are very closely bonded, but even still I can take the brunt of her attacks over these words. Other things that trigger her are textbook, less liked person walks into the room and I talk to them, she bites me, cage invasion, etc. The word thing, though, is just weird. I don't like certain words, either, but I don;t go beating her up for it. hehe

I love my little green demon.

 

[MessyBeaks]

Not trigger words per se, but we discovered that my BFA Pumpkin will launch into a violent stream of profanity (which he otherwise never uses and didn't learn from us) if we play the video game Guitar Hero while he's in the same room - ESPECIALLY if someone is playing the drums. I think the combination of loud rock music and banging must remind him of something ugly from his past.

 

[MommyBird]

My Hahns is the only one who is like your Rima. There are many sounds that are NOT ALLOWED or I will get bit.
For example, clicking my tongue like for a horse. He will come from a long way away to bite me for it.
Gets confusing because it is one of the sounds my OWA (who lives on a different floor) likes so I can't be mindless.

 

[Sunnyside]

"Nite Nite" is the trigger here. My MM2 will hear me say those words to my other guys and that is it...She will scream and then she will say "WHY ME GOD?" If I dare put my hand near her she will attack, it doesn't hurt but I don't want her to do that. No more "Nite Nite" here, now it's "Beddie time". And she does not respond to that phrase, so that tells me it is the words and not the action she hates. Smart birdies.

 

[Wasabisaurus]

Well, you've all heard that playing peek-a-boo is a way to get a bird accustomed to a towel or it's a fun bonding game?
Yeah - Wasabi haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatees it. Eyes pin, tail flairs, he hisses and raises his body up high.
When he is really mad, he'll raise his body up like that.

 

[Shyra]

Giz, T2, gets angry over soft classical music and any raised voice whether it's being said in anger or just hollering into the next room so the other person can hear. But have mercy if there is a true argument going on because he goes off in a tone that lets you know he's not happy with the world and doesn't stop till he's had his say. He's loud enough to drown out what anyone was saying thus ending the argument. I kind of get the arguing upsetting him considering he was rehomed due to a divorce but the classical or really soft music like lullabies should be soothing not evoke anger.

 

[melissasparrots]

Ariel GSC2 gets nasty if I tell her NO. I don't even have to say if very loud. If she nips me a little too hard and I say No, she very deliberately makes sustained direct eye contact with the squinty mad cockatoo look, and bites me harder. I can avoid the whole situation by just moving her off of me or taking my hand out of her reach or having her do some trick to stop the pattern. Usually the original offending nip wasn't even meant to be aggressive. But the bite in response to correction has retaliation written all over it. My quakers just get mad at the world sometimes when hormones hit and there is no appeasing them. My pair is nesting right now and my two single males are just quivering with frustration. The only bird to succeed in giving me a bleeding facial bite has been a quaker. The cockatoos are like little innocents by comparison to a mad quaker.
Melissa