Hormonal caique? Oh, yes!

I received this question in the comments, which I will answer below:

I found your blog while looking for approaches to handling my hormonal caique. Do you know of any dietary options by chance?

The bird's hatch date is 12/19/09, and this year she's been on an extended celebration. I've had her since May '10 or so. "Her" isn't formally confirmed; breeder's guess by feeling the pelvic bones.

Her diet is a variety of fruit/veggies in the morning and access to a grain mix during the day.

Other than a recent plumbing disaster (variety of chemicals used, cutting a drain pipe, etc.), and a family visit during the holidays, no changes to our normal routine. It's been several days of return to normalcy, but aggressive behavior has intensified.

The bird is normally cage-free, with a bull terrier in the house (equally cage-free). Lately, they've been going at each other, with the bird instigating. The bird isn't clipped, and the dog is sufficiently well-behaved, so it hasn't been a concern in the past; however, the bird hasn't been provoking the dog to this degree before. Typically, it's the other way around.

With me, behavior is a roller-coaster. I can tolerate occasional beaking, but a love-bite on the lip from a reach-around lunge off my shoulder that I can't see coming is a bit much.

I grab her following incidents (to prevent further damage - to me) and deposit her in the cage, leaving the room. She then is pretty insistent on calling me back. When I come back, I can see the typical signs of an aggressive posture. If I open the cage and tell her to step up, she will and very shortly attempt to attack.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Hello, and welcome to the world of mature caiques.  As always, I must disclaim that every bird is an individual, but over my years of parrot ownership and volunteering at the rescue, I have done as much research as I could to try to give my parrots the best captive life I could, so I feel comfortable making generalizations, which I will do here, though of course it does not apply to every individual of the species. 

There used to be a good site about caiques that appears to no longer be available online.  I remember very vividly the line "biting is one of the downsides of caique ownership."  I've found that to be true, to a point.  The site also mentioned that they tend not to do well with other animals in the house, but I'll get into that more down below.

One of the great things about caiques is that typically they are very expressive, so once you get to know their body language, you can usually avoid bites by not trying to handle them when they are agitated.

I have two teenage male caiques, Calypso (18; I've had him 9 years) and Beeps (14; I've had him 6 years.)  Calypso has never bitten me, though he had bitten my ex-husband in the past.  He also postures as though he will bite me occasionally when I ask him to step up.  Instead of forcing him, I leave him be and try again later.  He is also trained to step up on a stick in case I absolutely needed to move him.  I believe Calypso is quite an anomaly among caiques with regards to biting, and I feel very lucky!

Beeps, on the other hand, gets worked up quite a bit.  He is very difficult to handle for a few months every year -- typically this has been December - February -- and then his sweet personality returns for the spring, summer, and fall.  He also has triggers; things that will set him off.  For example,  the container in which I keep my lizard's food incites Beeps to launch flying attacks at me, so I always make sure Beeps is locked in his cage before I feed Andreas.

What you've described sounds like it may be hormonal biting.

You can certainly try experimenting with different foods.  If you do that, I'd recommend keeping a journal so you can see if there are any correlations between what she eats and her behavior.  I tried with Beeps in the past, but never noticed any difference.  Some people recommend using cooled chamomile tea in place of water to help calm an agitated bird down.  Once again, this never made any difference for me.

The first thing I recommend is to make sure to keep the caique and the dog separate.  Sadly, I have known dozens of birds killed by the family pet (I come into contact with a lot of people at the parrot rescue.)  Every time, the story starts out "they always got along..." and usually involves "the bird always flew out of reach before" and "the dog/cat is so well-natured.  I can't believe it!"  I feel the risk is just far too great.  When instincts are involved, it only takes a second, and even careful supervision can't stop a tragedy from happening (I lost a dear budgie in 2011 to another animal when I was carefully supervising.  I wasn't fast enough and instead had a front-row seat to the tragedy.  I so wish I would have enforced true separation that would have saved his life.)

Additionally, it sounds like perhaps your caique has chosen you as her mate, and so she feels the need to drive her competition (the dog) out of the way, so separation may help calm down the hormones.

You mention that she is normally cage-free.  Does she have a cage where she sleeps and spends some time?  Birds really do best with routine and some limits.  Cages are not punishments.  My birds love their cages and will frequently go inside them during the day.  Perhaps she needs to get started on a routine that involves cage time.  Mine do best with 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, and I see a definite difference in behavior.  How much sleep is she getting?  (Dark, uninterrupted; not with someone watching TV in the same room.)

What you do when she bites may actually be reinforcing to her, as she gets attention immediately when you pick her up.  It's likely she does not realize that her behavior caused her to be put in her cage, since it's too far removed, and she was already rewarded by your attention.  Then, she calls to you, as a lone bird in the wild is most likely a dead bird.  They are flock animals and only a few generations removed from the wild, so with all of the instincts that serve them well in the jungle but not as well in our living rooms.

What you want to try to do is learn her body language and prevent bites.  With Calypso, if I offer him my hand, he'll either step up nicely or he'll make a squealing fuss.  If it's the latter, he's probably going to bite.  So I either leave him alone until he's calmed down and try again, or, if I need to move him somewhere, I'll use a stick. 

With Beeps, things are a bit more interesting.  As background, both caiques are unclipped, but only Beeps really flies.  I noticed that right before he'd bite, his eyes would start to flash.  I watched him carefully, and as soon as I saw his eyes flash, I'd point to his cage and tell him to go inside.  He'd fly there from wherever he was, go inside, I'd shut the cage door, and then he'd have his meltdown.  After a few months of this, he started to go inside his cage on his own when he felt a meltdown happening.  I need to pay attention and shut him inside until he calms down, otherwise he may come out of his cage and launch an attack.  He's also stick-trained, should I need him to go somewhere he doesn't want to fly to.

I truly believe that they want to behave, but sometimes they can't control their behavior!

Another thing that may help is exercise.  You can develop games to have her flying around.  In the wild, they'd be flying and exercising their excess energy away.  Here, they just don't do that, so it often manifests itself in undesirable behaviors, like attacking.  Get her panting.  This could be having her on your hand when you go up and down (this is what I do with Beeps), or assisted flying (this is Calypso's favorite.  I cup my hands under his chest and we "fly" around my apartment, with me running.)  Since she flies, you can put her on her stand and call her to you (this is how I exercise my grey.)  There are a million ways (maybe not quite that many!) that you can exercise her, so find a way that is fun for both of you!

I'd also recommend keeping her brain stimulated.  In my house, we do trick training using a clicker.  They love it, and it's a positive way for them to expend some mental energy.

It sounds like you allow her on your shoulder, based on one of your comments.  I know that many, if not most, parrot owners encourage this.  However, I do not at all.  If I were queen of captive parrots, this is something that no one would do!  And especially not with a parrot who has ever shown hormonal tendencies or has ever bitten anyone (so, pretty much all parrots.)  Possibly excepting budgies and tiels.

Here's why: you can't see their body language, so it's very easy to all of a sudden get a face bite "out of nowhere" when the bird had been giving warnings that could have prevented it.

I have personally witnessed a macaw bite a chunk of cartilage out of someone's ear.  He was on his favorite person's shoulder and gave him a warning.  In the wild, he'd get a beak full of feathers and his communication would have been proper.  In captivity, he can do major damage and might lose his home.  I have also seen and known many people who have had to get stitches for a facial bite.  The risk is just far too high, and usually it's the bird that ends up losing.  Once again, far better to prevent than to react.

As I am rambling on, as usual, here is a quick summary, with a few extras:

1. Keep bird and dog separate at all times.

2. 12 hours of dark, uninterrupted sleep every night.

3. Watch body language closely and prevent (rather than react to) bites.

4. Develop another way to handle her when she's agitated (e.g. stick train.)

5. Exercise until she's panting, several times a day.

6. Keep her brain stimulated (e.g. trick training.)

7. Absolutely no shoulders.

8. Keep all petting (if any) to the head only.  Absolutely no petting below the neck, under the wings, etc.  You are turning her on and making promises you can't keep.  No playing on/under blankets.  No nest boxes or anything that might approximate one.

9. Do not feed warm, mushy foods.

Good luck!  I do hope this calms down soon, but you may need to realize that you will have a few months every year with limited physical interaction with her.  This is the case for Beeps and me, but once his hormonal season has ended, our relationship returns to what it was before the hormones kicked in.  Other people may chime in with additional thoughts, and I will add anything here if I think of something else to say!

Pre-running

I had these pictures on the other camera, so didn't write about them in yesterday's post.  As I've mentioned before, Rocky is very particular about Thomas's clothes.  He prefers Thomas to wear blue scrub pants, a white T-shirt and, if it's necessary, a housecoat.  Any deviation from this uniform provokes threatening behavior from Rocky and, occasionally, attacks.

I suspect this has something to do with the fact that Thomas only wears that uniform when he's hanging out at home, so Rocky knows when he's dressed differently, he's leaving, which means Rocky has to go in his cage.

Saturday, before leaving for our run, the parrots were all out.  We were dressed in our running clothes, so as Thomas turned his back on him, Rocky jumped him and bit him on the arm.  He then ran away and I put him in his cage so he couldn't inflict further damage.  Meanwhile, both greys flew to the floor to comfort Thomas (who had been curled up on the floor in a blatent attempt to elicit sympathy from me.)  He'd stood up by the time I returned with the camera and was thanking the greys for their concern:

They continued to follow him around as he put on his shoes and got ready to run.  Thomas thinks they were comforting him after his bite, but I think they just didn't want him to leave!

Later, Thomas had a bunch of cabbage on our counter as he was going to make sauerkraut.  Stella immediately flew over and started gently peeling back the layers.  It was fascinating, but we didn't want her to waste too much food, so we removed her soon after taking this picture:

Solutions

For the past few weeks, Thomas and Stella have been working on a new trick. He asks me, "Do you have a problem? We can put our heads together and solve it!" and then they do exactly that. Well, the first part at least.As you can see, he has not learned his lesson from last week's ear bite. ("But that was Max!" Stella would NEVER bite me!") Stay tuned for a Stella ear bite at some point in the future!

Blood bite

Since Friday, we've noticed extreme jealousy out of Max. Her behavior is perfectly normal until she notices that one of us is holding/paying attention to another bird (especially if that other bird is Beeps or Stella). Then, she must act.

Friday after work, I was alone with the birds. Since Beeps is so unpredictable right now he can't be out of his cage unless he is being held by me; otherwise, he flies over to Basil's cage to cause problems.

I was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper, Beeps on my leg. Max flew to the table and grabbed my hand gently with her beak, pushing it down to foot level. This is something she does when she wants to step up, so I wasn't concerned. She then put one foot on my finger, as if to step up. However, she was only controlling my hand as she then took her beak and grabbed a pinch of skin! I can't really call it a bite as she didn't break the skin, but it was definitely a hard pinch -- three days later I can still see the marks on my hand. It was so deliberate and cunning; I really wish I had the entire incident on video as it was rather unbelievable. She was angry and she wanted me to know it! Note that she could have done a lot more damage had she wanted to -- this was about getting her point across.

When Thomas got home, I warned him about her. A few minutes later, he had Stella on his arm and was looking at the wild birds in our backyard. Max flew to his shoulder. She almost never does this, as she knows it's not allowed. He was unconcerned as she is generally well-behaved, so he was taking his time in getting her off, when she quickly bit his ear and then flew to her cage.

Here was the result:
This probably looks worse than it was, as Thomas instinctively put his hand up to his ear and then smeared the blood around a bit. By yesterday, there was only a tiny spot of dried blood at the wound, though he said it was still tender.

I suspect this is hormonally-driven; I'm pretty sure she went through a similar phase last year so I'll search my blog archive to see how long it lasted. In the meantime, we are being very careful around Max until her behavior returns to her baseline.

Beeps attacks

Mostly because he ignores Beeps's triggers, Thomas has been getting attacked regularly. He is usually able to avoid getting bit, but if you play with fire enough, you will get burned: Thomas got bit today. I'm hoping this will be a wake-up call to Thomas to listen to me!

For example, one of Beeps's triggers is the plastic container in which we keep the lizards' food. I left early this morning to go running, so Thomas had to feed the animals this morning. I keep Beeps in his cage until the lizards are fed, but Thomas likes to live life on the edge, so he lets Beeps out. As he just said to me, "I live my life. I don't let him dictate what I do."

Beeps launched six attacks this morning, though Thomas was always able to avoid getting bit. Once, apparently, Beeps actually landed in the container. Thomas said Beeps was so shocked he wasn't sure what to do -- so then he threw the greens on the floor and Andreas had to eat floor food.

Beeps also does not like it when we put our hands behind our neck extend our elbows out -- the stereotypical relaxed pose. I never make this pose, but since Thomas realized this triggers Beeps, he's been making it more (at least that's how it seems -- Thomas denies this.)

This morning, Thomas successfully thwarted two attacks launched by Beeps due to this pose, but Beeps won the third (ninth if you count the earlier attacks) round -- he bit Thomas on the inside of his ear (good aim!)

Thomas fell to the floor in pain, a bit melodramatically. I immediately jumped up to get Beeps securely locked in his cage, then started to put the rest of the birds away, figuring Thomas would want time away from them for a few minutes. When I finally returned to the kitchen to see how Thomas was and get Stella, the only parrot still free, I found the two of them on the floor together. She was preening him.

That's when Thomas made his comment about Stella being the only one in the house who cared about him. Almost immediately after he hit the floor, she flew down and started preening him and giving him kisses. He wasn't seriously injured (no blood, but definite beak indentations inside his ear), so I let all of the parrots out again.

Hopefully Thomas learned his lesson, but I doubt it.

My hormonal caiques

In the comments, lovelyfeathers posed a question about my caiques' hormones. Both of my caiques are quite hormonal, and this quality in them led to a one-night stay in the ER about this time last year.

I'm not sure how representative my caiques are -- they're the only two that have ever been surrendered to the rescue where I volunteer, so they're the only ones I've spent significant time around.

Calypso was 9 when we adopted him in 2004. He's now 15 years old. For his first few Decembers with us, I could not handle him as when I'd approach he'd do his freak-out and I understood his body language well enough to know that if I persisted, I'd get bit. Then, one day in late December/early January, it's like a flip was switched and I'd have my loving caique back. For the past several Decembers, he has remained tame to me, but ramped up his aggression against Beeps.

Beeps was 8 when we adopted him in 2006; he's now 12. He is pretty much a hormonal mess right now. He gets triggered by pretty much everything, which means he is frequently launching a flying attack on Thomas. Luckily for me, he will rarely try to attack me. However, this does mean that he's spending a bit more time in his cage to calm down.

Here's Beeps, on his launching pad, about to take off after Thomas:One great thing about my caiques is that they maintain their very expressive body language even while their bodies are ravaged by hormones. It is very clear when they shouldn't be handled. They are also very good at following directions. If Beeps is worked up and going to attack, we just tell him to go in his cage, and he flies over and climbs inside. So we are able to have him move around without risking a bite. Also, he usually tries to celebrate for a bit before a bite, giving us a couple of extra seconds to remove him from us before biting should he manage to land on one of us with ill intent.

I feel for these guys when their hormones are raging. They are wild animals that shouldn't be in captivity. They're just trying to do what they've evolved to do, and confused because their living conditions are so different from what they should be in the wild. We have compassion for them, but are very careful not to reinforce behaviors that might continue on after their hormonal impulses have abated.

Typically, these periods last about a month around December, with some lesser amounts in the spring.

Minor bite

I got a minor bite again this morning. Like my last one, not sure if it really qualifies as a bite since no bandage was needed. Plus, it's in an inconspicuous spot, didn't really hurt when he did it, and doesn't really hurt now. And it kind of looks like an ice cream cone!Beeps was out this morning, like usual. Normally, I tell him to go to his cage; he flies over, enters his cage, I close the door, and then off to work. This is because he doesn't like going in his cage in the morning so he's more likely to bite. (He is very compliant -- none of my other birds do this! And I didn't even train him -- I just asked him to go in one day and he did, and has ever since!)

I don't know what came over me this morning, but he was so irresistibly cute, so I had him step up and I ferried him over to his cage. And got bit as I was putting him in his cage. I know better! I'll have a caique-beak print on my hand for a few days to remind me of my folly.

Minor bite

Inadvertently, I got my answer about whether Rocky would bite me if I just stood my ground: as I suspected, the answer is yes.

I was washing my face in preparation of going to bed. Since Rocky was out, the door was closed, leaving me in peace.

Thomas opened the door to grab something (Seriously -- we are both adults. Do I need to start locking the door?) The water was running as I rinsed my face off, drowning out all noise, including the tell-tale click of macaw talons on the floor.

Before I knew what happened, I felt a sharp pain on my foot:
Rocky had followed Thomas into the bathroom and bit me! This was not an unforeseen situation, as Rocky frequently follows Thomas around, like a dog. Thomas knew he was right there. Thomas is just in denial about Rocky's intentions and wasn't expecting him to dart through his feet and charge me. I'm surprised he didn't try to blame the bite on the greys.

I'm not sure if this really qualifies as a bite, since he didn't break the skin, but it really hurt yesterday and I have a diamond-shape mark still on my foot today.

Since I am a runner, training was my first concern (Foot bite! That's the worst for me!) but I was able to run today, no problem. Lucky.

And Thomas is going to have to start being even more careful with Rocky.

Parrot perching

Stella's obsession with Thomas continues. He was standing on a chair yesterday and leaned over to grab something. Stella decided that his backside would make a good perch!A closer view; how is she holding on?He got her off of him and went to the sink to prepare some vegetables for dinner. Not thwarted, she went to his head instead:
And in another ongoing saga, Beeps is still demanding to be on me as much as possible. I do not allow the parrots (and certainly not this unpredictable caique!) on my shoulder, which means I have to be a bit more creative in finding ways to get work done while tending to his social needs.

I was able to wash the mushrooms by having him on my arm instead of my hand.
This morning, Beeps bit me, totally unprovoked. He may have temporarily lost his human perching privileges unless I can give him 100% attention and therefore be on alert for the first signs of overload so I can get him off of me! The bite was not too deep (despite his best efforts) and I expect to heal quickly. As I left for work this morning, he was regurgitating for me and saying "Pretty baby!" from his cage. Not so much!

View to a Kill

Rocky absolutely hates it when Thomas wears running clothes. As with most things that set the parrots off, we don't know *why* this is, though of course we speculate. I think it's because he realizes that when Thomas wears running clothes he's leaving the house and won't be back for an hour or so.

Wednesday evening, the parrots were out and Thomas got ready to go for his run (I had run that morning, so was staying back to make dinner).

Rocky was hanging out in the hallway and attacking Thomas every time he walked by. Thomas was gracious enough to walk the gauntlet again, for the sole purpose of me filming a Rocky attack.



This did seem to be somewhat of a half-hearted attempt. Had Rocky really wanted to do damage, he could have bit Thomas on the leg. Instead, he aimed for the shoe.

Also, this is why I always carry a stick with me!

I got bit last night

Last night started out very pleasantly. The greys, Calypso, and Daphne were hanging out on their cages. Beeps and Rocky came over to the couch to be with us. This is normal.

Beeps was absolutely adorable. He'd be running around on the back of the couch, hop on my shoulder, give me a kiss, and then hop back up to the back of the couch. Then he'd come back and do other funny things. It was so enjoyable!

At one point, Rocky and Beeps were soliciting head pets from Thomas's right hand at the same time.
Here's a picture of Beeps on my lap:
He's a little puffy, but giving no indications that he's going to bite.

Thomas left the room, so Rocky climbed up to the couch and started attacking the blankets that separated me from him. Notice that he often looks at me while he does this. I'm sure he's thinking about getting me while he's getting the blankets!



I was hoping to get a video of Rocky climbing down from the couch, so I started taking another video:


It's a bit unclear what's happening. Beeps is on his cage, and I'm videoing Rocky with my back to Beeps. With no provocation, Beeps flies over, bites me on the tip of my thumb, and then flies back to his cage!

It's not a deep bite, but it's in an inconvenient place, so I keep knocking it and restarting the bleeding. I did get out of doing dishes last night, and Thomas changed the parrots' waters due to my open sore.

Which brings me to another story...

As we were about to leave for work, I put Max, the last bird out, in her cage. Imagine my surprise when she came flying into the kitchen 2 minutes later! Thomas had placed her water dish in Calypso's cage, leaving her water dish open. She saw it and escaped through the open door. After putting her in her cage again, I inspected to make sure everyone had the right water and was locked in. I don't even want to think about what the house would have looked like if Max had had free reign today!

How to teach your bird not to bite

There's been more traffic to my site lately by people wondering how to get their birds to stop biting. This is probably due to this post, but I thought it might be helpful for me to go into a little more detail, instead of just talking about one specific kind of bite, as I did in that post.

I live with two parrots that were trained by their prior circumstances to bite and attack. Rocky (severe macaw) spent the six years prior to being released to the rescue locked in a tiny cage because his owners were terrified of getting bit again. Beeps (black-headed caique) sent his previous owner to the emergency room with his bites. As punishment, she was in the process of sending him to certain death by releasing him outside in winter, before he was saved.

Despite the backgrounds of those birds, we are very rarely bit. And when we are, it's almost always our own fault.

A rare sight in our house:
One of the most important keys to having a successful parrot-human relationship, in my opinion, is to realize that parrots are wild animals. They are not little humans, and therefore don't always act in a way that seems rational to us. After all, would you bite, scream, and generally irritate the people who provided you with food, shelter, and love? I certainly wouldn't, yet parrots do that every day.

When we were in Costa Rica earlier this year, I spoke with the biologist about parrot aggression. She said that they've seen very little aggression in the wild scarlet macaws they study. With the exception of one male who'd instigated quite a few fights (and almost lost an eye on two separate occasions), everyone else lived pretty peacefully.

Believe it or not, most parrots don't want to bite. In general, their experiences with humans are what lead them to start biting.

In my experience, the biggest reason that parrots begin biting is because we humans don't listen to their body language. Eventually, frustrated by their lack of ability to effectively communicate their desires to us, they find a method that works: biting.

In this picture, Rocky is very agitated. His feathers are fluffed up, and he's extended his wings as a warning to me of how scary he is. If Thomas, the love of his life, tried to pick him up right now, Rocky would bite him.
Contrast that to calm, happy Rocky. There is pretty much no chance of getting bit when he's like this:
Here's Beeps, agitated. His feathers are fluffed up, his eye is reddening, and though you can't see it in this picture, he was snaking his head back and forth. He's warning me he's upset about something. If I ignore that and try to pick him up anyway, then I deserve the bite I'd surely receive:This macaw was happily perched on Thomas's lap -- until I got too close. She's warning me away, and if I don't heed her, there's a good chance that either Thomas or I could get bit.
If you are living with a biting parrot, I'd recommend keeping a parrot bite journal. Write down your observations about your parrot's body language. Are there signs your parrot makes before biting? They may be subtle -- look for pinning eyes, raised feathers, a fanned tail. I've mentioned before that if I offer food to Rocky, he'll take it nicely from my hand if his tongue is sticking out. If his beak is open and his tongue is not sticking out, he's trying to trick me. At the last second, he moves his beak to the side and bites my hand, ignoring the food.

One great way to learn your parrot's body language is to clicker train. Here is a link to a free yahoo group. I learned how to clicker train my parrots by joining this group and reading the excellent files. There is even a case study on how one of the group owners trained a very aggressive macaw. Buying a clicker was the best $1 I ever spent when it comes to the relationship I have with my birds.

In this picture, you can see that Max (on the right) is leaning away from Stella (on the left). Max is clearly communicating that she doesn't want Stella to be so close. My parrots will often lean away from things they don't like. If the human persists and tries to make them go near that object anyway, a bite may result.
One example of this is a few years ago, I was in a big hurry and needed to get all of the parrots in their cages. Both of the caiques were out. I grabbed Beeps and tried to put him in Calypso's cage, a case of mistaken identity. He was leaning away from the cage, but I wasn't paying attention. Finally, he reached down and gently nipped me. This was very strange, so I finally paid attention and realized that I had the wrong caique! He tried to tell me this by moving away from the cage. That was too subtle for me. If I had ignored his gentle nip, there's a good chance he could have escalated to a more painful bite -- and I could not blame him for doing so.

In the parrot bite journal, I'd recommend not only writing down the body language of the parrot, but also the circumstances surrounding what was happening before the bite took place. If you can find patterns, then you can arrange the environment so that bites take place less frequently.

I've frequently talked about the large number of items that will cause Beeps to fly over and attack us. We keep a mental list and make sure that he is safely locked in his cage before we use any of the items. For whatever reason, known only to him, the sight of human nail clippers makes Beeps attack viciously. Instead of wasting my time trying to teach him not to bite when I have nail clippers, I either go into a different room and close the door, or make sure that Beeps is locked in his cage, before I take the clippers out.

Rocky will attack Thomas when he wears a certain blue shirt. At first Thomas tried to get Rocky to accept the shirt ("I will not have a macaw dictate my wardrobe!" is a direct quote.) I finally convinced him to just donate the shirt to Goodwill.

Removing these kinds of triggers has made ours a happier home. By journaling them, you can find patterns and greatly reduce and possibly eliminate biting.

Rocky loves it when Thomas scratches his head. However, he sometimes gets a little too excited and nips Thomas. In the wild, he'd nip his partner and get a beak full of feathers. In our living room, he nips his partner and draws blood. How does Thomas handle this? By controlling Rocky's head when he scratches him:
You can see the absolute ecstasy on Rocky's face. The fact that Thomas is taking precautions for his own safety has not diminished Rocky's enjoyment.

One reason parrots might bite is if you surprise them when they're trying to do something else. If I try to separate a caique from his fruit, I might as well just have a band-aid ready! Stella is very engrossed in preening herself here. So much so that I can't even see her head. If I interrupted and grabbed her foot without giving her proper notice, she'd be justified in biting me -- as a warning that she wanted to be left alone while preening.
Another set of circumstances that can lead to biting is hormonal behavior. While some parrots are happily interrupted from their nest building/seeking/other hormonal behavior and will readily step up, that's not the case for everyone.

Could I really blame Stella for biting me if I tried to remove her from nest seeking?
Thomas uses a stick much more frequently during Rocky's hormonal periods. Normally, the act of stepping on the stick is enough to get Rocky to snap out of it and he will then happily step up from the stick onto Thomas's hand. Once again, watching body language is key.

In fact, I think that teaching a parrot to readily step up on a stick is a great idea, just in case. That way, other people may feel more comfortable handling your parrot should the need arise.

Watching and reacting to body language, in addition to being a way to avoid getting bit, is also a great way to reinforce the bond with your parrot.

For example, when Max starts scratching her own head, that means she wants me to come over and give her head scratches:And when she puts her foot out like this, it means she wants to step up:
I try to accommodate her as often as possible; to show her that her actions produce consequences.

This is already getting very long, but I wanted to address the issue of one-person birds as it relates to biting. My experience has led me to believe that the vast majority of parrots are not truly one-person birds. I will address this in more detail in a future post.

Biting can be very frustrating, for owners and parrots, and often results in neglected parrots, as they spend more and more time in their cages. By the time they make it to rescue, some parrots have learned that their subtle hints don't work and resort straight to biting. By using acute observation skills, it's possible to teach the parrot more acceptable behavior.

How to teach your bird to bite

Whoever would want to teach their bird to bite? Unintentionally, many people do just that. I've seen quite a few up at the rescue lately, so I thought I'd write a post about it. Obviously this does not cover every kind of bite that a parrot may give, but by paying attention to body language, you can greatly reduce those kinds as well.

Parrots use their beaks for many things -- exploring, eating, showing affection, preening, etc., etc. However, the first thing many people think when they see a beak coming towards them is BITE!!! Even though that's likely one of the furthest things from the parrot's thoughts.

I have seen many people teach their birds to bite in the following manner: they ask the bird to step up. The bird wants to make sure he's stepping onto a stable perch, so he bends down, intending to gently grab the human's finger/hand to make sure it's a safe place to go (especially if the parrot can't fly away if the perch is unsteady). The human, worried about getting bit, quickly pulls her hand away.

The process is repeated, though the parrot starts to be a bit more aggressive in testing the offered hand -- either biting down a bit harder or going a bit quicker in order to get to the hand before it is taken away again. Before you know it, it's become a game. The human has taught their bird to bite.

So, what to do? Watch the parrot's body language closely. Do not assume that just because the parrot is approaching your hand with his beak open means he's planning to bite.

Stella, who almost always puts her beak on my hand before stepping up, was kind enough to agree to model this behavior. Notice how she continues to preen my hand after she's stepped up -- this is a sign of affection from her.



Some birds are beakier than others. For example, Max steps up without putting her beak on me probably 50% of the time. Beeps almost always gently rests the top of his beak against my hand, beak closed. Rocky rarely puts his beak on the stick when I ask him to step up.

As always, the key is closely watching your parrot's body language.

Quotes from last night

My husband is one of the funniest people I know. This results in frequent laughter in our house, which makes the parrots laugh, which makes us laugh even more. Sometimes we say that Thomas is "on" -- when he's so funny that pretty much everything he says makes me laugh. Luckily for me, one of those nights was last night. After a few, I started writing them down to share here, at least the parrot-related ones.

Story 1:

Thomas reached between the parrot stands in the kitchen to open the window. Apparently this upset Beeps, who decided to jump on Thomas's shirt and angrily make his way towards Thomas's head to inflict a bite. I warned him that Beeps was going to bite (Thomas couldn't see his body language since Beeps was on the back of his shirt so didn't know if it was a friendly hop-on or an unfriendly one). With the warning, he was able to safely remove Beeps and avoided a bite.

After returning to the kitchen, Thomas grabbed a broom to sweep. This is a trigger for a Beeps attack, and when Beeps has already shown he's ready to attack, as he had earlier, the probability of an attack nears 100%. I never sweep unless Beeps is safely in his cage. Thomas likes living on the edge a bit more.

Also, if you're looking directly at Beeps, he's much less likely to attack -- he waits until your attention is somewhere else. Whew! Long lead-up for the funny comment.

Thomas: "Cowards attack from behind, Beeps. Cowards."

By managing to sweep while looking at Beeps the entire time, Thomas managed to avoid a bite. As he put the broom away, Thomas said, "Looks like I shamed him into not attacking!"

Story 2:

Stella flew to the floor and approached Thomas's feet. She gently preened him and bowed her head for his feet to give her head pets (like towards the end of this entry). Not getting the results she wanted, she started preening him some more, but not so gently this time. She needed to get her point across! When you don't listen to parrots as they nicely try to get you to do something, they must resort to other tactics!

Thomas: "Don't eat my feet. I know they're enticing...and you wouldn't be the first to say that!"

Since he was busy making pesto, I picked her up and tossed her over to a stand.

Story 3:

Thomas was holding Stella when she decided to regurgitate for him. (She regurgitated to me this morning -- an equal opportunity disguster).

Thomas: "Thanks, but I don't really like regurgitated food."

Maybe you had to be there for that one, but both Max and I found it funny!

Story 4:

Rocky was screaming (shocking, I know). When he quieted down and made vomit sounds, Thomas went into the living room to give him some attention. After giving him some physical attention, he'll usually give him a nut to keep him busy for a few moments. Also, let me note that we'd brought Rocky into the kitchen to be with us at least 4 times earlier in the evening. On his own accord, Rocky would walk back into the living room, and then scream because he was alone.

Thomas was snickering as he returned to the kitchen. I asked why.

Thomas: "I gave him an empty peanut shell. He's going to be mad. He is going to be mad. Eat it, Rock!"

To my relief, he did not seem to mind the empty peanut shell, or at least it didn't make him scream.

Threats

Last week, Thomas left the living room, and Rocky took the opportunity to climb up on the couch and threaten me.

Two days later, I did not have a blanket on the couch, and he ran up and actually bit me on my side! Luckily he did not have much to grab onto, so he only left a small mark that only hurt for about 10 minutes.

After the performance caught on tape, I was thinking perhaps he was all bluster and no bite, but his subsequent actions proved that I was too optimistic!

No pics, but we both got bit this weekend

And I'm blaming Thomas for both of them.

Mine happened first, on Saturday morning. One of the many things that gets Beeps riled up enough to bite is when we change the parrots' food and water dishes in the morning. Therefore, the rule in our house is that Beeps does not get to come out of his cage in the morning until this task is completed. On weekdays and some weekends I do this as Thomas has to be to work before me and is in a bigger hurry. Other weekends, I've sometimes already left the house to run, leaving Thomas with this job, and he can risk a bite if he wants to let Beeps out. This really is only an issue the four or so days each month we're both around on a weekend morning.

Thomas knows this rule, but thinks it's "mean to treat Beeps like a second-class citizen." My response is that Beeps has shown us that he can't restrain himself from biting during this time so it's safer for everyone involved to keep him caged for an extra 10 minutes or so.

Saturday, unbeknownst to me, Thomas let Beeps out. Predictably, he flew at me and attacked my arm. I was not quick enough to get out of the way in time as I did not expect him to be out. He barely broke the skin and I will be completely healed in a few days.

*************************
Sunday, Rocky was hanging out on the couch, nesting in the blankets. He was aggressively posturing towards Thomas when he approached the couch. Thomas ignored the warning signs and sat down anyway. Rocky responded by biting him twice in quick succession, right on the hip. Because he bit him through his pants, he didn't break the skin, but there is a lot of bruising right now.

*************************
Later that evening, Thomas was upstairs playing a video game. I was reading on the couch. Rocky climbed up on the couch and solicited head pets from me! Then he climbed all over me and my book, asking for attention. I didn't want to disrupt the magic and run to get the camera, so I have no photographic proof of this happening. The strange journey of our relationship continues...

Wrap-up

Yesterday I beat Thomas home, and was surprised to be greeted by this scene:Apparently I had either forgotten to put Calypso in his cage, or I forgot to make sure his cage was securely closed. I do a double check of everyone as I leave for the day, making sure they're secure and saying goodbye (it's part of our routine that helps make the parrots feel comfortable and safe), so I'm not sure how he got past me.

In any case, if I had to leave any of the parrots out during the day, he's the one I'd choose. I'm pretty sure he spent the entire day on or in his cage. Had it been one of the greys, I would have found mass destruction, I'm sure. I triple checked him this morning before I left!

*************************
Beeps, aka Mr. Hormone, attacked Thomas last night. We think we may have found another trigger. Thomas was lying on the kitchen table (I have no idea why) when Beeps flew over and attacked. Later, experimenting, we discovered he became very agitated whenever one of us sat on the table, and that's when he attacked me the day before.

As she had for me, Max came to Thomas's rescue and buzzed Beeps off of Thomas, herding him back to his stand.

*************************
I'm starting to wonder whether Thomas and Rocky collaborated in the bite from earlier this week; otherwise, Thomas is just taking extreme advantage of the situation; e.g. "Would you mind very much doing all of the dishes? I would help, you know, but I have this bite on my finger and I don't want it to get infected."

*************************
For dinner last night, we had nut burgers and french fries. Below is one of the potatoes I turned into fries (sorry it's so dark):
I remarked to Thomas that it looked like a heart, but he said it looked like a butt.

*************************
Over the weekend, I could not resist purchasing a pint of blueberries and have been eating them sparingly, with the intention of turning the majority into muffins. I got up early this morning and finally made the muffins, worried that the blueberries might go bad before I had the chance if I didn't do it today.

I was in the living room, handing small pieces of muffin to the parrots in there (everyone but the greys) and returned to this scene:I must say I was not surprised by this.

*************************
I stopped at the library on my way in to work this morning to drop off some books and pick up a few more. I set off the alarm walking in. I don't even understand how that could happen as I had properly checked out all of the books and it didn't sound a few weeks ago as I was leaving. I held my breath while leaving, but didn't trip the alarm with my new books, luckily. I would have hated to be thought a library thief, even for a moment!

*************************
Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and a great start to March!

Bloodbath!

OK, really more of a blood trickle, but that just doesn't roll off of the tongue. Why, oh, why did Rocky (you had to know it was him!) bite Thomas, the love of his life? Because he was angry.

Thomas got home a little early from work and since it was relatively warm out (in the 40s), he called me at work to see if I wanted to come home and go for a run. Of course I accepted! I only work about 7 minutes away from home, so Thomas got ready for his run, not letting the parrots out as they'd just have to go back in.

I arrived home with a box of clementines. Thomas ate one as a snack and then doled out pieces to the parrots, through their cage bars. He got to Rocky, but instead of taking the fruit, he bit Thomas's finger! We think he was angry that he was in his cage.

By the time we got back from our run, things were back to normal between them. Later on in the evening, Rocky was on Thomas and I noticed something worrying out of the corner of my eye. There was redness on the white part of Rocky's face and I worried he might have injured himself.

Upon closer review, it was determined that he had Thomas's blood on him; no damage to Rocky!

*************************
In other biting news, Thomas and I were discussing what our plans are for this weekend. Our conversation went something like this:

Thomas: What do you want to do this weekend?

Me: I'd like to go to the art museum with my best friend since we haven't yet seen the new exhibit and I've heard great things about it.

Thomas: I don't think they'd let Max into the museum.

Me: Of course I meant you!

An hour or so later, Thomas was cooking dinner and I was sitting on the kitchen table, chatting with him. Yes, I was sitting on the kitchen table with my feet on the chair. If I'd been sitting at the kitchen table with my feet on the floor, I'd risk a Rocky bite.

With absolutely no provocation, Beeps flew over from his stand and started viciously attacking my head. (Hormones are still raging through that tiny guy!) As I reached for something with which to nudge him off of me, suddenly my savior appeared in the form of Max. She flew at him, removing him from my head, and then circled back to me, landing on my leg and giving me kisses.

Thomas: I guess Max really is a better friend than me since I just stood here laughing whereas she took care of business and got Beeps away from you.

No damage was done to my head as he was quickly removed and had spent most of the time posturing before his attack (which really is quite funny to watch; I can't blame Thomas for laughing!)

Caique attack!

Saturday afternoon, I was standing on a chair, cleaning and organizing our spice cabinet. Thomas was making cheese, and the parrots were having a dance party in the kitchen.

Suddenly, with no provocation, Beeps launched an attack on me. I ducked, which resulted in him turning and flying back to his stand, both of us unharmed.

Thomas and I were discussing what could have possibly set him off this time, when he suggested it might be what I was wearing.

Caique (orange legs, green top):
Bizarro caique (green legs, orange top):

Bitten

I got bit last night. One guess who? As I hear a collective, "Rocky!" let me tell you that you are right. There are some people out there who make comments like, "Every time someone gets bit by a parrot it's their own fault." Cases like mine show the folly of making such all-or-nothing statements, especially when intelligent, sentient beings are involved.

I do have a picture of my bite, but forgot my camera at home today, so will update this post with my bite picture later. This may not happen until Monday if the anticipated 12-15 inches of snow appears overnight, in which case I will be taking tomorrow off.

I came home last night, quickly ate something, and prepared to leave for a Christmas gathering with my running friends. This is a tradition that I love. We meet and run for about an hour, and then we go to someone's house where we eat and socialize. I can eat a few extra cookies when I've just finished a run! I brought double chocolate bars from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

I placed my running jacket on the table as I was getting ready. Rocky gave it the business, as he does with blankets, then he got interested in something else. I put the jacket on, and was standing by the back door saying goodbye to Thomas. Rocky climbed up onto the kitchen counter and, with no warning, jumped several feet and immediately began attacking my upper back.

Thomas was right there, so he grabbed Rocky off of me, receiving his own bite in the process.

This is the first time that Rocky has jumped anyone (me) while his wings were fully clipped. I'm not sure if it's because he had just been playing with my jacket and then he saw me wearing it, of if it was the headband/ear warmer I was wearing that kind of looked like a hat (though black, not red).

In any case, I was lucky that I was dressed for running in about 8 degree weather, as my layers protected me from anything more painful. And now I'll be keeping an even closer eye on Rocky. I told him he'd better start behaving himself since the parrots will be alone with me quite frequently in January as well (Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! said in an evil tone).