My pet cockatiel.

Question
Hi Chrys! I've asked you a question before about my bird, Gabi. It was about 2 strange 'lumps' that had appeared on her wings. About 4 weeks ago we took her to the vet, and the vet had no idea what they were. They weren't tumors, bones, muscles, anything.

Well anyway, I am having some behavioral issues with her.
Here is the problem I posted on another forum:



It all started a few months ago. I clipped her wings.

*dundundun!!!!!*

A few months ago, I clipped Gabi's wings. They were starting to aid her in flying.. and since we have several fans in the house, I didn't want her to get hit by them.
So I clipped her flight feathers. I've clipped them before, but this time she became seriously angsty. She hissed and puffed, she sat in her cage for days and wouldn't even look at me. She wouldn't play with her toys, come out of the cage, whistle, chirp. She just sat. And glared at me. And hissed when I walked by.

After a few days she got over it.

Now, it's a few months later, and she has become excessively aggressive. She never wants to be handled, pet, loved on, scratched. She comes out of her cage, she chirps, she whistles, but she also hisses and bites and carves her name into your flesh with her beak.

Seriously, she bit me a few days ago and I thought I was never going to stop bleeding.

We took her to the vet about 4 weeks ago, because I was concerned. But the vet could find no illnesses or medical conditions, and really had no recommendations that I hadn't already tried.

Her diet is sadly almost an all seed diet. I've tried weening her off of it, and I've somewhat succeeded. I make home made food for her (cornmeal with fruits and veggies baked inside) but I'm not sure if she's eating it or if she's just chewing it apart.

Her droppings have changed a little. They've become a bit watery over the past few weeks, but not severely.

I've tried giving her new toys, changing her cage around. She doesn't want anything to do with new toys, instead she sticks to playing with her old ones.
She is terrified of calcium blocks and cuttle bones. (I'm going to try putting little pieces of calcium block into her cornmeal muffins next time I make some.)

So my question is, WHY is she so aggressive, and what can I do to change it?? She's become a U-NO-WUT, and I hate being around her. She bites and hisses and flogs and bites and chews and bites and scratches and UGHH! :(

I've never had any animal this mean except for a hamster I got when I was 8.

Answer
Hi, Kayla,

Clipping flight feathers can be a very traumatic experience for a bird.  Your bird acted normally in retaliation for what you did!!!  Next time, you may want to have someone else trim her feathers (she can hate the other person instead of you).

An all-seed diet can have a direct effect on a bird's behavior.  If the bird isn't nourished properly, the bird doesn't feel good, behaves badly, etc.  Try not baking the fruits/veggies into her corn bread and see what happens.  You can bake the calcium into he bread by scraping off a cuttlebone into the bread mix.  Try offering your bird cooked brown rice with ramon noodles, then try adding frozen veggies into the rice mix once she accepts the rice.  Birds won't readily eat things they don't recognize as food, so you just have to keep offering it to her every day (even if it takes a month or longer).  Eventually she'll try the new food(s).  Sometimes sprinkling/baking spray millet into a food helps a bird try a new food.  

Parrots love routine.  Perhaps changing her cage around and getting her new toys are stressing her out...may be too much at the same time.  

How are you reacting to how she behaves?  Sometimes people don't realize that they may actually be reinforcing a bird's bad behavior by the way they react to the bad behavior.  For exampe, when she bites/tries to bite you, what do you do?  If you pull your hand back and let the bird alone, this is exactly what your bird wants!  The bird is being rewarded for her bad behavior.  When she lunges/tries to bite, put your hand right back there and let her know that the biting/lunging doesn't get it with you.  I know getting biten hurts, but you have to hang in!  Always reward your bird when she does/doesn't do what you want her to/don't want her to and NEVER reward your bird for behaving badly.  A reward can be just a look from you or your voice, so be careful how you react.  Parrots are smart and will try you every step of the way just like a human toddler will...you have to be smarter than they are.

Maybe you aren't spending enough quality time with her since she's been behaving badly.  Even though she is being a pain, you have to try different things.  Were you spending more time with her then reduced this time?  If so, this could be the problem.  Is anyone teasing the bird or treating the bird badly?

Try these things above and see if things change over some time.  If not, come back and we'll figure something else out.

Chrys