My parrotlet ATTACKS me

Question
Ok... Im incredibly upset... i dont know wht to do.. i've had my parrotlet for a week now..he's 8 weeks.. and the first few days.. though he was timid, he was still adjusting well. However, in the last 2 days.. he's turned into a maniac!  He keeps ludging at me and my family as in attacking us! He literally LUDGES at us with his beak wide open.. I dont kno why it got so bad. At first whenever he bit anyone, we'd all say NO BITE really angerily, but then.. everything went downhill.. now he just doesnt listen. and he HATES coming out of his cage. i have to drag him out! and then once he's out, all he wants to do is go bak in! He doesnt play with his toys.. and he doesnt seem to like me very much at all. I dont kno wht to do and am feeling incredibly hopeless. How can I make this situation better? O yes and if its of any use... I play with him for 10 min before I leave for skool, when changing his food and then mid afternoon soemone takes him out for 5-10 min usually n he gets to be around ppl.. and at night. i take him for about half hour or so and just play with him and practice step ups.
Another question, all he eats are his seeds, i've tried giving him carrots, rice, tomatoes, peas but he doesnt touch any of the other stuff.. even if i put it in with his seeds, or nearby. What should I do?


Answer
Hi, Zahra.  Thanks for posting!

Was your parrotlet handfed as a baby?  I'm curious about this since he's only 8/9 weeks old.  If he wasn't handfed and imprinted on humans as a baby, this is why he's not tame and bites/lunges at you.  

DO NOT drag your bird out of his/her cage.  This will scare your parrotlet and he will fear you.  Your goal should be to gain your bird's trust.  Once s/he trusts you, you can do anything with the bird.  You should allow your bird to come out of his/her cage on it's own and then you can interact together.  A bird's cage is it's safety zone, it's personal territory, your parrotlet's home and for you to "invade" this space upsets your bird.     

I think you need to spend more time with your bird.  A little more than an hour per day just isn't enough interaction time.  When you are at home watching TV, on the computer, eating dinner, etc., you should allow your bird to sit with you so you can interact together or just sit together.  

There's information on my website that you need to read:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

In order to make this situation better you have to take one step at a time.  It will take knowledge on your part, time, and patience, so don't be in a big hurry.  In fact, your parrotlet might not be acclimated to you and it's new environment yet.  Keeping your bird's wing flight feathers clipped will help to keep him/her from flying away from you when you try to work with s/he.

As far as foods go, a bird will not eat something it does not recognize as food.  Therefore, for the foods s/he has never seen before, s/he won't eat them.  You just have to keep offering them each and every day until s/he tries what you offer.  As long as you have seed in the cage at the same time as the other food is available, your bird will always choose the seed over the other foods.  This is because seed tastes good to them...it's like candy to a child.  You'll need to remove the seed when offering the other foods.  Then put the seed back in the cage after a few hours.  Also, seed is a poor diet for a parrot.  Seed has little nutritional value and is very high in fat.  You should put your parrotlet on a pelleted food with veggies, fruits, whole grain breads/sugarless cereals, etc. (information on foods is in my website) in addition to the pellets.  Seed should only be used as a reward or a treat.  

Always reward your bird for positive behavior, but never reward your bird for negative behavior.  More information on this is on my website.

Come back with further questions.

Chrys