Not very social cockatiel

Question
My cockatiel has gotten out of her cage and has flew away many times.  Before she used to be very social and sweet, now she does not like people.  She hate when you get near her cage and will try and bite.  Plus when you try to get her out of her cage she will bite.  She has been like this for about a year, and she has not improved.  What can i do to help her to become more social and nice?

Answer
Hi,

Try to think back to a year ago and figure out what might have changed in her environment or handling to cause her to change from being a sweet, social bird to mean and aggressive.

Did you stop spending as much time with her? Did you react poorly when she started out with small nips (allowing this behavior to escalate)? Did something stressful happen that could have made her fearful of being handled or leaving her cage?

Here are some articles on biting and aggression that should help you to work with your cockatiel's biting:

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww12eii.htm

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww30eiii.htm

http://www.parrothouse.com/sf3.html

http://www.parrothouse.com/jdoss1.html

http://www.quakerville.com/qic/biting.asp

http://www3.upatsix.com/liz/articles/territory.html

I hope this helps.

-Maggie