Amazon become aggressive.

My amazon suddenly turned agressive and starts to bite me. This had never happened before and will appreciate if advise can be given.

i am facing the same problem as u r facing now...at my work place we have a yellow naped amazon...he use to have a mate and his mate had lay some eggs for him,1 day when we report for work,we found the eggs n the female gone with a python inside...ever since after that incident...the male amazon has become paranoid n very agressive...biting whoever tries to carry him...i guess he behaves in this way its bcos he witness the horrible incident...nothing have improve so far....we did try to gain his trust again but haizz...same thing....he juz dun seems to trust anybody anymore...

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Hi there guys/gals.

I may not be an expert, but both the cases are withdrawal symptoms.

The tend to be bonded to a particular thing/person and are pressured into abnormal behavior in these circumstances after withdrawal.

I have heard from overseas owners, [my buddies] that if the sitiuation is not addressed immediately after the incident[ what the parrots were taken to ] the sitiuation is irreversible.

In these circumstance a period of cold turkey from touch is advised.

They do have "teenage" periods when one thing is take from them they rebel.

One month is a good measure to be advised from touching, talking and contact with these affected birds.

After that constant touch and affection will bring them back to normal behavioral patterns.

Always note that they do live at/or around the normal human age expentancy thus they do have periods of withdrawal and love.

In a shorter message, stop touching them and fussing over them let them get over it.

I own two african grey's who currently live in "Gelang Patah" [ Malaysia's Port = PSA] my work Place and both are 4 year old and are very much teenagers.

I hope this helps.

God Bless.

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Hi,

My suddenly turn aggressive and begin to bite very hard, It started aweek ago when I offer my hand to take it back into the cage. From that day onward it will try to bite whenever I offer my hand to take it out of the cage. I still let it out by itself because if i don't let it out of the cage for some time it will hang at the door with a pity look. But I have to trick it or use a T stick to put it back into the cage. Thing turn worse two days ago. I let is out to clean the cage, as usual when I open the door it will make it way to the play stand (which is beside the cage) and play there. But this time it suddenly move to bite my toe, I have no choice but to catch it with a towel and glove to put it back into the cage. Since then I did not let it out of the cage because my wife was so scared.

There is no chage in the enviroment, food, routine and out of cage time. (Age: 1 1/2 years old, gender : unknown) May be molting because a few feathers drop each day and a number of new feather popping out.

Does parrot turn aggressive during molting?.

Will appreciate some suggestion.

Agression during molting? Not that I am aware of. But its good you are looking at various angles to determind the cause. And I believe "cause and effect" is particularly true in animal behaviour.

I have a fews questions;
- How often do you clean the cage?
- Do you let the bird out to play daily?
- Have there been a change in your time spent with the bird?
- Any change in the surrounding environment? New furniture? New location for the cage? New people in the house?

These things can cause a change in behaviour.

For example if we (my family) were to neglect our African Grey (Wei Wei in particular) for a few days because we are busy he'd behave a little aggressive. However he soon recover with a regular dose of love and attention. On most Sundays he is left very much on his own home alone and when we come home in the night he'll show his tantrum flicking away even his favourite treats when offered. Wang Wang my other younger CAG is quite different, he behaves like a baby and not as moody.

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Are you very sure of your Amazon's age? From what you describe, he could seems to be entering puberty i.e. going into breeding condition and hence the territorial agression. Some Amazons are like that for just a few weeks in a year.

Just leave him alone for a week or two and watch him carefully when approaching his cage to take him out. I think he should settle down. By the way what type of Amazon is it? The 3 "hot-heads" types are Yellow-napes, Double Yellows and Blue-fronts.


Rupert

Rupert,
It's interesting to learn that entering puberty could be the cause of aggression. I've heard from Jimmy Chow too that breeding birds often gets aggressive. I have no breeding experience at all even though I've kept various species of parrots but they are all single bird. My present 2 GAC are the first I have as a pair, though not deliberate and may not be "a pair" cos I've been told they both looked like they are females. The funny thing is my family call them "boys"

I wonder the lone parrot entering puberty is likely to display aggression or more so when there are others of their type in the surroundings.

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Hi Dogcom and Rupert,

Thank for your posting.

To Dogcom,
I change the newspaper for the cage daily, just before i left for work in the morning, my BF zon will be let of the cage at that time. After I finished, i will play with it for about 15 Min, all in it will get about 30 mins of out of cage time everyday. Sometime it will get another 15 mins out in the evening. It will have about one and half hours on every saturday to play on the stand after bath. At that time I will flash/clean and dry the cage. When everthings are done I will play with it for another 15 mins before putting it back into the cage. There are no change in routine, food, people and environment except for the cloth I used to cover it during the night was changed ( orginally black , my wife decide to make a new one and it is now white).

To Rupert,

So a BF is one of the "hot heads". Do you think I should keep it behind bars until it behave well. It is now a daily challenge getting it back into it cage, it don't take treat when it is out of the cage. A number of times I loose my patient and uses towels and glove to put it back into the cage.

Please advise.