Hi all - things have been pretty hectic around here and I haven't had a lot of time to be on the boards. Several weeks ago my Grandmother broke her ankle when she fell down some stairs. Luckily - it wasn't a bad enough break that she needed surgery - and didn't break anything besides her ankle! But she has been pretty much ordered to stay off her feet till it's healed (approx. 2-3 more weeks to go.) We only live about 10 - 15 minutes from my Grandparents - so I've been spending lots of time over there helping take care of the house etc. and doing what I can to help keep her comfortable and not too bored!

Now on to the bird advice. Zoey is a little over a year old. Out of all our fids - she's the craziest when it comes to the rest of the family members. I'm certainly her chosen "human" - she pretty much ignores hubby, acts like she's terrified of Emily (13 yr. old) and will do what she can to keep Emily from getting close to her. She does like my daughter Molly (turning 7 tomorrow) - I walked into the living room the other day and Zoey was lying on Molly's chest almost asleep. Then there's my son Jayden (will be 5 in August). I believe that Zoey sees him as a rival for my attention/affection. If he walks too close by her - she'll jump from where she is and try to bite him (and I mean she's out to draw blood!). I have to be very careful if she is on me and Jayden gets to close to me - because then it's like she is literally on a mission to get him good. Things escalated when her flights grew out - because then he didn't have to be close to her for her to go after him. Once I was sure there was no blood supply to her flights - I clipped her enough that she couldn't get full altitude. It's helped some - but besides giving her a more severe clip - I'm not sure what else to do. I mean sure - I can limit her time outside of her cage - but I really hate to do that. Jayden knows she'll bite him if she can - so he tries to keep his distance from her. But it's not always easy to do. I've tried allowing him to give her treats - but she just tries to bite him - she could care less about a treat. I've tried taking her to a neutral room and putting her on the floor and leaving - so that Jayden can come in and "rescue" her. She'd rather bite him and then walk back down the hallway on her own. I was going to try and let Jayden work with her using a hand held perch - but he's afraid she'll bite him - and he's just not steady enough for that kind of work yet. So anything else I can try? Jayden is pretty much home with me all the time - so I'd love to find a way to keep everyone safe without limiting her outside cage time. I do try and not be real affectionate with Jayden right in front of her (especially if she's out) - but sometimes I do forget. Even if there's not much more I can do at this point - is there anything I can do to try and help things not get worse?

Hi Stephanie, good to hear from you. Sorry to hear about your Grandmother, hope she is feeling better and will be up and about soon. I don't have much advice for you with Zoey, other than to keep up what you're doing. At his age, there's only so much you can expect Jayden to do. GCC's can still fly with a pretty radical clip, so that probably wouldn't help much. Keep up what you're doing, and try to keep them separated, I would guess. If she gets much worse about it, you may well have to limit her out of cage time some when he's around.

What a great grandaughter you are!

I have the same poroblem with Baby. For the first eight months, Baby would be happy going to everyone. She particulaly liked hanging out with me. In August of last year, I had to be hospitalized for surgery for a week. When I came home Baby bit and hist at me. I have tried working with her to no avail. She is now a one person bird (hubbys) and if anyone gets close to him while he is holding her she will go after them. She has bit several people, I have scars to prove it. A friend of my sons had to have seven stitches. I have taken her to a behavior specialist and everything we tried does not work. She has become so loud and demanding of my husband I am actually concidering re-homing her. My mother is coming to live with us in September and the last time she was here Baby gave her a chronic headach.
Soo, I don't have advice for you because I have tried everything there is to break my own from this habit. Hopefuly someone out here can help us both.

When I train Jean to like new people who are going to be around a lot, I try the treat thing, and when that doesn't work I take the spray bottle and tell them to try and pet him. If he opens his beak to bite I spray his foot and they withdraw their hand. We wait a few seconds and try again and usually by the 4-5th time he will conceed that it's BAD to bite someone. It takes a couple week after that but every day just come in there, and for 15 minutes try that if everything else fails. Spraying should be a last resort as it can scare your bird but his mental stability has stayed the same. NEVER spray in the face or eye region always aim down at the feet or lower chest and say NO! Firmly. Perhaps put her in a travel cage for a little while every day and have her watch TV with him in the room too so she see's he's a neutral party. Hope that helps!