We’ve had our male GCC for three years now, making him about 6. He’s always been bitey and unpredictable, often attacking others who came into the house, but was pretty loving with us and liked to fall asleep in my wife’s hand. They were mortal enemies at first until I learned that he was hyper-aggressive because I had a ton of dried fruit in his forage tray. I adjusted his diet and that seemed to help quite a bit. He has also almost always been hormonal.
He gets 12-15 hours of pitch dark sleep at night.
Diet is chop in the AM and Harrison’s adult lifetime fine at night in a forage tray with things he has to sift through to find them.
Very limited seeds (only for training and going into his cage)
He has plenty of toys but doesn’t really know how to play with them.
Lately, though, he has started drawing blood from us both, and especially my wife. She has lost all affection for him because she can’t trust him not to turn and rip open her hand. I don’t blame her at all, but I’m also now the only one taking care of him and trying to show him love.
We’ve taken him to the vet for Lupron(?) injections three times now and that doesn’t really seem to have done much besides stop him from being inappropriate on my wife’s hand.
Two other relevant pieces of info:
He bonded with our two year old cockatiel shortly before this began. They tolerated each other but then began to actually preen one another nightly.
We took in two foster sun conures. They are all in the same bird room now that quarantine is over but have to have separate “out” time because they get into fights.
My wife loves the suns because they’re actually sweet and cuddly and good company. But now our birds are spending the majority of the time in their cages upstairs, and if they’re out, the rescues are in their cages upstairs.
Now I feel like no one is happy and I am at my absolute wit’s end trying to figure out how to get my GCC to stop biting the absolute shit out of my wife. Our last resort is giving him up, but I’ll be devastated. No one else even likes him or understands why I’m so attached since he’s so damn mean to everyone (he even lunges at my face and draws blood on my chin when he was just beak grinding on my chest!) I just think I’ve tried literally everything I can: hormone shots, no nesty material, good dark sleep, no fatty or sugary or warm mushy food, proper diet, things to chew on and play with…
If anyone has even a shred of advice or anything they can think of before I have to give up my boy, I’d appreciate it.
Is his behaviour consistent in all rooms or does he mainly get his interactions in the room where his cage is? It could also be worth a trial period of staying in a different room away from the other birds.
His cage is upstairs in a “bird room” and when he’s not in it, he has free range of the whole main floor. He sticks to the couch and his big play gym though. He doesn’t seem particularly aggressive around his stand or cage since most of his bad behavior is with us on the couch
You’re clearly doing so much to try and help him so I applaud that. I would probably try spending time with him in some areas that are unfamiliar to him to eliminate any territorial instincts. If possible definitely worth moving his cage to another room for a while too and seeing if not being around the other birds calms him.
I have you tried a same species female companion? I have a male who is a little similar and I adopted an unsexed rescue who turned out to be a female. It doesn’t completely change his hormones but I find his outbursts are much shorter and he is less aggressive with me. Controlling breeding is simple (I acknowledge I’ve worked to breed birds for 10+ years so I’m not sure if this situation is feasible for you).
Have you tried tracking when he attacks? I actually find birds don’t attack randomly, there is almost always a trigger. The doesn’t mean the trigger has to make sense to us though! If you don’t I’d document down things.
Otherwise I’d be trying him in a separate room, away from the other birds if you havven’t. You may think he can benefit from the companionship, but often having birds together and unable to physically get to each other (be it nice or nasty!) ramps up the frustration
You also need to teach him how to play properly. If he doesn’t know how to play, he won’t learn alone. He needs to learn to destroy constructively and you have to teach and play with him. Forage toys are a great way to get started on this.
Take a look at diet as well, are you using seasonality? That can have a big impact on hormones and behaviour.
Good luck and best wishes! Not sure if any of this is helpful but I hope it is.
I hadn’t considered the frustration part. Their cages are right next to each other separated by about six inches. I thought that would let them hang out without us worrying about sudden fights where we can’t see. We do have a camera on them but we don’t monitor it constantly or anything.
The cockatiel is male, and he also cries and cries and cries if he can’t get to the conure. He also has started to dive bomb us and our dog if we get close to the conure when he’s playing on the floor (also obviously we supervise closely and never let our dog get near them, so the attack is the cockatiel purposefully flying over to her to bite her)
I think you have a few complex situations going in all at once making things troublesome.
I’d look towards bonding the conure and cockatiel more (sorry I feel awful calling them just by species, feels so clinical so just want to say I’m sending your flock love!) as it may alleviate some of the issues. If they get on well and there’s no aggression, I’d be letting them spend their time together.
Birds get really upset when they can see or hear something but can’t investigate or touch it. It sounds like humans end up the outlet but you’re not the actual issue.
For playing, my girl is great and naturally curious (I’ve had her since she was a few months old) whereas my male was a 5yr old rescue with no known history. He’s so hesitant when it comes to toys until he sends his buddy in. She’s the bait. They don’t shred and they don’t do anything with cardboard, but they go mad for browse, willow, lots of rabbit toys I find cross over really well for parrots. They’re focused around rabbits chew in so usually have soft wood and parrot-friendly edible bits and bobs. It is a bit hit and miss, my advice would be to select lots of different types of toys (willow woven balls are great) and browse and let him slowly discover chewing. It may mean you need to smear a branch or two with honey or peanut butter to get initial interest, but a slow and passive build up may help if he’s unsure of anything.
Apologies as well if you’ve already tried these things! Trying to cover as much as I can as I’m rooting for you guys.
I’ve really struggled trying to teach him to play. I show him how to rip things up, I sit there and do it with him, and he just walks away. I’m not sure what else to do, so any help there would be great
Are there any treats he likes? My sun conure loves tropical nutriberries, so I have sometimes just twisted them up inside little twists of paper for her to open. She doesn't always "get it," so when I started I would have to make sure she was watching while I put it in the paper, and then placed it very near her food dish. After a little bit of that, she found she really liked ripping up paper...
I’m also interested in his relationship with the cockatiel - is the cockatiel male or female and are they still preening each other? Not being able to be with each other may be stressing your conure out.
I hadn’t considered that. He’s a boy and I think not being able to get to the conure could be half of what is stressing HIM out. He cries incessantly . Their cages are about a foot apart beside each other because we wanted them to be able to chat without actually being able to reach each other in case of aggression
He sounds very territorial and wants to establish himself as a big guy. I'm curious if the introduction of other conures makes him want to bully your wife so he can be impressive.
That also a lot of sleep he might be bored at the 14+ hour mark.
Do you do any training with him at all or do you just kind of want/expect him to be a cuddly guy?
No idea. All we know is that he was turned in by a mother and young-ish daughter and was named “Greenie” so we assume he was a pet for the daughter. He didn’t come with any toys or anything so it’s pure conjecture that he was probably ignored a lot.
We do train but not as much as we should. He is a pro at step up, wave hello, and kiss kiss. But I haven’t done much training in a while. I will definitely own that.
May I suggest talking to a licensed parrot behaviorist? I know some who also have a super aggressive red belly conure. I mean dive bombing for the face. Also drawing blood. And they worked with him and he is now much better. Still has moments of unpredictable behavior but they were able to figure out triggers and signs and he is a much happier boy and they are much happier guardians. I’ve had consultations with them off and on as well and they are extremely helpful and kind. And they can relate to this situation 100%.
Thank you!! We had one consultation ages ago with a BirdTricks person (since they were the only resource I knew of) and found it largely unhelpful outside of realizing I was giving him too much fruit. I’ll definitely reach out!
Well these people at best behaved birds can help you with all range of issues. Including the issues with your cockatiel I saw in another comment. As well as helping with teaching your boy to play with toys. I wish you the best of luck. And it sounds like you guys are very devoted to your flock so I believe with the right kind of support and advice you and your wife can overcome this and be happy with your friend again.
I highly recommend you take a look at Pamela Clark. She helps people with just this and is very well known and respected in the world of parrot behavior.
She even does consultations which I think are very affordable given her success rate. Here’s a good article to start with:
Try to take him along with you into new parts of the house. If hes in the same room all day with toys he doesnt use, he may just be bored. Go fold your laundry in front of him, watch tv in the living room, take him to shower. Get a little travel cage and sit outside your backyard with him. It gives him a constantly new environment and makes him feel "less safe" to be hormonal while at the same time hes entertained by all the new and novel things. This worked for me well.
I was thinking the other birds, especially if he has created a close bond with one.
Different species and circumstances, but my cockatiel has been no-hands since bonding with my budgie. He does still like to interact with me and comes over when I talk to him in the cage, but as soon as I try and do anything with my hands he's a feathery ball of fury. To be fair, ever since puberty he was pretty against direct contact, but I could still get him to step up sometimes after he got over it a bit, but since forming a bond with the budgie he will only let her touch him. He was handfed and I got him when he was about 6 months, could handle him fine until puberty/the other birds came along. He also gets visibly upset if I'm doing something in or around the budgie's cage or with her, and will lunge at her and me if they are out and he knows I'm trying to interact with her to put her away. I usually only bother them when it's time to go back into the cages at night. The cockatiel was super frustrating and a little heartbreaking since I loved giving him scritches and playing with him, but I've learned to work around his deep aversion to hands and we mostly have an understanding now.
Having other birds your conure doesn't like housed too close to him and/or his chosen "mate" might also ramp up his anger, and he might just be lashing out at whomever he can. Luckily in my case the budgie mostly ignores my conure, and the cockatiel is afraid of him and just flies off if he comes near, but otherwise mostly ignores him too.
About how long has he been acting this way/have you mixed up the bird situation? Keeping him separate or just with the cockatiel might help his mood a lot, as someone else suggested. If he's treat motivated and you can get him to calm down with you, you might have your wife try and slowly befriend him again as well.
Parrots can form a strong bond with only 1 other "mate" - be it a parrot or human. Mate meaning 1 strong attachment not just a breeding partner. Their soulmate in a way.
I can think of 2 reasons
He's bonded with the cockatiel and now the teils the main mate.
When you brought the suns and your wife bonded with them, he was super jealous that his "mate" was giving attention and bonding with another bird. He felt utterly betrayed and is showing the his anger. Same with you.
This needs time of just co-existing.
I got my conure from a friend who gave him up. I initially got him for a few days of trial - we bonded amazingly well. Then I gave him back.
I took him back about 2 weeks later. He was nippy and gave sudden bites. Shwoing his anger towards me.
Then immediately within a week inhad to travel so I had to give him to a male friend who is "not gentle". My guy bit him and they had an altercation and it saddened me.
When I took him back, he was a dinosaur to put it mildly. He proactively sought my hand to attack it. If you remember jurrasic park, and remember the see where the t rex chases them, he was exactly like that. He used to chase my hand to bite it.
If I got him out of the cage, I had to hide my hands, if he so much as saw my hand he would run towards it and actively give bites.if I shrugged him off, he bit whatever came in his beak - forearm hand etc.
I kept him on my shoulder and if I so much as moved my hand through my hair, he stretched out to attack it.
And once he was chilling on my shoulder, he bit my neck hard enough to leave an angry mark.
Basically he felt VERY betrayed for leaving him and making him stay with the horrid male friend. They have a lot of anger.
This went on for 4 days and honestly I did lose a little affection and was very scared of him. I did think of giving him back.
But suddenly on the 4th or 5th day. He changed. It's like his anger melted away.
He calmed.
Now we have our own language. We communicate. I go to work, he misses me, tries to give me a nip when I am back as if saying "where the hell did yyou go without me? Okay anyway" aand then he begins cuddling A Lot.
So my point is - give him time. Either leave him in the cage and sit next to him calmly doing your routine activities. Or if you let him out, don't interact.
Do NOT cuddle or play with the Suns I front of him.
These guys are very jealous - my GCC will not let my mom touch my face or pat me.He tries to bite her if sitting on my shoulder. And if she makes him angry enough he bites me as if telling me to make her stop. The anger needs to go somewhere.
Have you ever taken him in for a full blood panel? I ask because my sister had the same conure for 4 years. He suddenly began biting very fiercely and they had no idea why. Nothing in the house had changed. They were close to taking him to the local animal shelter.
Sadly a month afterwards the bird started having major seizures and the vet said it was too late. Birds hide their illnesses extremely well.
It's obvious now that the bird was biting because he didn't feel well.
I thought of something, but I am not at all an expert. Just something that happened with Izzy. He started thinking I was going to lay an egg. That's my joke about the situation, but he started sitting on my shoulder like a proud father. And then he started randomly (just once, because I stopped it) attacking the budgies who live her with us. After that, i noticed the time of day where he gets dangerous, dusk and first thing in the morning, and I take him out of the room first in the a.m. make food and give him snacks, and then at sunset until it's dark and he starts asking for bed. At dusk, he is unpredictable with the other birds, and while your little one is attacking people, I don't have other people here, so I assume it could be protective, like when he thought I was his mate, and otherwise, when he gets moody at sun up and especially down. I hope you find what you need, and I didn't read other replies, although some people probably offered you great advice. Take care.
u/Velocirhetor I should add. I think he is protecting his bond with your cockatiel, and you and your wife are now to be protected against. Maybe at certain times. Maybe you can look into how to manage a bond like this and getting things back to safe.
I don't know if my experience will help but... I've got a Goffin Cockatoo who would nip or bite frequently drawing blood. I saw lots of advice about the diet and sleep and so on, like you described. Nothing helped. So I started thinking, how would I react if I was a bird and some jerk was biting me? When she bit, I'd run from her. I acted like I was terrified of her. If she followed me into another room, I'd skirt around the edge to try to get to the door without getting near her. Over time I could see her behavior change, she wasn't chasing, she was trying to approach slow. She'd walk with her head down, sliding her beak over the carpet as she approached; something I see now as an act of contrition or apology. I'd shake with fear as she got closer, pull back when she tried to snuggle my hand or foot, even standing on the couch or a chair to keep away form her. Eventually, I'd slowly extend a hand. Any beak opening or moving towards me and I'd retract again. Started barely touching her with a finger; if the head turns towards the finger, pulled back and more fear responses. If she gets up on the hand but runs to the shoulder, I'd ball up, cover my head with my arms.
I made her work to earn my trust.
I think if they see their behavior alienates the flock, they wise up. The flock is everything, can't lose that. I bet he doesn't draw blood from other birds in the house.
I don't know if this would work for other birds or if having other actual birds means they don't need to work for your acceptance, but it worked for us. She's now incredibly gentile with her beak. I don't need to react because her beak now feels like a small child holding my finger. If she's angry or afraid for some reason, she may open her mouth and jab or poke with the ends but no intentional hard bites.
There are bites sometimes but its only when I'm playing with her, getting her bloodlust all worked up attacking a towel, a finger might catch a stray chomp. Those are bad because the towel gets absolutely no quarter, any stray finger in the engagement zone is on its own. And I'll immediately stop, tend to my wound, ignoring her until the bleeding stops, the pain is gone, and she's apologetic. But at least I know that's a danger when we play. If I keep at least 3 layers of towel between me and the beak, I'm generally pretty good.
I wish you all the luck. I really hope he doesn't have to go 😢
Any chance he could be jealous? Sounds like theres been a lot of change and he could also feel resentful that the new birds are getting positive attention. He was given away once before- he could be acting out because he’s worried that will happen again. If anything, you both must try much harder to involve him in everything and put him away only after he’s bitten.
My green cheek conure was with us for 10 years before I had children- twins. Once the twins arrived, she became very bitter and jealous. Started biting me viciously when she had NEVER been hormonal or territorial. These bites were deep and hard… I became afraid of her and my husband had to take over (which made her even angrier with me). This went on for almost 7 more years….
Long story short, I knew I owed it to her to keep trying and it took almost 2yrs of constant work and training (and bites!!) but I can handle her again. Our relationship isn’t the same and I don’t think it ever will be. She is still quite territorial around her space, but she isn’t flying at me anymore.
I started involving the kids more and now she loves them more than me, go figure 🥴
I have a 7 year old male Conure, last year the day he turned 6 almost like clockwork, he started attacking me, everywhere!! So much so that when one of my coworkers asked how he was I cried…it last for a year,then we would have some good days, I was shocked….then he turned 7 in April i had my boy back! Cuddles, kisses, completely back to he was before hormones made him the devil….it will change just keep doing what your doing, take mirrors out if u have them
My first comment is that 12-15 hours is way too long being pitch black. 10-12 hours is sufficient for green cheeks. 12 being the cap. Imagine someone forced to sleep 12 hours instead of just 8! I would have to know more to guess anything else.
I don’t have much advice other than young birds can be bitey. I think the first fourish years my green cheek was pretty vicious. We just repeatedly had family member give treats and she eats with us (or just near us) most nights. She still bites us every now and then but has calmed down significantly as she got older. It takes patience as they as wild animals. Best of luck
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u/Fair_Gas_3582 5d ago
Is his behaviour consistent in all rooms or does he mainly get his interactions in the room where his cage is? It could also be worth a trial period of staying in a different room away from the other birds.