Grumpy Birds in the Morning

[effekt]

My 2 baby IRNs have started showing a new behavior which I've never seen before and I'm wondering if any of your birds have done this?

Kashi is very very sweet, loves to sit on my hand or anywhere on me, and even is a bit cuddly. Archimedes is shy of people and really afraid of hands. I've been working with him and he's getting better every day (he eats out of my hand now and even stepped up for the first time recently).

Neither of them bite though, aside from the typical baby chewing, but even that is super rare.

Until.....this past weekend I uncovered their cage in the morning and as usual went to pet Kashi. To my surprise she lunged at me and gave me a pretty good bite. She did that for a few minutes, just being a little terror. Then suddenly she was finished being mean and went back to her lovable self the rest of the day.

Archimedes started doing that a day or two later, which is odd because normally he moves away from me instead of standing his ground and lunging to bite.

This never lasts more than a few minutes first thing in the morning. It seems they are too young to start the bluffing stage, at only 4 months? Are they just not "morning birds"? Maybe just grumpy?


I'm really puzzled......any insight is appreciated!

[intog]

While I don't have an IRN yet, I can relate a little with my conure. He's such a sweet baby and insists on being with me most of the evening, but everyday when I come home from the office, the first thing he does is bite the hell out of my hand when I open his door. He hangs upside down yelling and reaching for me. I think it may be in his excitement though. After he gets a couple good bites in, he's perfectly happy and loving.

I started to wait a little before picking him up and that seems to work. I come home, open his door and talk to him, let him calm down and then I go over to pick him up.

[effekt]

Good feedback! My cockatoo does something kinda similar as well. When I get home or when she's really excited to see me, she rubs her head all over my hand and lightly nips at my fingers. Definitely not biting, I think its her way of showing affection.

My two IRNs sometimes fight and lunge at each other, so I was worried that they are carrying that behavior over to me. So far it isn't too bad though, I'll be keeping a very close eye on things.

[iluvringnecks]

My two ringnecks are 12 weeks old and are into the bluffing stage big time. As I said on another post they are biting
chunks of flesh off of me. In the morning they are in the worst of moods and will not allow me to touch them in their
cage, they lunge at me and pin their eyes and their feathers on their heads stick out. When they are out of their
cage they seem happy although they still bit me when they are on my shoulders or arms. My blue IRN likes to
attack the other birds and gets aggressive to his/her brother and will lunge at him alot when they are in their cage. I noticed they get alot more aggressive early afternoon so I put them in their cage for a rest period and they sleep
for about an hour and then they are alot happier again. Just like kids needing their nap or they get in bad moods. I am hoping the bluffing stage doesnt last to long or I will be scarred for life.

[effekt]

iluvringnecks, that may not be the bluffing stage yet, that usually starts around 6 months but I guess ya never know with these little guys

Mine are 4 1/2 months now and they started the lunging and biting about a month ago, so that's roughly the same age as yours.

My ringnecks are definitely aggressive toward my cockatoo (who is a big baby) and I wouldn't say they even get along the best with each other. They often lunge at each other when they are grumpy and fight over the best spot on the perch. Often they sleep on opposite sides of the cage from each other but I wouldn't say they are hurting each other, so I'm not separating them quite yet.

Hopefully they come out of this stage quickly or we just learn to work around their schedule!