molting and bluffing??? Im confused

kenden56 · Post by **kenden56** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:48 pm

Ok guys, I have had my IRN for about a year. Simon is 4 years old (approximatly), and lived with my brother and his wife until they didnt want to take care of him anymore. Simon adapted VERY well to his new home. Ok so this is the first time I have gone through a molt with him and suddenly he is super aggressive towards us. He bites when we get him out of his cage, and then later when we put him back he pines his eyes, ducks his head, fluffs up and if we try to get him out again while he is doing this behavior he bites hard. I thought bluffing happens when they are younger? Is he just super pissed that he is loosing feathers and has "spikes" growing out of his head, cause I'd be pissed too. Just curious on how any of you delt with this and if this is common. Also, Im confused on how to deal with the biting behavior...so far we just completly ignore it, but are we supposed to be asserting dominance over him???

Photoguy77 · Post by **Photoguy77** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:59 am

there are MANY reasons that could cause this. Maybe first try opening his cage door and let him exit the cage himself. If its a territorial issue, letting him get out of the cage himself might not make him so aggressive. I guess what Im saying is try different things that may pinpoint what is triggerring this behaivor. Is the bird aggressive all the time or randomly?

kenden56 · Post by **kenden56** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:47 pm

Thank you Photoguy77 for the reply. Simon is aggressive towards us randomly. He will come out of his cage just fine and other times he is super mad. Lately we have been going up to his cage and giving him LOTs of warning and just saying step up before we even open the cage. This has helped. I think what was happening was we were putting him in his cage for a few minutes when I had to do something real quick in the kitchen and then go get him again and it may have been confusing him. I honestly dont know...My other thoughts are that he is molting and its spring so he may have just had a jolt of hormones.??? What do you think?