6 month old IRN - BITING and LUNGING, HELP!!

Moderator: Mods

Post Reply
Sollyt29
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:05 am

6 month old IRN - BITING and LUNGING, HELP!!

Post by Sollyt29 »

Hi Guys,

I kindly need some help with my 6 month old IRN. We got him from 3-4 weeks old which i know was too young, but we believe the breeder lied to us about his age and said he was older than he actually was. We weened him until he was around 3 months and then he started to reject milk as they do and went onto the solid foods. Anyway, to the point, he was such a loving bird before and even when he went through his bluffing phase, he would never bite or be aggressive towards me, only my partner. We assumed he was mean to her due to the bluffing and that because he 'chose me' that I happened to be lucky to not have to deal with any aggressiveness from him. Well, this went on since we got him and when he reached around 4 months old, that all changed. He all of a sudden one day, started to be aggressive with me and treat me exactly how he treated my partner. I tried everything, ignoring his bites, not reacting ever and leaving him be if he warns me with the pinning of eyes and about to lunge. He is a free roaming and free-flighted bird and has been since he was young. He literally has the apartment to himself and sleeps only in his cage at night, which we cover completely. He gets around 10-12 hours of undisturbed sleep per night, so i know he's not cranky due to tiredness. When i am home he is so needy and has to be in the room i go to, even if it may be the toilet, he will come :)). He will happily sit on my head, shoulders, if i'm laying on the sofa he will come and sit on my chest with no issues. HOWEVER, if i want to pet him or even touch him, it's a different story. He will bite extremely hard, lunge at me, pin his eyes etc. ONLY in the evening when i turn off the lamp while watching TV (the room is dark), he will come and sit on my chest and fall asleep. Only then i am able to stroke him, maybe because he is sleepy. Last night he actually came to me before i turned off the lamp and by himself decided it was sleepy time. I allow him to sleep on me for an hour or so and when i'll be able to pick him up and put him in his cage for the night to sleep (which is how i am able to get him into his cage every night). In the morning, i wake up and once i hear him moving around i will uncover and open his cage. Sometimes he will step up with no issues and i take him to his perch to do his morning poo but other times (70% of the time, i'll ask him to step up and he will attack my hand very violently). As i said he is now 6 months and has been like this now for over 2 months. Is it something he will grow out of, or is it more serious where I have to go back and re-tame him? Looking for some professional advice as I love him a lot and although i understand they are not very cuddly birds at the best of times, I want back what we had before more than ever!! If he is just a bird that doesn't like to be touched and has outgrown that stage, then i can live with that too. Just trying to see if there is maybe something i've done wrong (maybe the fact he's out of the cage all day, he's got used to being alone and not being handled)??

Anyway, very sorry for the long post but I felt i needed to explain everything in detail and answer all questions that may arise before they do! Thank you so much!!

Sol
Post Reply