Anybody else?

[slky01]

My little Lutino, Suki, is just a sweetheart, or was. I raised her from 4 weeks on. Adore her. She can be very ornery and a bit spiteful. One day she made a lunge for one or my earrings. She grabbed it and pulled. Hard. Instinctively, I swatted at her. Now, she wants nothing to do with me. She won't come to me anymore or have anything to do with me petting her. She moves away when I come toward her cage and flies away when I try to get her to step up. She will go anyone, but me. It really breaks my heart. She is a year old and has been acting this way for a couple months. Any suggestions?

[ellieelectrons]

Hi and welcome.

I'm sorry to hear about your problems with Suki.

Jewellery, especially earrings, are a common problem. I'm guessing they look similar to a seed pod or something hanging from a tree and it is their natural instinct to grab at them. I guess the first thing to realise is that although it is painful and very undesirable behaviour from your bird it was most likely not enacted with any malice on the part of your bird. It either saw it as a toy or possibly something to eat. Some people train their birds to ignore jewellery. I prefer to just remove my jewellery when I get home. I will leave rings on but remove necklaces and earrings before I interact with my guys. My Janey doesn't like (or loves - not sure which) my engagement ring and will often lunge at it.

You can come back from this. I once accidentally kicked Janey across the room. At the time, her wings were clipped and she was waddling along the floor to me and I didn't know she was there... It was awful. I couldn't forgive myself. She gave me a nip when I was fussing over her to see if she was okay... and I was kinda glad that she did because I felt at least she paid me back a little!

Another time she latched on to my finger and I instinctively withdrew it... because she can bite really hard... she was still latched on... and once again the force of my hand withdrawing flung her halfway across the room! Not my finest moment!

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that these things happen and all we can do is try to do better in the future. I would suggest that for you, you be the one who offers her her fav treats. Will she take treats from your hand? That's probably the starting point for you. Offer the treats through the cage bars or when the bird is out and about. If she's not interested, start eating in front of her and then share some with her when she shows some interest. You want to be the one to give her the stuff she loves - it starts to reform the positive association she had of you with things she loves.

There are more things you can do but this is a starting point... if she's already doing this or you've moved past that level, post again with more details.

She can be very ornery and a bit spiteful.

Finally, whilst birds do have their own personalities and some will have greater propensities for certain behaviours, birds' personalities are also very malleable. Their attitude towards you can change when your behaviour towards them changes (as you recently witnessed when you accidentally swatted your bird). So even if your bird seems to be spiteful or stubborn, there are things that you can do to change this. I own the DVD "Parrot Behaviour and Training #1" (see http://www.goodbirdinc.com/parrot-store-dvds.html) and at the end of it, the trainer worked with the bird's owner to turn a biting bird that the owner had stopped letting out of the cage because of its anti-social behaviour into a cooperative, friendly bird. It was really amazing! So I would like to encourage you... with time, patience and a bit of thought, things can change. This forum is a really great place to come for help. There are lots of people who will be more than willing to support you.

So good luck with Suki. I look forward to reading some more details on how the two of you are going.

Ellie.