Aggressiveness

[Mare]

Today, I was sitting in the bird room, Sassy was in the living room with Tim, Chip was locked in his cage, so, I thought that this might be a good time to get some one on one time with Amigo. He had been outside but flew in about an hour earlier. I bring him to sit with me, all is well until, out of nowhere, he launched off my lap and flew directly to Chips cage! He hit the side of it so hard, head feathers up, wings puffed and just scared the whooty out of poor little Chip!! Chip slammed up against the other side of his cage, poor little buddy :(. I had to peel Amigo off the cage, Chip hissing the whole time.

This is such an aggressive bird, I would hate to see what he could do to Sassy or Chip if he ever caught them. Does anyone else, with multiple birds, have to deal with this type of behavior?

[Honesty]

Oooh, I can't help you with this one Mare. It sounds like Amigo is very jealous of Sassy and Chip though :(

[Turquoise]

My GCC Peta will think nothing of flying to Roscoe's enclosure (not sure why she picks on him) and proceeds to try and fight with him. He is right there giving blows with his beak as well. I have her snatched up in a flash so no damage. I told her the last time she was crazy for thinking she could whip a bird whose beak is as large as her whole body. The main reason I keep her wings clipped, to protect the Pineapple Terror.

Since I brought Sierra home and she has now moved into the area close to Peta they will pick fights with each other if both are out at the same time. Peta gets put up promptly when this occurs as Sierra could bite a toe off. Roscoe and Angel are the only two of mine who do get along, but they came home together and know they are brothers (I think they know). Roscoe will bite Angel's feet at times if one climbs along the other's wire. Roscoe and Ruby Jewel are jealous of each other. Ruby Jewel and Leyla Belle are jealous of each other. Basically everyone is jealous of the next one if I am in the picture. :(

[Mare]

Yeah, it's nuts! I hear of people having all of their birds out at the same time and living peacefully, on top of their own cage or play gym, and all in the same room! That does not happen at my house, no way! I was thinking it might be a cockatoo thing, maybe not?

[Debra]

My birds in the living room are out on their cages but they never go visiting each other. Mayhem would break out if they did. The tiels and budgies get along just fine.

[Honesty]

I do have a few friends with Cockatoo's and they are also aggressive to their other birds, so yes, it may well be a cockatoo thing! Having said that, one of our members here (Rita) has video's on the forum of her CAG and Cockatoo together and they are the best of friends. Here is the latest one :)

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[Blancaej]

Wow Mare, no fun at all. My guys all get along as long as they are on their own playgyms and in their own cages. Although Savannah is the sweetest of all my birds she is the biggest aggressor toward the others. She is not one to lung and attack, but she will walk over to them with beak right open ready to nip them when she can. Quincy and her can finally sit pretty close together now with no issue. I think she is starting to like him. LOL! As for Savannah and Coqui, I keep them at a good distance apart for right now. Savannah is very jealous of her. But I am working on building a relationship between the two. Will it happen? Not sure, but hoping. Things have gotten better since the beginning. We'll see! :th_wink:

[garden squirrel]

I live with a mixed selection of birds. I have found it is down to the individual bird. My grey is totally aggressive towards other birds, cracker my cockatoo is ok but won't socialise but does not show aggression, just ignores the others. My conures and Senegal are little demons to other birds and will take on any bird whatever their size. They are certainly brave chappies. I have found it hard to socialise different species and most of the time if they do have time out they ignore each other and find their own individual space away from the other. I had a Moluccan too she was like yours. She would fly in major attack mode. The aggression was shocking and when you tried to get her she would almost be frenzied with aggression.

[Mare]

Wendy, I've seen that video that Rita posted, she sure has a sweet group, there. What's funny is, Amigo came from a home with an African Grey and they got along great but he was also more or less raised around this other bird. I suppose the fact that I am his "chosen one" and he has matured doesn't help with this issue.
Debra and Blanca, I'm envious! I think the reason I don't really entertain the thought of bringing in another bird, not anymore anyways, is Amigo's aggressiveness.
Dawn, your Moluccan sounds like my Amigo! I agree, they all have their own personalities and temperaments. It's a scary thing when they can't control themselves and fly into attack mode! EEEK!

On the flip side of all this, I don't think he would do as well as he does, outside, without having this side of him be so strong.

[PlaxMacaws]

With my flock, Salsa loves everyone except Jack. He adores Maynard and really seems to like Zaf. But each time I open Jack's cage door Sals will start screaming incessantly. He won't attack him, but as long as Jack is out of his cage there's no rest for the eardrums :(. Zaf unfortunately only seems to tolerate Salsa. I think he kind of likes him, but I can't break his bad habit of trying to peck poor Sals squarely in the center of the top of his head. That's just gotta hurt! Salsa doesn't usually become retaliatory when it happens, but he clearly hates it and appears obviously offended (and justifiably so).

Maynard really likes Salsa. But he has learned to become more cautious around him than he used to be. The two truly enjoy interacting (vocalizing a bit, pinning together, etc.) :). Sadly, Maynard still tries to kill Jack whenever he detects an opportunity. Before his stroke in 2011, Maynard used to fly at Jack from across the room like a heat-seeking missile and crash into him, which would hurl them both to the floor where it became a violent ball of attack aggression that I had to jump in the middle of to save Jack from a brutal death. Maynard no longer flies, so this doesn't occur anymore. But he still attempts to get to Jack and he has bitten him somewhat badly a number of times during the past 3 years.

So Salsa is the bird who loves the most of his flock mates, while Zaf is the most affectionate flock member toward me. And then Maynard is the most dangerous flock member!

[Mare]

It sounds like the big macaws, as a whole, have a much better temperament than the larger cockatoos. Tony, do you let Maynard out with the others?

[PlaxMacaws]

Tony, do you let Maynard out with the others?I usually have two or three of them out at a time. I alternate which of them are out together. Occasionally I'll have all 4 out at once. But for safety, they never share the same stands, gyms, or perches at the same time.

Something that really scares me is the fact that Zaf has begun lunging at Salsa when he does his Eagle Bird full wing spread. Whenever Sals does it and Zaf is fairly close to him, Zaf targets the middle of one of Salsa's extended wings. It seems to be inspired by some jealousy that Zaf feels toward Salsa. What I'm extremely concerned about is the reality that Zaf could so easily snap one of Salsa's wing bones if he were to land one of those lunges :(.

[Pinkbirdy]

Mare ,I believe Amigo thinks your his mate . They will act this way towards anyone they think as a threat [whether it be human or animal] .

[Pinkbirdy]

Tony ,that has to be hard with the screaming [What do you do?]

[PlaxMacaws]

Tony ,that has to be hard with the screaming [What do you do?]As far as Salsa's screaming (when Jack is out - Sals is not a screamer), I just try and make sure that Salsa is in another room when it's Jack's time to be out. Plus, I can handle Salsa's screams just fine... it's Maynard's screaming that drives me insane :eek:

[kendrafitz]

Mare - Poor Chip! He must have been a mess!

Tony - I can't help but feel sorry for Jack. Poor guy is the odd man out!

[Mare]

Thanks, Terri, yeah, it sucks :(

[Minamommy]

Mare that's why I said I don't think I could get another bird. Mina attack toys on the floor like that. I did have a little parakeet that the use to do the same thing to hop on the cage and all feathers and crest up hissing rocking back and forth and then trying to bite through the bars!! I ended up giving it up to my AV so it could keep her cockatoo company while she works. Now Mina does this to toys. You can't walk past her or then your feet get attacked. I've learned just to let her go and burn off the energy. To get in the middle of that is to lose a finger.
Mare is that why you let Amigo out to fly and live the way he does?

[ShellyBorg]

Not just Too's Mare. Paris HATES other birds. She took the toe off of poor Widget last month so fast there was nothing I could do. Widget was in her cage when Paris lunched her self off her play pen and on to her cage. Widget decided to fight for her space and went after Paris. It happened so fast. There was no blood the cut/crush was that clean. Poor Widget spent 6 days in the hospital cage but we never ended up giving her and antibiotics. Both my vet and I decided to hold off with how clean it was. It healed vary clean and not ill effects. But I am vary couscous of where my bid blue chicken is and try to keep her out of direct eye contact with any other bird when she is out.

[BeakFace]

Well my birds are all flighted and I think that's part of the problem. They can and do attack. So I have to be careful at all times when I have more than one out. If they were clipped they would stay on top of whatever and could admire or NOT from a far! In my case NOT! My Rose Breasted and Queen of Barvaria are similar size so I can put them out at the same time as long as I am there every minute. My two Palm Cockatoo's same thing. I recently just got Black Palm Luci, almost 15 (as seen on YouTube) and Poe almost 2 years old. They like each other but its hard to read there boby language with each other. Poe likes to crowd her where ever she is. He flys around and nose dives her as he circles and then will get just as close to her as possible! They do kiss but there wings go crazy flapping and they scream and beak each other but not in an agressive way. I know they like each other because the cheeks are bright red when this is happening! When Luci is scared her cheeks turn almost white, like trying to give her a shower, that's another story! Anyway Poe has slammed into Bailey cage on several occasions (Queen) and it scared me to death. Bailey slams into Murphy cage (Rose Breasted) so now I take them out of the bird room one at a time so cages aren't involved. This way I can sit there and enjoy! I do let multiple pairs out when I feel up to it! IF YOU FIND THE SECRET PLEASE SHARE!

[Mare]

Well, I'm glad to hear I'm not alone! Kim, when you asked if this is the reason why I let Amigo out to fly and live the way he does,,,the answer is, no. The reason we do what we do with Amigo is, he wasn't doing well, doing what he was doing, in a cage or a home atmosphere full time. He's a much more well balanced bird for having this freedom but his aggressive tendencies are still intact :)

[Minamommy]

Well I guess it's good if he's outside a lot that he is more aggressive to defend himself. When they turn it on us oweee I feel you Mare nothing worse than that cockatoo beak. I just keep telling myself she doesn't mean to be mean. That usually helps not be angry as the blood is rolling out of whatever part of my body that has been punctured at that point in time lol.

[Mare]

Amigo has never drawn blood on me, on others?..yes. Sassy got me good, today, I've got two band aids on my middle finger :(. Such is life,,,

I've actually come to terms with my lot in life with my birds. It could be a hell of a lot worse. Let me think, hmm..

Just kidding, I love my birds, most times :)

[Minamommy]

I don't know weather to laugh or cry. We have matching ringers. I told Mina my song to her would be Unconditionally by Katie Perry. I love her for all that she is no matter what.

[Mare]

That is such a perfect song! :)