Spring and Pinches and Bruises, Oh My!!

[kendrafitz]

Spring has FINALLY sprung here in NJ. The sun has been shining and it has been slowly warming up. Which makes me very happy.

Spring apparently makes Rosie a crazy, rough girl. In the last week she has been pinching me like a crazed lunatic. She is getting a great amount of enjoyment out of it. Putting her on the floor is not deterring her, time outs are not deterring her. It is just too much fun to stop! Today I was at my MILs house in short sleeves doing yard work. When I looked down at my arms in the sunlight I realized my arms look like I am a victim of domestic abuse. Lots of small bruises all over my arms. Then one very suspicious beak shaped bruise from a full on grind/pinch. Sigh...I was actually embarrassed. My MIL is afraid of Rosie and this does not help. I hope she calms down before bathing suit season as my chest doesn't look much better.

Crazy, wicked, rough little girl.

[Mare]

Aww.. :(. We need to hook her up with Amigo, he doesn't pinch like Rosie but he sure is a horn-dog! Spring is definitely in the air!

[mdg1109]

Oh my....does she do it on purpose or playing around? I know that is a silly question to ask but I am new to being a bird parent. Does she go in her cage for time out?

I am learning through you all that way when Charlie gets to this age I will be prepared :th_eek:

[lolsavannahh]

Nash is doing the same thing! He bites the nuts out of my fingers whenever I ask him to step up now and I have been doing the same as usual! He does it for fun it seems because right after he will still step up normally, but he just goes beak-first.

[kendrafitz]

Michelle - she does it on purpose, playing around I guess in her mind. She sometimes yells o[Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks] or laughs while doing it. I go through this every now and then with her, but this go round she is rougher than ever.

Time outs for us depend on what is going on in the house. It is either her cage or the stand in my bedroom with the door shut. Sometimes I put her on her tree in the family room, but not often as if she can see me she screams.

I had read that putting them on the floor can help. Which is difficult bc of the dogs. But when they are outside I will put her down. If I can do that consistantly, it usually helps. It gets to the point that I can ask her if she wants me to put her on the floor when she pinches. She says no, then I tell her to be gentle and we are good. But it has been a while since we had to do that. So I guess the rekindled joy of pinching has overridden the hatred of the floor. I will have to be more consistent.

[kendrafitz]

Savannah - guess the spring air has them nutty. Hope your fingers feel better soon!!

[spiritbird]

You should rub bitter orange on your arms and the taste may deter her.

[PlaxMacaws]

Whenever Salsa gets pinchy with me, I merely need grasp his head -ever so gently- in a helmet grip (index, middle and remaining fingers wrapped around the top of his head and thumb below his lower mandible - a loose grip without any pressure) and have a short talk with him. I usually look him in the eye and tell him, "no pinches... be gentle!" He actually responds to this by being pleasantly gentle thereafter. Might something like this work for Rosie?

Speaking of difficult behaviors and Salsa, yesterday morning he was on top of his cage. I had on a pair of reading glasses and bent over to pick up something from the floor that was near his cage. When I came back up, Salsa lunged forward and grabbed the glasses from my face (by the nose bridge), then violently hurled them onto the floor. He hates this particular pair of glasses and enjoys brutalizing them... plus he thinks doing so is pretty funny. Well, as soon as my glasses hit the floor, I bent over to pick them up and Salsa backed away from where I was standing - because I usually admonish him after he does the glasses hurl and he anticipated that this time would be no different. So I stepped up on a nearby footstool and leaned over the top of the cage so I could be nose to beak with him during my planned admonishment. Well, before I could get a single syllable out, Sals looked me squarely in the eyes and said in his most sarcastic tone, "how are you?" I started laughing like a fool :D. Sals thus escaped the admonishment. I'm sure he will have his way with this pair of glasses again and again in the future (until he ends up breaking them, that is). He clearly uses humor to defuse my responses to his antics ;)

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Casper, after doing something naughty like biting, will say "I'm a good boy" to which the reply is usually "no, you're not!" :)

[kendrafitz]

Dianne - that is a good idea, thank you!

Tony - thank you so much for the early morning giggle. Salsa is such a funny guy. I would have been laughing as well. :) I will try the helmet grasp and see if it works. I generally grab her beak and say no pinching, be gentle! Which is followed by a kiss on her cheek or beak. Actually, the kiss thing is probably a bad idea. I just feel badly about being harsh and don't want to hurt her feelings. Which is probably why she keeps doing it. I will let you know how the helmet works.

JP - Casper cracks me up. I would have trouble not laughing at his insistence that he is a good boy even though he is obviously being naughty. ; )

[mdg1109]

Thank you for telling me what you do with her Kendra, sounds like she might be visiting time out if her behavior doesn't change.

Everyone else thank you for making me laugh!

[bill-e]

Speaking of pinches and biting. We've found out over the last week that Nike hates cell phones. I had an incident with her a month or so ago where she was on my shoulder during a conference call and was talking so much that I took the call off speaker and put it to my ear (on the opposite side) She immediately went after my head and I escaped without injury. Forgetting about it my wife had her on her shoulder last week and answered the phone...she was not so lucky with Nike drawing blood from biting her ear. Then yesterday, as if we hadn't learned the lesson already, I was sitting on the couch and she was on my forearm which was on my lap. I got a text and picked up the phone with my other hand and she came over and chomped on my arm...no blood but I had to flick her off onto the couch to get her to let go.

So apparently Nike is not a techie and does not like smart phones.

As far as hormonal biting, she has become someone unpredictable but because of her obvious body language and honking, it's pretty easy to know when to avoid a bite.

[kendrafitz]

Bill - Rosie hates phones, cell phones and tablets. She hates my Samsung tablet with a passion. She has made a mess of the case from the fun tug of war we end up playing.

Basically, she dislikes anything that she perceives as taking my attention away from her. Maybe Nike is feeling the same way?

[Lady]

Basically, she dislikes anything that she perceives as taking my attention away from her.

This is the answer right here in your own words. You have to find it important enough not to get all bruised up. If the bitter orange and the helmet hold don't work and you really want her to not do that to you, you have to be a strong Mommy and know it is in her best interest if you can be consistent with getting yourself out of her sight every time.
I know I'm preaching to the choir but sometimes we need to be reminded, they are the way they are some of the time because we let them get that way.
I know Lady doesn't step up as I would like because I'm not consistent with her. I spend more time letting her choose when she wants to step up than working on getting her to do it :(.