Just the last few days, Cosmo has been really aggressive. He is also going through his first moult, and spends a lot of time doing mating dances with all his toys or anything that moves.

 

Basically... he now jumps onto my hand sometimes and will just attack and bite my hand really really hard that it actually hurts. He never used to do this. Now I don't know when he gets up onto my hand whether he'll be nice or whether he'll get fully stuck into it!

 

I haven't noticed any pattern to when he does this apart from that it does seem to be when he's excited. Like if he's just been doing a bit of a mating dance... or sometimes after biting me he just flaps his wings on the spot.

 

ANY ADVICE? What can I do to stop this biting?

Howmany daylight hours ishe getting,if he is ghormonal decreasing the daylight time might help

It's quite common for budgies to get aggressive through their first moult.

It will pass as the moult finishes - its the equivalent to budgie puberty :thankyou:

You can decrease his daytime by covering his cage with a sheet.

I was almost going to respond to an old thread today that I thought would be interesting to people trying to tame their birds... I think hath posted it... basically what was suggested was whenever your budgie does something wrong you take him and put him down lower than what he currently is... it was using the theory that in the wild the higher up a budgie is the more up the chain of command he is... the young budgies get the lower perches. By lowering him you are letting him know that he has done something wrong....

 

I've never trained a budgie so I can't give personal experience, just passing on info I read... If I find the post I'll bump it for ya.

This is normal and Merlin goest through this and it will pass and all you can do is ignore it and don't react.

Do cover him extra for 1-2 hours a day this helps snap them out of the behavior quicker.

Don't worry he will be back to normal in a week or 2 .

Thanks everyone

okay that is great advice because the daylight hours are a lot longer at this time of year, so I've probably been letting him have more sunlight than I would have say a few months ago. Glad to know it's probably related to the moulting too.

 

JB - interesting theory. He doesn't like being lower than my shoulder area usually, so might be interesting to give it a go.

Edited December 21, 200816 yr by krosp

Thanks everyone

okay that is great advice because the daylight hours are a lot longer at this time of year, so I've probably been letting him have more sunlight than I would have say a few months ago. Glad to know it's probably related to the moulting too.

 

JB - interesting theory. He doesn't like being lower than my shoulder area usually, so might be interesting to give it a go.

 

He doesn't like it because if he is lower than you you are dominant over him... Like most males they like to be in charge.

do let us know how he does when you decrease the daylight hours and he starts to come out of his molt

So far when I've tried dropping him lower he doesn't like it, and immediately flies to my shoulder. Maybe it's a good reinforcer that biting is not on, even if he doesn't see it as a dominance thing.

 

I think his moult will last a lot longer, it's only just started. It's cool seeing his new feathers come through but they're still mostly baby ones.

im really curious to see how you go with cosmo now then bitey was doing the same so i kept putting him lower than my shoulder and he seems to be getting the message finally

he doesnt even bite me anymore so there is hope for cosmo for sure

even if he fly's back up to your shoulder and then you put him down again, He is still getting the message that that behavior is not good and he will be placed lower in the pecking order so to speak... Like I said I've never tried it cos I've never tamed a bird, just passing on the information