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jacinta
10-21-2012, 08:21 AM
Lately Sunny has been very angry and territorial. I cannot even stick my hand in her and Mango's cage to get her to step up without Sunny's head and back feathers fluffing up, which to me pretty much means "back off or I'll bite!" I will leave her alone and let her come out of the cage on her own terms, by this point she will happily step up onto my hand without biting me. Sometimes though she will catch me off guard and bite me really hard on my fingers if I am not quick enough to get Mango (they usually bunch up together on the perch, which is a pain in itself since I often get a warning nip from Sunny for touching Mango as Sunny thinks I am going to touch her... :() I have had no problems with Mango, Mango seems to have her (his????) hormones in check and has been really well behaved, occasionally giving me a nip but never as hard as one of Sunny's are.

I have noticed that Sunny will chew up anything and everything within her range, newspaper, my clothes, the table cloth and so on. I don't know how I can discourage her from doing this as it can be a real pain when she chews tiny holes in my pajama shirt. She ripped a hole in one of my good shirts yesterday and she has never been like that before, I think she wants to nest but I change the cage around every week to discourage her and I make sure she can't destroy the newspaper on the bottom of the cage as another way of discouraging her.

I basically just need/want to know if I will get my cheeky little girl back eventually? And if so, when? Also, how can I discourage her from being so adamant on chewing on my clothes and the table cloth? She is rather destructive, more so than usual and it would be nice not to have to throw my stuff out because she has deemed it nest worthy :( I know that I can't stop her from being territorial, I just let her alone which results in us both being happy as no one is bothered or bitten. Any help or advice is very much appreciated! :)

linda040899
10-21-2012, 09:05 AM
Ah, the wonders of lovie hen!!! :) If she wants to chew things up, keep her busy! Let her forage more for her food. Parrots search for food in the wild all day long and it keeps them very busy. Captive kept parrots normally have food readily available, 24/7/365 so it's extremely easy for them. Wrapping food in paper, stuffing it in finger traps and generally hiding it so they have to look for it will use up some of that energy that she's using for aggression.

Start out easy in the beginning so they get the hang of it and then progress to the level that seems to work for them. You want them busy, not hungry. :)

jacinta
11-04-2012, 06:40 AM
Thank you Linda, I have been respecting Sunny's space as well as trying to keep her busy and she has calmed down a lot in the past few weeks. She now jumps onto my hand as soon as she sees me open the cage. She still gets a tad hostile if anyone apart from me goes near the cage but that is just typical Sunny behavior :lol