Good Work Undone and Not Fixing Easily

[Matho]

Within a couple of weeks of buying a lovebird, I had taught it the "up" command; made it comfortable enough with me to sit in the palm of my hand and fall sleep; trained it to come to me when called by name: it was generally becoming quite tame and personable. However, the bird was vicious towards my girlfriend (whose bird it was meant to be) and this concerned me.

We took the bird to the vet for its initial check up and decided to get its wings clipped, as the vet felt it may be less aggressive towards my girlfriend (and other people who aren't me) if it temporarily lost its flying ability.

The bird has not been the same since the wing clipping. The bird was quiet for several days and then became incredibly vicious. It has calmed down a lot but will ignore "up"; will not sit in my hand longer than it needs to prepare to fly off somewhere else and is generally less tame than it was. The bird still bites me, but not as hard as before, and still bites my girlfriend, often drawing blood. The bird will also not return to its cage (unless it has been out for a very long time), which is very annoying when I want to get something done (as I feel very bad scooping her up with a towel and placing her back in the cage).

Has anybody had a similar experience ?
Does anyone have any idea on how to re-tame the beast ?

I should mention that when trying to get the bird to "up" there are two basic reactions: if I use my finger it will bite me and, if sitting on a perch or similar, just lean backwards so far that I can't do the gentle upwards press to enccourage the "up".
If I use a dowel, the bird just attacks it and rips chunks out of it. The bird will also lean backwards and down if I try to press the dowel gently up.
Just to clarify, the clipping just reduced its flying ability, it wasn't a total loss of flight.

[kimsbirds]

HI there !

The key to wingclipping is not to take away the birds' flight capacity, but rather to limit their upward flight. If your bird cannot sustain a constant level for 5-7 feet of flight, it's possible too many flights were clipped. That being said, if the bird feels completely limited and uncomfortable, this could explain why you've seen such a change in behaviour. Unfortunately for you, you'll need to start back at square 1 to retrain your bird. Fortunately, those flight feathers do molt out and then regrow, so it's a temporary situation. Regaining trust and training isn't difficult, just time consuming. Patience always pays off as you well know, so I advise to simply start off slow again and try to see the little accomplishments rather than comparing what "used to be".
Spoil him/her rotten and spend as much time as you can to regain his trust and build up the confidence level.
Best Wishes

[linda040899]

I agree with Kim when she states that the purpose of trimming flight feathers is to limit flight rather than to eliminate it. If your lovie went from being able to fly to no flight, that's a huge change and she's going to be upset! You would feel the same way if you suddenly lost your ability to walk as well as you used to.

I'm going to add that birds bite. That's their way of expressing fear and anger. The best way not to get bitten is to avoid the bite. Read through Biters Not So Anonymous and you will see that you are not alone in this problem. You will also find a lot of suggestions on how to deal with a biting bird.