# Diving bombing bite bird, protecting me?



## CaitlinT (Jan 21, 2011)

Lunar has been with us for a few months now and is a loving and cheeky little guy - with me. He lives in my room because we have cats and a dog so he isn't allowed in the rest of the house. He has a good diet and is let out for at least 4 hours everyday and I train/play with him frequently.

Due to this situation he doesn't see the rest of my family very often. My dad doesn't like birds so he won't come in when's Lunars out but my mum will and she does come in for quick chat while he's out every other day or so. And I have friends round occasionally.
He has a terrible habit of landing on strangers heads all the time; you take him off he flies back on, you take him off he flies back on ect. ect. I don't encourage this behaviour as I see it as dominant and I rarely let him sit on my head if at all, when he does I give him the brush off.

It's not too much of a problem and he's generally well behaved around me. When my mum vists him he normally goes for her head a few times then calms down after a while and sits on her shoulder and she chats with him. But recently when my mum comes in he swoops like a crazy at her head and when I go to remove him he bites - hard. He becomes really different and keeps dive bombing a trying to sit on her head, she isn't frightened of birds but the bites hurt and he isn't settling down so much. 
And today he just wouldn't stop going at her head and when I put my hand up to stop him he fought with it in the air and landed some pretty mean bites. After a while he'd calmed down and sat on her shoulder(my mum kept her arm on her head to stop him going for it). She talked to him and he ran round the neck of her shirt for a bit then turned round looked at her glasses and attacked her face, I'm glad she wears glasses because he was pretty darn angry.

She doesn't really want to vist him much anymore because he's just unpleasant to be around when he's like that and she's a little scared of him. He isn't aggressive like that around my friends, he just sits on there heads.
Is he trying to protect me from this 'threat'? or does he see her as a challenge to his status with me?
And much more importantly how to I solve this problem?
I know the less she vists the worse it'll get and I don't want him to become an anti-social one-person bird. I'm not sure whether it her he likes or not, he respones more readily to her voice for imitating words; is this him liking her or holding his own against her song?

Sorry for all the questions, any vaguely related information is highly appreciated.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Going by his age it sounds like he's hit that bratty teenage boy stage. He thinks you're his mate and he's protecting you from what he sees as an intruder. How many hours of sleep does he get a night?


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## CaitlinT (Jan 21, 2011)

I thought it was something like that, any idea of things that would help or is it just a matter of wait till his hormones cool down? He reacts worse to my mum than anyone else, is there any reason for that?
And I always try to go for the 10-12 hours a night; although it's sometimes longer on the weekends the lie in normally puts it right XD. He goes to bed around 9-10 and I get up at 7:30 - 8:00.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

12-14hrs is usually the recommended amount of sleep. This should help lower his levels, other than that you really just have to wait it out. Maybe try holding him and letting your mom pet him so he can't hop on her head? Although my boys love chewing on my hair and sitting on my head.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

I don't see jumping on someones head as a dominance thing at least I have never seen a documentary on parrots that said anything about alpha males in a flock.
Spike is on my head right now and I just take him off but he does not bite me. The most he will do is peck to say hey I like it up here I can see lots of things. 
Spike jumped on my head so much I made a game of it (if you can't beat them join them ) I act all worried and ask Spike where did you go and he will lean over my head and look into my eye and I will go Spike is that you and he will blow me a kiss 
Here is a link about tiel hormones http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-beh...d-small-bird-behavior/hormonal-cockatiel.aspx
He is young and could be getting into the terrible twos soon as well.


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## lordsnipe (Nov 11, 2010)

I used to get divebombed by Nibbler, either because he was protecting Colbie from me, or he was protecting me from Colbie .. not sure.

My solution? I clipped him. Long nights didn't work in my case, but after the clip, he no longer has the flight dexterity to pull off a dive bomb and attack mid flight.

I am generally pro-flight (Colbie is still flighted), but in this case, it's made him a lot easier to handle.


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## crinklepot (Nov 18, 2010)

xxxSpikexxx said:


> Spike jumped on my head so much I made a game of it (if you can't beat them join them ) I act all worried and ask Spike where did you go and he will lean over my head and look into my eye and I will go Spike is that you and he will blow me a kiss


Lol that is SO cute


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