A little background on me and the bird in question: (sorry it's long, I'm a wordy person)
I'm new to this forum, but not new to birds. I recently adopted a 9 year old male (surgically sexed and tattood male, so we know for sure his gender) BFA.
In his previous home of 4 years, he was never handled. Though he was originally a pet-quality handfed baby in the home before that, and the home before that, (yes, I'm his 4th, and final, owner.) So he had become a little, how do you say.....NOT a big fan of humans.
The day I got him, he hated me, as expected. Two weeks of him being here left me with a few bites, nothing major. But for the most part our "interaction" was limited to treats through the cage bars and head pettin's the same way. Any tries of getting him out of the cage resulted in my blood being spilled. (how dramatic sounding)
Exactly two weeks to the day of him coming here, he went to the vet for a well bird checkup and a grooming. I had to towel him out of the cage, and the vet handled it from there. Upon coming home, he has been my best friend ever since. Literally. Corny as it sounds, I think he believes I was his only hope in getting out of that "awful" vet's, and he decided I wasn't half bad for that. He hangs out on the counter while I do dishes, he sits on the computer desk while I play on the internet, he sits on my bed while I get dressed and ready in the mornings, he loves to sit on me and we sing together, and he has earned the right to take showers with me too. In fact he had just taken a shower with me yesterday. From that day he has never offered so much as a warning bite. No aggression, nothing. He has been super sweet, and those who knew him before this sudden sweetness happened, can hardly believe how he changed so quickly for the better. Things have been this way for over a month.
So you can imagine my surprise when I went to get him out this morning the way I always do, and he bit me. Hard. Not a warning. Not a "test". But a full on, rip your skin off, and fling it to the cage bottom bite. Although shocked, I pressed on, and tried to get him to step up. He bit me again.
I closed his door, to give myself a moment to think and tend to my injuries, as well as give him a moment to cool down. I tried again about 15 minutes later. This time not only did he bite me twice very hard, but as I tried to close his cage door, he lunged from the back of his cage to the front and grabbed my finger through the cage bars and bit down on my knuckle.
I *REALLY* just thought this was a case of bad mood or something had spooked him this morning. So I left him be the rest of the day. About an hour ago, I decided to get him out because he had already missed out on a large portion of his 'out of the cage time' for the day.
I opened the door and before I could even get my arm in "step up" position, he was hanging on the side of the cage trying as hard as he could to get at me, beak gaping, and growling for all he was worth.
I tried just talking to him to calm him, and once he stopped pinning his eyes and lunging at me, I offered my hand again. I'll give you three guesses what happened. Yep.
After that, he flew off (glided down, he's clipped) his cage and landed in the kitchen. I offered him a step up off the ground, in which he gladly accepted with tail fanned and eyes pinned. Once he was up, he began sweet talking, and dropped his head in what I thought was going to be "pet me" position, only to bite down on the meat of my hand.
My hands are bloody and bruised, swollen and sore. I've taken 10 good bites from him, today alone.
Tell me what I'm doing wrong? All the body language I've seen from him has NEVER been what it is today. Yet there is nothing changed in our house, or his cage. His food types are pretty consistant. His daylight hours are shortening simply because it's getting darker earlier and all the birds go to bed earlier.
He does NOT sense my fear. I am NOT afraid of him. He's done some pretty good damage to my hands, and I'm not afraid of him doing it again. So I don't think he senses any sort of hesitation from me. Even though I know there is a good chance a nasty bite is coming, I don't jerk my hand away or act any differently toward him than I would have previous to this. I offer him a hand and a "step up" with confidence and no anger or fear in my tone.
I want my sweet boy back. (and the feeling in my thumb would be nice, too)
