My TAG keeps biting my daughter

[my-africangrey-echo]

Echo is just over 1yr old and he has started to bite my 12yr old daughter. I have no idea why he has started to do this..

What would make him start doing this? It had started about a month ago. Nothing has changed in our household. How do I change this behavior?

[birdlady49]

My initial guess is that your daughter is jumping around a little too fast, the way 12-year olds normally move, and it is spooking your bird.

Whoops. Sorry I answered a post in the "expert" section before the "expert" stepped in......

[my-africangrey-echo]

Normally I would agree with you. However she is a very laid back 12yr old. My youngest and only child left home. If it were my son when he was 12 then yes it could be the cause. I am wondering if the terrible two's have started...

[SDavid]

Since no expert has yet responded I'll share my experience:

My TAG is close to two years old and she hasn't gone through anything that I would call terrible twos. I understand that all birds have different personalities so I'm not big on finding labels for different behaviors.

Your experience sounds similar to the one that me and my wife had. My TAG has formed a closer bond to me than to my wife. There's no real reason for this. We both hand fed her from the age of 3 months and my wife is the one who spends more time with her. I work 5 days a week, my wife, 3.....she's a nurse as well. My TAG has behaved the same toward me since the day we brought her home-all she wants to do is be around me, sit on my chest, my shoulder, and relax, sleep, or get a head scratch. My TAG is less calm around my wife. She does bite my wife suddenly for no reason and definately prefers my company to hers if given a choice.

I think that the reason is that Greys are one-person birds. They choose a favorite person whom they behave like kittens around and simply act a little more testy around any other person. The good news is that TAG's form less strong bonds with their favorite humans than the Congos and Timneh's do tend to be more family oriented birds. It's a general rule of course. My TAG has become much better around my wife than when she first began to show signs that she preferred me. These days my TAG want's everyone in the same room that she's in and will call for whomever is in another room. We didn't do anyting special to correct it, my wife just continued to be gentle and caring around our TAG as she's always done.

[my-africangrey-echo]

Thank so much for your reply SDavid. You have made so much sense to this. I will continue as we are knowing that.