Wow, this thread is really hitting home here. Hubby and I were having this very discussion last night. Just in the past few weeks Ollie has become annoyingly needy of hubs, constantly aiming for him, running to him yet when hubs handles him Ollie constantly threatens him with his beak. But he does this whilst seeking him out for tlc. It's weird. To me it looks like this constant tug-of-war over power. When hubs handles him, he will have nothing to do with me (Ollie, that is, he, he, snort). It's a complete flip flop from a few months ago. Mind you, Ollie hasn't bitten me in a long time, but he has bitten hubs a couple of times this year. One of the bites was bad after one of those "threat sessions", the other more of a surface thing.

Anyhow, last night hubs just got annoyed with Ollie and told me he needed a break from him. He can't sit in peace when Ollie is out because he'll just jump down and go to him and demand his attention. So, he decided no more out time with him in the evening. I was like, "wait, what's going on? He doesn't understand, he won't know why this is going on". But I understand hubs and I can't blame him. It's hard. People look at these birds and think, "oh, what a great pet, how fun, he's a real character" blah blah blah, but don't understand how draining and often times difficult it can be to live with them. It's emotionally draining.

Anyhow, (((Mavis))) sorry about the bite. It sucks big time. And (((Lori))) I'm with you. I just wish we could do something concrete to help people understand that this is not for everybody. In fact, this is not for most people. It takes a special person to love these critters unconditionally, and it's hard when a loved one isn't right there with us loving them 100%.

HUGS.

Thanks Karen. It has been trying this week. My husband is holding a grudge and Daffy is being a brat too. Too bad right here we are preaching to the choir. Most of those that need to see this won't.

I can totally relate to this as well. If I'm in the same room with Baby, she'll try to attack me to chase me out of her "territory". If I leave the room, she screeches for me to come back so she can continue her attack.

She wants hubbs to pet her - especially the "forbidden areas" (anything below the neck), and he refuses. When he stops skritching even for a moment, she chomps his thumb to get him to start up again - which he finds highly annoying.

If she's not getting head skritches, she's strutting around trying to get his attention. She gets right in his face so he can't see anyone or anything but HER, and she just never relaxes. It's like watching an old video of the fans at a Beatles concert. She's full of THAT much energy.

I'm going to try to make sure to call more attention to this particular thread, and Mavis's pictures on our Bite Page. I have to remember my login for it so I can update. I get a LOT of people who find their way in to our site through that particular page.

Edited: I've updated the page, so hopefully it will help to bring more people to this discussion!

You know, I'm reading this thread over and thinking "wow, there are other people out there that share this very experience". Thank you guys for being there, and Lynne, thanks for stepping up and keeping the site for people to SEE what can happen.

HUGS.

I'm sorry about the strife you're feathered felon is causing! I know Sue and I have gotten into a couple of 'discussions' about how to manage ours. I have to say though I'm glad I have Bill. He hasn't broken the skin in over 12 years. We're just lucky we have him. I hope the season ends soon for you.

Baby has always been my inspiration for our site, but our "mission" has changed over the years as we learned - and it has become way more important. First, it started out as one page to show off how beautiful she is - and grew. After a while, (especially after hormones set in), I found the original crew over at MyToos and learned that (a) I was not alone, and (b) there were things to check out and do that may help with our situation.

Our site wasn't showing the entire picture of life with a Too. As the years have gone by I realized how important it is for people to have a vivid reminder of the reality of Too temperament. The bite page became a huge vehicle for that. It's one thing to just tell people Toos bite, but pictures seem to bring more of a lasting impression. The damage they can do in one instant is life changing - and the signs that a bite is emminent aren't always plain to see.

I've found it almost impossible to explain how "on your toes" you must be in the presence of a Too. The closest thing I can come up with is how wary you must be around a wild animal (such as a wild tiger). You must not display the wrong body language, and handle them with extreme caution. And you must not invade their "space bubble". That's the closest parallel I have found. They're just so unpredictable. One moment, they're snuggle bunnies, and the next instant, they're trying to take a chunk of flesh.

Lori, I hope your hubbs is healing up well (emotionally as well). Please keep us posted. I've had some heated "discussions" with my hubbs over Baby's bites as well. I know how that goes. ((( HUGS )))

HB, want these for your collection?

http://picasaweb.google.com/ZazuSally/CockatooBites

Now I just want to say that in all cases I have taken a bite, it was never Zazu's fault. When I got that face bite, I was chewing gum and blowing bubbles and Zazu went to grab the bubble and missed. LOL The hand bite she got my digital artery. I was in a rush one morning and there was a piece of string hanging from one of her toys. I put my hand in (with scissors - stupid, stupid, stupid) to cut the rope and she nailed me. I swear I saw stars. I took another face bite when she was after my glasses and another hand bite when she was after a roll of paper towels I had in my hand. Each time, I thought to myself " I thought birds had really good vision. Damn, I need to get Zazu some glasses". LOL

Bev

Ouch Bev!!

And don't we all sound just like abuse victims?? It's never the abusing little featherbutts fault!

I tell people all the time that birds satisfy every dysfunctional need I have to ever get married again. I tell people it's almost like my first marriage. I get to work while they sit home on their asses. I get to clean while they have fun. I get to cook for them. They just eat while I do the dishes. And Zazu shits on me all the time, literally. LOL

Who the hell needs a husband. I have all my needs met with my birds, thank you very much. LOL

Don't get married, get a parrot. LOL

Bev

Here are the pic's of the bite Woody (cag) gave me earlier this year.
http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o116/Radar1016/Bite/
I guess I did something to deserve it, but I don't know what. He asked for a kiss, I puckered up and wham got nailed.
ps HB you can us these pic's also.

Radar, that's French kissing, cockatoo style. LOL


Bev

Well the last bite I received that was significant was on my bootie Never ever bend over in front of a hormonal Amazon when cleaning cages if you have a big butt For all of our sakes, I did not take a picture But I will tell you that I had on jeans with a sweatshirt over them, and the bite went through the sweatshirt and jeans, broke the skin and left a huge bruise. My tooshy hurt for days. Luckily hubs and I do not get bit hardly at all anymore. He interacts with the birds when he has them out on their playstands with him during the day, that is when he is the flockleader, and at night I take over in the birdroom. What is funny is that he absolutely cannot come into the birdroom when they are out on their stands. They come unglued and are all fighting for his attention and subsequently attacking each other. When he puts them out with him in the am, they are in the garage with the big garage door open on their playstands (garage has never been used to house the cars, it is the 2nd birdroom) everything is fine because all the birdstands are far apart. But even then hubs cannot show too much attention to any individual bird, or all hell breaks loose. On the other hand, I can have them in the birdroom inches apart from each other for hours and no drama. I know that hubs is seen as the flockleader and that is where the competition for his attention comes into play. Whereas I am just basically another member of their flock, therefore not seen as a threat. I could be totally off with this, but their interaction with me is just so very different. It used to bother hubs, but I told him that the reason it was bothering him was because he was trying to humanize their behaviours and projecting his personal feelings into their behaviors. Once he stopped doing that, accepted the situation and dealt with it differently (respecting their space and setting up the bird pens to avoid confrontations between the birds and bites to himself), everything has been great. One thing that we normally do not do is interact with the birds together for any significant amount of time. When both of us are with the birds together, they fight for hubs attention and will attempt to attact or bite me if I get to close to him or bite him if he gets to close to me. Therefore, I pass through and greet the birds, and than leave them with hubs. When I have them out in the birdroom, he just peeks his head in or waves at them through the window. Now of course, when spring rolls around and the hormones start raging, everything could change again

Bev- that is very interesting about the birds reactions to having both you and your hubs in the birdroom together. I have noticed this on a much smaller scale with BG, our B&G macaw that has been here about 3 months now.

She seems to be much friendlier when we interact with her separately instead of together. It's almost like she is not quite sure what to do if we are both standing in front of her- hmm, do I bite her and not him, or maybe both of them? Once I am out of the room, she accepts head scratches from Pete. If I am there, she wants nothing to do with that stuff from him.

Of all my birds, the one who was the narkiest during hormones was none less than Teapot! Boy, he could be a bad-tempered little booger! Im surprised every bird in the household didnt learn to yell out ''YOWCH Teapot ya little turd!!!'' through repetition, LOL! It just added to his appeal even more though when he behaved like a stinker, though I was eternally grateful that he wasnt an amazon, or a grey, or a macaw And the hard faced little monkey nearly always followed it up with a ''kiss me bumbum'' or worse still ''Good boy Teapot, good good boy!''
Toad!