by sandy on Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:17 am
Hillary,
I'm sorry to hear that Marco is biting. We had a similar problem with our male WBC as he went through the terrible twos. I used to joke that he was Jeckle and Hide. He'd be his sweet self one minute and in a raging fit the next then back again. He has been fully flighted since he was about 1 year old. So his fits were three dimensional. His eyes would pin wildly and he would fluff up and strike at anything that came near him. Sometimes he would even diliberatly come after me, my husband or our female WBC who was just a baby at that point. He didn't really have a favorite target. He would fly and hover about a foot off his perch or cage then land and do it over again. It was like watching a todler throw a kicking, punching, sceaming fit. If he wasn't going after anyone I would grab Mika (our little female WBC) to keep her out of harms way and just let him go until he tired himself out. Then he would go back to being his sweet normal self. Several things worked for us if he was attacking Mika or one of us. One option that worked well was using one particular towl as a 'Bad Towel'. When he was attacking, we would grab him in the bad towl and hold him on his back, on the floor until it stopped. This takes a few minutes and he would try to bite through the towl. We'd talk to him calmly and eventually he'd calm down and we'd let him go. usually he stayed on his back and put his foot on his head and we'd ive him cheek rubs and cuddles. If he would not calm down, and before we thought of the 'bad towl', we'd give him a time out in a room by himself, just make sure there isn't anything that you mind him chewing on or anything he can hurt himself with in there because he has no control at that point. Another thing we found out was that his attacks/tantrums were much more likely in the morning before he ate. So I started giving him some peanut butter or a walnut first thing in the morning. Eventually he got to the point where he wasn't going after anyone when he had a tantrum and then they stopped all together. A few time he started getting worked up and I got the bad towl and he stopped. He would sit there, eyes pinning and fluffed looking like he was exerting all his wll power to not come after me. Then it would subside. He hasn't had a tantrum like that in a long time and we have our sweet cuddle Sparky back.
I think the key to dealing with your hurt feelings on this is to take it slow and realize that he doesn't have control when he is like that. I'm pretty sure Sparky was as upset by what was happening to him as we were. You might think of it as a hormonally driven seizure of sorts. Sparky is now 3 and a half. Mika is 1 and a half and I really hope she dosen't go through the same thing. But if she does, we'll get the bad towl back out and work through it.
Good luck with Marco and keep us posted.
- Sandy