Help my budgie has become aggressive :(

[ang98]

Hi everyone. I adopted a baby budgie july of 2019 at 2 weeks old and we bonded immediately. She's never managed to bond with anyone else and bit everyone who wasnt me if they got too close. These past few months however she has begun attacking me. not just me either, she seems to attack her food even while eating. Seems like she's scared but I don't know what of? she's now 1 year old btw.

I can't think of any reason to why she should be behaving like this now. I've been quite busy lately so havent had much time to hang out with her, but I dont understand how that could make her scared of me? I've been trying to gain her trust back, but it's proving to be really difficult. Don't know what to do. Any tips and suggestions as to why she is being like this? I just really want to help her feel safe with me again.

I've stopped touching her now because she just viciously attacks me. I try to hand-feed her every day to associate my hand with something positive, but as soon as she's eaten she attacks my hand again.

Please Help <3 and if you have additional questions go ahead and I'll answer. I'm just not sure what info to give atm.

[Hezz]

Does she have plenty of shredable toys to demolish at will, things she can chew up at will, or fight with? Being a 12 month old hen is it possible that she is feeling the hormones kicking in, even if she doesn't appear to be in breeding condition. I'd make sure she has plenty of balsa blocks, paper shredables, cuttlefish bone etc to make a mess of.

[ang98]

She has a lot of blocks to chew on, but she never really uses them, but getting shreddable toys sounds like a good plan. Would probably help lessen it. Thank You!

[samwiseg]

This sounds to me like what happened with my first hen bird.

They can get grumpy when it's moulting time, plus when they are of that age where they become sexually mature that too can also cause crankiness.

The main point is not to let her win and make sure she understands that there are rule/boundaries. If she is naughty when out, she goes back so she understands that bad behaviour is not rewarded.

Also, dont feed her when she is bitey. Otherwise she will see that you want her to behave that way. When you get close to her to feed her and she bites, say "No" firmly and withdraw the food.

As Hezz has said, make sure she has lots of shreddable toys to keep her amused and hopefully she will calm down!

Best of luck and let us know how you get on!

[ang98]

Thank you so much for the tips! I'll be sure to take all of that into consideration