when i type up something and offer as much detail as possible... is it hard sometimes to understand the question or point i am trying to get at?

sometimes i feel like somehow people arent understanding what i mean when i type something up... lol just curious

Your explanations have always seemed clear to me, and a lot of the stuff you wrote for TC was excellent. If somebody doesn't understand, it's likely that the problem is on their end - poor reading comprehension or something like that.

ok good because somehow people on one forum dont seem to get what i am asking LOL

i am asking for ways to train munch not to bite while stepping up away from her cage...


im getting told to let her be cage free with all the other birds because they think she should be with other birds, getting told that i cant stop the cage aggression, that shes always gonna hate the other birds..... yet none of them are answering my question LOL

im starting to wonder if i speak another language

If I understand correctly, you're getting bitten when you ask Munch to step up and she's nowhere near the cage at the time. It's not when you're asking her to step up so you can take her away from the cage.

Asking her to step up on a stick instead of your hand can be useful. If she runs up the stick to bite your hand, you can make a hand guard by cutting the top 1/4 off a 2-liter soda bottle and sticking the perch through the hole that liquid pours through.

Bribery and/or positive reinforcement can help. Show her that you have a nice treat or toy, and she'll have to step up on your hand to get it. Or give her the treat first so her beak is occupied and then ask for the step up.

Hormone reduction can help reduce cage aggression, but it's my understanding that this is a lost cause with Munch because she stays hormonal no matter what.

As for letting Munch be cage free so she can eat all the other birds alive... not such a good idea. Make a big deal of her own special time out.

since letting her nest, her hormones have gone! scary isnt it

she just doesnt like her cage touched. which is fine, i am good with letting her have that space, its not much my business to poke around in her cage any more than needed anyways.

she is terrified of stepping up onto sticks. its not worth a broken wing over if she panics lol

i just grabbed millet today to see how that goes.

im not stupid enough to allow cage free living for any of my birds.... too many dangers... a few of them are cats, munch, windows, things to chew.... just not smart.

she is molting, so she may be cranky from that, but i towel her to move her from the cage to the playgym. i let her exit the cage on her own, but once shes out before she can climb over to mangos cage and chomp him, i towel her lol

she got tsuka again today, he landed on the front of her cage (the only side not covered) right where she was perched and he got chomped... so now we are investing in a plexiglass sheet to go on the front of her cage while the tiels are out so if it happens again, she cant chomp toes lol

Sometimes letting a bird indulge her nesting instincts helps her get it out of her system. Other times it doesn't. It's unpredictable, and I'm glad it turned out well with Munch.

Didn't you consider the plexiglass option once a long time ago for similar reasons? Or maybe I'm thinking of somebody else. Chomping issues are all too common, but at least nobody in your flock has lost a toe over it yet.

***YET*** is the key word!!!

yeah we considered it but my fiance said it was too expensive...

well when its gotten to the fact that this is now last resort... he has little choice! its gotten to the point that someone IS going to lose a toe. or worse. this is our last option... one day when we have the money and space, i want to build her a big plexiglass flight cage! but we dont have the space here, it would be like an aviary of plexiglass, everyone would be happy. but alas, we are poor and dont have the room!! but one day.

A major disadvantage of a plexiglass enclosure is that air can't circulate through it freely and the heat can really build up, especially if the sun is hitting it. So you'd have to think carefully about ventilation.

I bet they really show the dirt too. Everybody has their own preferences of course but I'd take cage bars over plexiglass. They're not as pretty but they're more practical.

oh i know why plexiglass is horrid. i hate it really. but shes a special case, she bites other birds and it would be among the most fool proof ways to prevent her biting. and i know the ventilation problems, pain in the butt, but thats an ideal for when we have a bigger place or a house when we have the room and money. i'd like to do an indoor aviary for her so she can have a lot of room and can be flighted and can have the space, as her out of cage time is very limited because shes a poophead and bites everyone. she needs strict supervision. but i dont trust cage bars with her because she grabs birds by the toes and tries to pull them through the cage that way!

An alternative to a plexiglass aviary would be to make one with a double layer of wire, with one layer an inch or two away from the other. The space between the wires would keep the beaks and toes safely apart from each other. You might actually be able to construct something like that for her current cage instead of using plexiglass, and you could cut doors into the wire if necessary so you could get to the real cage doors.