So um... Apple don't like me no more.

He doesn't care about spending time with mommy anymore. He doesn't like Spice either.
He just wants to sit on his perches and fluff up. Is it normal for your bird to suddenly stop liking you?

Aww!! Poor mommy. You sound like a mom whose son just went off to middle school and didn't want to cuddle anymore

I don't have any experience with this, but maybe he's just being hormonal? Here's hoping - hopefully he'll be back to loving you in no time!!

I'm hoping it's the hormones.. but why would he be aloof if he's hormonal? I thought it'd be the opposite of avoiding me

We'll wait and see........

How old is he?

Should be "5" this year, but who knows.

Is he eating? Sick? I always heard aloof/puffy birds are sick birds. No idea how true that is.

Does he bite at you or just straight up ignore you?

I hope it's only one of those crappy days, we all have them. But yes, watch him carefully if he's eating and how looks his poo.
I hope he'll be fine very soon!

One day being puffy and pissy might not be a big deal. Tomorrow if he's puffy and still behaving "off" you need to take him to the vet.

He's definitely not sick you guys, he chews on his toys and whistles as usual. He just doesn't want to interact with me anymore.

Eh, just an off day then. Probably hormones and someone pooped in his water crock

My guess is hormones. I hope it's just that.

Mhm I hope so too, this has been going on for about a week now.

Did you change something? Nail polish, nail length, hair color, style.. et cetera Though, it could just be hormones.

It started happening a little after I clipped his wings.

GlassOnion wrote:

It started happening a little after I clipped his wings.

Maybe he's feeling a bit of resentment?

Probably, but mind you he CAN fly! He's retained 90% of his flight skills..

This happened to me the first time I had to clip Merlin. I had a good week where all he did was avoid me, wouldn't come out of his cage. I figured I had just wrecked every trust I had taken the time to build. After a while he came back around. Hopefully Apple will too.

Were you able to clip him without being forceful about how you handled him? I think they are more likely to resent the way they are handled than the being clipped thing. Do you regularly clip claws? Is this the only thing that's changed?

Scooter gets "mad" at me when we've been traveling and it takes several days after I'm back before he'll interact normally. If he ever doesn't get over it, I think I'd start retraining basic interaction skills....

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I think they are more likely to resent the way they are handled than the being clipped thing.

S&S brings up a very good point. A lot of times when we clip or do anything unpleasant, we tend to do the deed and then immediately let the bird up, sometimes almost flinging the bird away from us when we do so. This ends the event in a negative way and that's how the bird associates what happened, and the negative association may in their minds include you.

Again, I strongly believe in ending negative events in as positive a way as possible. Such as after a wing clip, nail trim, medicating, etc. continue to hold the bird for a moment, scritch, cuddle and baby talk until the bird's calmer. Then calmly let the bird up and hold them on your finger for a moment and continue with the baby talking and scritches. That ends the event on a positive note and they seem to forget the negative thing you did within a few moments.

I say hormones...Merlin's been going through it...Rosco not so much (he's actually been snugglier), and Stryder has been neutral.

Sometimes fids just go through their stages - kind of like us.

He'll be back - don't worry

I think all of you are right. I will definitely try what you suggest Roz, and for everyone else- I hope he comes around again.

GlassOnion wrote:

I think all of you are right. I will definitely try what you suggest Roz, and for everyone else- I hope he comes around again.

You might want to try re-enacting the clipping episode, go through the motions, and give it a positive ending.

This all reminded me of "in the good ol' days" I was always told NOT to do my own parrots' nails and wings because they'd hate me afterwards. I didn't do my own wings and nails for maybe like the first 10 years of bird keeping. As I felt more confident in my husbandry abilities, I decided to do my own wings and nails. I always cuddled for a while afterwards before letting the event end and none of my birds have ever reacted badly towards me afterwards. Now, there's always a cuddle session for babies after bleeding for DNA sexing, wing and nail clipping. Everyone gets over the bad experience very quickly.