My parents have a pet magpie, a bird sanctuary needed to rehome him as he grew up as a tame bird and wouldn’t survive in the wild. My parents responded to an article in the local newspaper and went and got him. They tend to let the bird out of the cage for a few hours in the evening so he gets a proper chance to spread his wings.
The problem is he seems to have claimed the front room as his territory! He is fine with my parents but if me or my brothers attempt to walk through the living room he will attack! I definitely believe it to be a territory thing as he will only go as far as the doors into the living room and will guard the entrance if you stay on the other side of the door (even with the door wide open) and attack when you try to enter.
I attempted to ignore one of his attacks on the theory of ‘showing him I wasn’t scared of him’ but he just got increasingly aggressive until he was drawing blood! (My hand is currently covered in little scabs where he pecked me, he just wouldn’t give up!)
He also doesn’t seem to be bothered by aggression either, I hit him once (not on purpose, he was attacking my feet and in trying to shoo him away I made contact) which phased him. He went quiet for a bit (we were a bit worried that I had actually done some damage) but the next day he was back to normal and attacking me again!
To start with I found this kind of funny to be honest, I’m not concerned by a bird attacking me, and figured that it wouldn’t take long for me to establish dominance over him (I’m used to dogs!). I am now realising that birds are going to need a completely different tack with regards to control.
He also seems to be getting more and more aggressive of late. Last night when I walked into the room he flew directly into my face and clawed at my eyebrow. I can ignore that but if a non family member walks in the room (say a child) we would have a problem!!
If anyone has any advice as to how to stop him claiming territory or attacking people I would be really grateful to hear from you!
EDIT
Thought I best add that we have a busy household, people are in and out all day long. There is very rarely no-one in the living room so he always has company. Virtually everyone will interact with the bird when he’s in the cage (and it’s a large cage) so he gets plenty of attention as well!
The problem is he seems to have claimed the front room as his territory! He is fine with my parents but if me or my brothers attempt to walk through the living room he will attack! I definitely believe it to be a territory thing as he will only go as far as the doors into the living room and will guard the entrance if you stay on the other side of the door (even with the door wide open) and attack when you try to enter.
I attempted to ignore one of his attacks on the theory of ‘showing him I wasn’t scared of him’ but he just got increasingly aggressive until he was drawing blood! (My hand is currently covered in little scabs where he pecked me, he just wouldn’t give up!)
He also doesn’t seem to be bothered by aggression either, I hit him once (not on purpose, he was attacking my feet and in trying to shoo him away I made contact) which phased him. He went quiet for a bit (we were a bit worried that I had actually done some damage) but the next day he was back to normal and attacking me again!
To start with I found this kind of funny to be honest, I’m not concerned by a bird attacking me, and figured that it wouldn’t take long for me to establish dominance over him (I’m used to dogs!). I am now realising that birds are going to need a completely different tack with regards to control.
He also seems to be getting more and more aggressive of late. Last night when I walked into the room he flew directly into my face and clawed at my eyebrow. I can ignore that but if a non family member walks in the room (say a child) we would have a problem!!
If anyone has any advice as to how to stop him claiming territory or attacking people I would be really grateful to hear from you!
EDIT
Thought I best add that we have a busy household, people are in and out all day long. There is very rarely no-one in the living room so he always has company. Virtually everyone will interact with the bird when he’s in the cage (and it’s a large cage) so he gets plenty of attention as well!