So are you saying that she thought my hand was another bird who was competing with her for her food?
[QUOTE=Washoe]
So are you saying that she thought my hand was another bird who was competing with her for her food?
[/QUOTE]
Maybe, or competing for dominance, or something. It may not be that the parrot really thought the hand was actually a bird, but was just interacting with it as if it was, because that’s all it really knows how to do.
[QUOTE=Washoe]
Then why are they so quick to attack at the slightest provocation? A few months ago, I was spending some quality time with our AG, feeding her pistachios—her fave. She ate about 7 or 8 in succession without any sign of distress. Then I made the mistake of accidentally concealing the nut with my thumb as I was passing it to her. She freaked and bit down hard—it felt just like hitting my thumb with a hammer. It also left a bruise that took several weeks to heal. If they’re so damned smart, why are they afraid of their own shadow? And even more to the point, what on earth could possibly possess them to literally bite the hand that’s feeding them?
[/QUOTE]
It could be a simple case of not realizing the nut was concealed, and getting ready for the yummy, and, oops, sorry, that was a thumb. But, you said she freaked out. That could be her being pissed off that you upset her train of thought and visual cue: “Here comes a yummy, here comes a yummy…where did that yummy go???” and, so upset. 7, 8 tasty nuts, then, bamboozled. The bite is like a frustrated toddler, “Wahhhhhh!!!” The frustration trumps the familiar hand that feeds her.
Birds are very visually acute, so what you see as a simple shadow might be more threatening to them, and fast reaction is a boon to survival. In a cage that can be a problem, though.
I haven’t had a parrot in a good while, but currently have a budgie and two cockatiels. They are pretty intricate fellas.
[QUOTE=Washoe]
Then why are they so quick to attack at the slightest provocation? A few months ago, I was spending some quality time with our AG, feeding her pistachios—her fave. She ate about 7 or 8 in succession without any sign of distress. Then I made the mistake of accidentally concealing the nut with my thumb as I was passing it to her. She freaked and bit down hard—it felt just like hitting my thumb with a hammer. It also left a bruise that took several weeks to heal. If they’re so damned smart, why are they afraid of their own shadow? And even more to the point, what on earth could possibly possess them to literally bite the hand that’s feeding them?
[/QUOTE]
If we were ever to encounter an animal (or a space alien, I guess) as smart as we are, would we recognize it? Perhaps dolphins are in fact smarter than us, but lack hands and so cannot express their intelligence in a way we can see.
Parrots have some level of intelligence, but judging it is darn hard to do. They have a psychology that much, much different than ours. What scares them, pleases them or is important to them is very different from the things that motivate us.
[QUOTE=Washoe]
Then why are they so quick to attack at the slightest provocation? A few months ago, I was spending some quality time with our AG, feeding her pistachios—her fave. She ate about 7 or 8 in succession without any sign of distress. Then I made the mistake of accidentally concealing the nut with my thumb as I was passing it to her. She freaked and bit down hard—it felt just like hitting my thumb with a hammer. It also left a bruise that took several weeks to heal. If they’re so damned smart, why are they afraid of their own shadow? And even more to the point, what on earth could possibly possess them to literally bite the hand that’s feeding them?
[/QUOTE]
Well… as previously mentioned, it could be dominance/bird interaction thing.
Also, keep in mind that while it would take 3-4 weeks for a human to starve to death, a bird only takes a couple days - yeah, they’re wiggy about food because they have racing metabolism and they’re hungry practically all the time.
Another thing is that while birds see better than we do, their forward vision, particularly what’s in front of/under their beaks is sort of a blind spot for some species. It could be the bird saw the nut, but didn’t see you conceal it so it bit your thumb thinking it would be the nut. And then she freaks because 1) it wasn’t what she expected and maybe 2) she bit you which she didn’t intend to do and either feels sorry, is angry at your “deception”, or is expecting you to chastise her, or all of the above.
As for why they freak at shadows… well, the role my cocktiels would fulfill in the wild is snackfood for a lot of other critters. I’d be jumpy, too, if that was my job title!
Well, what also probably didn’t help the situation much was me hopping up and down, clutching my thumb, and hurling invectives at her which involved the highly improbable scenario of her having sexual intercourse with her own mother. She climbed out of her cage (up to that point, she hadn’t been out of her cage in literally years), hopped up on top, and flapped her wings and screamed. It took my wife several minutes to calm her down and coax her back into the cage. She definitely felt threatened. I’m wearing welding gloves now when I have to give her food and/or water, and that seems to upset her too, although she hasn’t tried to take a chunk out of me since the thumb fiasco. I hope we can get her tamed down, seeing as how she can easily outlive me. I’d hate to spend the rest of my life under the watchful glare of a vulture who wiles away her days plotting my untimely demise.
[QUOTE=Washoe]
So are you saying that she thought my hand was another bird who was competing with her for her food?
[/QUOTE]
Not that she literally believed your hand was a bird; more like the actions of your hand triggered the same kind of reaction that such a situation with another bird would trigger. If you were hiding it from her, she may have felt it was necessary for her to get it from you by “force,” for want of a better word.