Sun conure aggressive after leave of absence

[chantal1382]

Please help!  My husband and I have had a sun conure named Helios for about 8 years.  Over the past few years, we've noticed a disturbing trend in Helios's behavior.  Whenever we're away from Helios for more than a few days (we both have to travel for our jobs and leave him in the care of a friend when we travel - about twice a year), Helios gets very upset at my husband when we return.  For the first three or four days after we come back, Helios will bite or lunge at my husband (but not at anyone else) when my husband tries to pet him.  Recently, my husband returned from a 2 month deployment, and when he went to pick up Helios from our friend's house Helios flew towards my husband, landed on his face, and bit him, hard enough to draw blood.  This is the first time Helios has been proactively aggressive instead of reacting to my husband moving towards him, and I'm really concerned that it's going to get worse with future absences.  Is this something that anyone else has heard about?  Is Helios upset at my husband leaving him and expressing his anger at being "abandoned," or is it something else?  And how do we mitigate it??

[YICKelly]

Helios is angry at you.  He is mad that you are leaving him.  Please understand that he does not know why you are leaving, just that you are leaving him.  This may sound funny, but I have heard that it works with some birds.  If you can, call him and talk to him on the phone while you are gone.   Leave a picture of you with him.  Also, make sure that he is getting lots of out of cage time while at your friends home.  Try not to have your husband handle Helios immediately when he returns.  Instead, have him sit by the cage and talk to him, giving him a special treat through the bars, maybe for two days and then see if Helios will accept him again.
I know, this sounds a bit much for a bird, but believe me, they understand so much more than we give them credit for.  Please let us know if anything helps.

[CJ]

I recently spent a few days in the hospital and a couple of weeks home in bed and what I did was record my voice talking to my suns and it was a smooth transaction when I was able to care for them again. My sun Novie usually gets really upset if I am gone over night  but she wasn't upset because she could hear me talking to her.

[Badyaninymn]

How about not allowing her to the door?

Am I correct in beleiving that you lock the other dogs outside but leave the 'aggressor' in the house?

What have you been doing when the aggression display escalates?

[CJ]

There is a big, big difference between disciplining a dog and a parrot. A parrot is trying to communicate something when it is aggressive as a dog is aggressive by instinct alone.