Sun conure, Biting

Hello,

I'm a very new parrot owner (6 days now) I have a little guy who was a shop bird for a lady who got rid of her shop and no longer had time for him.

He is 7 months old, he's a cutie and I've already started "gaining his trust" Which has proved quiet difficult. I'm not sure this is normal so just wanted any advice you guys might have on the subject.

I work from home so we spend a lot of time together ( I let him stay with me even though it's pretty painful) I don't lock him in his cage unless he bites me hard, he hasn't drawn blood yet but a lot of bruising.

We start the day with me waking up getting him from his cage and I go about with him on my shoulder (which is hard since in the mornings he's his most vicious) I change his drinking water and make him some nice warm bath water incase he wants to take a bath.

From there I will put him on the perch on top of his cage that has a couple food dishes and give him a few pellets some carrots and strawberries (or what ever fruit he's having that day)

I shower get ready and go to my computer to start work, He stays on top of his cage (which is 4 feet behind me) or he comes and chills on my should or Desk.

While on the desk he tries to eat all the cords so it's a constant battle to keep him from them. While on my shoulder he goes a few rounds with my ear.
I try to avoid having him on my shoulder but the second he gets on me he runs his way up and the attack begins.

Now as the day goes on the sweeter he is, by 10pm (like clock work) he's tired and he'll nestle in to my arm or I'll take off my shirt and he'll make it a little house to sleep in while I have it bunched up on my chest while I lay and watch some TV before bed.

Is this normal? is he just all hoped up with energy so he's biting a lot? I'm assuming this biting is playful (unless he does his battle cry and bites and leaves a bruise)

I'm having a hard time finding anything that tires him out. We've started learning some flight training since he's never learned. (happy to say day 2 and he's made it from his cage to the ground next to my foot for me to pick him up!) Which is a huge win since 3 days ago he was afraid to leave solid ground.

Any tips and tricks or ways to tire him out would be awesome.

He also goes on walks with me and the dogs and rides my shoulder (when I'm constantly moving to new places he's very well behaved but if I stop or circle in one spot he attacks)

Thanks! sorry for such a long post.

Shoulders are a privilege, and he isn't earn any right to be on your shoulder. Birds in general, even the calmest and well behaved, can become unpredictable in a seconds. That's one reason why I do not allow my Senegal on my shoulder. If she manages to jump off her cage to my shoulder, she is promptly removed. If I were you instead of allowing your bird on your shoulder place him on a stand. It's no worth a vicious bite in the face, head or ears, and when they are on your shoulder, it very hard to gain control over a nasty situation.

SoCalWendy said:

Shoulders are a privilege, and he isn't earn any right to be on your shoulder. Birds in general, even the calmest and well behaved, can become unpredictable in a seconds. That's one reason why I do not allow my Senegal on my shoulder. If she manages to jump off her cage to my shoulder, she is promptly removed. If I were you instead of allowing your bird on your shoulder place him on a stand. It's no worth a vicious bite in the face, head or ears, and when they are on your shoulder, it very hard to gain control over a nasty situation.

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Alright, I'll work on this. thank you for the help!

I agree that shoulders are a privilege. It took nearly a year before I even allowed my GCC on my shoulder because it would turn into a battle to remove her. I find that if you tire them out through flying, it works great, so keep on flight recall training! If you do it to the point where they're basically panting or refuse to come to you anymore, chances are they'll be happy to relax. If not, perhaps it would be a good idea to start making some foot toys or small foraging toys for him while he's out with you to preoccupy him. It might be beneficial to also look into a small play gym where you could attach shred-able toys and stuff as well to give him a little busy-body station.

Birds generally like to do something while they're out, so if he's always out with you all day without any toys to destroy or anything to really bide his time with, he may just start to using you as his chew toy for something to do. So I'd just look into ways to enrich his environment while he's out with you that doesn't involve making you the toy for his entertainment

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

Congratulations on your new sun conure and for so swiftly gaining some of his trust. And judging from the amount of time you are spending with him, that trust will only continue to grow and deepen, strengthening the bond between you.

But that trust has to be a two way street, and you can't trust Sunny if he's giving you hard nips all of the time. If you continue to allow him to do so unchecked, he will continue to test you and push his boundaries. Not so cute once he starts drawing blood.

So I think you need to start with some bite pressure training. But first let me address the shoulder thing. Like SoCalWendy, I do not allow my parrot on my shoulder... even though he is fully bite-pressure trained. But this is a personal choice. There are many who keep their fids on their shoulders all the time and without any issues. My Bixby (male eclectus) is a complete sweetheart, but for now I choose to keep him on my hands and arms rather than my shoulders. Sometimes they aren't biting out of aggression. Some might nip to warn of a perceived danger, or involuntarily as a fear response. And I'd rather take steps to insure it didn't happen near my eye.

But regardless of whether you want him to be a shoulder bird or not, he needs to stay off of your shoulder until you get his biting under control. You simply cannot effectively bite pressure train a bird from your shoulder.

When working with Bixby, one of the methods for bite pressure training that I'd found most effective was the wobble technique. If he was on my hand or arm, I would use the wobble technique while calmly saying "no". Thing is, you always want to make sure to wobble your arm just enough to threaten his balance a little, but NEVER enough to actually make him fall. Especially if he's not fully flighted. Making him fall can damage the trust you're building with him.
Anyhow, consistently wobbling your arm and saying "no" any time the bite pressure gets too hard sets up two associations in his mind. Biting your hand beyond a certain amount of pressure gets associated with an uncomfortable loss of balance, and he also begins to learn that "no" refers to things you don't find desirable. Eventually, he will understand what no means and the wobble part of this technique will no longer be necessary.

Hope this helps.

Anansi said:

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

Congratulations on your new sun conure and for so swiftly gaining some of his trust. And judging from the amount of time you are spending with him, that trust will only continue to grow and deepen, strengthening the bond between you.

But that trust has to be a two way street, and you can't trust Sunny if he's giving you hard nips all of the time. If you continue to allow him to do so unchecked, he will continue to test you and push his boundaries. Not so cute once he starts drawing blood.

So I think you need to start with some bite pressure training. But first let me address the shoulder thing. Like SoCalWendy, I do not allow my parrot on my shoulder... even though he is fully bite-pressure trained. But this is a personal choice. There are many who keep their fids on their shoulders all the time and without any issues. My Bixby (male eclectus) is a complete sweetheart, but for now I choose to keep him on my hands and arms rather than my shoulders. Sometimes they aren't biting out of aggression. Some might nip to warn of a perceived danger, or involuntarily as a fear response. And I'd rather take steps to insure it didn't happen near my eye.

But regardless of whether you want him to be a shoulder bird or not, he needs to stay off of your shoulder until you get his biting under control. You simply cannot effectively bite pressure train a bird from your shoulder.

When working with Bixby, one of the methods for bite pressure training that I'd found most effective was the wobble technique. If he was on my hand or arm, I would use the wobble technique while calmly saying "no". Thing is, you always want to make sure to wobble your arm just enough to threaten his balance a little, but NEVER enough to actually make him fall. Especially if he's not fully flighted. Making him fall can damage the trust you're building with him.
Anyhow, consistently wobbling your arm and saying "no" any time the bite pressure gets too hard sets up two associations in his mind. Biting your hand beyond a certain amount of pressure gets associated with an uncomfortable loss of balance, and he also begins to learn that "no" refers to things you don't find desirable. Eventually, he will understand what no means and the wobble part of this technique will no longer be necessary.

Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Wow thanks, that's some great advice I'll start the bite pressure training tomorrow. He was pretty angry at me today since he spent a lot of time in the cage due to biting me. He refused to cuddle with me and just kept doing his half flaps which is his way of saying I want to go some where else. So he went to his cage early for sleep and to get away from me.

I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Dinosrawr said:

I agree that shoulders are a privilege. It took nearly a year before I even allowed my GCC on my shoulder because it would turn into a battle to remove her. I find that if you tire them out through flying, it works great, so keep on flight recall training! If you do it to the point where they're basically panting or refuse to come to you anymore, chances are they'll be happy to relax. If not, perhaps it would be a good idea to start making some foot toys or small foraging toys for him while he's out with you to preoccupy him. It might be beneficial to also look into a small play gym where you could attach shred-able toys and stuff as well to give him a little busy-body station.

Birds generally like to do something while they're out, so if he's always out with you all day without any toys to destroy or anything to really bide his time with, he may just start to using you as his chew toy for something to do. So I'd just look into ways to enrich his environment while he's out with you that doesn't involve making you the toy for his entertainment

Click to expand...

I don't have any foot toys for him yet, but I'm seeing I really need some. I have to order some soon.

Thanks for all that info.

Dragon2047 said:

Wow thanks, that's some great advice I'll start the bite pressure training tomorrow. He was pretty angry at me today since he spent a lot of time in the cage due to biting me. He refused to cuddle with me and just kept doing his half flaps which is his way of saying I want to go some where else. So he went to his cage early for sleep and to get away from me.

I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Click to expand...

You're welcome!

Another thing to keep in mind is that timeouts lose their effectiveness (with birds) if done in increments greater than 10 minutes, as they tend to forget which behavior put them there in the first place. For greatest effectiveness, keep those timeouts down to 5 minutes at a time.

Anansi said:

Dragon2047 said:

Wow thanks, that's some great advice I'll start the bite pressure training tomorrow. He was pretty angry at me today since he spent a lot of time in the cage due to biting me. He refused to cuddle with me and just kept doing his half flaps which is his way of saying I want to go some where else. So he went to his cage early for sleep and to get away from me.

I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Click to expand...

You're welcome!

Another thing to keep in mind is that timeouts lose their effectiveness (with birds) if done in increments greater than 10 minutes, as they tend to forget which behavior put them there in the first place. For greatest effectiveness, keep those timeouts down to 5 minutes at a time.

Click to expand...

oh I didn't know that, I'll do that also! Thank you!