Green Cheek conure hates my hands!

Summers

New member
Oct 25, 2014
1
0
I have a 2 year old Green Cheek conure who bites every now and then but 95% of the time is friendly to me, but just recently she seems to hate my hands! just my hands.. for instance, I can put her on my shoulder, or put my face towards the cage and she shows no aggressive behavior, in fact she's super friendly and responds to noises etc.. but if I bring my hands anywhere near she will try to bite them really hard. I don't know what to do as this has only recently started happening, any help would be appreciated thanks :)
 

roxy_mutini

New member
Oct 27, 2014
7
0
Alabama
Parrots
Green Cheeked Conure
I'm having a very similar issue with my green cheek that I recently purchased. I don't have any advice. She's my first parrot. I just wanted you to know you aren't alone, and I'll be following this thread too because I need advice as well.
 

Dinosrawr

New member
Aug 15, 2013
1,587
8
Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Parrots
Avery, a GCC born on March 5th, 2013 & Shiko, a blue IRN born on February 25th, 2014
It sounds to me as if you aren't respecting her personal space regarding your hands. You need to train her to accept hands and realize that they are not there to hurt her. More often than not, we force our desire to have physical contact on our parrots when in reality they would rather not be constricted by our hands - especially considering that they are prey animals.

I trained both my IRN and GCC to accept hand cuddles by gradually moving my hand closer and closer to them. Anytime they showed discomfort, I would stop moving my hand close and reward them for letting me get as close as I did. Eventually I was able to place my hand over their bodies, and extended the period of time that my hand stayed on their bodies. You have to realize that being touched by hands is not a natural thing for birds... their form of "cuddles" is standing side-by-side with another bird and being preened, not having that bird open their wings around them and constrict them with their wings. :)

Learn your bird's body language. Realize when she is uncomfortable. Birds only bite when they feel their feelings have not been taken into consideration and you aren't listening to them, that or when they are overly excited/aggressive.

Train your bird to realize that hands are safe and result in rewards (such as food).

And, considering the age of your conure, you may be encountering hormones. When birds undergo hormones, they often bite for no reason that us silly humans can comprehend :rolleyes:. So that's also something to consider.
 

ToriJo

New member
Nov 12, 2014
47
0
Ontario Canada
Parrots
KiKi 2yr old GCC
Roxy I'm having similarly issues with my new GCC also. I just got her ffrom her old owner on Monday. I had visited her at her owners before purchase and she was very cooperative. She would step up on my hand and sit on my shoulder - she used her mouth as balance when stepping up but didn't hold or try to hurt me.

Now at my place she is LUNGING at my hands. I've spent most of my time just sitting by her cage with her on top of it or feeding her raspberry treats but even while feeding treats she will sometimes choose to bite my fingers instead (again not holding or investigating, really biting hard).

The first couple times I asked for a step up she had her beak on my fingers before I eeven got to her chest/legs. At first I removed my hand and ignored her but then as it continued her bites got harder I contacted her owner who saidshe would tap KiKi's beak and blow in her face to get her to stop. This worked and I was able to get her to step up but only after she got a couple good bites in and would only pause her biting for max 5 seconds (suffered tthrough a lot before I put her back on her cage so she wouldn'ty think biting hard would get her back to her cage!).

Not sure if she is like this because sshe is still settling in or what.
 

CFellows

New member
Nov 12, 2014
64
1
Paisley, Oregon
Parrots
5 year old, Male Sun Conure named Sunny & 20+ year old, Male Blue Front Amazon named Sammy
I also have a rehomed Sun Conure with simular hand hatered. I am hoping we will be able to get him over his fear.
 

Most Reactions

Latest posts

Top