Conure attacks only at sight of certain object

bostobudgies · Sep 11, 2015

Just curious if anyone else's bird does this. We have a lovely crimson bellied conure, a nice bird and generally quite loving. However, anytime we are carrying an espresso cup he literally tries to attack us/the cup and bites! He doesn't do this with glasses or other larger coffee cups or things, just the espresso ones that we use every day. Easy solution obviously is to put him away when we are having coffee but the behavior is so strange and so strong that I wonder if other birds have "trigger" objects that make them turn from angel to demon in a split second! Of course, if we ever have a burglar I'm going to offer him coffee!

SailBoat · Sep 11, 2015

Have you ever (forgive me) placed espresso is another cup/mug and carried it by him?

4dugnlee · Sep 11, 2015

My sun conure used to attack if I had a kleenex or paper towel. He finally got over it but if I have either I always keep an eye on him so I don't get attacked...lol.

WilliamKenyon · Sep 11, 2015

My bird doesn't turn into a devil but she really starts screaming at the sight of a bath towel or jumper

. She sees it as some kind of thereat and goes into defense mode, lol. Anyway most birds have some quirks and yours just seems to despise espresso cups, lol.

SailBoat · Sep 12, 2015

OK, no response regarding espresso in other cups/mugs. The reason for the question is that although parrots, as a group, do not have the level of scent detection that a human does. They do have some limited abilities. With the very specific aroma of espresso, there is an outside change that the parrot maybe responding to that. Hence the question.

More than likely, the parrot is responding to the lack of attention when the humans of the house are hovering over their espresso and, etc, etc, etc...

JerseyWendy · Sep 12, 2015

My DYH Amazon DESPISES the telephone. :54: I dare not even attempt to pick him up if/while I'm on the phone as he's made it abundantly clear how he feels about sharing my attention with anyone.

Dinosrawr · Sep 12, 2015

Hahaha! I feel sorry for the poor soul who faces the wrath of an espresso-mug hating bird. Avery hates her "time out" face cloth. It's specifically hers (it has her name on it and everything). But for good reason. When she gets real snarky, her time out cloth appears and she's magically swept away into her cage for a little bit of relaxation and contemplation [emoji6]. It doesn't happen often, though.

She also hates it when my boyfriend randomly decides to use his bench press bar. Or practice his putting swing/low chipping swing. Or basically just moves anything that is shiny, large, and moves quickly. But I also think that's rather normal [emoji16]

SoCalWendy · Sep 13, 2015

bostobudgies said:
Just curious if anyone else's bird does this. We have a lovely crimson bellied conure, a nice bird and generally quite loving. However, anytime we are carrying an espresso cup he literally tries to attack us/the cup and bites! He doesn't do this with glasses or other larger coffee cups or things, just the espresso ones that we use every day. Easy solution obviously is to put him away when we are having coffee but the behavior is so strange and so strong that I wonder if other birds have "trigger" objects that make them turn from angel to demon in a split second! Of course, if we ever have a burglar I'm going to offer him coffee!

Kiwis triggers are spray bottles, toilet paper, washing hands in sink, putting on make up. Oh trash bags drive her crazy... changing a trash bag is an Olympic event in my house. Beer bottles and water bottles, so far. LOL :30:

AJBirds · Sep 13, 2015

JerseyWendy said:
My DYH Amazon DESPISES the telephone. :54: I dare not even attempt to pick him up if/while I'm on the phone as he's made it abundantly clear how he feels about sharing my attention with anyone.

Ditto Pixie. Makes taking iPhone (Pixie-)selfies very difficult

bostobudgies · Sep 17, 2015

SailBoat said:
Have you ever (forgive me) placed espresso is another cup/mug and carried it by him?

Yes, he has no problems with regular coffee mugs! It's a bit bizarre.

bostobudgies · Sep 17, 2015

Thanks everyone for your responses! Sounds like everyone's little friends have some items they hate. We have been putting seed in the clean espresso cup and he eats from it no problem which we thought would help him relax around the cup. So far, no luck lol. Looks like we will switch to drip coffee when he's around!

FreddyCheeks · Sep 18, 2015

If Fred is in the other room and hears the bathroom sink turn on he starts to screech. Whats even funnier is if he is with me when I'm in there with him and turn the sink on he gets real fluffed up and starts to strut back and forth followed by running up and down my arm. It's only the bathroom sink not the kitchen so i don't know what the deal is. LOL. Fids sure can be funny.

Birdman666 · Sep 18, 2015

It's displacement biting....

Either the object scares him and he's trying to warn you to keep that thing away from it, or

The object scares him and he's trying to get your attention, and protect you from it... what's the matter with you? Don't you see that scary thing? It's coming this way... Let's get out of here before it tries to eat us!

The phone thing?! That's more a jealous bird thing... Both are typical pair bond bird stuff really...

When Sweepea sees a bicycle, she usually pinches me. She hates those things.

So when I see a bicycle coming, I put two fingers on the beak, turn away from it and calm her before it gets too close.

There is a behavior mod you can do with the offending object. It essentially involves gradually exposing the bird to the offending object, moving it closer and closer to the bird over time, until it is left on top of the cage, and the offending object is no longer something scary...

ruffledfeathers · Sep 18, 2015

Gilbert recently decided he doesn't like my guitar. I hardly ever play it anymore, and it just stands next to the piano which also is hardly touched. When I have played it's just a little while, just sitting there on the piano bench. I decided last week to strap the guitar on and walk into the room and play for Gil. He looked at it like some horrific monster and flew away from me.
He used to be scared of helicopters (pretty normal/obvious) but the cute thing is, he now sees one, pins his eyes and says "come here, come here" to me. LOL. I used to say "see helicopter? Come here. Come here gilbert" to remind him to stay put and not fly off me in fear. So I guess he is telling me to hang tight and wait for it to fly past, haha.

Birdman666 · Sep 18, 2015

Maggie does that with Sarah's guitars.

She does the poofy macaw thing and sits there moaning when ever Sarah plays the guitar... (Everyone's a critic, eh?!)

Actually it's not her playing. All she has to do is be holding THAT THING on her lap (where Maggie wants to be) - and it's enough to cause macaw emotional upset.

In fact, Maggie dances around it on the little guitar stand... moaning at it...

IT'S ONE OF THOSE EVIL THINGS...

Perhaps we should find a little Bushman, and have someone throw take it and throw it off the end of the earth....

(ANYONE REMEMBER THAT MOVIE?!)

Taw5106 · Sep 18, 2015

I have the opposite issue with my coffee and espresso, Venus is trying to get into them to drink, I'm playing keep away from her.

Birdman666 · Sep 18, 2015

Taw5106 said:
I have the opposite issue with my coffee and espresso, Venus is trying to get into them to drink, I'm playing keep away from her.

Morning Coffee time is Sally's 1 on 1 time with me... she doesn't drink it, but she expects to sit with me while I do.

Mohamed youssef · Apr 6, 2022

bostobudgies said:
Just curious if anyone else's bird does this. We have a lovely crimson bellied conure, a nice bird and generally quite loving. However, anytime we are carrying an espresso cup he literally tries to attack us/the cup and bites! He doesn't do this with glasses or other larger coffee cups or things, just the espresso ones that we use every day. Easy solution obviously is to put him away when we are having coffee but the behavior is so strange and so strong that I wonder if other birds have "trigger" objects that make them turn from angel to demon in a split second! Of course, if we ever have a burglar I'm going to offer him coffee!

Just now I was attacked by my conure while having my coffee in a small cup
He doesn’t do that with large cupps

𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖒𝖞𝕻𝖎𝖈𝖆 · Apr 6, 2022

Mohamed youssef said:
Just now I was attacked by my conure while having my coffee in a small cup
He doesn’t do that with large cupps

Hi, you may not get a reply from any of these people- this thread is 7 years old! If you need help with this problem, I suggest starting a new thread.

Conure attacks only at sight of certain object

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