My GCC's behavioural problems (help please!)

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum, and yet I am also fairly inexperienced in the art of keeping parrots, which is why i've never contributed to it before. However, I am in the need of some fairly serious help.

I have just adopted a green cheek conure, from a local family here. Just so you know, the family was amazing, educated me on taking care of the bird, answered all my questions and explained to me in clear and brutally honest detail what I was getting myself into when I adopted Kiwi. I wasn't charged a penny other than having to buy a cage/toy/etc. Also, they informed me that if things were ever not working out between me and Kiwi, I can take her back, no charge or anything, and they would completely understand. I know that it is traumatizing for a bird to be moved many times, and as such, I am keen and ready to do what it takes to fix Kiwi's problems.

Thanks for bearing with, and onwards with my question(s).

In short, Kiwi is jealous. Her previous family gave her to me because she would bite anyone that tried to handler her (she was paired with another perfectly tame Green Cheek and lived in the same cage, she loved this bird "Nikki" but hated when anyone would handle her). This family originally received Kiwi because they worked in a pet shop, and she was dropped of as an unwanted bird that seemed happy and was quite tame, coming to finger, shoulder, giving kisses etc. (she seems to have slowly degraded after being paired with another bird). Previous to this, we have no history, but assume that she was loved by a man, but once kiwi grew up, was neglected as he had other duties to fulfil (such as take care of a wife and kid). This i the best explanation we have to describe Kiwi's special aggressiveness towards women and children (Kiwi herself is a female, DNA sexed).

So there's the history, as best as I can give. As for my current goals for Kiwi, I need some assistance.

As soon as I brought Kiwi home she was drastically different. When I first visited her, she would only look at me curiously, but never could I risk touching her for the clear risk of losing a finger. Once I brought her home though, within 5 minutes I managed to coax her onto my finger with her favorite food (yoghurt) and she very quickly warmed up and came on my shoulder, letting me handle her without treats in less than 15 minutes of first bringing her home. I'm no bird expert, but I imagine that this is a very odd change, as in their nature parrots are cautious. Furthermore, to my amazement, she even went to my girlfriend when I passed her over. Even up to her shoulder. Then she would do the same for my roommate and his girlfriend. In one night. 2 Hours earlier she wouldn't interact with ANYONE. That was last night, and I've been making an effort to keep socializing her, telling my roommate and friends to handle her whenever they are home, even when i'm not.

Despite that being odd, there are a few other weird things about Kiwi. She has no interest AT ALL with toys. I don't even think she plays with them when i'm not around. If I try to give them to her, she just backs off. She's not scared, just not interested. After reading, I learned that you can teach parrots to have fun with toys. Using animated gestures, I would play with the toy, laughing etc. After 5 minutes, I managed to coax Kiwi into acknowledging the toy, only, instead, she attacked it viciously. Not in a fun way. Later, I tried the same thing, only it was worse. First she attacked the toy, and then she attacked my cheek and bit me hard on my face and finger. (she is sitting on my shoulder during all this). This is a little frustrating, but also I feel like it's an odd reaction, especially to a toy. My judgement is she noticed how much fun I was having with the toy and not her, and so it made her angry. Do you guys have any idea why this is? I want her to learn to like toys so that I can learn to teach her tricks, and so she's not bored when i'm not home.

Next issue. Kiwi will let me hold her, and be held by other people. She loves hanging out with me. However, she doesn't REALLY seem to trust me. She will ask for scratches by bowing her head down, but if I scratch almost anywhere but exactly on her forehead between the eyes she gives me a good nip. I can't grab her with my whole hand either, that's when I get a REALLY good bite. Ouch.

Another odd thing is that when I give Kiwi to others, she isn't really concerned, but she keeps ALL of her attention on me. Doesn't hardly blink. The first time I gave her to my girlfriend and left the room, as soon as I left she attacked my girlfriend until she bled, and I had to give her bandaids. As I have learnt is standard, when she bites, I don't give her her way (nobody in this house does). It's almost as if she only goes to others because she knows I want her to and that it will impress me. When she clamps down, we ignore the pain and wait it out, teaching her that if we want to hold her we get to, and that if I want her to interact with other people she has to. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

The last thing to note, is that as I sit here writting this, Kiwi is on my shoulder, looking at me making those little "conure grunts" that are super cute. As soon as I turn my head to acknowledge her, she comes over and gives me a very cute kiss (as i've been doing to her almost constantly since I got her cus I love her so). JUST AS I TYPE THIS SHE IS STARTING TO IMITATE THE KISSING SOUNDS I MAKE!!!! SO EXCITING! Anyways, when I don't give her attention she kind of crawls around the front of my shirt to get the attention. Also, sometimes when i have my fingers even close to her, as if to scratch her before getting her explicit permission to scratch, she bites me. I don't know if this is because she doesn't know she's biting or because she doesn't like my fingers...

Anyways, the biggest issue for me is that I want to get Kiwi well socialized, and I want to be able to hold her how I want and where I want without her biting me. Really, I want the trust of a jealous bird.

Thanks SO MUCH for even reading. I know that my case is specific and long, but any help you guys can give me is so much appreciated. My goal is to get it so that Kiwi will learn to love my siblings enough to play with them (I don't live with them, but visit about once a month, they are 7,9 and 14).

Anything you can give me is awesome ))))) ))) )))

Hi guys,

So nobody has answered me, just wondering if there is anyone out there who knows the answer to my problems. If not, is the reason because my post is too long? thanks!

I'm going with too long but trying to read through now!

Tackling this a bit at a time.
As for the jealousy, some birds like male or female more than the other from birth. A lot of the time it is because of the birds specific gender. I have had both of my babies DNA'd and they are both male (yes Molly and Cody are both male ). Anyway in interaction with people I can see they both are drawn to females more than males.

On to read more...

FA22raptero said:

Despite that being odd, there are a few other weird things about Kiwi. She has no interest AT ALL with toys. I don't even think she plays with them when i'm not around. If I try to give them to her, she just backs off. She's not scared, just not interested. After reading, I learned that you can teach parrots to have fun with toys. Using animated gestures, I would play with the toy, laughing etc. After 5 minutes, I managed to coax Kiwi into acknowledging the toy, only, instead, she attacked it viciously. Not in a fun way. Later, I tried the same thing, only it was worse. First she attacked the toy, and then she attacked my cheek and bit me hard on my face and finger. (she is sitting on my shoulder during all this). This is a little frustrating, but also I feel like it's an odd reaction, especially to a toy. My judgement is she noticed how much fun I was having with the toy and not her, and so it made her angry. Do you guys have any idea why this is? I want her to learn to like toys so that I can learn to teach her tricks, and so she's not bored when i'm not home.

Next issue. Kiwi will let me hold her, and be held by other people. She loves hanging out with me. However, she doesn't REALLY seem to trust me. She will ask for scratches by bowing her head down, but if I scratch almost anywhere but exactly on her forehead between the eyes she gives me a good nip. I can't grab her with my whole hand either, that's when I get a REALLY good bite. Ouch.

Click to expand...

This is not weird at all. It sounds like Kiwi has not learned to play with toys. I did not see that you said how old she is but it sounds pretty typical for a GCC. You did the right thing in teaching her to play with the toys except you need to realize that with the high energy that GCC's have, the very often get carried away while playing rough. They go from 0 to 100 in 1 second. For instance, if they are playing with a small ball and then you get involved, even though you may be their most loved flock member ever, they will bite you. In addition, if you pull away prior to their bite they will often chase their object of the bite until their bite has been completed. This is how they are wired so you need to just work with it and be smarter than the bird! LOL

As for Kiwi always keeping an eye on you while even getting scratchs from others, consider yourself honored. Kiwi seems to have found comfort in your presence. My babies will relax with who I place them with but if I walk out of the room they will follow.

FA22raptero said:

The last thing to note, is that as I sit here writting this, Kiwi is on my shoulder, looking at me making those little "conure grunts" that are super cute. As soon as I turn my head to acknowledge her, she comes over and gives me a very cute kiss (as i've been doing to her almost constantly since I got her cus I love her so). JUST AS I TYPE THIS SHE IS STARTING TO IMITATE THE KISSING SOUNDS I MAKE!!!! SO EXCITING! Anyways, when I don't give her attention she kind of crawls around the front of my shirt to get the attention. Also, sometimes when i have my fingers even close to her, as if to scratch her before getting her explicit permission to scratch, she bites me. I don't know if this is because she doesn't know she's biting or because she doesn't like my fingers...

Anyways, the biggest issue for me is that I want to get Kiwi well socialized, and I want to be able to hold her how I want and where I want without her biting me. Really, I want the trust of a jealous bird.

Thanks SO MUCH for even reading. I know that my case is specific and long, but any help you guys can give me is so much appreciated. My goal is to get it so that Kiwi will learn to love my siblings enough to play with them (I don't live with them, but visit about once a month, they are 7,9 and 14).

Anything you can give me is awesome ))))) ))) )))

Click to expand...

It's possible that Kiwi doesn't want to be scratched. I can be difficult. My babies crawl to my front and then back down my shirt so that i "cup" them in my palm to be held. That is their all time favorite spot. They sit in my hand and I rub their beak against my lips and they go to sleep. I almost puts me into a trance too. It will just take time to get everything worked out. I have had Molly a year and a half and Cody almost a year now and we still get signals crossed sometimes. You seem to be doing every correct so don't sweat it too much. As long as Kiwi is getting to interact with other people then she is getting well socialized.

This sounds like it's all happened in a fairly short space of time so I'd say Kiwi is still sussing things out (with her beak as GCCs do!) Like Molly said, you're always going to have those moments where signals get crossed and you will get the occasional nasty bite, GCC are funny in the way that something can annoy them and it's so trivial to us that we don't take notice (I can't touch plastic bags without getting bitten, or keys, and sometimes I get bitten when putting new food in the cage, its never predictable because it's not constant)

But you seem to be going well, just don't get frustrated in the process, and it can be a long process to get that trust and to eliminate most biting, you're doing good with ignoring the bites but where you said you make her be with you, just know that sometimes GCC just want a bit of space, this is kind of hard to explain, but if say she runs away from your hand when you want her to step up, just take a step back before you try again, all about reading their body language which can be difficult! (reading body language also helps to avoid bites!)

Hope that all makes sense! Remember to come vent here when you get frustrated, we've all been there!

Welcome to the forum!
Reading through your post, it seems you are already doing really well. Keep up the good work!

Toys are not a guaranteed win with parrots. You need to learn what kind of toys she likes and when she likes to play with them. Try playing with bottle caps on the top of her cage.

The trust issue will be overcome with time. It takes practice to learn which way to scratch a bird, and you're probably not doing it the way she prefers. Just keep trying softly and she'll let you know when you do it right.

To socialize her you'll need to teach other people how to handle her the same way that you do. It's not an easy thing to do because parrots are always prone to biting (especially GGCs) and people just don't like nippy birds.
It's a pretty tough compromise between 'getting Kiwi to do what you want her to do' vs 'giving Kiwi the freedom to do what she wants'. I am more of the 'let her do what she wants' kinda guy, so I can't help if you want full control over her. There are a few videos of people whole prefer full control, so you can check them out on YouTube.

e.g. youtube.com/watch?v=sTOjJ7G6zL0#t=50s

Best of luck!

i wouldn't do the "full control" thing. My best advice would be the only way for you guys to work out is to come to an "agreement" basically. She has to have an opinion with what you want her to do. if she's not in the mood and you try to force her that won't be fun for you or her so i don't recommend that. if she wants space give her space, if she wants scratches give her scratches and she'll have to do stuff that i think are mandatory like step up. my bird has no say so if i ask her to step up, and she know's this. but she does have an opinion with pretty much anything else, i used to live in the dorms and if a RA knocked on the door i needed to be able to get her put her in her cage to hide it almost instantly. you need to compromise with her almost like a human relationship but with a bird lol!

Hey guys! Thanks SO much for your replies, it is much appreciated. I'm sure this is helping someone else somewhere as well. I'll work on everyone's suggestions. She's a tricky little bird...

It sounds like she is already socialized with you. Sounds like you both are doing great. My Green cheek doesn't play with toys much either he would rather chew on and play with us. As far as "holding any way you want" well lots of luck with that. No matter how socialized they are and how much they bond with you, you will find out that everything is on their terms. Just watch their body language and you will learn when and if to do a certain thing. Sounds like you have a sweet amazing little bird, keep up the good work.
Green cheeks change moods in a heartbeat. Mine has never like scratches, occasionally I get to and he seems to be enjoying it and then he remember....NO NO, I DOn't like that. It is really funny. Just learn to accept him on his /her terms. You will both be happier for it. Sounds like a well adapted little birdie.