Strange Body Language & Mixed Signals with Green Cheek Conure

So, we've had Idris for a month now, and if anyone remembers my previous thread, we took her from a pretty abusive and neglectful home. I think we've made good speed in our progress with her, all things considered. She is around 6 months old, so I know we have a couple years to go in hormonal behavior.

We're having 2 major speed bumps, and Google isn't helping me with these. The first is that she doesn't like treats. Her normal food isn't enticing enough unless it's actually meal time, and she will NOT accept any other type of food reward. This makes rewarding behavior a bit of a problem.

The second, and largest, is that she has strange body language, and sometimes has none at all. She will literally go from walking over to lean on your arm, to rubbing the back of her head on you and squeaking happily, to just turning around and biting the living crap out of you. No change in feather positions, eyes aren't pinned (when we can see them), she just rocks her head back and forth and then suddenly one of those turns into a bite. Then she'll groom your arm hair and fluff up and click.

She does sometimes display fear or aggressive body language that I've gotten pretty good at reading and knowing not to push her at those times, but what to do about the ones that seem to come out of nowhere? I've tried capturing video but she always gets entranced by the phone and stops everything she's doing.

I have watched videos on touch training (which I couldn't finish utilizing because I don't know what to reward her with) & several on body language (though I have yet to find one that shows the conure specific body language), but it gets very confusing when you're wading through the polarization of the bird community on "positive" and "negative" training. We are going out to get the supplies to build a bird tree tomorrow, as we've noticed she's much, much more likely to bite if she's on her cage.

The past few days I have been able to get her to relax enough to puff up next to my hand and let me take care of the pin feathers around her beak, scratch her head and under her wings, and even remove some loose sheathing that was stuck midway on her tail feathers; I feel confident we're slowing going in the right direction. I'm just terrified of screwing up this bird for life, I guess not unlike I felt when I had my kids. lol.

I'm mostly looking for videos starring conure behavior that I may have overlooked, advice on how to choose a method I can be consistent in, what to do when the bite already happens during those "out of the blue" attacks, and maybe a little reassurance that my bird isn't going to hate me forever.

Here's our Iddy-Bird for anyone curious.

Have you ever tried shelled pine nuts? She's very cute!

Seppun, does she eat any seed? I know that other than the pine nuts that Kalidasa suggested, that many birds love safflower or sunflower seeds. I may get a little flack for this, but Rio adores unsalted tortilla chips (very small amount). Millet can also be a great training treat.

It sounds like she allows you to pet her head, so clicker train her. When she allows the pet/scratch/does a desired thing, click and give her a treat. If she nips, say no bite and turn away. Ignore her for a minute or so. If she came from a bad situation it will take longer for her to trust, and when she does...she will test the limits. If she nips from her cage, take her away from the cage so she can't see it. Try different rooms daily.

Your bird won't hate you forever! I am coming out of the tunnel so to speak, with my conure and it is a process! She loved me, then didn't. Be consistent, don't take it personally and keep trying!

BTW, I would limit the under wing scratches, it is a place that only a mate would touch often. You are doing fine and there are others who can help...take a look at behaviorworks.org to look at applied behavior analysis too!

There's a treat out there that she will like, their has to be. It took a few weeks to find the weakness mine had for pine nuts. Keep trying new treats. And rios mom above gave excellent advice. Your bird is young, these things will smooth out. Small berries are usually irresistible.

Popcorn maybe?

Wdlodge said:

Popcorn maybe?

Click to expand...

I second popcorn. They sell bird Popcorn as well if it turns out he likes it.

Have you tried dry fruits as treats? I know Fred LOVES dried bananas.

Some ideas on treats if you haven't already tried them.

Sunflower seeds
Safflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Large/Small millet
Dried fruits
Nuts

If she does like popcorn ,you can buy a bag of just popcorn kernels and place a few in a microwave type pot or dish with a cover and cook till the pooping stops a min or two then cool and use for treats or as food.

She eats Zupreem pellets, but I keep a bag of mixed nuts, seeds, and dried fruit around that I fill up a separate bowl with. She won't accept any of those from your hands and the most she does with the ones in the bowl is dig around and throw them. lol She does like picking up pumpkin seeds and just rotating them around her mouth, but doesn't eat them. She hates millet, she put it in her mouth once and actually spit it out and never touched it again. I have tried every fresh fruit and veggie that I happen to be eating at the time as well.
I haven't tried popcorn though, didn't even think of it. Thanks for the suggestions!