Help me with my new nanday conure Please!

I just adopted a 3 years old nanday conure. He was hand raised but wasn't tamed. I had him for 3 days now he's still get use to his new surrounding, but I haven't seen him eat or drink anything yet. The questions I want to ask are:
1.Is it normal for my conure to have bigger poop than cockatiel?
2.About how long should I take him out and start to training him? (His attitude is like a wild bird when I got him from the breeder he was there and will make himself bigger and bit the breeder. The breeder herself had raised this bird from baby but now he's biting so she sold the bird for me with a really cheap price).
3. Can I fix his attitude to become a friendly bird?
4. Is it normal for him to sitting at 1 spot and looking around? I haven't reach my hand in his cage.
5. In this morning I found some feather on the bottom of his cage and the feathers are in varieties length 2 are short and 1 is a little bit longer.
6.Also when I called the breeder about the pooping change. She told me that it is normal for a new bird to have an abnormal poop for the first week Is that true?

1. Is it normal for my conure to have bigger poop than cockatiel?
Nandays are bigger than cockatiels, so yes.

2. About how long should I take him out and start to training him? (His attitude is like a wild bird when I got him from the breeder he was there and will make himself bigger and bit the breeder. The breeder herself had raised this bird from baby but now he's biting so she sold the bird for me with a really cheap price).
Leave him in the cage. New home. New environment. New human. Everything may be scary to him! It's ok to leave him in the cage if he doesn't want to come out! Give him time to adjust to his new home.

I would highly recommend looking into clicker training and positive reinforcement! Lara Joseph, Susan Friedman, Barbara Heidenreich, Steve Martin, Rebecca O'Connor, Melinda Johnson.... these are some great trainers and behaviorists! Most of them have great information on their websites or blogs that you can read for free!

One of the first things you'll want to teach is target training. Find a stick, empty pen case, a chopstick, acrylic stick, etc and teach your conure to touch the stick. The steps to teaching the behavior is to start from a distance (say 5 feet or more), show the target object to the bird, say good, hide the object, reward the bird. Repeat this step getting closer and closer to the bird without freaking the bird out. After a while, you may be able to put the target item near the cage and reward the bird for remaining calm. Touch the target to the cage and reward bird for remaining calm. Stick the target through the cage bars, reward bird for remaining calm. Then you could start rewarding the bird for looking at the target, moving closer to the target, then finally touching the target. Once your conure understands touch, you can then make it more complex by having your conure move around to touch the object, such as what this sun conure is doing in the video.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7-HcvuJqJo"]Sun Conure ~ Tequila - learning cue "touch" Perch Parrot Training Club 1st Lesson - YouTube[/ame]



PS, keep training sessions short! It's ok for sessions to be 2-3 minutes long! Do a short training session, then come back in 10-15 minutes, or maybe a little later!


3. Can I fix his attitude to become a friendly bird?
Sure can! My first two conures were pre-teens or older when I got them. My first conure was never a cuddly, hands on kind of bird, but we still had a special connection. I learned how to understand what he wanted and I could easily move him around.

My second conure was tame and friendly when I got him, and he is, to this day, still loud, cuddly, obnoxious, hilarious, goofy, nippy, funny, loud, etc!

My third conure was about 3 years old when I got her, and I haven't even had her a year yet! She's about 4 now and I knew when I took her in that she would require some work. She so badly wanted to interact with people but she was completely terrified of it at the same time! If I didn't have to remove her from her cage, then I didn't! Instead, I moved the cage around the house with me so she could be "with" me without having to be on me, nor leaving the comfort and safety of her cage.

Now? She flies around the house after me if she's not on me! She loves one on one attention, both hands on and hands off! She's a social butterfly, and loves people! But she was social prior to me getting her, just couldn't be handled then. She actually loves strangers!


4. Is it normal for him to sitting at 1 spot and looking around? I haven't reach my hand in his cage.
Being that you just got him, I'd say probably yes. He may not have settled in yet so he's still wary and cautious of his surroundings. He might be afraid that something might come out and attack him out of no where.

5. In this morning I found some feather on the bottom of his cage and the feathers are in varieties length 2 are short and 1 is a little bit longer.
Might be molting?


6.Also when I called the breeder about the pooping change. She told me that it is normal for a new bird to have an abnormal poop for the first week Is that true?
You can learn a lot about observing bird poop. Depending on color and consistency, you can tell if they are stressed, drank a lot of water, what they are eating, if they are sick or healthy, etc.

So yes, what the breeder said is true. Even if you don't see him eating, as long as he is still pooping green, he should be ok. If his droppings become smaller or black, you may need to be concerned.

If he doesn't seem to be eating at all, then move the food dishes up so he doesn't have to come down to eat. This will help him feel more relaxed if he can eat where he feels safer at. (i.e. higher up in the cage) Once he becomes relaxed, you can move the food dishes down low again.

Just a note of interest, some birds just have large poops. Linnies are notorious for having gigantic poops. My linnie poops are bigger than my sennies. I'd be more concerned with color, consistency etc. Monica has given some good advice/suggestions.