HELP! Dramatic Change in my Conure

tarafield

New member
Feb 9, 2015
1
0
We purchased a lovely green cheek conure 6 months ago and she has been our baby. She was very cuddly, talkative, and attentive - she would love snuggles on our shoulders, head, and would come immediately to be picked up when we put our finger out. In the morning she would climb on our hand to come out of the cage.

However we decided to get another conure for a friend for her. We introduced them slowly, the second conure is a sun conure we called lou lou, we are not sure if lou lou is a male or female. This bird is only a baby and was just coming off the weaning stage. "she" was very bitey but she is learning and we don't allow "her" to get on our shoulders just yet.

Her and the other bird are best friends and love each other, however, my first green cheek has changed. Now in the morning when we go to let her out of the cage she flies away from us in fear. We leave the cage door open and she comes out. The new bird happily climbs on our hand, but the green cheek comes out on her own.

When she comes out she will not let us pick her up at all, in fact she flies away from us as if she is scared. We have to leave her alone. Before we would say "scratch" and she would come up to you but now she just flies away.

Before we go to work we put both birds away. The new one is fine to go away (after some biting of cause!) but Cheeky (the green cheek) refuses and runs away from us. We cant even pick her up anymore. If she flies on the floor we have to leave her there because she gets so worked up we don't want to scare her anymore.

She is a lovely bird but she is constantly scared of us now. This has only happened about one week after we got the new bird. Is this normal? Is this nesting behaviour? She likes being out but she does not allow us to interact with her at all. To get her back in the cage we either have to catch her or entice her with food, wait until she climbs in, and then close the door.

PLEASE HELP, WE WANT OUR BABY BACK!!!!

:rainbow1:
 

66corvair

New member
Feb 5, 2014
42
0
Parrots
2 year old GCC
Oh No!! That's terrible to hear! Maybe Cheeky has bonded with the new bird and now no longer views you as her "flock".

Regardless welcome to the forum! There are many experts here who will have advice for you. I'm sure it will all work out!
 

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
Have you changed anything about your appearance? Clothing? Hair? Jewelry? The slightest thing can set off a bird can make them scared and take off. Has anything in your immediate environment changed? Pictures, furniture, location of the cage? Is she stick trained so that you can use a dowel perch or rope perch from a distance to have her step up? Because that may be something to start with to help rebuild the trust between the two of you.

I can't really say being flighty is a mating or nesting thing, usually aggression is when you infringe on territory, their nest, or on their chosen mate. But I'm not sure. And birds are very good at picking up your energy when you go to ask them to step up. If I approach my IRN or my GCC when I'm frustrated, they will fly from me or try to bite me. Try starting with talking to her in a soft voice while she's in her cage, and as she calms down open the door and keep talking calmly to her to see what happens.
 

veimar

New member
Feb 5, 2014
1,150
4
Chicago, IL
Parrots
gcc Parry; lovebird Coco; 3 budgies (Tesla, Franky and Cesar); cockatiel Murzik, red rump parakeet girl Onyx
I have a similar situation with my Parry - he bonded with my two budgies, and is not sweet to me anymore. He still steps up and lets me pick him up, but also often runs/flies from me. It actually started when he had a bad toe injury, and I had to put on collars, bandages and administer the medicine on daily basis. After that he is afraid of me (no wonder). :(
So as some other people suggested maybe there were some changes in your life/appearance etc that might have triggered it. Generally if the birds bond to each other they are less bonded to us. My birds view me just as a member of their flock, not more than that.
 

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