New conure

I just got a new conure about a month ago. We were told it was about 2 months old. For the first few weeks we had no issues he was very friendly and never tried to bite. I take him out and socialized him everyday for at least an hour, usually longer. Now all of a sudden he gets in these weird moods where he starts shaking his head and dragging his beak along the bottom of the cage and if you try and touch him he gets very mean and tries to bite but then an hour later he'll be fine and friendly again. This has been happening on and off for a few days. Any idea why his mood keeps changing?

I haven't seen my bird do this, he wipes his beak a lot on shirts and pillows, all sorts of cloth but I think it's just for cleaning.

One thing I'd recommend is spending much more time with him, "an hour a day or sometimes longer" is not enough for a conure IMO. Even when I'm at my busiest my conure gets at least 5 hours on my shoulder and sometimes like 10 hours. I just put him there as soon as I get home and go about my business.

I will say this sometimes when I get home after being gone to work all night or a long shopping trip, whatever, my bird can get pissy. But I just hang out for a few minutes and say "come on", or I walk out of the room then he starts leaving the cage on his own.

clark_conure said:

I haven't seen my bird do this, he wipes his beak a lot on shirts and pillows, all sorts of cloth but I think it's just for cleaning.

One thing I'd recommend is spending much more time with him, "an hour a day or sometimes longer" is not enough for a conure IMO. Even when I'm at my busiest my conure gets at least 5 hours on my shoulder and sometimes like 10 hours. I just put him there as soon as I get home and go about my business.

I will say this sometimes when I get home after being gone to work all night or a long shopping trip, whatever, my bird can get pissy. But I just hang out for a few minutes and say "come on", or I walk out of the room then he starts leaving the cage on his own.

Click to expand...

I will say 5 or 10 hours just isn't possible for many people due to that whole work thing. The main thing is quality of time over quantity, although should try for as much as possible. It needs to be a consistent amount to what they would get all the time as they get older. No use spending an entire week with them to then drop to only an hour or so a day. My simple basis is that when you're home and it's safe to do so they should have the cage door open.

I've got to be honest I don't know what the wiping his beak on the floor thing is. Need some more info or possibly a video. is he fluffed up when doing this? It may not be wiping his beak but more of a threat display. You need to try and observe what makes him get to that point, it could be he feels threatened or it could be over-stimulated by play, or any number of things, but without more info we just don't know.

I will say 2 months old seems young for a conure to be weaned. It normally takes 3 months for them to be fully weaned

My JoJo does the same thing on his cage!

This is my go to study!
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html


The only bite that can't be rewarded is the one that never occurs.

I agree, you need to spend more time with your conure. All kinds of time - playing with him time; just sitting on your shoulder time; giving scratches time; training time and socializing wth the other member of your family or house time. Parrots are like much else in this world - you get out of them what you put into them. Good luck!

Not sure what the dragging his beak across his cage may be but he could be claiming it as "MINE". Or may be he wants out.

that's a good point doubletake!

It is a thing that parrots will often do to claim territory is to tap their beak against things they claim as theirs. It's essentially a "see this? This is mine" although in a home with a parrot everything is considered "mine"

think 2 year old child when they get to that snatching phase

I have seen all 3 of my fids do this, but my female GCC does it WAY more than the Suns. I think she is marking her "territory". She was really beaky when young but cleaned up well as she got older. I don't think she is in a biting mood with these displays, but it is usually when I am handing out treat throughout the day.