Sun Conure Help Please?

We have a sun conure named Linda who seems really fearful of our hands, we feed her food outside of the cage and we have had her for 3 months always trying to socialize with her, but it still seems that she is very scared of us.

She seems very comfortable with us giving food outside of the cage and gets scared whenever he put our hands in the cage.

I sometimes get to the point where I can pet her,but then she bites me pretty hard. Is there anyway I can tame her?

Can you describe where she is, how you are trying to socialize her, and how often she is out of the cage and away from it? Where is she located in your house, and how much 1 on 1 time she gets? More information will allow the experienced conure owners give you some advise. Good Luck.

wrench13 said:

Can you describe where she is, how you are trying to socialize her, and how often she is out of the cage and away from it? Where is she located in your house, and how much 1 on 1 time she gets? More information will allow the experienced conure owners give you some advise. Good Luck.

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We have a big cage outside and a small cage inside, we try to give her a treat everytime her see her, talk to her for 5-10 minutes. Whenever she is inside, she doesn't want to go out of her cage and she just stays there. She is in the backyard of our house with a roof above her since we have this little 'porch' and whenever she's inside, she's in the living room.

In the living room, open the cage sort of close when your all settled in. Watch TV, don't focus on her but turn your head and talk to her, explain whats going on in the show. If she climbs out of the cage don't respond, let her explore, keep talking during commercials etc.

I'm not going to say she's going to climb over to you, but she will learn your not a predator out to get her. Step 1 is just getting familiar. Your feeding thru the bars so she knows who you are, it will take time but she will get more relaxed. If she doesn't come out don't fret on it, the act of her cage open will pique her a little, and she might be braver next time.

clark_conure said:

In the living room, open the cage sort of close when your all settled in. Watch TV, don't focus on her but turn your head and talk to her, explain whats going on in the show. If she climbs out of the cage don't respond, let her explore, keep talking during commercials etc.

I'm not going to say she's going to climb over to you, but she will learn your not a predator out to get her. Step 1 is just getting familiar. Your feeding thru the bars so she knows who you are, it will take time but she will get more relaxed. If she doesn't come out don't fret on it, the act of her cage open will pique her a little, and she might be braver next time.

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Sounds like a good plan, I'll do that tomorrow, but what could I do when I need to bring her back into the cage?

If she's still hand afraid guide him with your hands, if she's not, you win the game.

I've had my sun for about a year and a half. He was mistreated and was pretty fearful but I was at least able to hold him. He still isn't crazy about hands but will come to me for the most part. He, a lot of times, will step up but other times will go on my arm. I wonder if yours would do the arm? I agree about having the cage door opened a bit. I have quakers I'm trying to "tame" and that's what I do with them. At times I sit on the floor by the cage with my other birds on me while I pet my dog or whatever. I talk so they get to know my voice. Your bird needs to view you as friendly & not an enemy. I've read where some people will sit near the cage and read a book outloud to the bird(s).


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for getting back in the cage try take one of the perches from in the cage and use that to move her around slowly. Try finding a really good treat she'll work for to get her on the stick. I found an open raisin to be good as you can stick it on your finger tip meaning less hand in front of her and the smell seems to drive them nuts (in a good way

I'm not sure how much I can help since Skittles was already well-tamed when I got him. But if I am to go by past experiences with other birds. I have found that patience and treats go a LONG way.

How much time is she spending in each place? If she spends most of her time outside, then she may not be as comfortable inside and as such be more defensive. I assume you live in a tropical area? (Suns should not be kept in areas below 70 degrees, especially outside where there could be a cool breeze).

I would let her acclimate to her 'permanent' home (which should really be the room in the house where people spend most of their time (ie family/living room). Suns are VERY social.

What I would try doing (making sure all potential dangers have been addressed- ie other pets, open doors/windows. etc) is leaving the day cage open in the living room and just going about your day while keeping an eye on her. She should eventually come out on her own and then just take it from there.

The thing to remember with parrots is that the taming and training is determined by THEIR pace, not ours and some parrots are VERY stubborn! There WILL be days when you think no progress is being made or even progress being reversed. You will be tested. If you consistently persist, you'll eventually get there and it'll be great.

One thing working in your favor is that its a sun. In my experience, sunnies are MAJOR divas and have NO problem expressing their opinions.

I've been to hell and back with Skittles. He was fine when I got him. Then I let him have the run of the house and anything and everything he wanted and he turned into an uncooperative spoiled brat. He would use his hopping and 'kissy noise' manipulation tactics and daddy would melt like a marshmallow. Parrots are smart. If they know they'll get the treat anyway, they'll disobey all they want. But if they know certain behaviors mean 'treat', they'll stick to those.

Skittles still 'tests' his boundaries EVERY day and I've gotten so used to enforcing them that its like second nature to me. But there have been times I let something slip by only to regret it later.