Struggling with Bonding with Sun Conure

Hi all!

We bought a sun conure at about 4 months old. The breeder had us do some barbaric training methods which we stopped very soon after leaving the breeder. Obviously this has left the sun conure fearful of us and our hands.

I've been training with him to step up onto a stick and rewarding him with corn. However, I don't know where to go from there to my hands, I want to be able to interact with him when he's ready.

What can I do? How can I bond with him? How did you guys learn the patience for all of this?

Thank you!

How did you get your other 5 parrots to bond with you? Same deal.

I am so glad you stopped the terrible things the seller had you doing.

I’m glad you’re gonna keep working with your bird & not giving up. My own Sun Conure is very loving, mainly due to hard work done by the “bird whisperer” at my local Petco before I got her.

In other words, I don’t have a lot of good advice for how to bond. But I know there are lots of threads on this forum on that exact topic. And a lot of people with experience in the area. There are definitely stickies under behavior and I think especially under budgies Regarding how to bond with your bird.

You might specifically want to look at some of those budgie threads about bonding. Normally I think Sunnies, like mine, want to be friendly. But, yours might be a little traumatized right now,& thus somewhat skittish. Budgies tend to naturally be quite skittish. So advice for bonding with a budgie might be appropriate for you at this point, as you work on a restart of your relationship.

Thank you for recognizing awful training methods. Your conure may be traumatized but should respond in time with patience, love, and dedication. This thread shares some excellent techniques to help with building trust and bonding: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

My best suggestions are...

Expand his treats -- nutriberries, sunflower seeds, a bite of a cracker, find what most entices him and use that to mix up training so he knows there is more than corn waiting for him.

You can also experiment by offering a new little toy to him instead of a treat -- a little ball or bell, a piece of wood to chew, something that keeps him guessing and wanting to keep playing/training with you.

Can you put him on the floor and play with him on the floor this way with some toys? You can lay some out on the ground for him to choose and try not to use your hands too much, or if you have to, only slow movements.

Target training could go a long way in learning how to communicate with him and teach him to step up!