Help! Need a major attitude overhaul.

Hi Folks,

It is slowly becoming more and more evident that I do not know how to deal with my sun conure. He's my first bird, and really putting me off the idea of ever owning another. I love my little buddy, I really do but I have no idea how to handle his behavior. He HATES me. I know conures tend to have one family member that they associate with, and I tried to break the habit when he started biting me. I let him bite me, I didn't scream. I talked to him, spent time reading books to him, I posted before and tried every suggestion. He still hates me.

If his cage is open he will literally haul across the room to attack me. I can't feed him. I can't change his water. I can't clean the cage. I can't get NEAR the cage. He screams every time I walk near him and heads towards me and bites through the bars. I'm out of ideas. This bird clearly does not want me around him, but unfortunately, we all have to live together. His attacking issues means he can't be out as much as i'd like. He's become rather anti social. He won't even come out for my boyfriend anymore (whom he likes) if he can even hear me, and will no longer obey a step up command. He will not come out of his cage unless I walk by, then he's after me.

If anyone has ANY ideas I would love to hear them. I love my little guy and have never rehomed an animal, it would break my heart to do it, but it seems like none of us can live together. I don't think I can take 20 years of being attacked by a bird. I don't know what I did to make him so angry, but it makes me feel awful.

Are birds just this ticky about their owners? Any help about how to proceed is much appreciated.

Did you have him clipped so he can't fly out to go after you? You need to be the dominate one cause your letting your bird dominate over you.

Have you try the perch trick yet? I mention that to pretty much all the new owners with bird issues. It really is a good exercise practice and save you both from getting upset at each other.

Does he have a favorite treat? How many bowls does his cage have? Give him his favorite treat at either side of the cage. Get him to one side of the cage, when he comes, offer him the treat. Then run to the other side of the cage while he's nibbing down his treat, change the dish. Do the same over again when you need to go to the other side. That's what I told my partner to do to Willie the macaw. He does not let anyone touch his food dish but me. But he allows my partner to do it, we had Willie for 7 years now so Wille is fine with my partner feeding. But when I had sitters watching Willie, that's what they had to do to change his dishes.

If all else fails, do the perch trick, get him onto a play stand away from his cage. Then do what you need to do. With the dominate issue, if you have his wings clipped, he have no choice but to step up. Use the perch, it'll save you the biting.

Have I told you how to use the perch trick? I don't remember if I told you or not. Have two perches available to use. Use one to begin with to get him to learn how to step up onto it first. Once he learns how, grab the second perch, then raise the second perch to his belly and tell him to step up. When he does do it, praise him for doing so. Then do the step up with the perch he just step off from, hold it infront of him and ask him to do it again. Always praise them for doing their trick. Repeat the process several times then place him onto his stand or cage. Wait a little while later, repeat the process. At anytime he tries to come to the edge of the perch to get after your hand, roll the perch he's on back and fourth, he will stop, instead of attacking, he would try to balance. At the same time tell him "no biting". IF he persists and gets too near the end your holding the perch, bring the other free hand perch infront of him and tell him to step up and praise him again for doing so. Repeat the process several times a day.

By keeping him locked up isn't going to solve the issue cause you can make it worse to make him anti-social. He needs to be socialized and taught properly!

Good Luck with him, if you have problem doing what I suggested, don't hesitate to message me and I can explain it to you in details.

Thank you for some great ideas! His wings are clipped, but he will literally fling himself out of the cage to get to me, otherwise, he won't come out for anything. He only has one bowl, but i've using a modified method of the bowl trick to feed. Certain foods must be eaten in one corner of the cage apparently, he takes the treat and runs over to eat it.

I think we will definitely be trying the perch rolling trick. I think we'll also try playtime away from the cage. Perhaps a different room will change his attitude, i've had terribly territorial animals before so maybe that will change his mood.

Maybe when he gets more comfortable with me he'll stop screaming at me. We shall see.

Thanks again for the good ideas.

How old is he? How long have you had him?

Well, I hate to be the one to say this, but I believe in honesty. It might be time to cut your losses with this bird. It sounds like to me that the bird has some major issues with you. It would be different if the bird really liked another family member so you wouldn't have to interact with it. But it sounds like that isn't the case anymore.

Some birds will never get over aggressive behavior especially towards a partricular person no matter what they do. It's kind of like people, some people you like, some you dislike and others you literally hate.

I had a Cockatiel once, which I adored, but for some reason, it just didn't like me. Well it started as a dislike, but later turned into hatred I believe. Well, the Cockatiel saw my brother one evening who stopped by to see me and it was like love at first sight. He could get that bird to do anything he wanted it to do within a few minutes of meeting it. Where I, would get bit just trying to feed it, change it's cage. It would literally lunge at me. It tollerated my wife but barely.

So, being the man that I am, I stepped aside for true love and made my brother a gift of what we affectionately called "Devil Bird" or Sycho Susy". I saw that bird for years after that when ever I went to my brothers and each time, that bird let me know under no uncertain terms that it hated my guts. The bird eventually died of old age and my brother still misses his bird to this day.

After some rambling, my point is, some times there's nothing you can do but try and make the bird as happy as possible and if that means re-homing then better sooner than later. But don't feel guilty about it. There's an old adage that goes " You don't choose the bird, the bird chooses YOU!

Good luck which which ever you decide to do,
Mike

Mike,

Your right about letting the bird choose you. But sometimes that may change when you bring them home even though they choose you when you meet them. Its best to try your best to train. I have used this method of mine to train some very super mean birds and it has worked.

The bird is about a year old. We've had him maybe 2 months? He curled up on our shoulders and cooed and preened us when we got him, we brought him home, biting.

I really want what's best for Ra. If it's trainable and we can work through it, I'd like that. I work at animal rescues and would hate to be one more story of "I bought an animal and now it's not perfect so i'm done with it." But if it means a better life for him, that's what I want. It hasn't been long enough for me to give up on him yet, but I wish I knew what I did to make him so angry.

I'm going to try training as long as we can.

So, I felt guilty and went to see Ra. I opened his door and just sat down. Said nothing, just watching him. He sort of half flaps his wings (not quite puffing up), shouts and stares back. He wanders back and forth on the perch, just staring at me, then he just sat eating.

Could I have misunderstood the lunging and biting as attack when he's just trying to get to me? That doesn't quite explain the biting, but I don't really understand bird communication. He's a pet store bird, so I know he's used to people looking at him all day long, could this be his way of trying to communicate that he's lonely?

Have I just misunderstood all along?

The biting and the screaming I don't get, but if he was never trained that it's BAD, maybe that could just be another way of getting attention. Could this idea have any sort of merit?

I have been reading through all the threads here & Mike has some good points. But i have to wonder why was Ra rehomed in the first place. Could he have been a problem for his previous owner. Although he was very affectionate when you first met him. I feel he has been negatively reinforced in his other home & now in his new home he is trying to get away with the same & if you are to keep him he has to be retrained. IMO birds just don't turn feral for no good reason. Do you know for sure Ra is a male & his actual age. I would say he is older than 12 months.

First i would get him to a Vet. It's possible he has a low grade bac infection that is causing some of his behavior.

Second a good diet change would be in order. Plenty of fresh fruit & veg. I know i did read you were in the process of changing his diet.

Third clip his wings, i know that sounds harsh but it will give you more control over him & he will rely more on you to get him from A to B. Sometimes i have had to clip my breeding suns wings to give the hens a bit of time to get away from a randy **** bird.

Personally i think this bird has you frightened of it & the bird knows it. It's not that the bird hates you as much as there is no trust there. You don't trust Ra & he doesn't trust you. It will take more than 2 months to gain his trust but it will be so rewarding to make it work.

Another thing if you were to pass him on you would have to screen the new owner, if they don't have any idea on training a parrot i am afraid Ra will forever be passed on. The only other solution would be for him to be placed in an aviary with other sun conures & be able to fly around & interact with his own species.

He was a petstore bird so i'm sure he learned a lot of bad habits.

He has not been sexed but based on his coloring, we're guessing around a year. I'm setting up a wellness appt for him in the next month, he needs his nails clipped. His wings are clipped, but that doesn't really slow him down, just keeps him low to the ground.

I've been working on his diet. So far all we will eat is papaya and noodles. But it's a learning process coming from a petstore lifestyle. We won't bathe for the same reasons.

Ah some of my ??? answered. Yes i think your not reading his body language. Normally sun's are out of their cage as soon as you open the door. Some of his behavior couls be from the pet shop.

I think you have given Ra the wrong vibes when he first bit you & you have both lost a bit of that trust. All is not lost. Just take each day as it comes & reinforce some positive behaviors it may take some time but worth it in the end.

I feed my suns a small amount of quality seed mix, sprouts, corn on cob, apple orange, celery, silverbeet, almonds, chilies, also pellets but more as a treat than a food source. It is so important to get him on a well balanced diet.

SUN CONURES - Sun Conure Diet

I am pleased to report that a lot of hard work with Ra has gone a LONG way.

He doesn't scream or bite anymore. No attacking. We can touch him. He even comes running out of his cage when we walk in the room. He's gotten so good.

In other news, Ra is most definitely male. We had a friend babysit him for a weekend. A week later their "male" bird of 12 years laid eggs.

I was going to mention that my grey's atttitude completely changed when we upgraded her cage. She was instantly more comfortable. She used to lunge off the cage, refuse to go into or even on her cage when off often biting hard enough to break skin. As soon as we got her a bigger cage she was much much better.

kara