Hand Taming Question

I've had my GCC for a month. He's 5 moths and came from a pet store, where he was sweet as can be, though wouldn't allow you to pick him up. (I has no breeders around or I would have got one from them) He was never really socialized when I got him. Lately I've gotten him to allow me to pet him a bit with my hand in the cage, but if I'm grabbing a toy or changing his dishes he will try to grab my hands and bite. When I leave the room he throws a fit. Hoping around and screaming. And heaven forbid I turn out the light, he losses his mind. However if I stand to the side of the cage he relaxes a bit and will let me scratch his head through the bars. When I'm not standing there he once again screams, smacks his beak on the cage, and will try every angle to see me.

I can't tell if he's just being a brat or if he's upset he can't see me. And I'm not sure of his biting is aggression or cage aggression. So a friend told me to take him to a small room where it would be safe(she said the bath tub with the sliding doors) and see how he reacts once he's out of the cage. I don't want to push him and lose everything I've worked on so far. I just don't know what else to do. I've read the bonding tips but I'm at a stand still. He is like 2 birds in one. He hates when I'm gone but dislikes me to get too close. He will take food from my hands, and his clicker training is going well, but he still refuses to step up onto my arm, he instead will bite hard on any exposed skin or my jacket sleeve. I love him to death and I want him to love me on his own time, but this 'I love you, I don't like you' thing has me lost. I honestly wanted a companion not a room ornament.

Any suggestions on what I can do? I don't know of he's aggressive or if it's cage related? Should I try the bathtub idea? Thank you!

P.s. He is clipped, wing wise.

Do you let him out of cage at all? When my gcc was a baby he went through a biting stage (not as bad), but I was always scolding him for biting making annoyed/angry faces, and if he bit hard I just put him to cage and left the room for a little while. He learned not to bite very quickly. I think your bird just needs some training and discipline - you cannot allow your bird doing whatever he wants if it's hurting you. There earlier you start training there better is that for both of you.

I can't really take him out is the issue. I want to get him use to step up first. I'm terrified if I try to bring him out he may hurt himself or me. He's still a bit hand shy. And I've tried food and everything to try the whole step up but it's a no go. As it is I have to wear long sleeves because he will bite Abby exposed skin. :/

LoveMyConlan said:

I can't really take him out is the issue. I want to get him use to step up first. I'm terrified if I try to bring him out he may hurt himself or me. He's still a bit hand shy. And I've tried food and everything to try the whole step up but it's a no go. As it is I have to wear long sleeves because he will bite Abby exposed skin. :/

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Oh just use a pencil or some other stick for him to stop up. I know it's scary! I had the same problem for the first week we had him - he was my first even bird and I had no idea how to get him out of cage. I just used pens and pencils (he especially loved the blue pen) to step up and took him out with it. You should definitely get him out of cage - they need at least 2 hours out of cage time every day.

Not that I'm an expert, but one thing I've read (and done) is rather than taking the bird out on a perch or by hand I will leave the door to the cage open and let the parrot come out at his/her own pace. My Derbyan likes to crawl all over the top of his cage whenever he gets the chance. He, too, seems to really need me to be around but doesn't like being handled our touched (though I understand that's normal for his species). I think for your conure it might just be a matter of patiently working with him until he gets more comfortable with you. Something I was told by the bird store was to feed Frank his favorite treat while he was still in the cage without trying to handle him. This got him to learn to associate my hands with good things rather than unwanted contact. If he didn't take the treat from my open hand I would place it in his food bowl. Eventually he got to the point where he was stepping up with little to no issue.