Attack biting

Hello everyone! I'm new to the forums here so I hope that I'm posting on the correct board.

I recently just got a new green cheek conure named, Bowie. He or she (not yet sexed but I will just say "he" for now) was born on 9/30/16 and was brought home on 4/15/17, unfortunately from a pet store after I searched everywhere for a nearby breeder. (I wasn't comfortable with having one flown in from a different state and wanted to meet the bird first) He appears to be a very healthy, active little bird, eating/drinking well and playing with every toy also appearing very comfortable in his new home. Everything was great except the biting that I have been working on preventing, although I know it can take weeks to months to train. I'll give a little bit of additional information.

Bowie has a very large cage with a playtop covered with chew toys to stay in while I work 9am-5pm Monday-Friday. Once I get home around 5:10pm, he gets to come out to play from then till about 8-8:30pm for when he decides he's tired and goes to his cage to sleep and be covered with a blanket until about 8am. He did have a safer version of a happy hut for a bit but I removed it today. I do plan on taking him out more often and to work with me (a quiet and relaxed office environment) where his second cage is so he will have more play time and being socialized, but not doing so until he is 100% comfortable with me. Saturday and Sunday, he gets more time with me and out of the cage.

He gets one nutriberry in the morning fed from my hand through the bars of his cage, trying to familiarize him with my hands without biting. During the day he has vitaseed mixed with zupreme pellets in his dish (he avoids the pellets, attempting to slowly change to mostly zupreme rather than mostly seed) with fresh filtered water switched out twice a day. Once I get home, I feed him a mix of boiled sweet potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, and kale sometimes with crushed pellets to get him to eat them. He seems to very much enjoy it! Although some food still gets flung around haha. Not sure if I should be serving mushy fruits and veggies because it's breeding season but if it's more "solid" it'll just get tossed by him. I will train him with 1-2 more nutriberry balls before bed to train "step up."

I start with my wooden ladder to use as step up, gets a treat, steps down, gets a treat... But sometimes he will see my hand using the ladder and will immediately go to train and attack it so I have to switch hands to distract because he will not even pay attention to the treat in my other hand or if I even try to use a toy. Sometimes he will do well with hand stepping up with no bites at all, while other times he will step up, but once he stops with eating the treat he immediately goes to bite. I do not put the ladder or my finger against his chest to try and make him do it if he doesn't want to, I simply out my finger somewhat near him, show the treat and ask so he will do so if he wants.

Other times, I will have him on a perch next to me while I play video games for him to exercise and be out. He will "fly" (clipped wings) to me and start to gently nibble on my hat which is fine, but recently a lot of the time he will make his way somewhere else and bite VERY hard, unprovoked on my neck, ears, anywhere there's skin. He will walk on down to my hand and start to nibble but then completely chomps down to the point that I bleed.

I've tried gently blowing on his face, I've tried the "earthquake" hand, and tilting to lose his balance to get him to stop but he just latches on. I've even gone the route to just completely ignore it and keep my hand still but he still makes me bleed so I have him step up on the ladder to go back onto his perch or in the cage if I have to get up and clean my wound.

I'm not doing a thing to provoke him to bite, not doing anything to make him do something that he doesn't want, I'm just simply sitting there. I'm a bit at a loss on what to do, I know he wants to be with me but I can't handle bleeding at his expense when I'm just minding my own business. Do I need to change his diet? Is this hormonal? Is it because of young age? Should I take him to the vet? Is there something else that I can do? I'm a bit at a loss and a little worried because I just want to be a good bird mom, having him live a full happy 30 years if he can live to be that old.

Thank you everyone for reading my very lengthy post, I'm hoping to receive some great advice.

A warm welcome to you and Bowie, thanks for joining! You chose a great location for a beautifully detailed post!

A few things to consider, and you'll get additional advice from members with conures. Bowie is still new to you and in the "honeymoon phase." I'd say he is beginning to acclimate well except for biting. Not sure if he is old enough to have hormonal issues, but I am not familiar with conures. Spending additional time with Bowie will be helpful, and having a day cage at work is ideal.

Not familiar with Vitaseed, but a diet high in fat can be linked to aggressive behaviors. Increasing the proportion of fresh vegetables and fruits to seed/pellets may benefit mood as well as overall health.

Your shoulders/neck/head ought be available ONLY when Bowie has earned trust. Angry conures are capable of causing scarring injuries. While birds use the beak as a hand/leg, the biting you describe ought be stopped. A stern "NO" annunciated immediately after the bite followed by a short time-out in his cage is one technique.

You may find the following links within the forum helpful. The "macaw beak" thread is so instructive and applicable to most any species!!

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/macaws/56384-big-beak-o-phobes-guide-understanding-macaw-beaks.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...7-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html

Thank you Scott for your response!!

Unfortunately, being from a pet store, he has mainly been on an all seed diet so I'm trying to slowly transition him to more fruits, veggies, and pellets without fully taking away his seeds. He has done pretty well so far, mostly taken a liking to apples and strawberries so far but has eaten sweet potatoes and blueberries too! He won't really eat veggies yet, has said no to carrots, broccoli and kale so today I got a food processor out and chopped up blueberries, strawberries, kale, sweet potatoes, and pellets into bits so he couldn't just pick and choose what he ate mostly. Seemed to work pretty well, even saw him eat pellets! Just wasn't sure because I read elsewhere that during breeding season you should also cut down on sugar, so fruits and I wasn't sure.

Looks like I already made an uh oh because he has been on my head (I've actually been taking him down lately as soon as he's up there by stepping up on the ladder and back down on the perch) but I continued to let him sit on my shoulder because I felt like I was taking away from making friends with him. I would let him gently nibble on my hat (I have alopecia universalis which means I'm bald so I wear scarf type hats ) but as soon as he would go for a bite I'd put him on the perch. I will try to remember to put him on the perch immediately next time.

Don't be dismayed by his lack of food acceptance, they are very stubborn. What may be helpful is to remove all seeds/pellets when veggies/fruits are given. Given their relatively short shelf-life depending on temperature, the healthier foods are available for a few hours; during that time he will not starve. Once the moist food is removed, replace with a gradually higher concentration of pellets to seed. Something that took me a VERY long time to learn is to not replenish the seed cup daily. (provided the contents are clean) Like children at a buffet, birds will eat the tastier (higher fat content) foods before grudgingly sampling the remainder. The first item consumed from my mix is safflower, but they will eventually consume the less favored. When dry food is offered, the relative mix is about 80% Zupreem to 20% seed.

Persistence pays off! I continually offer despised foods to all my birds, and it may be years until they try a particular item!

Thank you so much Scott for the awesome advice! The biting was a little less today but I've learned to distract him better before it happens, and when it did I perched him on his perch or in his cage for a bit.

We were doing very well with the step up training today, except for when he steps up, he knows he gets a treat again for stepping down so he immediately steps down before I can give the command. (haha he is VERY food driven, it makes me laugh) The problem is, is that I don't want to fully pull him away from the perch because when I do, he tries to step back and almost falls. I'm just afraid of possibly losing trust by doing this and hoping the more he comes to trust me, the longer he will stay perched on my finger until I command to step down.

I also gave him a handful of Zupreme pellets without any seeds, next to his bowl of water. It was a success! He would dip them in water and begin to eat, he didn't fully finish the small amount I gave him but it's baby steps! Thank you for the tips, I will start doing 80% pellets and 20% seeds starting tomorrow. :]

Heya,
I'm new to the forums and I am having an issue with my INR
She is fine outside her cage, and seems temperate and even tempered, but inside her cage she attacks fingers if they are put in.
Is this normal territorial behaviour?
It's been going on for a few months now.
I have tried positive reinforcement, and have been warned about the repercussions of negative reinforcement, but I am running out of options.

Also, as a side note, her claws are extremely long and sharp. All my local vets are dog only, and refuse to clip her nails, and I am not experienced enough to clip them myself.
My left hand looks like it went through a paper shredder. This is sometimes intentional (as in she wants to bite it), but more often than not, it is just because her claws are so sharp.
Any advice on this aggressive behaviour, and in particular, the nails would be Very much appreciated.
Thanks!