3 month old behavior questions

[kcpooh13]

Hello all,
Ok so we recently became the proud owners of a BCC, we adore him but since we have never owned a baby before, his body language and behavior puzzles me, and I want to make sure I am doing things right.

My first question is this.. He SCREAMS alot, and paces infront of his cage door. We talk to him in a low calm voice to encourge a softer reaction, and when we go to get him out he runs. It is like he wants to be out but is afraid.
We have been working with him, to get him use to us and stepping up. he loves to cuddle and goes limp when held next to your body but screams when you go to pull him away....
Is this a baby thing? I don't want to encourage bad habits....

Also I have noticed as I work and handle him more.. when I scritch his head he fluffs up and ruffles his wings and squaks... what does this mean?

and last question ... I notice he gets super excited with certain items and tends to bite hard when he is excited. he loves his treats which I have been using to teach him to step up and get use to our hands and just the whole trust stuff...
I notice when he gets excited and I would say over stimulated and starts to bite, I just put him away and take the stimuli away... is this the right thing to do?

Thank you for hanging in there and helping us out!
Krista

 

[lene1949]

The pacing could mean that he's agitated about something... What's your household like? Quiet, loud, other animals, visitors, music, TV etc. etc. It may be different to what he's used to...

How much out of cage time does he get? How much sleep does he get?

Was he fully weaned, when you got him, or did you finish it? Is he/was he flighted?

There are too many variables to be able to advise you...

He fluffs up so you can preen him better, or he doesn't like it... Does he bend his head? Does he move closer/further away?

Putting him away, because you don't know what's bothering him is not the right thing to do, but again could be the best thing to do...

Much more info needed... lol.... sorry...

 

[kcpooh13]

Thank you... the man we bought him from said he was weened a week before we got him. I know he loves his scrithes he puts his head own and closes his eyes. But when he does his litle wing flutter is always startles me since he is so relaxed and we r both ejoying the preening,cuddle, scrith time. I try to give him 2 or more hour out of his cage a day... this increases on a daily basis since we r working on our trust still. He has come a long way since we first got him 6 days ago.
We think the pacing is an excitement becaue he only does it wen he sees us. Our household is fairly quiet we have dogs but they r not too bad and we keep other sounds low. And he sleeps a good 10 or so hours... he is very good at night and wakes up with the household.
I hope I answered everything... right now he just finished eating this morning and my daughter has his cage open and playing with him. And he has for the most part stopped backing away from us. Unless we go to take him out of his cage... but if we let him work his way out it is better he comes to us.

 

[kcpooh13]

Also when he paces he calls and hops too. And when we come over he climbs up to meet us and get a head scritch.

 

[roxynoodle]

Well, some will say it's a bad thing to let the bird come out the open door of the cage on it's own. I'm not sure I agree though. My Nanday always does, but she's cage aggressive. So I open the door, she climbs down and hangs on the bars at the side of the open door and then she will always step up nicely. We've done it that way for 11 years. What can I say other than she's very territorial about her cage and her things and even the room she lives in!

I'm sure it might help as well for a shy, new baby. Maybe reaching in for him scares him. Just work on it little by little I guess. My Blue Crown was a much shyer bird than my Nanday is. It is a bit hard for me to remember now when she first came home and how I approached her then. I do remember spending a lot of time sitting on the floor in front of her cage initially. She would eventually climb down to interact with me. IIRC, I don't think she wanted to come out of the cage the first week or so. And she did meet me several times after she hatched and before she was weaned. She was just scared at first of being in a new home.

She always puffed her feathers up when I petted her as well. She especially liked to fluff her head feathers for me to lightly pass my finger over the tips back and forth.

I don't know if my BCC was typical of the species, but she was always a shy girl about new things. She was shy about new toys, new people, etc. Once she warmed up to them she was very friendly. My Nanday is the opposite. Her first night here she acted like she had always lived here, lol! She just has that bold parrot attitude.

 

[kcpooh13]

This is a litle video I took this morning of him.. I think this is happy baby bird but wanted to double check, don't want to missread him!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-jc07ZrpI&feature=youtube_gdata_player]3 mo old BC Conure - YouTube[/ame]

 

[roxynoodle]

He looks happy but a bit clumsy yet, lol! My BCC was also a bit clumsy when I first brought her home, now that I remember. Do take care to make sure he doesn't fall from you or anything else to help him build confidence.

Happy behaviors are stretching for you, tail wagging or with BCCs, fanning the tail (although that can also indicate over excitement that could lead to a bite). Mine would also move her beak up and down a couple of times when she was happy, like she was smiling. They also tend to pinpoint their eyes a lot when they are happy.