Conure problems

[KiwiDaConure97]

I’ll make this short and sweet and add details that could have caused this change:

My ggc is now 1 year and 9 months old. Recently he’s seemed to have grown distant of me and has forgotten what step up means. Whenever I open his cage he doesn’t come out and stays in it, but when I leave he climbs out of his cage and when I come near he rushes back in. I don’t understand why slurs doing this but I thought of a couple reasons:

1. I had my friends over one day who were scared of him flying around and my bird tried to land on one of them but they ducked and hit him lightly

2. He’s going through another crazy bird phase(he has those phases where he hates me for a while then loves me for another couple months)

3. No reason at all, he just hates me for whatever

4. He’s moutling and all he seems to want is treats and for me to scratch his neck (I hear birds get grumpy when they’re moulting)

Please help me out and tell me what I should do, teach him step up again? Retame him again? More treats? Thanks for the help!

 

[ChristaNL]

You can always "start from scratch" no matter how old the bird is or how long he/she had been living with you.
So go back to "bonding" maybe some "targettraining" and work towards a "step up" again.

Accidents do happen, and if you do not make a big deal out of it the birds are usually very forgiving.

(do not forget to train your friends as well it is almost as important.
It took me a while to get my friends into "this is a parrot and they act like this" but now they send me parrot-related-youtubes with comments like "OMG did you see how clumsy that guy...." "no wonder that parrot bit her! Did you notice...". Once they get it, it is so much fun for everyone.)

 

[EllenD]

How long has he been acting like this? And do you know for sure that your GCC is a male (did you have him DNA-tested)? I'm assuming from what you've said that you're his first-owner and you've had him since he was a little baby, either from his breeder or a pet shop, so you're pretty close on knowing his true age?

As Christa said, you can ALWAYS "Hit the Reset-Button" and start-over with your bird like it's day #1, it's never too late to do that, otherwise no one would ever be able to form close relationships/bonds with parrots that have been re-homed from their original owners. It can take a lot of time and patience, and a lot of the time people get frustrated once they realize that it may take months and months or longer, but it's always possible...

***HOWEVER, what you really need to be sure of is that your bird doesn't have any kind of physical healthy/medical issue going on, such as an Illness, Infection, Viral Disease, etc. I'm sure that you're aware of this, but ALL BIRDS possess a natural, innate survival-instinct that causes them to hide any and all outward-signs of any illness or pain for as long as they can, sometimes for months and months to years. As a result, a lot of the time when we as people do finally notice that something is wrong with our birds, it's often too late to save them, or they have to be hospitalized and it costs a fortune to save them. So, since you can't rely on your bird showing you that he's ill or in pain by watching for the typical signs and symptoms, the only thing that you can look for are changes in his attitude, personality, behaviors, daily-routines, and the way he interacts with you and others. So obviously whenever your bird just suddenly starts displaying a complete change in his behavior like this, the VERY FIRST THING that you ALWAYS need to do is get him to either a Certified Avian Vet or Avian Specialist Vet (no Exotics Vets for this) for a complete Wellness-Exam, just like he should be having once a year with your CAV anyway, that includes a Fecal Smear and complete Blood-Work, which will tell you whether or not he has any type of infection, Anemia, Liver or Kidney issues or Disease, Nutritional issues, Metabolic Issues, etc.

Once you rule-out that it's a physical health/medical issue, then you have to try to figure out what's going on, what's different or what changed around the same time that his behavior suddenly changed.

As Christa already said, it's not ever going to simply be that "He just hates you suddenly", that's not how birds work. There's always a cause to everything they do; it may not make sense to us, but there is always a cause. And the fact that one of your friends accidentally "hit" him like you described probably didn't cause the problem, as things like that happen all the time, and as long as he wasn't seriously injured when it happened, and as long as it's not a "regular thing", like he's being abused on a regular basis, then that probably has nothing to do with what's going on...

Molting

 

[EllenD]

My tablet froze right in the middle of me finishing my above post...

I was going to say that if your Green Cheek is currently molting it will cause discomfort due to all the pin-feathers, but unless his change in behavior towards you started right as the molt started, then I doubt it's the reason behind his behavior change towards you (as all of mine are, my house has feathers floating EVERYWHERE right now, and they all have pin-feathers all over them and they're all miserable and constantly preening themselves and each other)...However, it will help him if you try either giving him a daily bath, shower, or misting with a spray-bottle, whatever it is that your bird likes as far as bathing goes, as it will help a lot with his itching. This can make them very grumpy, but it typically doesn't cause the behavior change towards their "person" like you're describing. But you never know...If his behavior changes back to normal after he's done molting, then you'll know that's what it was about...

The best thing you can do is to think back to exactly the time when his behavior towards you changed, and then think about ANY changes to ANYTHING that took place right at the same time that his behavior towards you changed...Any changes to your home, like any new furniture or other items in your home, any new people or animals, any less people or animals, any changes to his cage or what is inside of his cage or what's around his cage or to any of his perches/stands/gyms, any new toys or toys you took away, any changes to his food, any changes to his regular daily routine/schedule...If you started working a different job or shift, if you started spending less time at home or with him, any changes to your haircut or hair-color, any new scents on you or in your home, etc. The smallest, tiniest, insignificant little things that we would never think anything of can cause them great stress, even something as small as changing the soap you use, the laundry detergent you wash your clothes in, the perfume or cologne you wear, a different color of nail polish or hair color, cutting your hair suddenly much shorter than it was, etc. These are all examples of things that commonly cause issues with parrots and their people...

Also, if you relocated his cage in your home, or you moved something new next to his cage, or if you changed anything inside of his cage, this can cause great stress to them...You mentioned that he stopped coming out of his cage as soon as you open the door, he's doing it on his own time and not until you step away from his cage...That actually isn't uncommon at all, they are very territorial over their cages, and even the tamest, most loving, cuddlebugs still will not let their owners hands inside of their cages, even after years of being closely bonded to them...I have a Quaker Parrot that is turning 4 this year, I've had her since she was 12 weeks old and she's the sweetest, most loving parrot in the world, I can handle her any way I want to, she flies to me on-command, and she's just the most loving bird in the world...But I have to open up her cage doors and step away from her cage, and she'll come right out on her own and then fly to me and everything is great..If I open up her cage and put my hand inside to either remove her food/water dishes or to ask her to step-up and come out, forget about it, I'm getting a "warning nip" first, and if I don't remove my hand after that then I'm getting a good bite...So I have to actually have her come out on her own before I change her food/water...Otherwise she's fine with me doing anything I want to her, I clip her toenails and file them, I file her beak, she takes showers with me, etc., but my hands do not belong in her cage...So your bird starting that behavior is perfectly normal and may not have anything to do with the other changes in his behavior to you, like suddenly not stepping-up for you. If your Green Cheek is refusing to step-up for you while inside of his cage only, or is biting at you while inside of his cage only, but is still stepping-up while outside of his cage, then that's totally normal, and it probably won't ever change back, no matter what you do. You just need to respect his territory, and just open up his cage and step away and allow him to come out on his own, and THEN ask him to step-up, and THEN take his food/water dishes out and clean his cage. Don't try to have your hands inside of his cage at any time while he's inside of it, because you're not going to break him of this, and if you try you'll likely just cause more and more damage to your relationship with him...

 

[KiwiDaConure97]

Here’s the thing though; I’m only 13 and my dad never takes him to the vet because he says “there’s nothing wrong with him” even tho he knows nothing about birds, so I might just need to pay for it with my own money, how much is a wellness exam?

 

[KiwiDaConure97]

I only hanged one thing with his cage: a new perch, but he absolutely loves it, he spends every hour of his time on it, it’s one of those colourful rope perched and he just can’t get enough of it. I also got him a wooden chew toy but he was scared of it, I once put it in his cage and then he became very grumpy and miserable because of it, so I removed it and and this is when this started I think, but it could also be territory because if my sisters bird goes in his cage he’s not very welcoming at first. He’s very cuddly in his cage though, like if I put my hand in it he’ll just snuggle right up. I’m going to take an assumption tho that it’s the wooden toy, maybe I should throw it away altogether? Even tho it’s not even in his cage?

 

[RemiBird]

Have you been spending enough time with him lately? Or have you been busy with other things?
Birds like routine.
The wellness exam is not cheap. I actually called an avian vet today to see about getting a wellness exam for my GCC. Here they charge $75 only for the exam and then $50 for a fecal test. I didn't even ask about any other tests. So, you would probably have to ask your parents for help with that.
I would remove that toy first and then try and spend more time with him each day and see if there is any improvement in his behavior. You said that he likes his head scratched and snuggling against your hand, so it seems he is still showing interest in you.

 

[Flboy]

Remember, you are approaching the terrible twos! Hormonal wacko!

 

[YSGC]

I introduce new toys slowly.
First I'll put it on the far side of his room so he can see it from where he hangs out.
Over the next several days I'll gradually move it and leave it closer to him.
I'd never actually put it into his cage till he has approached it in his own time and played with it.

His cage is his sanctuary.
I like to support him feeling it is his safe place.