First Time Conure Owner, Need Advice Please

[gymgal5]

Hello Everyone,
My name is Christine and a week ago my husband and I brought home our 14-week old female conure, Maui. We used to have the most adorable and sweetest cockatiel Ava, who we no longer have. As you can see we are used to cockatiels and not conures. After doing as much research on them as one can and reading books on them, we decided to adopt one from a breeder. We knew going into it that they are nippy, especially as babies ect. I know Maui is still getting to know us but so far she is very social.

We bought a brand new cage that is the size you are supposed to have and so far I have introduced her to organic apples, blueberries, red/green peppers, cantaloupe, and she loves it all. The breeder did a good job as she only eats pellets but was lacking in fruits/veggies. We also have an excellent avian vet, which Maui sees this weekend for a complete checkup to make sure she is healthy. For treats, we give her nutriberries but I haven't found at the local store unsalted sunflower seeds. These are just when we train and when we do the "step up" training. She only eats the berries out of the nutriberries.

The 3rd day we opened her cage door just to see if she wanted to come out, we were not taking her out as we understand they need time to adjust. She came right out on her own and wanted to be with us. I will be the main caretaker as my husband works out of state and is gone 3 weeks then home a week then it repeats. I made sure to work normal hours so that when I'm home at 5, I take her right out and she's out with me the rest of the night till 9/9:30. Weekends I have her out a ton. My question that I really need help with is, she is very very nippy. We taught her how to "step up" and of course reward her with a treat ect. The breeder let her go on her head/shoulder but once she gets to my shoulder she climbs straight to the top of my head. When I go to take her off and say "step up" she bites, HARD. Of course, we even tried having the treat in front of her so she will step up knowing she will get a reward for it. We have been saying firm but very calm, "No Bite." When our cockatiel did it as a baby we would say no bite and put her away in her cage and walk away to let her cool down. I read that with conures you don't want to put them away in the cage when they do that? My husband has been helping me to get her off since I have a hard time doing it myself but he leaves for work again soon. I watched youtube videos where they said you need to train them to behave on your arm ect before you let them on your shoulder, as that is a reward? Is there a safe medical tape or something I can wrap around my main finger I use to tell her to "step up" so that I can start saving my fingers a bit more? They literally have deep bite marks ect.

I know step up is the first part of training and once we have that down then we can proceed. Once she can master this, I am not sure what comes next. We want her to be happy and like to snuggle in the blanket/towels, learn colors ect, as long as she, of course, enjoys it. Please help, any advise is welcomed on this step up issue and how to train them in general. Thank you so much

 

[GaleriaGila]

It sounds to me as if you're doing a great job of research and reaching out! I have the worst-behaved conure I know, so I'll with-hold advice. I've pretty much just let him do what he wants and then come with it! But you'll get lots of good advice here. While you're waiting for personal advice, you can use the SEARCH tab above to look for threads on related topics.
I'm glad you found us. 😊

 

[Inger]

Bumble isn’t a conure, but she does the same thing when she’s on my shoulder. My best defense against it is that she’s target trained, which you might even do before “step up” because it can help with that too. I have a knitting needle that she will follow ANYWHERE because as soon as her beak touches it she gets a treat, so I use it to move her down my arm where she steps up sweetly.

Keeping her off your shoulder until there’s lots of trust and she’s earned the privilege is great advice too. Sometimes it’s difficult to impossible to enforce, especially if she’s flighted. Or fast. Which is how Bumble winds up on my shoulder without permission.

There are tons of YouTube videos on target training, and using a clicker isn’t required. Anything can be a bridge. I use my voice since it’s always with me and doesn’t require another hand. An enthusiastic YESSSS does the trick.

Congratulations on your new baby [emoji2] and please show us some pictures!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Scott]

Welcome Christine and Maui!! Seems your expectations are properly calibrated to the spirited nature of conures. While I don't have experience with the species, many members do and can offer great advice.

I'll post a few links you may find helpful.
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/60435-clicker-target-training.html

Since Maui is accustomed to pellets, you won't have the ordeal of weaning from a mostly seed diet! Fresh veggies/fruits as you know are far healthier!

Feel free to post pics!!

 

[MonicaMc]

We bought a brand new cage that is the size you are supposed to have
I just have to wonder... what is the size you are supposed to have?

I ask because IMO, many of the "recommended sized cages" are too small for the birds in mind.

so far I have introduced her to organic apples, blueberries, red/green peppers, cantaloupe, and she loves it all. The breeder did a good job as she only eats pellets but was lacking in fruits/veggies.
Sounds like you should try out some kale, broccoli, carrots, and other vegetables, too!


My question that I really need help with is, she is very very nippy.
Birds can nip as a form of communication, out of boredom or even curiousities sake. If you learn how to work with her well and teach her new behaviors while redirecting undesired ones, it's possible to avoid many nips!


We taught her how to "step up" and of course reward her with a treat ect. The breeder let her go on her head/shoulder but once she gets to my shoulder she climbs straight to the top of my head. When I go to take her off and say "step up" she bites, HARD. Of course, we even tried having the treat in front of her so she will step up knowing she will get a reward for it.
Birds like being up high, because height equals safety.

I'm lucky though in that I don't have that issue. My birds have learned to come down for attention. My cockatiel loves flying onto my head, but sometimes she'll use my hair to climb down to my shoulder so she can get scritches there! My conure on the other hand is an "arm" bird.... although he'll sit on shoulders and ride around on them, he actually prefers being on my arm.


From the sounds of it, you have not figured out a very good reward for Maui. Have you tried millet? What about dried fruits? Or healthy nuts?

Casey, the tiel, will do just about anything for food/millet or a scritch! Charlie, the conure, on the other hand loves safflower seeds and banana chips! Due to a beak injury though, it's easier for him to eat the banana chips.


We have been saying firm but very calm, "No Bite." When our cockatiel did it as a baby we would say no bite and put her away in her cage and walk away to let her cool down. I read that with conures you don't want to put them away in the cage when they do that?
You don't want to do this with any species, actually.... you never want to use the cage as punishment, as you could inadvertently teach your bird to hate their cage.


I know step up is the first part of training and once we have that down then we can proceed.
Actually, step up could be the second part!

Considering the issues you are having, I would highly recommend switching to target training. Do target training in, on and around the outside of the cage. Then work on target training away from the cage.

Please check out this thread

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html




And here's a couple of videos on target training. (please note! a bird does not physically need to touch the target in order to be target trained!)


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DjiRJu5gQ"]Part 1 - Target Training B&G Macaw with Barbara Heidenreich at Rodies Feed & Pet Supply - YouTube[/ame]


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnlHAHKmP5c"]Part 2 - Target Training B&G Macaw with Barbara Heidenreich at Rodies Feed & Pet Supply - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Jen5200]

Congratulations on your new addition - and welcome! I can sympathize with the damaged fingers. My green cheek was really, really nippy when I first brought him home. I resorted to wrapping flesh colored vet wrap around my fingers and it did help “cushion the blow” a bit while we were getting to know each other. He was completely step up trained, but would chew hard on my fingers after he stepped up. Or he would run around on my shoulders if he didn’t want to step up. His weren’t angry bites, but he seemed to think my fingers were the same as his perches which he also chews on....sigh. He also liked my shoulder, but would also bite my ear and neck while he was up there so I had to ban him from the shoulder while he was learning to control his bite pressure. While he was going through that phase, whenever I sat down I would tuck one foot up on the seat of my chair so that my knee was up in front of me and I would put him on my knee (where he couldn’t bite my face, ear, etc. It’s about the same height as my shoulder, so he was willing to stay there and I could interact with him in front of me. He seemed to feel this was a reasonable substitute for the shoulder. He was fine on the shoulder riding around the house, but whenever I stopped moving he would immediately start chewing on me and wouldn’t come off when I asked. I have tall perches throughout the house, so he rides around the house on my shoulder and when I stop I lean over to the closest perch and he jumps off my shoulder and stands beside me while I’m doing stuff on his perch. This has worked well for us. It’s funny - even though he’s not bitey often anymore, he still seems to prefer sitting on his perch next to me while I’m doing stuff and he still sits on my lap more than my shoulder. If he gets wound up now and bites, I usually just set him on the back of dining room chair and walk away. He’s flighted, so he doesn’t stay there long, but there’s nothing fun to do there and he seems to know that means that I didn’t like his behavior. By the time he catches up with me, he usually looks apologetic . Tango’s bitey phase seemed to last a month or so when he first moved in, and gradually declined to the point where it’s an infrequent occurrence. For me, I had best results being very consistent in where he was welcome to sit on me (by very quickly placing him on my knee up when I sat down, before he had a chance to run up my arm). It made my interactions with him much more positive and I think that they pick up those happier vibes. Sorry for the lengthy response, but I was hoping that it would help you this of options that you can use to get to know each other, get comfortable with training, and not get chewed to bits in the process . Welcome again....and please post pictures!

 

[gymgal5]

Thank you everyone for the advice! I will absolutely start doing those things. I will make sure to post pictures of her and our cage. We were asked what size cage we ordered and we got ours from Dr. Foster and Smith, it was almost $200 and we made sure to check with our breeder so we had a big enough one. It is an iron flight cage, here are the dimensions:

Overall Outside 32" L x 21" W x 60" H
Inside Cage 31-1/2" L x 20-1/2" W x 34-1/2" H
Bar Spacing 1/2"
Perch Diameter 1/2"
Split Divider plastic trough feeders 8" x 2" deep (holds 1-1/2 cups each)
Front Doors 9-1/2" x 12-1/2"H
Nest box doors 6" x 4 1/2"

Thanks again!