Help with Biting Green Cheek Conure?

[DillyAndBaby]

Hi all,
I recently adopted a 2 year old green cheek conure (Dilly) and an adult lovebird (Baby) of an unknown age. I love them dearly, but the conure has a biting problem. She acts generally friendly when she is not being held. She often asks to be let out of the cage and asks to for me to come pick her up and put her on my shoulder. Occasionally she will fly to my shoulder on her own. However, once she is sitting on my shoulder she bites me seemingly at random. I could be sitting on the couch quietly with her when she suddenly chomps my neck or arm. She will also come to you seemingly for the sole purpose of biting you sometimes. I'd really like to discourage this biting behavior. I have experience with cockatiels, but this is my first conure and my first time acquiring a bird as an adult. Does anyone have any advice? TIA!

 

[itzjbean]

As a rule, some people generally reserve shoulder areas for parrots who have earned their right to be there. So, stop letting the conure sit on your shoulder, until you have more experience with handling it and bonding and then you can eventually work your way to allow it back on. However, to keep biting down, try to eliminate the things you can control. Keep her on a playstand or on your arm (long sleeves work best to avoid biting) and work with her to reward her for positive behavior. Birds don't respond the same way dogs do when it comes to doing something bad, so we have to teach them the acceptable things they can do, and show them what happens when they do something that they shouldn't. When this happens, calmly put the conure away in their cage and leave the room/area for a while, as a sort of time-out. Reward positive behavior like allowing pets or stepping up, with treats and praise.

 

[Anansi]

Hello, and welcome to the Parrot Forums family!

Good advice above. Consistency with both treats given for positive behavior and timeouts for unacceptable behavior is essential. Birds learn by association. You want them to associate good behavior with treats and bad behavior with timeouts. The emphasis, however, should be on the positive reinforcement.

Here are some good links:
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/questions-answers/58911-bird-bites-always-2.html

 

[DillyAndBaby]

Thank you both for the advice! I will definitely utilize it!

 

[DillyAndBaby]

Also, I realize that this probably belongs in another thread, but I can't find it specifically: if I put the conure (Dilly) on a timeout, I should also probably remove her lovebird friend correct? Or else it defeats the purpose of the timeout?

 

[Flboy]

Remember, if by timeout do you mean put her in her cage? Then you may inadvertently be teaching her that when she wants to return to her cage she lets you know by biting you!

 

[LordTriggs]

Remember, if by timeout do you mean put her in her cage? Then you may inadvertently be teaching her that when she wants to return to her cage she lets you know by biting you!

yes exactly this! It can also get them to a point where they never want to go into the cage as they associate it with "time out". the easiest one I found was a short sharp "no" or "no bite" with an angry look and then put them on the floor, leaving them for a moment. They learn pretty quickly.

Also yes shoulder privileges should go until they are behaving, shoulder time is only for a well behaved bird

 

[Flboy]

Remember, one of the tricks is to learn what you can about what the bite is for! I personally find I rarely get bit out of anger, it is usually because I am being too stupid to notice something dangerous, or I've been ignoring JoJo, or he was saying hey I'm here!
Just this morning I received a firm bite but I would not call malicious! My morning routine, sit in my room with JoJo till daughter is off to work. Well daughter made extra eggs and asked if I would like some, on the counter, or in my room. Ah, breakfast in bed! Because of a cat loose at the moment, I couldn't let JoJo fly, so I had him in a controlled hold. Daughter walks in, JoJo gets very excited, I get nailed! In my mind, nothing to correct, many bites are for communication! He wants to say good morning, he wants eggs, he wants now! And it was a strong pressure bite, but controlled!

 

[LordTriggs]

Remember, one of the tricks is to learn what you can about what the bite is for! I personally find I rarely get bit out of anger, it is usually because I am being too stupid to notice something dangerous, or I've been ignoring JoJo, or he was saying hey I'm here!
Just this morning I received a firm bite but I would not call malicious! My morning routine, sit in my room with JoJo till daughter is off to work. Well daughter made extra eggs and asked if I would like some, on the counter, or in my room. Ah, breakfast in bed! Because of a cat loose at the moment, I couldn't let JoJo fly, so I had him in a controlled hold. Daughter walks in, JoJo gets very excited, I get nailed! In my mind, nothing to correct, many bites are for communication! He wants to say good morning, he wants eggs, he wants now! And it was a strong pressure bite, but controlled!

This is very true! Rio bit me in the time I knew him twice. Once was the the start of our time together when he was step-up training and I believe he got scared of my hand, which is when I learnt to train him in the bathroom. The other time was when he tried a harness on and got spooked by it which ended up with him tangled in it. He got my good when I was trying to get him out, directly after he wanted nothing more than to cuddle with me, he was so scared.

the rest of the time it was either beaking behavior, pines for attention or thinking that my fingers dispensed raisins!

 

[DillyAndBaby]

Thanks all! Yesterday I was attempting to put her in time out in her cage whenever she bit me. I thought she was doing well but this morning she was lunging at my face when I was trying to change her food and water and didn't want to come out of her cage. So I'll try timeouts on the floor.

 

[Anansi]

Also, I realize that this probably belongs in another thread, but I can't find it specifically: if I put the conure (Dilly) on a timeout, I should also probably remove her lovebird friend correct? Or else it defeats the purpose of the timeout?

If you are saying that your lovebird and conure share a cage (it would have to be a HUGE cage to help avoid confrontations that could potentially turn deadly), then yes, putting her in the cage for timeout would indeed defeat the purpose. When working with my birds, I have them both out and on their own tree stands. (They have separate cages that are right next to each other in another room.) So if I put one or the other on timeout it's really not a problem.

If, however, you take your birds out one at a time, you'd need to adjust your timeout strategy. Which would mean rotating your lovebird out and your conure in, as you've said. The problem there, however, is that a timeout should only be around 5-10 minutes. But in this case it would wind up being significantly longer, so as to avoid incidentally punishing your lovebird when rotating your conure back in.

Remember, if by timeout do you mean put her in her cage? Then you may inadvertently be teaching her that when she wants to return to her cage she lets you know by biting you!

This is a good point, David. But I've worked around that with my flock using a 2 prong approach. First was to establish their cages as positive places. Hearth and home. I did this by only giving them their 2 main meals inside of their cages. Never outside. That way, there is a strong correlation between full meals and being inside of their cages. (Training treats are given outside, but these are hardly filling) Also, I keep their best toys in there, making them fun places to be. Places where they go for food, foraging and play.

Second was to establish a clear difference between going to the cage on a timeout and going to the cage for meal time or out of necessity. I achieve this through tone and body language. When taking my birds to timeout (increasingly rare events as they've come to largely understand what I expect), my tone is firm and disapproving, and my walk is more urgent and swift. And once I put them in, I turn my back and leave without another word. On the other hand, when I'm taking them to their cage to eat, or to go to sleep, my tone is far more warm and encouraging, and my walk is more relaxed and leisurely. And I speak to them some more before walking away. I basically exaggerate the differences.

This works because birds largely participate via body language. So this makes sense to them. The identification of a timeout is more strongly associated with my bearing and demeanor than with the destination. Believe me, my birds know the difference. And due to that understanding, there is no effect on their regard for their cages.

 

[LordTriggs]

yes instantly sounding like she's a bit territorial.

Also how much sleep is she getting? It could be that she's tired and got the grump. Also looking at the age it can be hormones coming in for the first or second time which is a yearly gremlin. They do calm down after a few weeks luckily but it is just something that happens each year that you gotta push through.

Good luck with putting her on the floor!

 

[DillyAndBaby]

Dilly and Baby have separate cages next to each other. So although they aren't sharing a cage, they can talk to each other and keep each other company. I normally let them out at the same time because they get along pretty well and I just make sure I'm supervising them. I don't have training stands, which I am guessing is something I should definitely invest in. Right now I run into the problem that when I walk to put Dilly in time out, Baby flies and follows me and either hops in his cage or on top of Dilly's.

 

[DillyAndBaby]

She gets 7-8 hours of sleep; about the same amount as me. Is this enough? Also knowing that is may be hormones is helpful!

 

[Anansi]

Ah. I see. Can the room with the cages be closed off? Because yes, you AND Baby would have to leave the room for the 5-10 minutes for it to work.

 

[Anansi]

8 hours sleep is okay. 10-12 would be better. Especially if hormones are involved.

 

[DillyAndBaby]

Yes, it can be closed off. Their cages are in my bedroom, so I've been trying to take Baby to the living room and shut the door when I put Dilly on time out. It's just not the quickest process, so I'm worried Dilly isn't making the connection of the time out with biting

 

[Anansi]

Yes, it can be closed off. Their cages are in my bedroom, so I've been trying to take Baby to the living room and shut the door when I put Dilly on time out. It's just not the quickest process, so I'm worried Dilly isn't making the connection of the time out with biting

Hmmm... I see your point. But just try to speed up the process to the best of your ability and try to incorporate some of the body language cues I mentioned in my earlier post. Doing this consistently helps. But I'm talking invariable consistency, here. There should be a direct and inviolate chain of cause and effect involved in the timeout process.

 

[LordTriggs]

aha I wish I got 8 hours sleep! I normally get 4-5. 7 if I get to bed early!

Yes as Anansi has said the speed is the key, due to their nature they have short attention spans, which is why I like the floor method, of course different things work in different situations. Baby is the complication as you can't easily get her to not pay attention. Maybe when you put dilly on the floor start playing with baby? No idea but maybe the "exclusion" from play time will act as an even more intense version of timeout and drive the point home. Especially if Dilly sees baby gets play time when not biting he may learn from baby that not biting means more play? Just be aware I'm in no way a parrot behaviour expert, just spit-balling different ideas

 

[DillyAndBaby]

Okay thanks! All of these ideas are really helpful. I will definitely try to be super consistent with the time outs and body language! And I'll also try "excluding" Dilly after she bites and see how it goes. They do tend to be jealous of one another (start screaming when I give the other attention), so that may be helpful.