How to manage aggression in a GCC - what am I doing wrong, and what could I be doing better?

[NerdyBirdyGirl]

So, my boyfriend owns two green cheek conures. He's had them for years at this point. Pineapple is ~6 years old, and Greenie is ~8. I "adopted" these birds when I moved in with him. I've always loved birds, but this is my first time owning them. I've been spending time with them every day, and I make sure they have plenty of time outside of their cages.

Greenie has been a sweetheart. She rarely bites, and usually lets me handle her without any problems. The issue is Pineapple. She'll take treats from me no problem, and even let me work with her on target training. I've taught her a few simple commands ("Perch" to get her in a specific spot when I'm ready to let her out of her cage), and for the most part, she listens. However, anytime my hands/fingers are near her without a treat in them, she'll actively seek out to bite me as hard as she can. I've even just rested my hand near her without touching her or interacting with her, and she'll run over just to bite. This is usually accompanied by angry noises and typical signs of conure aggression.

We thought it might be cage aggression or Pineapple being possessive of Greenie, but even when we separate the birds and I take Pineapple off to a different room of the house she still behaves this way. Getting her to step up onto my finger is out of the question. Trying to do so usually ends with me bleeding. I do my best to not react or flinch, but sometimes I find it difficult to resist jerking my hand away. I don't like this, but I've found myself becoming nervous around Pineapple, because I know that she'll try to bite at a moment's notice. That hasn't stopped me from spending time with her in an attempt to curtail this issue, but we haven't had any luck so far.

My boyfriend has zero issues handling either bird, and they bite him very little, if at all. His advice so far has been to just keep trying and just keep dealing with the severe biting, but I feel like there must be something else I can do.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

So, my boyfriend owns two green cheek conures. He's had them for years at this point. Pineapple is ~6 years old, and Greenie is ~8. I "adopted" these birds when I moved in with him. I've always loved birds, but this is my first time owning them. I've been spending time with them every day, and I make sure they have plenty of time outside of their cages.

Greenie has been a sweetheart. She rarely bites, and usually lets me handle her without any problems. The issue is Pineapple. She'll take treats from me no problem, and even let me work with her on target training. I've taught her a few simple commands ("Perch" to get her in a specific spot when I'm ready to let her out of her cage), and for the most part, she listens. However, anytime my hands/fingers are near her without a treat in them, she'll actively seek out to bite me as hard as she can. I've even just rested my hand near her without touching her or interacting with her, and she'll run over just to bite. This is usually accompanied by angry noises and typical signs of conure aggression.

We thought it might be cage aggression or Pineapple being possessive of Greenie, but even when we separate the birds and I take Pineapple off to a different room of the house she still behaves this way. Getting her to step up onto my finger is out of the question. Trying to do so usually ends with me bleeding. I do my best to not react or flinch, but sometimes I find it difficult to resist jerking my hand away. I don't like this, but I've found myself becoming nervous around Pineapple, because I know that she'll try to bite at a moment's notice. That hasn't stopped me from spending time with her in an attempt to curtail this issue, but we haven't had any luck so far.

My boyfriend has zero issues handling either bird, and they bite him very little, if at all. His advice so far has been to just keep trying and just keep dealing with the severe biting, but I feel like there must be something else I can do.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

What's their diet like? My conure, Tequila was like this before I changed her diet up and made her less hormonal.

She wouldn't dream of biting anyone but she would actively seek me out to attack, probably because I'm the one she sees the most and everyone else would give her treats when they saw her. It got to the point where I could be giving her a treat and she'd still be angry at me and try to bite.

I sorted out her diet (she's on mostly pellets and chop now, with no seeds) and she changed almost overnight. She's still a bit angry at me but I suspect that's because I haven't always been the best owner and she has some resentment towards me. She was my first bird and so I learnt everything with her, plus I don't always spend as much time as I want with her these days and I think she feels a bit angry at that.

 

[NerdyBirdyGirl]

What's their diet like? My conure, Tequila was like this before I changed her diet up and made her less hormonal.

She wouldn't dream of biting anyone but she would actively seek me out to attack, probably because I'm the one she sees the most and everyone else would give her treats when they saw her. It got to the point where I could be giving her a treat and she'd still be angry at me and try to bite.

I sorted out her diet (she's on mostly pellets and chop now, with no seeds) and she changed almost overnight. She's still a bit angry at me but I suspect that's because I haven't always been the best owner and she has some resentment towards me. She was my first bird and so I learnt everything with her, plus I don't always spend as much time as I want with her these days and I think she feels a bit angry at that.

Their diet is primarily pellets. Whenever we give them seeds or fruit, it's small pieces we give them by hand. I've been hoping to introduce some more veggies here soon as well.