New to Conures, Need some advice

[davyboy]

Hi, I've had birds my whole life, including the fact that I grew up on a poultry farm with chickens, guinea foul, peacocks etc. as well as indoor birds (my aunt breeds cockatiels. But recently we brought home a dusky headed conure, and I thought it wouldn't be too hard, I've taken less friendly birds and got them to like me, but that's not quite the case. Dusky (his/her name) has a tendency to not like hands. When she comes out of her cage she (I'm going to call the bird a her) will gladly step up onto a finger and stay there happily for quite a while, but the moment she gets onto ones shoulder or off of the hand, she becomes excessively aggressive towards hands, however leaning a shoulder down etc doesn't bother her and she'll step up to it happily. To put her back in the cage I've had to resort to using a pencil as she doesn't attack it to get her to step up and off. She also screams her head off like she is being murdered when she isn't the center of attention (usually its just when no one is in the room, however many a time we could both (myself and my fiance) be sitting on the couch no more than five feet away and she goes nuts until one of us is right by the cage talking to her). I'm just looking for some advice for a few things to try, I read on one post that someone recommended going up to her and whispering no shout and backing away etc until you can get her to stop, however I'm wondering if anyone has other tips to try, for either the shouting, or the biting of hands.

P.S. Today I decided to wear a sleaveless shirt, and everytime she got onto the shoulder in the right way and my shoulder (skin) was sitting the right way she nipped quite hard. I'm wondering a few tips to help tame her, also when we got her from the pet store they said she was about six years old (she was brought in by people who moved to an apartment and couldn't have pets there.)

 

[Leroy_Paige]

As everyone here will tell you 'patience' is the main key. How long have you had her? I brought home a 6 yr old nanday conure and it exhibited all the same things u mentioned. It took about a month to show significant change and then everyday after that was even more improvement. Now Tuco and I are best buds and he is very well behaved.(60 days in now) He is no longer cage aggressive with me. He will also 'step up' from his cage without him being the one to ask. I was also one of the peeps that whispered.
I think things went a little quicker for me cuz I work 3rd shift and have been able to spend all his waking moments with him.

 

[Printer bird]

Hi Davy, I am also new to conures but had a parrotlet for about ten years. We adopted our conure, a green cheek, from a gentleman who didn't take good care of him. We were having problems with him in that he wanted to always be on our shoulders but once he was up there he would not listen at all to step-up commands etc. And he was "helpfully" nibbling our moles etc. Anyways, it was not acceptable for him to be in a place that we couldn't control him so he is no longer allowed up there. I accomplished this by tucking my elbow into my side so that he would have to climb vertically up my arm in order to get onto my shoulder. This made it more difficult and less appealing for him to get up onto the shoulder BUT of course he still tries. So if he starts to climb we say NO and if he keeps climbing we would dip our shoulder down onto our lap or some other place, forcing him to step off of the shoulder and onto the lap/towel on a table etc. Please note that we did not shake him off or throw him off violently, we just tipped so that he could no longer climb up and the more appropriate choice was to step down onto the lap etc. After a little while, he got the picture and stopped trying all the time (although he still does). He often listens to NO (but not always) and sometimes now we'll put a hand in his way so he'll either go back down, try and snuggle with the hand or he'll step up. He's become MUCH more manageable and now steps up at least 90% of the time and the other 10% we get him to do it after a few attempts. If he is on your shoulder and won't come down, don't fight with him, try tempting him with a treat to scoot off of your shoulder (Charlie will do almost anything for a tiny bit of almond).

As for the yelling, Charlie comes up with the most, ah, interesting variety of sounds and screeches and calls and whistles and yelled words (mostly just the word Charlie screeched at a high pitch and tone). I'm pretty sure it took awhile for my parrotlet to settle down when we were in the room but not paying attention to her so I'm guessing its just them getting used to their new place. We try and give him treats to find when we can't have him out (we are cooking dinner etc) and that usually keeps him quiet for a little while. Maybe someone else will have screeching suggestions as I will take them too! (we generally ignore him or sometimes will whistle to him as we are trying to get him to use that as a contact call).

PS I am also in Alberta but up in Calgary!

 

[Von1983]

Welcome to the forum!

You're doing well with the wooden stick for step up and a heck of a lot of patience. I must agree with my husband Dave when he says that with the smaller birds, they tend to see people's faces more than anything else so they get a bit of a shock when being introduced to another body part! It all takes time. A bond with a bird is far from instant.

I think you probably read about me teaching Cal "no shout". As I say, it worked so well for us, but yes, I'm sure there are many methods that can be used.

For example, birds can read facial expressions rather well, so frowning when the shouting starts and grinning like a village idiot when it stops may work.

You could try treats to BEGIN with at the start of any training, but obviously this isn't a long term solution as you cannot treat every time you leave a room or return. Another option may be to play with your bird with one of it's toys to show him how to amuse himself while you are busy. The important thing is to NEVER raise your voice back. You'll only encourage the behaviour and possibly scare your bird. Your voice should be calm, soothing and firm. Again, this stems back to trust that you haven't forgotten your bird and if it's because you've left, you WILL return.

Cal still occasionally screams when we're having dinner if she decides she wants out. I just say "no shout, be a minute" and ignore her until we've finished. That calms her down. She knows that when we finish it's out of cage time you see!

Life with a conure DOES involve a certain level of noise and screaming I'm afraid, it's just what happens when you bring one of these lovely bundles home. In time you will both find an acceptable routine but like everything with parrots, it cannot be rushed. Good luck!

 

[davyboy]

Leroy Paige: I've had her about a month now but shortly after I got her my asthma acted up and I wasn't able to have her out of the cage for a period of about two weeks with being sick. I try to take her out for at least an hour a day, and if I'm sitting doing homework or playing video games keep her out on my shoulder and she is usually quite content just being a part of the 'flock'.

Printer Bird: I've had budgies and cockatiels for most of my life (the main birds my aunt had when I was growing up) and I've tried the flat hand to make her not try to go where I don't want her to, but that was part of the problem. She'll step up just fine when its taking her out of the cage, but when she doesn't want to move or stop what she's doing she has a habit (which she had when we got her) of using her beak to 'discipline' me for doing something she doesn't like aka stopping her. This is why I've taken to using a pencil or extra perch to 'make' her step up. It's also not so much a problem of her being on my shoulder, as you said it's easy to get her to step down with the right body movements. It's just getting her to realize that she is NOT the boss that that title belongs to me so that she will not bite my hand when its time to go back to her cage or when I want her to step up when she is on me. And yes I know patience is the key, as do the blood spots on my carpet from when she 'disciplined' me a little too harshly, though I know that giving a reaction isn't best so I maintain my stone like composure till I'm out of the room and out of ear shot and then I'm free to curse and apply a new bandage lol.

Von1983: Yeah it was on one of your posts that I read about the "no shout" teaching guidelines, actually she started to pick up on it right away because I started it after reading it. Actually she loves sunflower seeds which are a treat to her, and she only gets on Sundays (we give all our animals extra treats on Sundays) and she hates it when her little dish doesn't have any, so I've taken to when she listens to give her a single seed as a "reward" heck it won't make her fat and it is slight incentive. As I said about patience a little earlier, I've got plenty, it is however wearing on my fiance's patience, though if I can get her trained slightly better it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the advice so far guys, its very helpful, if anyone else has some I'd love to hear it as you can never have too much information.

 

[Von1983]

Glad "no shout" is working

Really, if your partner is running short on patience then this is an issue!

EVERYONE has to be involved in the household with a parrot to some degree. If she doesn't help you teach your lil one manners and what's acceptable, chances are the bird will play up for her even if you get to the stage where he's well behaved for you!

My husband had zero experience with pet birds and he wasn't altogether keen on my wanting to get a sunny after waiting 5 long years. When she arrived he was cautious. I made sure that if I taught her something like step up using a stick, that he did the same directly afterwards. As a result, she's bonded with us both. She is very naughty for Dave at times but that's nothing new, he's not been able to put his foot down with ANY of our pet companions so they run rings round him lol. He is incapable of being firm and just has to now put up with her putting her head in his ear and cooing loudly....

I hope your partner will realise just what a wonderful edition to your home your conure is. Cally never fails to amaze both of us.