About a month ago I bought a four month old pearly conure. I was told she was the sweetest most cuddly bird but quickly found out that this wasn't true. I was only able to meet her once before I could take her home, since her breeder is four hours away, and it was the same day I was purchasing her. When I got there I met her breeder, who was an amazingly nice person and boasted about her amazing birds who were all in healthy happy living conditions, but when I saw the cage my pearly was in I was quite shocked. It was maybe slightly larger than her wing span and I was told she lived there with her brother who was just recently sold. She had no toys, just dishes, a thin wooden perch and newspaper. Then I met my bird and she stepped up onto my finger fine but bit really hard to do so. I was told it was normal, and when she bit me while standing on my finger I was told she was crabby from staying in her tiny cage. I believed her, spent some time with my new pearly and her breeder who told me about her and her favourite things, that her brother wasnt the nicest conure, and I learned she had been in a house before me and was returned. I didn't ask why but I should have, this was my first parrot and I was so excited to see her and have her on my shoulder that I was oblivious to red flag that were parading around.
Then I took her home. The first week I kept invading her new space to a minimum, I only opened her cage to change her food and water and switch out her newspaper. I talked softly to her as I was supposed to and sat next to her cage. After awhile I opened her cage and let her come to the door where I would ask her to stepup and she did so with a hard bite from time to time but it didn't bother me. Then her biting got worse and she'd bite for no reason, I never reacted and I wouldn't move my hand or sometimes I would push my fingers closer as I read when I reasearched conures. When the biting didn't stop I got on the computer and started looking for anything I could about conure biting and decided on putting her in her cage and ignoring her when she bit me and working on teaching her tricks (stepdown,wave, and gentle) but it still continued. She bites when I accidentally touch her feet, she bites when I'm giving her a treat and as she eats it, she bites when I'm asking her to stepup off my shoulder or head, she bites when I pet her, she bites and chases my hands when I switch her food and dishes, she bites whenever she's playing with me and a toy (She likes shredded paper so I filled toilet paper rolls with it and she pulls them out and shakes them), she tries to bite through the cage if my hand gets too close, and she bites for absolutely no reason when standing on my finger. I've tried a lot of things, wearing oven mitts, ignoring her, wobbling my hand when she bites which causes her to bite harder, rewarding her for being gentle, and of course telling her no whenever she bites. I've never harmed her, I love animals way too much to ever lay a hand on them (and my room is literally a zoo I have tarantulas, a snake, two rats, geckos and a chihuahua who comes and goes). I think possibly she started getting worse when she landed on my rat cage and they yanked on her feet which caused her to freak out and bite and screech while I tried to free her. She was fine, my rats used their paws and not their teeth, but we were both pretty shaken. I moved their cage away from her hang out area by the windowsill.
She's not always so terrible tho. When we aren't enemies she cuddles against my neck and very gently preans me, will let me kiss her beak and even extends her neck to meet my lips, chirps happily by the window, when she sees new people, when she's having a bath, or when I take her downstairs on my shoulder, she rests her head on my hand when I scratch her, always wants to see where I am and will sometimes try and fallow me out of my room, plays nicely with me occasionally.. But this doesn't happen nearly as much as her aggressive behavior.
What should I do now? Did I do something wrong to cause her to hold a grudge? Will she ever bond to me and will her aggression go away eventually? I want to keep her but if nothing changes I'll give her to an expirienced rescuer and probably not get a bird ever again.
TLDR; I have an extremely aggressive devil bird who I want to keep but will get rid of if I can't even slightly change her behaviour by next year. Any advice?
Additionally info
Named Devil
5 months old
Not DNA sexed
Cage size L30cm W24cm H18cm
Horizontal bars
Eating pellets, seed, fruit and veggies
Thanks in advance. I love her dearly and I hope I can work this out.
Then I took her home. The first week I kept invading her new space to a minimum, I only opened her cage to change her food and water and switch out her newspaper. I talked softly to her as I was supposed to and sat next to her cage. After awhile I opened her cage and let her come to the door where I would ask her to stepup and she did so with a hard bite from time to time but it didn't bother me. Then her biting got worse and she'd bite for no reason, I never reacted and I wouldn't move my hand or sometimes I would push my fingers closer as I read when I reasearched conures. When the biting didn't stop I got on the computer and started looking for anything I could about conure biting and decided on putting her in her cage and ignoring her when she bit me and working on teaching her tricks (stepdown,wave, and gentle) but it still continued. She bites when I accidentally touch her feet, she bites when I'm giving her a treat and as she eats it, she bites when I'm asking her to stepup off my shoulder or head, she bites when I pet her, she bites and chases my hands when I switch her food and dishes, she bites whenever she's playing with me and a toy (She likes shredded paper so I filled toilet paper rolls with it and she pulls them out and shakes them), she tries to bite through the cage if my hand gets too close, and she bites for absolutely no reason when standing on my finger. I've tried a lot of things, wearing oven mitts, ignoring her, wobbling my hand when she bites which causes her to bite harder, rewarding her for being gentle, and of course telling her no whenever she bites. I've never harmed her, I love animals way too much to ever lay a hand on them (and my room is literally a zoo I have tarantulas, a snake, two rats, geckos and a chihuahua who comes and goes). I think possibly she started getting worse when she landed on my rat cage and they yanked on her feet which caused her to freak out and bite and screech while I tried to free her. She was fine, my rats used their paws and not their teeth, but we were both pretty shaken. I moved their cage away from her hang out area by the windowsill.
She's not always so terrible tho. When we aren't enemies she cuddles against my neck and very gently preans me, will let me kiss her beak and even extends her neck to meet my lips, chirps happily by the window, when she sees new people, when she's having a bath, or when I take her downstairs on my shoulder, she rests her head on my hand when I scratch her, always wants to see where I am and will sometimes try and fallow me out of my room, plays nicely with me occasionally.. But this doesn't happen nearly as much as her aggressive behavior.
What should I do now? Did I do something wrong to cause her to hold a grudge? Will she ever bond to me and will her aggression go away eventually? I want to keep her but if nothing changes I'll give her to an expirienced rescuer and probably not get a bird ever again.
TLDR; I have an extremely aggressive devil bird who I want to keep but will get rid of if I can't even slightly change her behaviour by next year. Any advice?
Additionally info
Named Devil
5 months old
Not DNA sexed
Cage size L30cm W24cm H18cm
Horizontal bars
Eating pellets, seed, fruit and veggies
Thanks in advance. I love her dearly and I hope I can work this out.