Mintforest
New member
- Jan 19, 2021
- 13
- 2
Hi all, Lambo is my cinnamon conure and he’s almost turning one, hatch date was late Mar 2021.
I had him since he was 7 weeks old. He's not a sweetie pie to start with, more hyperactive than anything but definitely not aggressive when he was young. In the recent two months he started turning very aggressive to the point that he drew blood on my husband today.
Sorry for the long story here but wanted to give as much background information as possible.
I started training Lambo since 8 weeks old and he’s a quick learner, mastered target training and recall very early on. Subsequently I started training him for free flight, at 3 months he was very stable with recalls and was able to fly unleashed by about 4 months old. Back then I did outdoor flight training for him with some other friends, 3-4 days a week. Subsequently because of my pregnancy and growing Covid numbers our outdoor flying sessions with friends were cut down but he was still able to fly under my block. But as I went into my third trimester due to the appearance of stray cats its became much more risky flying him there, plus if he spooked I can't run after him anymore, so his flying sessions were stopped. The change wasn't sudden, we cut down the outdoor sessions gradually over about 2 months so it's probably not a reason for his personality change. The flying did help to burn off his energy but even indoors he can still fly around the flat for exercise.
He had a major molt in Oct-Nov time, that's when the first signs of agitation probably started. I kept his environment constant, offered him baths everyday but he only takes a thorough wash once a week. Diet wise he's on a mix of harrisons adult lifetime and zupreem natural pellets, doesn't like chop so I try to give him one type of veggie a day uncut, namely leafy greens, carrots, broccoli and his favourite chilis. He loves fruits but we make sure not to overdose him, only once or twice a week. I still do some indoor recall with him using nuts as treats. He also gets his back-to-cage seed treats (a small pinch each time he goes back to cage well behaved). His routine works with natural daylight, goes to bed at 7:30pm and I'll let him out for his huge morning poop at 7am.
He has plenty of toys in his cage, he doesn't like them changed around, so I mainly just replace any worn out toys with new ones. The only thing that I feel is lacking is an indoor play area, which is not possible at the moment as my apartment is small and now filled with baby stuff. I made him a forage box for playing outside the cage, he also has an upper shelf that he really likes so I decided not to touch anything there so that he has his own little play area. We do have plans of getting a bigger flat, maybe in the later half of the year, and I would be upgrading his cage and setting up a proper play area, but right now we have to make do with what we have.
As for the aggression, it started sometime during his molting period (7-8months of age) but not serious. We first noticed that he had a reaction to red objects and would puff up and bite hard when we pick up red objects, so we avoided touching red in front of him. Then other objects came onto his list. I have a blood sugar monitor (finger prick test) which I use everyday, initially he was alright with it but after he saw blood on my fingers one day I think he made a connection in his mind so he refused to let me touch the monitor anymore. He was very gentle when licking away my blood but if I tried touching the finger prick kit again he would bite me really hard. I thought it as him being overprotective, which was okay for me, I just hide when I'm doing the test.
Then he started having some mating behaviour, strange dances, preening, and randomly attacking other people. He only preens me, and tries to regurgitate. I would only give scratches to him in the head and neck only because I did read that touching anywhere else would make him hormonal. However I have to flip him on his back on my hand when putting him back to cage (not holding, just letting him lie belly up), because he's too agile and wouldn't return to cage if standing on my fingers. My husband also handled him since young, but he somehow doesn't get along with my husband these two months. Whenever I'm watching he's pretty well behaved and follows my husband around like they're best buddies, but whenever I'm away for work and my husband lets him out, he would just attack him on the ears and hands.
So now I'm the only one in the household who can handle him, even on me sometimes his preening gets quite heavy, I don't know how to describe it, it is still preening but feels like my bird is a control freak and he would be very persistent and demand that you get preened by him. It really feels like he's trying to dominate.
He's not been gender tested but I do suspect he is a boy.
My questions are
1. Is this just a teenager phase that will pass eventually or would this behaviour be a long term issue? My baby is coming in less than a month and although I will still make time for him, but I definitely don't dare to let him around the baby anytime soon.
2. Is there anything that can be done to help with the behaviour? As mentioned, we've done our best with the diet, training and setup. I don't mind being the only one handling him, but I would hope that he would be more of a family bird in the future.
3. Lambo does have wild bird friends as he talks to them everyday and I've seen mynahs visiting my balcony and staying for a rather long time (his cage is on the balcony most of the time). Could he have learnt some bad behaviour from them?
4. I would be away in hospital to deliver my baby and during those few days I'm planning to have him cagebound. I do have a helper to change his food and water but she's scared of him and can't put him back to cage if he's let out. would he be alright for 3-4 days?
Thank you everyone, any help is appreciated!
I had him since he was 7 weeks old. He's not a sweetie pie to start with, more hyperactive than anything but definitely not aggressive when he was young. In the recent two months he started turning very aggressive to the point that he drew blood on my husband today.
Sorry for the long story here but wanted to give as much background information as possible.
I started training Lambo since 8 weeks old and he’s a quick learner, mastered target training and recall very early on. Subsequently I started training him for free flight, at 3 months he was very stable with recalls and was able to fly unleashed by about 4 months old. Back then I did outdoor flight training for him with some other friends, 3-4 days a week. Subsequently because of my pregnancy and growing Covid numbers our outdoor flying sessions with friends were cut down but he was still able to fly under my block. But as I went into my third trimester due to the appearance of stray cats its became much more risky flying him there, plus if he spooked I can't run after him anymore, so his flying sessions were stopped. The change wasn't sudden, we cut down the outdoor sessions gradually over about 2 months so it's probably not a reason for his personality change. The flying did help to burn off his energy but even indoors he can still fly around the flat for exercise.
He had a major molt in Oct-Nov time, that's when the first signs of agitation probably started. I kept his environment constant, offered him baths everyday but he only takes a thorough wash once a week. Diet wise he's on a mix of harrisons adult lifetime and zupreem natural pellets, doesn't like chop so I try to give him one type of veggie a day uncut, namely leafy greens, carrots, broccoli and his favourite chilis. He loves fruits but we make sure not to overdose him, only once or twice a week. I still do some indoor recall with him using nuts as treats. He also gets his back-to-cage seed treats (a small pinch each time he goes back to cage well behaved). His routine works with natural daylight, goes to bed at 7:30pm and I'll let him out for his huge morning poop at 7am.
He has plenty of toys in his cage, he doesn't like them changed around, so I mainly just replace any worn out toys with new ones. The only thing that I feel is lacking is an indoor play area, which is not possible at the moment as my apartment is small and now filled with baby stuff. I made him a forage box for playing outside the cage, he also has an upper shelf that he really likes so I decided not to touch anything there so that he has his own little play area. We do have plans of getting a bigger flat, maybe in the later half of the year, and I would be upgrading his cage and setting up a proper play area, but right now we have to make do with what we have.
As for the aggression, it started sometime during his molting period (7-8months of age) but not serious. We first noticed that he had a reaction to red objects and would puff up and bite hard when we pick up red objects, so we avoided touching red in front of him. Then other objects came onto his list. I have a blood sugar monitor (finger prick test) which I use everyday, initially he was alright with it but after he saw blood on my fingers one day I think he made a connection in his mind so he refused to let me touch the monitor anymore. He was very gentle when licking away my blood but if I tried touching the finger prick kit again he would bite me really hard. I thought it as him being overprotective, which was okay for me, I just hide when I'm doing the test.
Then he started having some mating behaviour, strange dances, preening, and randomly attacking other people. He only preens me, and tries to regurgitate. I would only give scratches to him in the head and neck only because I did read that touching anywhere else would make him hormonal. However I have to flip him on his back on my hand when putting him back to cage (not holding, just letting him lie belly up), because he's too agile and wouldn't return to cage if standing on my fingers. My husband also handled him since young, but he somehow doesn't get along with my husband these two months. Whenever I'm watching he's pretty well behaved and follows my husband around like they're best buddies, but whenever I'm away for work and my husband lets him out, he would just attack him on the ears and hands.
So now I'm the only one in the household who can handle him, even on me sometimes his preening gets quite heavy, I don't know how to describe it, it is still preening but feels like my bird is a control freak and he would be very persistent and demand that you get preened by him. It really feels like he's trying to dominate.
He's not been gender tested but I do suspect he is a boy.
My questions are
1. Is this just a teenager phase that will pass eventually or would this behaviour be a long term issue? My baby is coming in less than a month and although I will still make time for him, but I definitely don't dare to let him around the baby anytime soon.
2. Is there anything that can be done to help with the behaviour? As mentioned, we've done our best with the diet, training and setup. I don't mind being the only one handling him, but I would hope that he would be more of a family bird in the future.
3. Lambo does have wild bird friends as he talks to them everyday and I've seen mynahs visiting my balcony and staying for a rather long time (his cage is on the balcony most of the time). Could he have learnt some bad behaviour from them?
4. I would be away in hospital to deliver my baby and during those few days I'm planning to have him cagebound. I do have a helper to change his food and water but she's scared of him and can't put him back to cage if he's let out. would he be alright for 3-4 days?
Thank you everyone, any help is appreciated!
