A little battle of wills

[MangoandKiwi]

This month we have come very far with taming our adopted breeding pair of green cheek conures. But I think I made a mistake today and caused a battle of wills

We have been using sunflower and safflower seeds for hand taming them, they take them out of the hand in and out of the cage plus we could always lure mango back to his cage or to step up on my arm with the seeds.

I always like to snack on a bowl of crisps in front of the birdcage (a nice escape from our puppy who has it in for crisps) Mango has it in for whatever I'm eating or drinking too which was super cute, he would make an obvious eyeing of whatever I ate or drank and sometimes I would give him a little bit too (that is of the healthy snacks)

So today I made the mistake of giving him a few pieces of crisps (I rubbed as much as possible salt off but still really bad) So now he refuses sunflower and safflower seeds and everything else, I'm pretty sure he wants the crisps ONLY which I'm not planning on giving him again. If I offer him anything else (his formerly beloved seeds) he drops it or lunges at my finger. (A trick and training method Kiwi uses to train her humans when they offer her an unwillingly treat) He was very stand-offish outside of the cage today

Should I just hope and wait for this to pass in a few days? or should I try to seek out new treats? I'm really afraid he will continue to refuse treats

 

[ZephyrFly]

although I would say continue as you normally would (a one off treat shouldn't matter in the long run as long as it is a one off), but I am not experienced with breeding birds of any kind let alone trying to tame unhandled birds.

P.S. bump

 

[Anansi]

Congratulations on your progress thus far!

I'd say to try something else. Like us, birds sometimes get tired of the same treat every day. While it may have been precipitated by the offer of a tastier, "naughty" treat, they may still be ready for a change.

Cashews broken into bite-sized pieces tend to be rather irresistible. Pine nuts. Almonds. There are lots of treats you might try.

For my birds, I found a few that they go crazy for and I just rotate them. That way, they never get the chance to get tired of any of them.

 

[Minimaker]

Pine nuts, they go crazy over them. They seem like some sort of birdy crack because all our birds act like crazy addicts over those things.

 

[MangoandKiwi]

Thank you so much! I will def try the pine nuts.
Luckily we had a few walnuts and he did seem to like the change of treats!

 

[MonicaMc]

If you mean crisps as in chips, why not try making some vegetable chips out of carrots and sweet potatoes??? Or banana chips?


Make something that *is* healthy for him!