Aggressive green-cheeks

[Mailyn0011]

Hi everyone,

I have a pair of almost two-year-old Green-cheeked Conures. They have free flight throughout my living room all day and have several play areas of their own. They have plenty of enrichment, including foraging activities, clicker training and things to chew on. They sleep in a nest box with holes in it, which is placed inside a cage.

For about six months now, however, I think they have become territorial about “their” areas. When I approach their bird stand, they fluff up (as you can see in the photo), pace around agitatedly, and most importantly, if I touch anything on the bird stand, they bite me. They bite very hard, sometimes enough to draw blood. This often makes it difficult for me to put fresh vegetables on the stand.

They have never been cuddly or hand-tame, and they are parent-raised rather than hand-fed. However, they are quite affectionate in their own way: they like sitting on my shoulder, head or hand, where they will sometimes fall asleep or preen themselves. They enjoy being close to me, but they have never allowed me to touch them, which is completely fine with me.

My first thought is that the nest box might be triggering hormonal or breeding-related behavior. On the other hand, they really only use it for sleeping and don't spend time hanging around in dark corners or anything like that.

Should I remove the nest box? Or could there be another reason for this behavior? Is this something that is fairly normal at their age?

 

[LaManuka73]

Hi everyone,

I have a pair of almost two-year-old Green-cheeked Conures. They have free flight throughout my living room all day and have several play areas of their own. They have plenty of enrichment, including foraging activities, clicker training and things to chew on. They sleep in a nest box with holes in it, which is placed inside a cage.

For about six months now, however, I think they have become territorial about “their” areas. When I approach their bird stand, they fluff up (as you can see in the photo), pace around agitatedly, and most importantly, if I touch anything on the bird stand, they bite me. They bite very hard, sometimes enough to draw blood. This often makes it difficult for me to put fresh vegetables on the stand.

They have never been cuddly or hand-tame, and they are parent-raised rather than hand-fed. However, they are quite affectionate in their own way: they like sitting on my shoulder, head or hand, where they will sometimes fall asleep or preen themselves. They enjoy being close to me, but they have never allowed me to touch them, which is completely fine with me.

My first thought is that the nest box might be triggering hormonal or breeding-related behavior. On the other hand, they really only use it for sleeping and don't spend time hanging around in dark corners or anything like that.

Should I remove the nest box? Or could there be another reason for this behavior? Is this something that is fairly normal at their age?

Welcome to the forums @Mailyn001 and your pair of little cuties! Please don't forget to tell us their names, will you?

At around the two year mark they are right in the frame for becoming sexually mature, and yes, this can trigger all sorts of hormone-related behaviours up to and including territoriality and biting which can become quite severe - indeed GCCs can be prone to territorial aggression. Exactly this sort of thing happened to my GCC whom I had years ago. His name was Baci, named after my favourite brand of Italian chocolates because he was so sweet! Well, once he hit two years old it was like he became a different bird and got VERY bitey indeed!! I would definitely removed that nest box as it very much could be exacerbating the behaviours you're seeing. They may be a bit unsettled for a while once it's gone, but they really don't need it for sleeping and in this case I think you'll find it's causing more problems than it's worth.

Some little birds do, however, like something to hide in, since they are prey species it can give them a feeling of a bit more security. If you feel like they need something like that, you could try a seagrass "hut" like the one below...

Lots of bird/parrot toy websites have them, and often retailers of toys for rabbits, ferrets etc have similar things too. Nothing can ever be 100% guaranteed of course, but being a much more open design they are far less likely to contribute to nesting/hormonal/territorial behaviours, and indeed I have one for my lorikeet Lovejoy now and he has zero issues as a result of it - indeed he runs to it for security when our local outdoor birds kick up a ruckus. So perhaps something like this might work for your guys too