Re: anytips? my fathers old bluecrowned conure is aggressive and gone cage "sour" cra
I inherited my Dad's galah and found myself in a similar position to yours. Dom had been kept in a tiny cage with nothing but sunflower seed to eat and fresh water every now and again. This was vastly different to the excellent daily care my Dad had given him, but poor Mum was developing dementia by then and no one knew what was going on with the bird.
He was *vicious*! Cage-aggressive, lunging, screeching - horrible! I took him home, gave him a better cage and a better diet and began wooing him with fruit. Gradually, he began to accept treats and calmed down. Eventually, I opened his cage but he wouldn't come out. One day, I was flying my Beaks in the kitchen when a great fluttering announced that Dom had emerged and had clambered onto the top of his cage! Success!
The sad part was that Dom never really liked me much. It took a LOT of work to get him to accept that I would feed and water him, but he always bit me no matter how many treats I held. He much preferred the men in the house. That was fine, though. We all recognised that the years in solitary confinement had damaged him permanently, so all we did was try to keep him happy. I think he had a nice life for the last few years. He was free-range in the daytime and only went into his cage when he wanted to sleep. He lost heaps of weight, learned to fly, learned to call out like a proper galah and even learned to enjoy having his pin feathers squashed.
All it takes is the resolve to do better for your bird; to improve his situation. I think you have that already and with a little daily work you can help your Winston find his inner conure again. There'll be days when you wonder why you bother, but then there'll be other days when you swell with pride at yours and Winton's achievements. Evntually, you'll have a devoted companion who enjoys his life with you AND you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did right by this lovely boy.
Do stay in touch and give us updates on your progress! We all like to hear other birds' tales.
Very well said by Betrisher..."All it takes is the resolve to do better for your bird, to improve his situation"...That's an awesome, powerful statement. And it's also 100% the truth...So often people who are either new to birds and don't understand their level of intelligence, or people who do have experience and understand them, but are so desperate to have a fully-tame, cuddly, loving bird that can be handled and who will bond closely with them, they get extremely anxious and try to force this process to move quickly...And all that does is push their birds further and further away from them...
It will happen if you are committed to him and work with him, spend time with him (passive-interaction does wonders), and most-importantly you are patient and you don't ever try to push him further than he wants to go...
You absolutely must let the bird guide the relationship and your actions while interacting with him. If you go at your pace, the pace that YOU WANT it to go at, you'll only push him further and further away. It does sound like you're doing a good job, but I just want to reiterate to you that this might take longer than a year to happen, and as long as you know that it taking that long a period of time is completely normal and you don't give-up on him or get frustrated and do something you'll regret, like re-homing him or surrendering him to a Rescue, you'll be fine.
I have worked at an Avian Rescue for many years now (I'm the Medical Liaison, so I don't have much to do with the adoption process), and I cannot tell you how many awesome, loving, amazing parrots I've seen surrendered by owners, hesitantly, simply because they got it in their heads that they want a cuddly, lovey-dovey bird that can be handled right out of the box, and they got themselves so worked-up and frustrated after only having the bird for an extremely short period of time that they decided that "There is something wrong with the bird"...So they surrender them, like they're a pair of shoes they are returning, after only a month or two of owning the bird.
Both myself and several of the other employees/volunteers at the Rescue have been able to talk a lot of people out of re-homing/surrendering their birds, but often we can't. In most cases these people knew that they were buying or adopting a non-tame bird that was either not hand-raised in the first place or was hand-raised and tame at one time but was neglected and is no longer tame or able to be handled...
I would guess that the average amount of time that most people in this position try to work with their birds and keep them before surrendering them or re-homing them is around 2-3 months....Not even close to long enough to #1) Earn the trust of the bird, as this is ALWAYS the first step that must happen, and then #2) Continue to work with them every single day and give the bird a good year to be completely comfortable with them and bonded with them.
****By the way, I didn't see you mention this, if you did then I apologize, but is his cage located in the "main room" of you home, meaning the room where you and the rest of the people who live with you spend most of their time when they are home? This is extremely important when you're trying to earn the trust of a bird, bond with a bird, socialize a bird with people, etc...I mentioned "Passive Interaction" above, and that's exactly what this means, having your bird's "Territory" or his "Safe Space", his cage, located in the room of your home where you and the rest of his "Flock" spend most of their time when they are home (your bird's "Flock" includes you and anyone else who lives in the home with the bird)...Usually the "main room" of the home is the living room, family room, den, TV room, etc. It's also the room where most visitors to the home spend time when they are there.
"Passive Interaction" with your bird will help tremendously with the taming and bonding process. You don't have to be directly interacting with him all the time to still be working with him; simply having his cage located in whatever room it is where you and the rest of the Flock talk, watch TV, listen to music, read, play video games, take naps, eat meals (this is a big one when it comes to bonding), etc. will make all the difference in the world...
By doing this you are placing HIS TERRITORY right in the middle of the Flock, and just having you in the same room as him whenever you are home will not only help to earn his trust and bond with him, but it typically also brings a lot of comfort and security to them, as they are "Flock Animals"! A lot of people don't understand the concept of a "Floc" Animal at all, and they put their new bird's cage in a spare bedroom or a room away from where they spend most of their time when they are home..And I'm also speaking about new birds they have just brought home who are completely tame and crave attention! So the bird is in it's cage all the time in this back room, and the bird can hear that their "Flock" members are home, but they can't see them and they aren't among them...So this causes them to feel anxious, lonely, insecure, and unsafe...And typically they start screaming continually...And their owners can't understand why the bird isn't just entertaining itself with all the toys they put in it's cage...Amazingly, lol, when they finally give-in and agree to try moving their bird's cage to the living room or wherever they spend their time at home, they almost immediately find that not only has the bird stopped screaming, but the bird is also contently playing with it's toys and happily entertaining itself, all because it's among it's flock...
****I wish you all the best, and you'll do fine with Winston...It sounds like you're already well on your way to forming an extremely close bone with him...Just stick to it, try to remind yourself that it's completely normal for this process to take quite a long time, even over a year, and try to not become frustrated.
And NEVER hesitate to come here to the forum and ask ANY questions you might have at any time. There is no such thing as a stupid question when it comes to your bird's health and happiness..
AND BY THE WAY, I AM COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY JEALOUS OF YOU, BECAUSE I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED BLUE-CROWN CONURES! Seriously, I originally was looking for a hand-raised, baby Blue Crown Conure when I brought home my baby Senegal Parrot, but I just couldn't find one anywhere near me (I live in Pennsylvania, and I actually drove 9 hours one-way to Raleigh, NC for my hand-raised, baby Senegal Parrot, so that should tell you how far I was willing to drive to find one!)...I have been thinking about finding a Blue Crown again lately, and someday I will bring one home and make them a part of my family...If we would ever get one at the Rescue I work at I would adopt him immediately, he wouldn't even spend a single night at the Rescue! But in the over 8 years that I've been with the Rescue, and it's a pretty large Rescue, we've not had a single Blue Crown Conure surrendered or brought in...
**So if you ever do want to re-home him, just let me know!!! LOL, just kidding...