Biting conure

[lastfrontier]

Hello all, I was wondering if I could get some help from more experienced conure parents. My husband and I adopted a 4 year old green cheek from a very nice couple who had hit hard times. He has spent his whole life with them, and "he" is very sociable. He will perch readily on your shoulder, give kisses, and enjoys being around us. However, he has an issue with hands.If he is on shoulder and you reach up to even so much as move toward him or even say scratch near him, he will lunge at your hand. If he is sitting on your chest, he will cuddle against my arm and will let me pet him with my arm, but if I attempt to use my fingers he may allow it once or twice and then chomp down hard. also if you try to ladder he throws a tantrum. He is molting currently, which I know adds to his moodiness, but we are confused as how to proceed, and how to work with him to become accustomed to hands.I am fine with nibbled, but these bites are hard enough to break skin at times.Overall, we love him, but it is a bit annoying when you can't touch your own face.

 

[friedsoup]

Hi there and welcome Look up my post named "Stick Trick Training Described" this will help you save your fingers. if you need more information feel free to pm me or just make a post I or someone else will be glad to help.

 

[Ebella812]

I would give him some more time to get used to you. Birds get very settled in there ways and when they experience change, it could be a little uneasy for the bird. Just have some patience and he will eventually come around. It was very nice of you to give him a good home. Good luck!

 

[thermodynamic]

I would give him some more time to get used to you. Birds get very settled in there ways and when they experience change, it could be a little uneasy for the bird. Just have some patience and he will eventually come around. It was very nice of you to give him a good home. Good luck!

Seconded!

Patience will definitely help, and - by working with the bird - will allow it to trust more easily, but it does take a while...

Stick training, as said by friedsoup, will definitely help!

And it's cool there are people who are able to take in birds, but it's horrible people are losing their jobs or other things that result in having to give up their pets. It's inhumane...

I took in a blue crown, who was abandoned in a pet store bathroom. The pet store did a good job with what resources they had, but it was clear the poor bird - who bit at every opportunity - had been neglected for a long time. Tybbi no longer bites, and has learned I'm an okay guy. But it did take her a couple of months for her to drop her defenses.)

Tybbi used to scream, but with time and temperament, she would later mimic her previous owner's alarm clock right at ~6AM. Now she greets me with "Hi, Dave!" when I wake up. I suspect she understands the context, as she sometimes says "How are you?" (but in a less recognizable cadence as she learned that phrase from me) after I acknowledge her "hi" greeting. It's possible the previous owner may have been a "Dave", but between finding out about Tybbi and acquiring him, it was one day. She could not have learned "Hi Dave!" from anyone at the pet store in that period of time...

The vet found Tybbi was malnourished, but has responded well to Zupreem pellets and real carrots (vitamin A deficiency also being prominent regarding her beak peeling).

The vet, who has worked with parrots for two decades, thought Tybbi was 5~6 years old due to the condition of her talons. Two of my GCCs are that old and their feet have the scaly description the vet said. Tybbi's feel more supple, but a blue crown is not a GCC. It'd be fun to think Tybbi is but two years old, but reality suggests going by the vet's prognosis is the more rational course of action.

I do have 3 other parrots - Rusty and Scooter, cagemates from a different pet store, and Rosie (abused in a pet store and purchased just to get her out of that creepy dump). None of them interacts with the others, due to territorial issues... and Rosie will go out of her way to attack Rusty.

 

[indisin]

Thank you guys, for the info. I am not sure why my original account was marked as spam?Since I only had one thread, I understand if may have been asked before. So thank you for being patient. We have only had him for a week, so I understand he need time. However, he also bit his original owners rather hard as well when they would touch him and he didn't want it. He was much more patient, but he would turn around and bite if they did something he didn't seem to like. If she tried to get him from her husbands shoulder, he would whip around and let the hand have it. I have heard of stick training, and will look more into it. I would really like to save my fingers.

 

[MollyGreenCheeks]

Looks to me that one additional problem may be that he is on your shoulder a bit too early. Some would say they should never be on your shoulders. If he has not yet learned his boundarys with his new family than he should not be on the shoulder yet, especially if he's biting. Recommend you try stick training and keep him on the finger for awhile. Good luck.

 

[indisin]

Stick training is a go. I bookmarked it. However, I understand trying to keep him on the finger, but if you but your finger close to him you get a nice wallop. If you give him your hand or your wrist, he climbs right on up and all the way up to your shoulder and if you reach to grab him, well you get again. The little booger will even bite and then twist. Its just odd, he will come snuggle with your cheeks or run to cuddle with a cupped hand, but he sees fingers and he goes after them. We are not afraid to put in the work, he is lovely, his wings need to be clipped as well. I would try and keep him off the shoulder in general, but he is not opposed to flying onto shoulders for attention.

 

[MickeysMom]

This sounds a lot like Tinker.....she's a wonderful little girl,loves to cuddle, but there are times when she wants nothing to do with hands. She will attack fingers, wrists, palms.....we have taken an approach of letting her be if she doesn't want to be bothered with. If we need to move her, and she's being a brat, we simply pick her up from above, and then she fine sitting on our hands. It seems to be the "step up" she has issues with. We are working on it, and she has come a long way....but she still has her days....lol

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Georgie used to get nippy/bossy when on the shoulder sometimes. Attitude! It definitely gave me the feeling like she was saying "stay away, ma, can't you see i'm busy right now!?"
I tried to remind her of the order of things and either told her to "go home" (fly back to your cage) or "step up" (if she would, then i would do the ladder thing with my fingers and say "good girl"). When she "went home" if i asked, i normally rewarded her for that, then asked her to 'step up' again from there.
But i have to say, all her life she had a bit of a bossy/moody streak. I think it's partly personality and we have to give them their 'bad days' and the rest is probably like a few other people said with your bird--give him/her time to trust you fully and go from there with the behavior.

 

[MonicaMc]

However, he also bit his original owners rather hard as well when they would touch him and he didn't want it. He was much more patient, but he would turn around and bite if they did something he didn't seem to like. If she tried to get him from her husbands shoulder, he would whip around and let the hand have it.

You pretty much answered your own question right there.... birds bite/nip for a reason. We don't speak bird, and when birds try to tell us what they want or don't want using body language, they go to a "last resort" and bite.

Stick training is a go. I bookmarked it. However, I understand trying to keep him on the finger, but if you but your finger close to him you get a nice wallop. If you give him your hand or your wrist, he climbs right on up and all the way up to your shoulder and if you reach to grab him, well you get again. The little booger will even bite and then twist. Its just odd, he will come snuggle with your cheeks or run to cuddle with a cupped hand, but he sees fingers and he goes after them. We are not afraid to put in the work, he is lovely, his wings need to be clipped as well. I would try and keep him off the shoulder in general, but he is not opposed to flying onto shoulders for attention.

Sounds like he may have learned to bite because his previous owners didn't know how to communicate with him.

Birds feel safest up high, so it's natural for many of them to want to sit on someones shoulder or head. The trick is to figure out how to tell them that you want them down. Does your GC have a favorite treat he'd be willing to step down for? Or a favorite place he'd be willing to go to other than your shoulder?

And may I ask, why does he need his wings clipped?



In short, the best way to teach a parrot not to bite is not to get bit in the first place. Easier said than done, but it's the truth. It's either get bit and allow the parrot to gnaw on your flesh (to me, that doesn't sound pleasant!) or avoid getting bit altogether. How do you avoid the nip? By trying to avoid situations that will result in the bird nipping/biting.

You may want to go back to basic training and teaching your GC to step up for a reward and not allowing him up on your shoulder until you can get him to step up reliably. Hulled sunflower seeds and millet are a couple of great rewards you can use.