Conure Hand Aggressive

[Nadieb1930]

Hey everyone. I got a conure from a lady who rescued him about two weeks ago. She said he is very hand skittish around men, but seems to be okay with women. She suspects he was abused by a man. He lost one of his toes at some point.
When I first brought him home, he was extremely aggressive. He would try to lunge at me when I was changing his water or giving him food. He’s definitely gotten better since then. I was getting him out of his cage with a perch and then he would step up just fine. Now he will step up right onto my finger from in the cage or off his play perch in my living room. He’s gotten really good about stepping up into my finger, only biting me sometimes instead of all the time. He also seems to enjoy sitting on my shoulder and chest and doesn’t mind getting kisses on his face/head. Any time I try to pet him, he freaks out and starts biting me anywhere he can reach. Sometimes he will do the same thing if I try to get him to step up off of my shoulder. Other times, usually when he’s on my finger in front of his cage, he’ll let me pet him on his back, although the will rarely let me do this now. How can I get him to be less aggressive towards my hands? I’ve been trying to give him a treat anytime he steps up nicely and only trying to pet him when he seems like he’ll allow it. I just want to get him to bite less, since he does it all the time. Even when I’m doing something on my phone and he moves towards me (making my fingers “too close” to him) he’ll get mad and start biting me hard.

 

[Laurasea]

it sounds like you are doing great for such a short time.

My green cheek is a little cage protective, if I touch her cage while she is in it she will bite. Out of cage great.

She is extremely lovely snuggle girl. But if my hand comes st her from above she gets upset and threat to bite. Usually waiting a few seconds and sweet talking her we are all good and avoided bites. She can be quick silver with mood changes to her perception of slights or whatever. But lots if practiced reading her and giving her literally seconds to adjustment we avoid bites.. but she offers to bite me daily . I take it all in stride and don't take it personally. Because really she is a love, so smart so chatty.

It seems they can be very prone to developing fear of hands or getting their feelings hurt. During our 9(?) Years together occasionally we have had hiccups sometimes reasons known sometimes unknown. But feeding safflower seeds many times a day and flatter and sweet tslk and we quickly move past that and back to buddies.

Green cheeks have no back down. If they think you are in the wrong apologizing, talking it out