Conure's aggression worse every day. Desperate for help.

[Anansi]

Two possibilities spring immediately to mind. One is to walk with a suitable distraction. A bird-safe chewable item small enough to fit in the palm of your hand would be ideal. Like an untreated wooden clothes pin. Or a suitably long Lego block. And when he goes after your hand, intercept the bite with the chosen "distractor". Most times, the bird will get so caught up in biting the distraction that he'll forget about his desire to munch on you. (At least long enough for you to get him into the cage.)

2nd option is to use a stick to return him to his cage.

 

[Mimsy01]

If he's being so bitey that you can't walk across the room, I'd toss a little blanket or towel over my arm. Foo gets a bit cranky when she molting a lot. Maybe just keep it over your shoulder or somewhere you can easily grab it when Charlie goes monster on you. Does he like to shred paper? Maybe keep some balled up pieces of paper on hand to give to him as well? I keep construction paper than I cut into stripes and then fold back and forth so they zig zagy. Foo if she is feeling cranky likes to break them up into tiny pieces or toss them all off her play gym.

You are doing great with him.

 

[GFGC]

UPDATE: Charlie has definitely improved when it comes to hands. He no longer shies away every time you come near him, and his first instinct isn't always to bite first and ask questions later. He has opened up as far as being affectionate goes, but he still definitely likes to have his own space, which I can appreciate and relate to. He is starting to allow me to hold him in my hand and accept scratches without TOO much protest. A few times I was holding him completely in my hand and scratching his head and he was making his happy beak grinding sounds.

However, he still bites and when he does, it's hard. He gets timeouts when they are bad enough, but usually he will get his beak grabbed with a firm "no" and an angry face. Sometimes when he's being especially bitey, I'll pick him up and hold his beak and make sure I am face to face with him and say "no," and then put him back to whatever he was doing. I usually get bit upon release. I'd love to say he's getting it, but I don't think he is. I can't say as though I have yet seen him display that he won't just bite whenever he feels like it.

He bites to get pet. He bites to stop petting. He bites when he is on my finger and I'm not taking him to his destination fast enough. He bites when he is on my finger and doesn't want to go where he is being taken. He bites when he steps up and expects a seed but doesn't get one. Sometimes he bites for reasons I don't understand.

I know that I'm supposed to have patience, and believe me I do, but when your pet is so smart that he can learn a trick in ten minutes, how can it take him months to understand that biting is unacceptable? He literally learned to roll over onto his back on command (while in his cage only thus far) yesterday in one session.

 

[Birdman666]

I know that I'm supposed to have patience, and believe me I do, but when your pet is so smart that he can learn a trick in ten minutes, how can it take him months to understand that biting is unacceptable? He literally learned to roll over onto his back on command (while in his cage only thus far) yesterday in one session.

UNFORTUNATELY, HE'S USING HIS BEAK BOTH TO COMMUNICATE AND TO SET BOUNDARIES WITH YOU... that's the dynamic here.

HE IS THE EQUIVALENT TO A "BEAKY" SHRUNKEN MACAW. THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE GOT HERE - THE "BEAKY MACAW" BEHAVIORS IN A SMALLER PACKAGE...

 

[GFGC]

Any further suggestions aside from staying the course?

 

[Birdman666]

Any further suggestions aside from staying the course?

Bite pressure train if you haven't already.

If he picked up roll over in short order, he should pick up "not so hard" pretty quickly. With a beaky bird, you kinda have to settle for "less annoying, but fortunately no scars."

 

[GFGC]

I'm pretty sure I've started that. I don't mind a little beak to skin. I know that's how he explores his world, so I'm ok with that. It's only when he starts getting too hard that he gets a "be nice" warning and then "no."

 

[Anansi]

You're likely bucking up against his stubbornness, now, rather than simply a failure to understand. Though it is possible he's still working on understanding when something is or isn't appropriate.

You've mentioned that there's been significant progress. So why shy away from the advice that you should "stay the course", as you put it?

It may seem like it's been a long time, but it's actually only been a month and maybe 5 days since your first post. Consider how much progress you've made in that time.

There are people on this very forum who currently have great relationships with their birds, but took much longer to get their parrots to this point than you have. Not because they were less adept than you, but simply because their birds were more stubborn than yours.

There are also birds who, for whatever reason, seem to intuitively "get it" and learn to behave pretty much right away.

Your guy is responding to the training, so don't lose heart now. Who knows how far he will have come in another month? You can have a properly behaved, bite-pressure trained bird. But first you have to put in the work. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts.

 

[GFGC]

Not looking for shortcuts, just keeping everyone up to speed and letting you all know I'm taking your advice and didn't drop off the planet.

I'll keep working with him, of course. There aren't many places one can ask a question/vent some BIRD frustration, so please don't interpret my inquiry as giving up or looking for a way out. I just want to make sure I'm on the right track.

Thank you!

 

[Anansi]

No, you should ask any and all questions that come to mind. That's part of the reason for this forum, after all. No worries.

And definitely keep the updates coming! I was glad to hear that you've been making progress, and I want to encourage you to keep with it. I know it can get difficult (and painful), but it's very much worth it.

 

[Kyoto]

I had no choice but to bite pressure train Kyoto as well. She is just so into using her beak! So she now responds to be gentle or don't bite if she is too rough. She has only broken skin on rare occasions over the past 2 months.

Keep at it! You're doing well.

 

[GFGC]

UPDATE: Still on the up and up, generally speaking. Charlie seems to be mellowing out a little bit. Usually when he was on my shoulder as soon as I felt that little beak on my ear I would remove him and let him know I didn't appreciate it. However, yesterday I decided to just SEE what his intentions were with my ears all this time.

His intentions, as it turns out, were to be adorable. He gently nibbled my ear all over the place and stuck his whole face inside it at one point. Now I let him get his nibble on, only removing or scolding when it gets too hard. At one point today he held on to the top of my ear with his beak and then gripped the rest of it with his feet. He was gentle, but needles to say I didn't let that continue.

Today he did something a little weird. He knocked his beak on my shoulder a few times like a woodpecker. I have read some "theories" as to what this means, but it seems as though no one knows for certain what this behavior means. Any insight?

Since he does SO well with his clicker and positive reinforcement, I decided to start clicking and treating when it comes to him being touched. It worked to make him see stepping up as a positive thing, so I figured why not. Make him see it as a positive thing and then phase out the clicker aspect and treat less often. So, today I started to just gently cup my hand over him while he was on his perch. Of course, his first instinct is OH MY GOD I HAVE TO BITE THIS THING, which got him a "no," of course. However, when he didn't bite it after touching him a few seconds, he got a click and a seed. After a little while he was moving TO my hand to press himself into it, knowing that he would get something special in return. He would still bite here and there, and I know it'll take some doing to purge him of his default reaction.

It's been a challenge reprogramming this little guy, but with most problems behavior-related, it looks like it's treats to the rescue!

 

[Flboy]

Awesome update! I am making the same progressions with Bongo the barbarian! Almost ready to change his name!

 

[Anansi]

I'm loving your update, GFGC. Especially how you've become comfortable enough with the training method to begin customizing it according to what works best with Charlie.

That's one of the cool side effects of intensive training with your bird. You get more of a feel for who they are. Their quirks. Their body language. Everything. The better you get at reading them, the more effective you get at training them.

You're making excellent progress!

Glad to hear things are progressing along a similar vein for you as well, David. As for names more befitting his newly pacified nature, how about Bongo the Benificent? Or maybe go all Prince with it and call him "The Avian Formerly Known as Barbaric"?

(Depending on how old you are, that last reference may or may not have made sense to you. One of my nieces asked me the other day who Prince was. Sigh... I wept inside just a little. Hahaha!)

 

[GFGC]

UPDATE: My little guy is doing GREAT! He has responded really well to positively reinforcing touch with clicks and treats. Today I grabbed him off of my lap four times and he didn't even make a peep of protest. Hard bites are a rarity at the moment. He will sometimes still scream and put his mouth on me, but not hard. I don't speak parrot, so if that's his way of telling his dumb human how he feels, I'm ok with it. Just as long as he doesn't make me bleed anymore! He seems to have really mellowed out the past couple of weeks. In spite of his never ending molting and pin feathers, he's been generally in a good mood.

I think that positively reinforcing touching has kind of made him realize "hey, this isn't so bad after all." Where as before even a hand behind him would make him freak out and attack, I can cup him and lift him now, and usually not get any guff from him. I think he needed to get over the fear. He's still a little grump, but that is probably the bird on him.

He recently got a big new cage with a ton of new toys and he is living like the king he thinks he is. It's been a ton of work, every day touching him and treating him and really doing all I can to tame the beast, but it's working.

Now I just have puberty, hormones, and molting to look forward to every year!

 

[GFGC]

Here he is with his new castle that he finally deserves, haha!

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Beautiful cage! That half-circle opening above the door, is that like a perch area?

 

[Flboy]

Awesome cage, wife has same one, gotta ask, what did you pay?
I will have to post a photo of her setup.

Heads up on the tray. It is on bearings and slides out instantly if you tip the cage moving it! First hand experience!

 

[GFGC]

We paid $160 for it. Yes, the half circle is a little balcony where King Charlie can give his speeches.