Do all conures bite?

[FreckleFace]

Asked to delete

 

[baron1282]

From what i have been reading, no!! That is not normal. You got your bird at four years of age right? Where from, what is the background?

Your going to have to keep working with the bird to get him to stop biting. They do nip a lot that is normal, but breaking skin is not normal.

 

[momto3]

Breaking the skin is not normal behavior! If you have only had him for a short period of time he is scared. Don't put him on your shoulder until you are comfortable with him--he has lost the right to be up there. Our Blue Crowned Conure baby is going through a nipping stage and he does occasionally hiss when the kids try to take him from me. He is testing his boundaries and we expect this--although it is pretty scarey to have a big beak going towards you. Have you tried stick training? This helps because you can interact with your bird without the fear of getting bitten. Try taking him into a room that he is unfamiliar with so that he relies on you for comfort. My breeder suggested this and it works like a charm. Do you reward his good behavior with treats and praise? What do you do when your bird bites? If he is afraid and you are putting him back in his cage, then you are playing right into what he wants. Birds are super smart and you have to be one step ahead of them--just like kids they learn to play you.

 

[momto3]

I forgot to ask--is your bird getting enough sleep? A tired bird is a cranky bird.

 

[kc_y0]

He could be punishing you for "taking him from his old home" as well, He may need more time to settle in and get adjusted to his new house, but as others asked, what was his history like? Maybe he has always been biting this way and getting away with it? When bitten, the best thing to do (although seems impossible when birdy is biting so hard he's breaking the skin!) is to not react. Don't say ouch, don't make a big noise etc. After bitten, I would put him back into his cage and let him know you are not happy with him.
If he is sitting on your hand when he bites you, try moving your hand so that he loses balance and lets go right away when he's biting.

 

[kitkat135]

No all conures do not bite. Any bird will bite when scared, startled or frightened. My blue crowned conure is almost four years old and I've only had her about two months. She has never bitten me but still after much work will attack my husband. She hisses, lunges and has put holes in his fingers.

Now my daughter sits with her and talks with her every day, feeding her bits of food. In the beginning Maggie wanted to attack her, now two months later she shows no aggression toward her but still won't let my daughter pick her up. She has been able to hold Maggie twice but its taken two months to get there.

So just remember your new birdie is in a new home and scared but show lots and lots of patience. Don't let him anywhere near your face. I know trying not to react to a bite is easier said than done but will work. Clicker training can help a lot but still requires patience. Good luck.

 

[Mudkips]

It sounds to me like he's being slightly too bossy and slightly too bitey. Conures are nippy birds by nature, but anything that breaks the skin is over the top and can be worked on.
Birdy won't bite hard enough to break the skin even when he's angry (unless I've stepped way out of line ).
May I ask, what kind of conure is he? And is he clipped or flighted?

 

[MonicaMc]

If it has a mouth, you must expect some sort of biting, nipping, pinching, picking or otherwise. This goes especially double with parrots...

Parrots bite for a reason. They are scared, they are bored, they are startled, possessive, too hyper, sick, uncomfortable, telling *you* no (they don't want to do that now), etc. It is up to you to figure out why the bird is biting, then try to avoid the bite!

Precursors to a bite typically involve pinning eyes, open beak, sleek body feathers, ruffled neck feathers, wide stance, etc. Learn to read your birds body language!


Of course, these precursors don't help you if you can't "see" the birds body language or if the bird learns to skip all the precursors because the human isn't "listening" anyway.

RP - Biting


Here's a few blogs that have great information in them!
Lara Joseph
Best in Flock – Parrot Blog
Living With Parrots Cage Free



In short, avoid the bite! And with clicker training/keeping him busy, he may learn not to bite at all!


What you describe though sounds like a typical conure! My Charlie (mitred conure, similar species) has been known to be bitey if he doesn't want me interacting with him *right now* (after all, birds enjoy their personal space, too!), if I'm running water in the sink on medium/high, if I pick up a shiny object, etc. Most of these situations are rather easy to avoid by not having him with me if I'm doing certain activities, or changing the way in which I do these activities. Charlie hated a silver camera that I used to use but he is unfazed by a black camera. Bought a new camera because it was time to upgrade and had lost the old one anyway (since found it, but it doesn't work properly anymore, and didn't prior to getting a new one). Sometimes a birds dislikes can be as simple as color!

 

[Abigal7]

Do you reward his good behavior with treats and praise? What do you do when your bird bites? If he is afraid and you are putting him back in his cage, then you are playing right into what he wants. Birds are super smart and you have to be one step ahead of them--just like kids they learn to play you.

We are clicker training Charlie, and we give him fresh fruit and little pieces of Honey Grahams as his rewards. When he's being good, we give him praise and scratch his neck and under his wings. (He closes his eyes and looks so happy during scratches!)

When he bites, I try very hard not to react at all, no change in facial expressions or yelping. But when he really latches on with his beak, we have had to put a towel over him to get him off! Then we put him down and walk away (which starts him screeching frantically).

I will definitely restrict him from being on my shoulder. This sounds like very good advice!

I agree with the advise of keeping him off your shoulder too. I know it can be discouraging but when he bites hard setting him on the ground and ignoring him is the correct action (in my view). You can also wrap him in a towle and just make sure he can't reach your hands but ends up just biteing the towle until he figures out biting hard will not get him anywhere. The conure I have right now would bite
at first and after doing those two things (sitting her on the floor or wrapping a small towle around her). she mellow out. Just remember
no training happens overnight.

 

[Nakiska]

Sometimes a birds dislikes can be as simple as color!

Wow! It's truly amazing how smart they are.

I've also noticed that when my husband is in the room (or if Charlie can hear him in the house), the biting is much, much worse. His attention is always so focused on my husband. If I reach towards him then he bites the heck out of me. And if my husband tries to pick him up, forget about it. Charlie immediately starts trying to regurgitate on him and bites him, oftentimes drawing blood.

If my husband is not home, Charlie is a true gentleman with me 99% of the time.

This is interesting because generally when a parrot is trying to regurgitate on you or for you it's a "bonding" action that's not usually done in an aggressive mannor.

I wonder if Charlie is viewing you as his "mate" and is trying to fight off your husband...although Charlie will bite you as well, it's not as often or aggressive as it sounds like it is toward your husband.

We have a little green cheek conure and have had him since he was 8 weeks old.

At first when we wanted to socialize him with our cockatiels he'd fluff up and run at them, of course they'd run or fly off looking back at him like...what the heck?!?!?!?

We started teaching him by first telling him...Frankieeee...nooo...in a warning voice when he'd start to charge the tiels...if he continued to charge (which he always did at first) we'd either block him with our hand or book or something and again re-enforce...Frankiee...no! If blocking him didn't work, we'd toss a rag/t-shirt/towel (what ever was handy) over him for a "time out" of sorts and if he was still adamit...we'd pick him up and remove him totally from the situation.

After a couple weeks, he DEFINITELY stopped with just a verbal cue and now a little over a year later...he hasn't charged any of our tiels even once.

When he became an adolescent he went through an awful bitey phase with us...sometimes barely any warning, we were landbasted...OUCH!

We ALWAYS told Frankie...'OUCH!' NO BITE! In a firm tone...not yelling, but defintely firm....everytime he bit even if it was not a bad bite...even if it was an exploratory nibble that was harder than what we prefered...we'd tell him "Ouch, no bite"

If we could see his activity was say..building up to a bite...we could say...Frankieee....in a warning tone while trying to redirect his attention and often that was enough to make him stop before the bite happened...

Franklin has owned us for 1 1/2 years now and I can confidentally say he's not bitten anyone, or charged our tiels in a solid 10 months.

Those first 6 - 8 months were definitely somewhat challenging, but worth all the efforts.

We can't imagine life without him (lots of pictures of him in my profile)

With your Charlie, it sounds like maybe you need to give him some time and space...perhaps he's been a bit overstimulated.

However you choose to handle Charlies bites remember, consistency is your best friend.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

Toni

 

[urmomsmin3]

wen i first got my green cheek not even a week ago she would bite me 24/7 now she nips occasionally i guess ti depend son the bird ive been having alot of 1v1 time with her

 

[ConureLady]

my cinnamon gcc was never a biter.
my bf and i left petco covered in bites from my yellow sided gcc, but he never once bit at home and even though he isnt handled as much as i'd like because hes bonded with the cinnamon, he lets me touch him all over.
and my 8 year old rescue normal gcc is very loving and always wants to be with me, but he has his mood swings one second i can touch him the next hes lunging at my hand.
i think hes a very confused little dude.
he also bites and laughs about it.

i dont think green cheeks bite, i think they learn to bite.

 

[Nakiska]

Oh! I THINK I have a point of view here - now that you mentioned a bit more about the regurgitating...this point of view goes back to a birds/flock "undomesticated" behavior...

IF...okay...IF Charlie is viewing your husband as his/her mate I understand the excessive biting....can't say I have a solution, but I understand it...

So IF Charlie is bonding with your husband and biting him..it's because Charlie is trying to get your husband away from a "threat" which Charlie has decided is you. Charlie is also willing to bite you to "fight you off" When Charlie bites/charges/postures toward you when he is with your husband, he's clearly saying...GET AWAY! When you don't leave (and I'm not saying you should) then Charlie will turn his aggression to your husband essentially telling him...move, get out of here, get away...

Now, please understand, Charlie is not threatened by you all the time, which is why when your husband is not home or around, Charlie is good with you for the most part. I am willing to bet that if your husband handled Charlie when you are not home or around, he would probably be just fine with him on a one on one basis.

I get the feeling that if you have Charlie out with you and things are good, then your husband comes home, Charlie gets overly excited, and just that action alone somehow overstimulates him and he doesn't know how to process it...so he's trying to do too much...regurgitate to show hubby he still loves him, and the out of control aggression is Charlies terrible way of trying to gain control of the situation.

This could also be happening if Charlie feels like this is breeding season and the situation might cure it's self when the season is through.

At this point the only advice I can offer is to only spend one on one time with Charlie until you all know each other better. Don't get him out when it's you and your husband together because for some reason charlie feels like 3's a crowd at this point.

I'm not sure how you have things set up, but after a few weeks of spending one on one time with charlie, perhaps you can let him out for "play" time where he doesn't have to BE with a specific person, but you are both there watching him and mildly interacting with him...like our conure likes to "Tunnel" under blankets so hubby and I will have him out on our bed and he runs in and out of the blankets making tunnels and playing hide and seek while we read/watch tv/or talk about our day. We are both there but neither of us is specifically playing with him directly...he'll climb on me, zip down a blanket, climb on hubby...make a new tunnel, grab his little cat ball, burrow it under the blanket...that kind of thing....

As far as the screaming. Franklin hasn't been much of a screamer at all...but he has had his moments...we'll try to redirect the screaming by talking to him...franklin does talk some...really good for a green cheek actually...and if that doesn't redirect his screaming we will tell him "No screaming" and cover his cage and that usually quiets him. If we uncover his cage and he starts screaming...he get's covered again. If he was more of a screamer, I'm sure that by now he'd have picked up on the verbal "Frankieeee....no screaming" in a warning tone, and he would quiet with just our asking him...but like I said, he's not a screamer very often so he doesn't know to quiet with our asking.

Hope all this makes some sense to you...there is a great book that was very informative to me about parrot behavior and it is called The Parrot Problem Solver...finding solutions to aggressive behavior by barbara heidenreich.

Again...good luck...I think Charlie will work out he just needs more time.

Take care,

Toni

 

[Akraya]

My birds used to be very bitey, if they bite it was for blood! Even when they bite now it'll be skin breaking.
Since he's new I'd do the training in an unfamiliar room as someone has suggested already.
Also I've read (no idea where so could be wrong!) that while birds can't distinguish angry from excited in your voice they can read facial expressions. So if my guys bite I so no in a low voice and give them a glare, usually kisses after that.
IMO try pretty much everything people suggest, and eventually you'll learn what works for you and your birdy =)

 

[Grenage]

Two weeks is absolutely no time at all when it comes to an animal settling into a home. For example, our conure spent the first week being the kindest snuggling fluffball; the following couple of months he savaged our hands, and screamed when we were not in the room.

Now he never bites, doesn't nip very much, and we have a 'flock call' whistle for the rare occasion he wants to know if we're in the house.

The bottom line is that as long as you are consistent and firm (but kind!), things will probably pan out ok - but allow up to a year for it to truly settle in.

 

[Grenage]

It's really good to hear that your bird's nipping was curbed over time. That gives me hope!

Aye, I wouldn't worry too much! Top tip, sometimes birds just want to destroy something, so it's handy to have a toy they like to savage handy for those moments. Ours is a pink cat ball, the kind with the bells inside.

Nothing is more evil than the pink ball, apparently.

 

[Grenage]

I've noticed that Charlie never, ever plays with toys. Are there any tried and true toys out there that I can use to encourage him to loosen up and have a little fun?

It's down to the bird, but our tends to favour 'basic' toys, rather than gimmicky toys. Natural constructions made of rope, blocks of wood and coconuts etc; a particular favourite is a string of coloured ice-cream sticks. Anything fancy or artificial is generally ignored - I think it's a texture thing.

Bottle caps (plastic cola bottles, etc) are often popular; try anything non-toxic! You can make your own out of very basic stuff, just make sure it's not treated with chemicals.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

My cherry-head has given some bad blood-drawing bites when he is startled. They are very very rare. Example, he is on shoulder for long time watching a movie with me, and perhaps he is asleep or with eyes closed (but I didn't see), and I suddenly turned my head fast toward him and called out something to someone in the room. It's like when someone walks up on you and catches you off guard and u feel scared stiff for a second (like boo!). It's like a defensive thing, plus he can't see my eyes and I can't see his when this happens. The shoulder seems to be where it has happened in the past. He's been with our family for 30 years, and it's happend to me probably about 10 times in the 20 years I've been with him.

Hang in there and be very careful and aware of what you are doing with your head, mouth and hands when Charlie is next allowed on your shoulder. You could even try doing it in front of a mirror with him so you can both see each other and you could read his body language, and look at each other when talking.