bethellerby
New member
- Jul 6, 2022
- 1
- 0
- Parrots
- Work in an aviary
I am a zookeeper that works with quite a few birds including ex-pets. My particular question is in regards to an ex-pet green-cheeked Conure called Eric. For more context he lives alone with a group of Amazons.
Eric is my best little buddy at work and he truly loves me. He flies the length of the enclosure to sit on my shoulder, calls across the park for me, plays copying games, dances with me, burrows into my hair and grooms me. However Eric really loves biting hands and by that I mean that he just finds it really fun. He will notice an opportunity to latch on and just start munching, when he does stop he then immediately returns to being affectionate and cuddly. I don't see it as aggressive behaviour because he doesn't seem to be upset at all, but for a tiny guy he can do some damage!
Through a lot of time spent with him I've had some great achievements, he will now: climb onto weighing scales, hand feed, let me tap his beak as part of a game, gently nibble ears rather than biting them (a previous issue) and step up/off my fingers (built up from using gloves). However, he's still a little terror for suddenly realising there are some tasty hands to munch on and also beyond beak taps there's no touching allowed.
Living alone he's suffering terribly with pin-feathers on his head which I imagine somewhat contributes to his unpredictability but I can't do anything to help him until he accepts that hands aren't for biting.
I was wondering if anyone had any advice for how to progress further with him, as we seem to have hit a wall currently. I would really appreciate some basic "this is how you should react, this is what you should and shouldn't do" too because I'm quite new to birds and don't want to be accidentally encouraging the wrong things!
Thanks!
Eric is my best little buddy at work and he truly loves me. He flies the length of the enclosure to sit on my shoulder, calls across the park for me, plays copying games, dances with me, burrows into my hair and grooms me. However Eric really loves biting hands and by that I mean that he just finds it really fun. He will notice an opportunity to latch on and just start munching, when he does stop he then immediately returns to being affectionate and cuddly. I don't see it as aggressive behaviour because he doesn't seem to be upset at all, but for a tiny guy he can do some damage!
Through a lot of time spent with him I've had some great achievements, he will now: climb onto weighing scales, hand feed, let me tap his beak as part of a game, gently nibble ears rather than biting them (a previous issue) and step up/off my fingers (built up from using gloves). However, he's still a little terror for suddenly realising there are some tasty hands to munch on and also beyond beak taps there's no touching allowed.
Living alone he's suffering terribly with pin-feathers on his head which I imagine somewhat contributes to his unpredictability but I can't do anything to help him until he accepts that hands aren't for biting.
I was wondering if anyone had any advice for how to progress further with him, as we seem to have hit a wall currently. I would really appreciate some basic "this is how you should react, this is what you should and shouldn't do" too because I'm quite new to birds and don't want to be accidentally encouraging the wrong things!
Thanks!