CrossCrash
New member
- May 18, 2019
- 5
- 0
- Parrots
- Yoshi (Pearly Conure)
Hi folks, hoping you can help.
We've got a green cheek conure, around 5-6 months old. For the last two months he's become really bitey. He'll bite hard, often, and frequently breaks the skin. It's becoming impossible to let him out of his cage because he can't be trusted not to bite. We'd love some advice.
We're new and inexperienced bird owners but we've tried to do as much research as we can before and since receiving our bird. Since I'm not 100% sure what might be an important factor I'm going to give as much detail as possible. Sorry in advance for the essay.
We received him at 10 weeks old. He was hand reared by the breeder so was super friendly, cuddly and practically fearless. He was out of his cage and cuddling in within days. No biting at first and would regularly fall asleep on us.
After the first month he began to get bitey, but wouldn't break the skin. It was like he was preening us but being a bit rough. Now it's different, he'll actively bite us to hurt/out of anger and breaks the skin often.
my wife and myself both work full time so he's alone roughly 8 hours of the day which we realize isn't ideal. We leave the radio on a talk station for him while we're out. When we're home we try to get him out for a couple of hours at least and interact with him often. His cage is in our living room where we spend most of the time. Heās not cooped up in a room by himself.
The intention was to leave his cage open constantly when we're around to supervise but with the biting this hasn't been possible.
Iāve had some success when Iāve had him out with just myself in the room, heāll still bite and fly around and I still try not to let him on my shoulders or head. But it hasnāt been the constant lunging. Iāve managed to have him out for around 2 hours at a time. With both myself and my wife in the room heās usually over excited and biting within 5 minutes of opening his cage. He bites both of us though, he doesnāt seem to be favouring me over my wife.
He is fully flighted, which makes him hard to control. He'll land on our heads and shoulders where he can easily bite at our necks, faces and ears. This makes having him out really stressful because he can go from playing nicely on his perch to in our face and biting with little warning. Thatās got us nervous and on edge while heās out which canāt be helping. It also makes it really hard to get him back in his cage because heāll keep flying away when we try to lower him in. We spend more time chasing him around than anything else.
We have him on a mixed diet of pellets, seed, egg food and fresh fruit/veg. of this itās about 50% veg, 30% Pellets, 15% seed, 5% egg food. Weāve recently read that too much protein can make conures aggressive so weāve cut out the egg food for the last couple of days. No luck with that so far.
Weāve tried putting him back in his cage when heās getting bity which is leading to problems. He doesnāt want to go back in, so heāll bite down harder to avoid it. Or heāll just keep flying away from the cage. Weāve also tried the āearthquakeā method, but shaking to put him off balance when he bites also makes him bite down harder to hold on.
We are aware of bluffing and moulting which we think could be factors in this. He has not lost any substantial feather however he has a couple of pin feathers and his down feathers are very fluffy underneath as if he is moulting and it explains the grumpiness. In terms of bluffing, we thought that was a strong possibility but didnāt think it would take this long for him to come out of that phase.
I think a big part of the problem is that we donāt know what weāre doing, we donāt have a routine or any consistency and itās making training random and chaotic so itās not working.
When heās in a good mood he can be really nice. Heāll sit nice, likes head scratches and lets you pet him. But as soon as he becomes excited the biting starts. Weāre concerned about losing his tameness when he was initially so cuddly and calm and if we donāt deal with this stage correctly now it could affect things going forward in the long term which is unfair on him mostly.
Needless to say weāre getting really stressed. Weāre beginning to feel like weāve taken on something we arenāt ready for. The last thing we want is to have to give him away but weāre at the stage where weāre becoming afraid of him, weāre fighting with each other about what to do and thatās not sustainable.
Any advice about any of the above would be appreciated.
We've got a green cheek conure, around 5-6 months old. For the last two months he's become really bitey. He'll bite hard, often, and frequently breaks the skin. It's becoming impossible to let him out of his cage because he can't be trusted not to bite. We'd love some advice.
We're new and inexperienced bird owners but we've tried to do as much research as we can before and since receiving our bird. Since I'm not 100% sure what might be an important factor I'm going to give as much detail as possible. Sorry in advance for the essay.
We received him at 10 weeks old. He was hand reared by the breeder so was super friendly, cuddly and practically fearless. He was out of his cage and cuddling in within days. No biting at first and would regularly fall asleep on us.
After the first month he began to get bitey, but wouldn't break the skin. It was like he was preening us but being a bit rough. Now it's different, he'll actively bite us to hurt/out of anger and breaks the skin often.
my wife and myself both work full time so he's alone roughly 8 hours of the day which we realize isn't ideal. We leave the radio on a talk station for him while we're out. When we're home we try to get him out for a couple of hours at least and interact with him often. His cage is in our living room where we spend most of the time. Heās not cooped up in a room by himself.
The intention was to leave his cage open constantly when we're around to supervise but with the biting this hasn't been possible.
Iāve had some success when Iāve had him out with just myself in the room, heāll still bite and fly around and I still try not to let him on my shoulders or head. But it hasnāt been the constant lunging. Iāve managed to have him out for around 2 hours at a time. With both myself and my wife in the room heās usually over excited and biting within 5 minutes of opening his cage. He bites both of us though, he doesnāt seem to be favouring me over my wife.
He is fully flighted, which makes him hard to control. He'll land on our heads and shoulders where he can easily bite at our necks, faces and ears. This makes having him out really stressful because he can go from playing nicely on his perch to in our face and biting with little warning. Thatās got us nervous and on edge while heās out which canāt be helping. It also makes it really hard to get him back in his cage because heāll keep flying away when we try to lower him in. We spend more time chasing him around than anything else.
We have him on a mixed diet of pellets, seed, egg food and fresh fruit/veg. of this itās about 50% veg, 30% Pellets, 15% seed, 5% egg food. Weāve recently read that too much protein can make conures aggressive so weāve cut out the egg food for the last couple of days. No luck with that so far.
Weāve tried putting him back in his cage when heās getting bity which is leading to problems. He doesnāt want to go back in, so heāll bite down harder to avoid it. Or heāll just keep flying away from the cage. Weāve also tried the āearthquakeā method, but shaking to put him off balance when he bites also makes him bite down harder to hold on.
We are aware of bluffing and moulting which we think could be factors in this. He has not lost any substantial feather however he has a couple of pin feathers and his down feathers are very fluffy underneath as if he is moulting and it explains the grumpiness. In terms of bluffing, we thought that was a strong possibility but didnāt think it would take this long for him to come out of that phase.
I think a big part of the problem is that we donāt know what weāre doing, we donāt have a routine or any consistency and itās making training random and chaotic so itās not working.
When heās in a good mood he can be really nice. Heāll sit nice, likes head scratches and lets you pet him. But as soon as he becomes excited the biting starts. Weāre concerned about losing his tameness when he was initially so cuddly and calm and if we donāt deal with this stage correctly now it could affect things going forward in the long term which is unfair on him mostly.
Needless to say weāre getting really stressed. Weāre beginning to feel like weāve taken on something we arenāt ready for. The last thing we want is to have to give him away but weāre at the stage where weāre becoming afraid of him, weāre fighting with each other about what to do and thatās not sustainable.
Any advice about any of the above would be appreciated.