Help with a couple of issues

[TheLadyV]

My Sun Conure, Nova, is a rescue the people that had her had rescued her and not treated her great for five years. She loves my husband...gets on his head, his shoulder, preens his beard and kisses his nose...she's very leary of me...and has bitten me a couple of itmes, not nearly as badly as she could of but still drawing a bit of blood. She is also "extremely" cage aggressive with both of us..I mean she doesn't want you putting in food, changing water, hanging toys. What do you do to discipline a parrot? We have done nothing but to say no as we don't want to do anything to make matters worse. We so love her. Any help?

 

[TheLadyV]

Anyone? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Allee]

In my experience, parrots respond well to positive reinforcement. Instead of thinking in terms of discipline, think of ways to redirect your parrot's focus. Parrots do well with routine, it doesn't need to be a rigid schedule and shouldn't be, but parrots like to know what to expect. Meal time happens at a certain time of day, time outside the cage, morning, night time, play time, training time.

A lot of parrots are defensive or territorial around their cages, it's their private, secure place, it's natural for them to be protective. It works well to set up an area with food, toys and treats some distance from the cage, this gives your bird the opportunity to leave the cage and learn to entertain himself in a neutral area, he will no longer feel the need to defend his space and you can do routine cage cleaning.

Sometimes it's wise to go back to basic training with an older parrot. Interact with him just as you would an untrained parrot. If trained behaviors aren't reinforced parrots will forget their training and revert to ingrained habits. Here's a link to get you started.

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

Best of luck, please keep us updated on Nova's progress.

 

[mh434]

It's not abnormal for a parrot to choose one person (in this case, your husband) over another, and to jealously guard that person against "the competition" (that would be you). Often, the gender of the "chosen one" is important to the bird, so it may be that Nova just plain prefers men over women.

As Allee pointed out, parrots are very often cage-protective. It's their home, their "nest", their sanctuary, and don't like people messing with it. It's also the one, constant thing in their lives, the thing they count on. Some birds get really cranky if their owner even changes their toys.

With time and concerted effort, you can probably ingratiate yourself enough that Nova will happily interact with you. Chances are, though, that your husband will remain the favored one!

 

[Iholm5]

Your experience with your conure sounds identical to mine. Zelda is closely bonded with me and dislikes my wife for the most part. However, I have learned to encourage her being with 'mommy' by rewarding her with praise and the occasional treat. She really likes little chopped pieces of papaya. When she bites my wife, I treat her just as if she bit me - she gets placed back on her cage (or in it, depending) for a short time out until she decides to let my wife pick her up. She changes her tone pretty quick.

Remember with a bird, they're a lot smarter than we give them credit for. The cage aggression thing is something we dealt with for a while too, but it seems like after a few months Zelda came to realize that us playing with her toys and food means something good (IE "I'm getting food" or "they are moving my toys to put in a new one"). Try your best not to react too aggressively (IE yelling at the bird). I find that ignoring Zel when she misbehaves speaks volumes to her. You may, for a while, hold her while you mess with her cage or have your husband hold her while you do so. Let her see what's happening and it may change after a while.

Do you know what gender your conure is out of curiosity?

 

[TheLadyV]

Thank you so much...Nova is 12 years old and has nor bee treated the best. She will fly over and be with my hubby and she has a couple of times, came to get o my head and then changed her mind...she is free to be out when ever out rescue cat is out of the house which is a lot. Our other two cats have grown up with Parakeets and could care less about her. She sits on a perch my hubby made her that is attached to her door...so when you open it it becomes a perch.....I want to get her a nice set up for the top of her cage. We just bought her a new, huge cage. and today I bought her one of those cozy houses....it plenty big for her but she doesn't know that's she to get into it yet

 

[MonicaMc]

A "cozy house" could trigger hormones which could make her behavior worse....


It's not recommended to "discipline" parrots, and simply saying "no" isn't helping, either.

http://behaviorworks.org/files/articles/The Facts About Punishment 2001.pdf



This article may be of help....

Addressing Aggressive Behavior - IAATE


I would say that target training and station training would be of great help to her.