Help with a rescue conure.

[LoadedPorpoise]

Hi to anyone who reads this and thank you in advanced.
About 9 months ago, my partners 12 year old sister was given a conure to care for. He? (we are not sure but refer to him as a male) was put in a far too small cage for several months, not cared for beyond food and water, and subjected to torment at the hands of several cats. The cats would sit right next to his cage and watch him, and on a few occasion managed to shove his cage off the cupboard he was on to the floor and broke it to the degree he would escape and be chased by cats around the room. When I moved in with my partner and we had the ability, we rescued him from the situation, bought a cage for him that was appropriately sized and moved him to our room where we keep the door closed from cats. He has been in our care for the last 5 months
He (who we named pickle) now has toys, a small bowl for bathing we refill whenever its needed and plenty of space to explore. We had been making good progress in simple things like hoping onto a stick for sunflower seeds, or standing on a finger for a seed before he runs away but we have had a lot of trouble trying to get him comfortable with our hands and hand tame and we are now at a loss.
We know he loves interraction and attention because he is always being a goofball in his cage to try and make us notice, and we have let him out when we can to try and give him more free time. When he is out, we have let him get back into his cage on his own terms, only once or twice have we had to grab and return him to his cage and on those occassions it was for his own safety.
The biggest problem we have is aggression and noise. We know GCC's are noisy birds, but we cannot have our windows open to try and fight the heat because the moment he hears a bird outside he goes insane, flock calling like he is in mortal danger. Sometimes he will danger call at nothing (that we can identify), but in our very small room it's becoming unbearable.
We also cannot let him out too often around our original pair of cockatiels because he will often be aggressive against them.
I'm making this post because we are at a loss as to what to do, and hoped to get some advice or insight on how we could work with him. Pickle loves our attention and interest, and seems so close to a breakthrough but he has stalled for the last month and we don't know what to do with him. The worrying part is with our small room and his aggression, we are worried we might have to rehome him, which we really don't want to do.
Any and all advice will be immensly appreciated and I will answer any questions I can as soon as I can.
Thank you so much

 

[LoadedPorpoise]

I forgot to mention in the initial post but for the curious, the cockatiels are named Tusta (custard) and Tofu.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

He's cute! He's very lucky you rescued him from that situation.

Is his cage in the same room as the cockatiels? My gcc hates all of my birds except for my other conure and she only tolerates them when they're out together. If she gets bored then she starts annoying them so I have to make sure she has plenty to do and then they can coexist. I do have to tell her off sometimes though and she can be very strong willed so she doesn't always listen. Aggression in conures can be helped by diet and preventing them from getting hormonal. My gcc went from chasing my other birds to eating from the same bowl as them with no aggression but it has taken a year to get her to that point.

 

[LoadedPorpoise]

He's cute! He's very lucky you rescued him from that situation.

Is his cage in the same room as the cockatiels? My gcc hates all of my birds except for my other conure and she only tolerates them when they're out together. If she gets bored then she starts annoying them so I have to make sure she has plenty to do and then they can coexist. I do have to tell her off sometimes though and she can be very strong willed so she doesn't always listen. Aggression in conures can be helped by diet and preventing them from getting hormonal. My gcc went from chasing my other birds to eating from the same bowl as them with no aggression but it has taken a year to get her to that point.

They are in the same room but he doesn't care about any bird that isnt on his cage, but when either of the cockatiels do end up walking on it he goes for the toes with a vengeance. He's been fine outside of the cage too, but when he gets surprised he can be aggressive.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

They are in the same room but he doesn't care about any bird that isnt on his cage, but when either of the cockatiels do end up walking on it he goes for the toes with a vengeance. He's been fine outside of the cage too, but when he gets surprised he can be aggressive.

Sounds like a typical conure! I think I lucked out with my crimson bellied conure as she's a birds bird, and will only attack me but loves the flock. My gcc will attack anyone as she sees fit, regardless of what they are.

It would be nice for him to get on with the tiels but you can't force it unfortunately. Is there a way you can dedicate ten minutes or so per day to him and do some training with him? Teaching him tricks and using puzzle toys for him to get treats out of can be a good way to keep his mind busy and also bond with him.

 

[LoadedPorpoise]

Sounds like a typical conure! I think I lucked out with my crimson bellied conure as she's a birds bird, and will only attack me but loves the flock. My gcc will attack anyone as she sees fit, regardless of what they are.

It would be nice for him to get on with the tiels but you can't force it unfortunately. Is there a way you can dedicate ten minutes or so per day to him and do some training with him? Teaching him tricks and using puzzle toys for him to get treats out of can be a good way to keep his mind busy and also bond with him.

We have been getting in regular daily sessions, sometimes more than once a day of about 15 minutes. The big issue we have is that he has stalled in progress. He does small tricks and hops onto a stick we hold for a sunflower seed but we can never get him to stay. He will even climb onto a finger to get a seed but will never stay on a hand for more than a second.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

We have been getting in regular daily sessions, sometimes more than once a day of about 15 minutes. The big issue we have is that he has stalled in progress. He does small tricks and hops onto a stick we hold for a sunflower seed but we can never get him to stay. He will even climb onto a finger to get a seed but will never stay on a hand for more than a second.

That's really good! Stalling progress is pretty normal in anything that has the capacity to learn. You see it in human children too. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong, it might just mean they need more time to consolidate what they've learnt before they're ready for something new. He might also need more time to get used to you, every bird is different. One of my conures I've had for three years and she will only come to me for treats (only once did she come and sit on me for no reason at all!), whereas my other one always wants to be around me and on me regardless of if I have a treat or not, and I've only had her for a year.

 

[djonair]

I forgot to mention in the initial post but for the curious, the cockatiels are named Tusta (custard) and Tofu.

A lot of the time when birds are really loud they are talking to you to get attention. I was given an Indian Ring neck because she was really loud. I thought she couldn't be louder than my Sun conure and I was wrong. LOL Birds of different species don't normally become best friends. You'll have to keep them separate. Most of time for aggression..it's basically them being territorial. My bird is a sweetheart but do not put your hand in her cage. Even if you are giving her food. I have to distract her every time. She never got along with the Sun or the Quakers.