Help ---

[Maryann12130]

My sun conure will not let me touch her. She bites me all the time. She is only 4 months old and I got her 1 month ago. Either her wings were clipped or she is younger than I know. She can't fly too well. The only time I can touch her is when she needs help getting back into the cage. How do I get this beautiful little baby to be friendly???
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Maryann

 

[itzjbean]

It's not so much getting her to be friendly you should be worried about, but building a trust-bond with her!

Understand that parrots are not as domesticated as dogs. They tend to be prideful animals that quickly learn that biting gets them what they want or don't want. It sounds like you have not developed your trust bond with her enough and you are forcing her to step up and making her do things she does not want to do. Understand that you cannot force this relationship to happen overnight. Some parrots require time to get to know their new environment and people. Even weeks, months.

Instead of forcing her, you need to back up. Back way up.

Are you attempting to train her? All parrots should be trained with POSITIVE REENFORCEMENT training. This means rewarding the parrot when they do something you like. Have you found a treat she likes? You should start your training and bonding experience in the cage to give you more control of where she is. You need to get her used to you and you want her to approach you. You can start by being in the room with her while she's in the cage.

When you approach her, what does she do? Try to get away, lunge and try to bite?

You want her to approach you on her own terms, and that will take patience, time and treats! Most parrots have a favorite treat. You'll want to use the treat to entice her over to you in the cage, and when she does approach, give her the treat and praise.

You should continue this training, depending on how comfortable with she is in your presence, and you eventually should be training her step-up (inside the cage first, using treats to entice her), bite-pressure training (when she will step-up for you every time), and flight recall to make her a stronger flier and so she will be able to fly to you when you need her to. Also a great thing to add in training is target training. Making her touch a target and then rewarded with treats.

Eventually your trust bond should grow enough so that she will want to be with you while out of the cage. It is important that you do not rush her, and listen to her body language! Don't force her to step up, don't grab her, the key to preventing biting is to figure out why the biting is happening in the first place and to prevent it by not putting yourself in the situation gain. Remember, it is never the fault of the bird!!

I hope this has been helpful to you. Good luck with your new sun, patience, love and consistency is key!

 

[T00tsyd]

It sounds like you are expecting too much too soon. When I got my little green cheek I had to wait for him to lead the way. It can take weeks to gain their trust after all you are a stranger that just might want to eat her or hurt her some way. She doesn't know you enough to trust you. I found each time I wore a different colour in the early days he thought I wasn't me and we had to start all over again.

Now I have had him about 8 months and today I changed his bath having had it standing on the side for a couple of days unused. You would have thought I was about to kill him. It was only when I produced his old one that he settled to having a douse in it. They are naturally very wary but the joy when suddenly they look at you with that expression that says 'ok I like you'.

She is very young still and learning about everything. She can only find out by using her mouth like any young child. As yet she doesn't realise that it hurts if she bites too hard so look up pressure training. However first you just need her to see you as a friend so make every experience a positive one. She is probably still learning how to steer with those wings since she is still a baby. My little one was clipped when I got him and has now got a full set of feathers at last and boy he's practising all sorts of manoeuvres that he hasn't tried before. Suddenly he has had a jet engine installed!

So be very patient - it will pay off in the end - baby steps which to you might seem like nothing then one day you will suddenly see that you are a pair. Good luck! Keep asking questions - that's how I learned!

 

[GaleriaGila]

I feel your pain.
GREAT advice above.
I have reduced biting to almost zero over the decades... not because I've changed the bird, but I have changed me. And a lot of that has involved giving up on a lot of my desires/expectations. After years of battle, I surrendered. I don't do stuff that gets me bitten. I don't scratch his head much, ever... tail is okay. I NEVER do stuff that makes him mad... I don't touch others when he's out; I rarely try to get him to step up onto my hand first. Hand-held perch first, then hand. In some ways, I swallow my disappointment at having such a little monster for a pet, but he is what he is. I ALWAYS wear my hair down when he's on my shoulder, so all he can bite is hair. Really, I don't involve hands much... he doesn't like them. He seems to think the real ME is my head, perched on a weird moveable tree with questionable appendages.
Since he's fully flighted, the ONLY way I get him into the cage is to toss a chile pepper in and he flaps in after it. So food reward is a necessity for me. Time-out doesn't exist in the Rb's kingdom.
But please... listen to and try all the good advice you'll get here. Don't surrender until you know you've done your best. Then just accept and love whatever/whoever your bird turns out to be.
My darling is kind of a worse-case scenario, but we have it all worked out between the two of us.
Very, very best of luck to you.
Good for you for reaching out!
Oh, and... every now and then, he breaks up with me. Gets mad for no apparent reason and won't come to me, won't call my name, won't even look at me. It can last days or weeks. Then he gets over it and takes me back. Little monster.
But he's a beautiful, wonderful half-wild, amazing parrot, alive and living in my home. Sometimes that just has to be miracle enough. He'll be with me as long as I am alive. I hope you can find a way to offer your little wild-thing the same.
Hang in there!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Scott]

Welcome to the forums, Maryann! Your issues are very common and can be managed or improved with time and plenty of effort.

As prey creatures (preyed upon by other animals) they have learned to defend or escape threats. There are many ways to build trust and bond closely, some described here: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

Bite pressure training here: http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

 

[Sunnyclover]

Birds are not like dogs...they prefer a loooong engagement not just to pop down to Vegas, if you catch my drift. All my fellow bird owners give solid advice. My tip is that a Sun Conure is not a bird you can just try to interact with every few days, you should be trying to engage her daily, multiple hours a day. For instance, my bird Ollie is very very tame and trusting but if I didn't interact with him for one whole day but I walked by his cage and didn't talk to him or take him out he would actually most likely turn a tad bit untamed and be really really mad at me. Perhaps you're not putting enough time I to taming her? Also, is she parent or hand raised? Could be a factor.

 

[LordTriggs]

take a step back and breath for a moment. Try approaching things from her point of view, imagine being taken as a child from your family into a strange home with something you're programmed to think is going to eat you keeps poking and prodding you. Pretty scary right?

Sit down next to her in the cage and talk. Read through this thread http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html and let it sink in. Instead of making her be friendly, allow her to decide you're a friend, treat bribes are often a pretty good way of doing so, they're open to bribery (should be politicians) I started like you trying to make my conure like me and he was having none of it, then the moment I let him choose he fluttered over and that was it for his taming

 

[Maryann12130]

Thanks to all of you for your great feedback. Owner said she was a hand fed 3 month old baby. Not sure I believe her as she had to use a towel to grab the bird and put her in the carrying case. I have read to yell at her "No" or "No Bite" and then I read not to yell as the birds like the attention. I do talk to her all day long and am not trying to train her to do tricks or even step up.
Time and love is all I can do. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Try target training and clicker training maybe to get you started?

 

[Inger]

Thanks to all of you for your great feedback. Owner said she was a hand fed 3 month old baby. Not sure I believe her as she had to use a towel to grab the bird and put her in the carrying case. I have read to yell at her "No" or "No Bite" and then I read not to yell as the birds like the attention. I do talk to her all day long and am not trying to train her to do tricks or even step up.
Time and love is all I can do. Thanks again for the help.

“Hand fed” and “tame” aren’t the same thing. All of the above advice is solid. Follow it and in time you’ll have the relationship you want!


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