How do I stop my young conure from biting?

[Madi_renee]

Hello guys! I’m new to owning a conure, I’ve owned birds basically my whole life (cockatiels, lovebirds, budgies) so I have a little bit of understanding with these guys.
I just got a 3 month old Green Cheek from a bird store about 3 days ago. He seems pretty good with hands and fingers being around him, as you can rub his cheeks and he doesn’t really run from your hands. From research, it looks like green cheeks can be nippy, especially when they’re young. I was just wondering if there are certain methods to get him to stop biting. None of the bites seem aggressive, more curious than anything. I can get him to step up with treats pretty good so far and he doesn’t lunge or really want to bite. He basically nibbles your fingers and then starts to gnaw and it’s drawn a good bit of blood on me so far. Something I’ve been trying to do is when he bites, I shake my hand a little as he’s on me and say “no” to get him to stop and he listens for the most part. When he bites from inside his cage or just trying to step up, I grab his beak lightly and also say “no”. This method doesn’t seem to work as much so I’m not really sure what to do.
Just wondering what’s worked for some of you guys and what I can do! Thank you

 

[ravvlet]

Pushing gently into the bite, shunning, and respecting when they’re saying no is what I’ve been doing so far. We also have mouthy conure coming home to us. I would avoid grabbing their beak as they may find that scary and will start to consider your hands dangerous.

 

[clark_conure]

Looks like just a pressure training issue. Look that up there are hundreds of threads on that in the search.

 

[Madi_renee]

Pushing gently into the bite, shunning, and respecting when they’re saying no is what I’ve been doing so far. We also have mouthy conure coming home to us. I would avoid grabbing their beak as they may find that scary and will start to consider your hands dangerous.

He doesn’t seem to find it scary, thankfully, but I’ll keep that in mind. Personally, I think he finds it fun as I don’t hold his beak hard, I lightly grab the side of his beak with my thumb and go along with his bite as I’m saying no. He’s been doing better, just trying to find the right method that works for him

 

[Madi_renee]

Looks like just a pressure training issue. Look that up there are hundreds of threads on that in the search.

I thought so, I’m just new to this whole bite pressure training thing, most the birds I’ve had before have come pretty tame and haven’t minded hands/fingers. I’ll be sure to do more research, thank you!

 

[onamom]

I think using a word consistently each time you want them to stop it good - I use "gentle" but "no" works too. Another thing that worked for me was making a sharp "Shh!" noise and then saying "gentle" after. The "ssh" helped to get her attention when she was ignoring "gentle".

 

[ravvlet]

Oh yeah, I have been using gentle too! Also, praise the crap out of them when they’ve used good bite pressure! Exploring you with their beak is natural and you don’t want to discourage that, they just need to learn what is an appropriate bite pressure to use!

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

I think using a word consistently each time you want them to stop it good - I use "gentle" but "no" works too. Another thing that worked for me was making a sharp "Shh!" noise and then saying "gentle" after. The "ssh" helped to get her attention when she was ignoring "gentle".

This is pretty much exactly what I did with my rescue conure. I got her at 6 months old and she was very curious and would bite quite hard. I did almost exactly this and now she's so gentle with me and only bites if I'm annoying her (which I don't do often, but sometimes I'll do something she doesn't like accidently and she'll let me know).

 

[wrench13]

Biting, whether intentional or not, just over preening your skin or actually taking chunks of meat out - all are PAINFULL! In the wild that sort of behavior is not tolerated by the flock. They ostracize flock members who continue to act like that. We call it 'Shunning'. This WILL work, but needs to be done correctly to get the message across and it needs to be done IMMEDIATELY so the parrot can associate the bite with the shunning action. And it needs to happen every time and with anyone involved with the parrot.

When the bite or over preening occurs:

• Say in a forceful but not shouting voice "No Bite" or other endearments.
• Immediately place the parrot on a nearby, handy chairback. NOT the cage (that would only teach the parrot to bite when he wants to go back to his cage).
• Turn your back to him and ignore him for 1 minute. No peeking, no talking about or too him, NADA. NO eye contact. No less or the message is lost, no more or the bird will not associate the action with the bite.
• After a minute you can try to re-establish contact.

Rinse, repeat as needed. Most parrots get the message after a few times, some may need more. Also very important - make sure the bite is not your fault. Annoying your parrot, asking him to step up when he is otherwise preoccupied with eating or playing, bothering him during known moody times like mating season, or ignoring the warnings and body language of your parrot - these are bites that you deserve! Learn, and be a better parront !!