I need advice!

[vuqla]

Hello! I live in the middle east where breeding animals or taking care of them isn't very important to pet store owners. I bought a 5 month old conure a few days ago. The bird is clearly not used to any kind of human touch. I let it stay in the cage in my room for 2 days to get used to me & I didn't try to touch it or anything. When I walk near the cage the bird flinches & moves away but when I opened the cage to put food it didn't move at all.

I'm very confused about what to do & how to make my bird get closer to me. It plays with the toys I got for it & it loves to make noise but as soon as I'm around it, it feels a little scared. I can't simply take it out of the cage because it won't go out anyway & I don't want to grab it & make the trust a lot harder to gain. In addition, it won't eat out of my hand or anything.

Also, the first 2 nights the bird slept at 7/8pm but it's still up at 12 am right now. I tried to keep the light on, then I turned the lights off & turned on a lamp, then turned off everything & when it's dark the bird still stays awake.

How do I deal with this situation? Do I give the bird a few more days? I have no idea what to do.
edit: this is my first ever bird so any kind of advice would help.

 

[Ira7]

You’ve only had the bird a few days! You have to give him time!

From what you describe, I think he’s going to eventually be great. And don’t worry about sleeping schedule for now. Some might say cover the cage, but for him getting used to you and a new environment, I disagree.

And please keep him/his cage in as much visual contact with you as possible, so you’re always “there” for him.

 

[Laurasea]

Welcome to the forum!! Congratulations on your new one.

It can take time to build trust. Think days weeks....

https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/bird-behavior/

 

[Scott]

Welcome to you and your new conure! Parrots have no natural reason to trust humans, nor are they domesticated as are dogs, and to some degree, cats. The good news is conures are one of the best loved species for their companionship. Please read our trust/bonding thread, lots of ideas for you to begin the process: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

Let us know if you have any other questions, such as diet, health, etc!

 

[JerryNewt]

Copy paste as it seems appropriate for this topic as well:

I've acquired a 2nd GCC which was parent-raised as well and they have a different perception of us than hand-raised GCC.

This worked for me, but it could also work for you:

1) Start by having him accept you near his cage. Make sure that you do this calm and slow, without a lot of background noise.
2) Once he accepts your presence, you can start your bonding with him through food. Find out when you push him (and he runs away) and use that as your starting point. In your case this means with the cage still closed. Treat him to his favorite snack via a stick or with your hand if he is comfortable with that.
3) If the cage can be open after a while, keep repeating step 2 untill he doesn't mind eating out of your hand.
4) Once used to your hands, you can now finally go for bigger steps. Let him do practice stuff like stepping or up following your hand for a treat. You need to decide what works for your bird. Stepping up is a huge deal for some GCC and not so much for others.
5) let him out of the cage and be VERY calm if he gets nervous. Don't move untill he is calm and then slowly move your body back untill he is fine with it. Keep doing this untill he doesn't mind you near him and then keep treating him to his snacks as a reward.

Big tip on getting him BACK into his cage without the good ol' forcing him into it and thus destroying any progess: don't let him eat for a while before letting him out. Once you're done with your training, put his feeding cup back into the cage and make sure he sees it. Once he does, he will follow his food back into the cage freely.

6) from this point, follow any kind of youtube video on training and bonding and you're set.


If he bites, he bites. Don't fear it or the possibility or bleeding. I grab the beak of both my GCC and they don't mind. They're used to it and it helps them both realize when they bite too hard. Just DON'T push pressure on the beak (this will hurt).

Take your time with it, dedicate hours of attention to your bird and all will be fine.

Like one said before, make sure he always sees you near him, saves some weeks/months of time.

 

[noodles123]

It's good that he likes his toys so far! Give him more time-- do everything at the bird's pace (no matter how long it seems to be taking). You want to make sure you are associated with low stress/positive things only for now. This means that you may need to just sit in the room from a far and read from a book/go about your routine. I would not advise keeping a bird in your bedroom if you can help it. They are social animals and they should be in the part of the house where people tend to spend most of their time (excluding the kitchen).

If you approaching makes him nervous, don't get so close. Obviously you shouldn't pamper him to the point of walking on eggshells, BUT, do try to respect his fear and build trust by showing him that you understand. Don't try to force him to eat from your hand until you can approach the cage without him being scared--just let him see you put a favorite treat in his dish if he doesn't want to take things from you (don't keep trying if he hesitates, as that hesitation means it is stressing him out to have your hand there). Don't push him to do anything if you sense hesitation and read up on parrot body language for your species (you will get a better idea as yours adjusts to the new environment, but that can be a good starting point, even if it does vary some among individuals).



Another thing to remember-- reaching into the cage can upset some birds, as can unfamiliar toys. A lot of people think, "I got a new toy for you! yayyy!! This will make you so happy!" while the bird may be thinking, "what the heck is this monster you just shoved into my safe space??!"---depends on the bird, but it's something to remember whenever you have to mess with anything in his cage.


They move really slowly compared to cats/dogs and they are very sensitive to change etc. My adopted parrot wouldn't step up for 3 months and she already knew how when I got her.

You never want to force them to do anything unless it's an emergency/safety issue. Don't ever push on your bird's chest to get it to step up, don't try to touch if the bird seems scared or aggressive, don't give opportunities for biting by reading body language.

It will probably take a few weeks to a month before you see significant changes. This is normal-- do not give up. Please note- I am not telling you to leave your bird alone in a room because he is scared of people. That is not what I mean at all.

Think about it this way. You have a "trust" bank with this bird (picture a piggy bank with the word "trust" across the front). Whenever you do something positive (from the bird's perspective---***not yours***) then you add a coin to that bank. Whenever you stress the bird out or scare it, a coin gets removed. Trying to push a bird to step up, causing fear/stress through proximity etc also removes a coin. If you take out 2 coins and you had none to begin with, then you are in trust debt. That means you have to be extra trustworthy/non-scary to earn back the 2 coins of trust that you lost. The goal is to stay out of debt and create some savings lol. Also, know that certain things, like toweling a bird or injuring a bird by mistake etc can remove more than one coin from the bank.

I am not sure if that helps, but read your bird's cues and respect those. Try to find out the things it REALLY likes and find ways to associate your presence with those things (without forcing the bird out of its comfort zone).


Make a real effort to spend time lots of time with your bird-- even if that just means being in the same room....but again, respect your bird's fear. Early on, time with your bird does not have to mean getting in his face/personal space. As humans, we know that our intentions are good and that we just want the best for our babies, but the bird doesn't see it that way, so think of it as a traumatized animal. Your bird is in a very unnatural environment with a very high level of intelligence and has just lost it's flock. This takes time.


Another thing that helps is to talk about what you are doing as you do it. For instance, as you unload the dishwasher, say, "I'm unloading the dishwasher"...Label objects and activities as you do them. It helps build their vocabulary, gets them used to the sound of your voice and also helps with fear long-term because they begin to recognize that certain terms match certain actions, so they can tell what is coming/anticipate better in the future (which reduces fear in general in the long run).


I would suggest that you avoid doing any activities that could really scare your bird during the first week or so--- like, I wouldn't run the vacuum until your bird knows you better-- it may still scare him/her when you eventually have to, but you still should be working to establish an association between yourself and non-scary/positive/low-stress situations.

 

[noodles123]

This is not something everyone is comfortable with, but IF it can be done safely, once he is a little less nervous in your home, you might consider letting him out by opening his door and allowing him to enter/exit as he pleases. The thing is, you don't want him slamming into things if he is startled and you don't want to have to towel him or force a step-up before he is ready. If you do this, I would suggest covering any mirrors and windows (so that he doesn't fly into them by mistake), shutting off a space, blocking off any high-hiding places, turning off fans and shutting windows etc. The goal would be for him to eventually go back into his cage on his own, but it can be a waiting game and it is not 100% without risk, so you would only want to try this if you have a long time to wait, and preferably, only once she seems fairly comfortable in his cage. If he exits and just chills on the cage top, leave him alone and just keep doing whatever you were doing (don't decide to move furniture or sweep during this time--- you don't want to cause him to fly if he can). It is important to not create a cage-bound bird, but you also don't want to be in a situation where you have to catch him etc-- which is why waiting for tour bird to go back on his own is important (as is not locking him up as soon as he enters). There is always some risk (definitely tell everyone in your home if you decide to do this, because you want to make sure that he isn't startled and that someone doesn't open a door or something in the middle of it).



Sometimes, if they leave and do not return, putting the cage in a well-lit area (while dimming the other lights) can help. When I have done this, I have waited until around dinner time (because a bird is more likely to go back in to eat if hungry, and in the evening, they are programmed to roost in their homes anyway). It doesn't always work, and sometimes you can end up in a stressful situation with a bird that resists returning (even though it needs to eat for safety) BUT, that hasn't happened to me yet. To reiterate, touching/catching/toweling an unwilling bird will set you back, which is why you should only catch/towel/force as a VERY VERY last resort (in the event that the bird is in danger etc)...Otherwise, you need to wait it out.




***ANOTHER THING TO NOTE: DO NOT FORCE YOUR BIRD TO LEAVE ITS CAGE- if the door is open for hours and he/she doesn't leave, that is fine. You can start again when you have time the next day, AND IF YOUR BIRD DOES LEAVE HIS CAGE, try not to shut the door on him the second he goes back in!!*** You want to make it so that going into the cage doesn't mean STAYING in the cage. I am not saying you can never shut the door on him, but the first few times, try not to shut it right away because you don't want him to associate going into the cage with getting locked up for 8 hours.