Hello all, thank you in advance for any information you can give me as I have tried to do a lot of research and I can not seem to come to a particularly good information or method in my case for my bird. My case is rather embarrassing and complicated and I am trying to do right by it now. I have a 20 year old sun conure that has recently, like a month ago, become mine now that my dad can no longer take care of her.
We got her when she was almost a year old and unfortunately she came to us already abused and traumatized by the small shop owners who would reach into the cage and grab the birds with a glove (this store went out of business shortly after). Because of this, from the start of having her, she was aggressive and untrusting toward hands. However, my dad had made it his mission to get her to say "pretty bird" as as he was the first one up in the morning, he would talk to her (saying "pretty bird pretty bird" to her over and over) and feed her so she bonded with him. I was a child at the time and could not understand or handle a bird, so she never had any bond to me even though she has known me for so long. After bonding with my dad, she especially became more aggressive toward me and my mom and would not even let us change her water or food. For the past year now my dad's dementia has now been getting worse and I have moved back in with him to take care of him and the pets, my mom is out of the picture now.
Now for the more embarrassing part, even though my dad provided our Sun Conure (Serena) with everything she needed for thriving in her cage, he never did socialize her well or get her out much except for once in a while and she has become a very cage bound bird. So I do have to admit my parents were not the best bird owners and she has been a neglected bird with not being socialized and probably bored, and I feel terrible about it. My dad was also told to feed her this one particular sun conure mix diet of seeds we get from a bird farm close to us, and now since I am taking over her care and have done more research than we were ever previously informed, I did not know she needed a way more balanced diet. I have since started trying to feed her some more veggies and grains and fruits (and now starting pellets) by mixing it in with her seed but she does not seem to touch anything except the seeds and will forage around in the mix just for the seeds. If I only give her the mix of a sun conure recipe I found on another forum, she does not touch it at all.
She is extremely cage bound and I have been doing everything I can to show her that my hands are not threats but she does not at all trust hands. So it is not like she does not know me exactly as I have always been around the house and throughout her life interacted with her many times and never in a negative way (mostly she would just be on my shoulder for a few minutes while my dad cleaned her cage, but then my dad would take her back), but she just still has such anger and aggression toward me. When she is out of her cage she does not have aggression and just is more wary of everything and wants to do whatever she can to fly back to her cage if possible. I have had my dad help take her into another room and I was even able to give her head pets and had her on my hands a few time, but she entirely just wants to stay on my shoulder. The primary problem, however, is still getting her out of the cage and the aggression and anger she shows me while she is in her cage.
However, I have had some progress in the last month of trying to gain her trust as she no longer attempts to absolutely murder me when I change out her food and water and I can open her cage and put my hand just outside while it is open it to try to see if she will come to me without her directly going to attack me. I also can now offer her food that she sorta takes out of my hands... except she doesn't eat it. I give her longer things (because otherwise she bites my fingers) like apple or bell pepper strips and she will bite it, throw it out and away and then aggressively take another bite of the food and throw that away too. She is not necessarily afraid of me, more afraid to come out of her cage and just angry and aggressive toward me, but when she is out of her cage and not within any sight of it she calms way down. I don't know when or how I would be able to target train her because she does not seem to want or accept any treats I give her, she just grabs and spits it out.
I know it is not very long that I have been trying to regain her trust and I still have a long way to go and I will continue to try to do it, I just wanted to check in with you all if I can do or should do anything else. I feel bad that she has not gotten what she should have had all these years to have a happy and fulfilling life and I am trying to do what I can to make however much time she has left much better for her and would really appreciate if anyone can help offer me some guidance for my case. Thank you all.
We got her when she was almost a year old and unfortunately she came to us already abused and traumatized by the small shop owners who would reach into the cage and grab the birds with a glove (this store went out of business shortly after). Because of this, from the start of having her, she was aggressive and untrusting toward hands. However, my dad had made it his mission to get her to say "pretty bird" as as he was the first one up in the morning, he would talk to her (saying "pretty bird pretty bird" to her over and over) and feed her so she bonded with him. I was a child at the time and could not understand or handle a bird, so she never had any bond to me even though she has known me for so long. After bonding with my dad, she especially became more aggressive toward me and my mom and would not even let us change her water or food. For the past year now my dad's dementia has now been getting worse and I have moved back in with him to take care of him and the pets, my mom is out of the picture now.
Now for the more embarrassing part, even though my dad provided our Sun Conure (Serena) with everything she needed for thriving in her cage, he never did socialize her well or get her out much except for once in a while and she has become a very cage bound bird. So I do have to admit my parents were not the best bird owners and she has been a neglected bird with not being socialized and probably bored, and I feel terrible about it. My dad was also told to feed her this one particular sun conure mix diet of seeds we get from a bird farm close to us, and now since I am taking over her care and have done more research than we were ever previously informed, I did not know she needed a way more balanced diet. I have since started trying to feed her some more veggies and grains and fruits (and now starting pellets) by mixing it in with her seed but she does not seem to touch anything except the seeds and will forage around in the mix just for the seeds. If I only give her the mix of a sun conure recipe I found on another forum, she does not touch it at all.
She is extremely cage bound and I have been doing everything I can to show her that my hands are not threats but she does not at all trust hands. So it is not like she does not know me exactly as I have always been around the house and throughout her life interacted with her many times and never in a negative way (mostly she would just be on my shoulder for a few minutes while my dad cleaned her cage, but then my dad would take her back), but she just still has such anger and aggression toward me. When she is out of her cage she does not have aggression and just is more wary of everything and wants to do whatever she can to fly back to her cage if possible. I have had my dad help take her into another room and I was even able to give her head pets and had her on my hands a few time, but she entirely just wants to stay on my shoulder. The primary problem, however, is still getting her out of the cage and the aggression and anger she shows me while she is in her cage.
However, I have had some progress in the last month of trying to gain her trust as she no longer attempts to absolutely murder me when I change out her food and water and I can open her cage and put my hand just outside while it is open it to try to see if she will come to me without her directly going to attack me. I also can now offer her food that she sorta takes out of my hands... except she doesn't eat it. I give her longer things (because otherwise she bites my fingers) like apple or bell pepper strips and she will bite it, throw it out and away and then aggressively take another bite of the food and throw that away too. She is not necessarily afraid of me, more afraid to come out of her cage and just angry and aggressive toward me, but when she is out of her cage and not within any sight of it she calms way down. I don't know when or how I would be able to target train her because she does not seem to want or accept any treats I give her, she just grabs and spits it out.
I know it is not very long that I have been trying to regain her trust and I still have a long way to go and I will continue to try to do it, I just wanted to check in with you all if I can do or should do anything else. I feel bad that she has not gotten what she should have had all these years to have a happy and fulfilling life and I am trying to do what I can to make however much time she has left much better for her and would really appreciate if anyone can help offer me some guidance for my case. Thank you all.
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