Jhin is actreally weird.

[rlgilly]

Hi, we are new to the community. I'm Rhonda and my Jenday Conure is Jhin. I call Jhin a she but have not had her tested for gender yet. A bit of history. Jhin was hatched September 4th 2012, hand raised and then sent to a prominent pet store chain in December of 2012 where she was put in a glass cage and chased with a huge towel any time someone wanted to see her. In February of 2013 my son took me to the pet store and offered to buy her for me. When I asked to handle her they said sure and proceeded to catch her with a huge white towel chasing her around for about 3 minutes until she was caught. That's when I decided no matter what she was like she wasn't going back in that torture chamber. no one had worked with her. As I tried to calm her down she bit me a couple times and I just let her bite knowing she wasn't trying to hurt me she was just scared.
Since then she has lived in my room (I'm disabled and mostly in bed)next to my side of the bed with her door open to have access to the whole room. We don't let our cats in the room, and the only dogs allowed in are the ones who show no interest in her. I tried working with her for the first few months but she showed no signs of wanting to be worked with and figured it wasn't worth our friendship to force hand taming on her at that point.
Over time she has become less agitated and more friendly. Never quite trusting enough to allow me to reach into her cage and bring her out. Although she is learning to step up when out of her cage and roaming around.
I have had her now for 4 years and just in the last three days she has become so attentive and clingy its really funny. Maybe I should be stopping some of the things she's doing but not sure what her actions are saying.
Some of what she is doing: while I'm laying down she will crawl on my back and it feels like she is grooming my hair then most times climbs up to stand on my head (I take her down and put her on her cage at that point). If I'm on my side she snuggles into my shoulder/neck area, turns her head sideways and rubs her cheek on mine, sometimes falling asleep with me there. Then she will walk up the side of my face and groom my eyelashes and eyebrows very carefully, and rub her beak on my cheekbones and eye ridges and nose. This morning I woke up to her snuggled against my wrist taking each finger in her beak completely and shaking her head vigorously (like she's trying to feed babies is all I could think). This is day four of these actions and she has not bitten me once, and is only grabbing when I try to get her to step up. (Which is also a new behavior, as I normally get bit with her drawing blood most times, breaking skin).
I was hoping some of you could tell me possibly what is going on in her mind. I love her dearly and don't want to discourage her new loving behavior, but also do not want to encourage negative behavior or dominance behavior. The first day of her snuggling and loving I almost cried. It was so sweet and just what I had been hoping to happen with us for the last 4 years.

 

[gracebowen]

I dont have much advice and I am still trying to figure out my conure Jade. The only concerning thing I see in your post is she has free roam while you are sleeping.

I suggest closing the cage at night so you dont accidentally roll over on her while sleeping and kill her. It has happened.

My thread is titled bad at titles but need advice.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, mannnnnnnnnnnnnn, I'm gonna try really hard not to be a HATER. lol
Naw... congrats!
You two are in love!
Your darling is already better-behaved than my little rooster.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful story.
I have a lot of physical challenges, too, and there's nothing like a parrot companion to make our hearts fly, right?

 

[BoomBoom]

Thank you for being so patient with her! It also makes me sad to see parrots in those glass cages at Petsmart or Petco. Often, I go to the locations without them just so I won't see the poor birds. It especially sucks when they are sun or jenday conures because it reminds me so much of Boomer, my sun conure.

Great job on progressing your relationship! My only advice (as mentioned in a post above me), is to please be careful when napping with your bird. You wouldn't want an accident to happen. They are so delicate that even an arm going down on them can literally crush their bones. Truthfully though, I have done it in the past so I totally understand how it can happen. I fell asleep on the bed and couch with Boomer perched on my head, once because I was watching a movie, the other I was waiting for my game to download. I'm the kind of person who never moves in their sleep. Still very risky though. I've been lucky because nothing happened, but it's something I definitely try to avoid.

Best of luck and I hope Jhin continues to blossom into a fine little Jenday, day by day!

 

[SailBoat]

Welcome to the World of being 'Loved By A Parrot' and sounds like you are well underway to being 'Owned By A Parrot!'

 

[rlgilly]

Thank you all for your replies. As for my sleeping with her on my shoulder, I'm a large person and don't move much while sleeping, at night she does go to her cage and perch next to me. Hubby opens the cage when he gets up in the mornings and it hasn't been until the last few days that she has actually started snuggling. I will take your advise about closing the cage when napping, but sometimes I don't know I will be napping till I wake up.

I am so happy that my worries on everything else were not major ones. I had hoped she was acting in a loving manner. Maybe she is old enough now that if she is female she will lay an egg? that way I will know for sure.

I have tons of patience and can only hope that in the near future she will allow me to handle her more (stroking and scritching where she likes) and be able to have her ride my shoulder when the cats are outside during the summer.

 

[rlgilly]

Welcome to the World of being 'Loved By A Parrot' and sounds like you are well underway to being 'Owned By A Parrot!'

I think she already "owns" many of us. When any one comes into the room they have to pass her cage and she vocally demands that the "Toll" be paid. I started giving her a couple sunflower seeds (not salted, specifically for birds) when I passed her cage going in and out of the room. Now she demands the seeds from every one! It is so funny, my granddaughter likes to run in and out, when she is visiting, just so she can give Jhin seeds.

 

[rlgilly]

Update on Jhin’s actions. She has continued to love on me each day and has gotten more insistent on being right with me. Now she’s added a new action. She will stand next to my arm, and rub her head up and down my arm sometimes slow sometimes extremely fast. Then she will put her foot on my arm and turn her tail to rub her vent on my arm. I move my arm when she does this. Is this a male move or a female move? I’m quite sure her actions are due to “spring in the air”. Wondering if I need to refer to Jhin as a he?
How long will it take this behavior to calm down? I love the attention but this is constant unless I put her in her cage and lock the door.