Hi everybody,
A while ago I decided to buy a 6 month old pearly conure. At that time my bird was quite nippy and also biting (breaking skin, drawing blood etc). He wasn’t afraid, he just didn’t know what kind of pressure to use. It was quite painful because he would do this every single time you’d have him on your fingers/hand. Any piece of skin was fair game.
See my original post: http://www.parrotforums.com/new-members-welcome/85755-hello-everybody-intro-advice-needed.html
So it’s been two months and I’m now fully able to handle my conure in any way I want, he doesn’t ever break skin (nipping yes, it’s their nature). He has learned tricks, is learning how to say hello and is now shoulder proof. He doesn’t ever bite my ear or even nips it hard. Also he is barely making any sound when we are near.
So I thought, let me share some tips that helped me get to this point:
1) Accept the pain and risk of handling your bird: I was still somewhat nervous of his bites as it would always break skin or draw blood. This made handling him awkward for him and me.
a. Find a way to avoid too much pressure on bites. Earthquaking, blowing, saying no or anything else didn’t work for me. Grabbing his beak very gently nullified the pressure he was able to exert on my skin. This worked for me.
2) Use target training as a way to bond with your bird: I used the abundance of videos about target training and learned him two tricks “say yes” and making a full 360 twirl on command.
a. Use a small stick that is long, but not too long.
b. A clicker worked wonders for me, you can also try an app with clicker sounds.
3) Give it time: Every day my bird changed. Slowly but surely he would make new sounds, be more relaxed around me and before I knew it his first nip didn’t continue into a bite. He just stopped after his nip, that was huge progress!
4) Give him enough attention: I spend about 30-60 minutes 1 on 1 time and he spends about 3-5 hours outside of his cage. He does his thing and I do mine.
a. Sometimes he barely gets any 1 on 1 time or gets outside of his cage. It doesn’t affect him much, just make sure to keep him entertained with toys and foraging stuff.
b. Yes he poops and makes a mess of stuff. So make sure you don’t have expensive stuff nearby that is easily breakable or cannot get dirty.
This last tip is quite a controversial topic in every bird community so hence it comes last.
I’ve clipped my bird his wings. This was needed in my eyes (due to my lack of experience and his general forward, no fear mindset) as this made everything way easier for me.
He changed from being all over the place and just doing what he wanted, to being more dependant on me.
He can still fly about 4 meters diagonally upwards and just flies in general, it just takes way more effect. Yes I will let his flight feathers come back and leave them unclipped. It was just an inbetween step for training purposes.
That’s all I got. This got me so far, now my aim is to reinforce our bond and my handling ways with him. Then it’s off to free flight training maybe?
A while ago I decided to buy a 6 month old pearly conure. At that time my bird was quite nippy and also biting (breaking skin, drawing blood etc). He wasn’t afraid, he just didn’t know what kind of pressure to use. It was quite painful because he would do this every single time you’d have him on your fingers/hand. Any piece of skin was fair game.
See my original post: http://www.parrotforums.com/new-members-welcome/85755-hello-everybody-intro-advice-needed.html
So it’s been two months and I’m now fully able to handle my conure in any way I want, he doesn’t ever break skin (nipping yes, it’s their nature). He has learned tricks, is learning how to say hello and is now shoulder proof. He doesn’t ever bite my ear or even nips it hard. Also he is barely making any sound when we are near.
So I thought, let me share some tips that helped me get to this point:
1) Accept the pain and risk of handling your bird: I was still somewhat nervous of his bites as it would always break skin or draw blood. This made handling him awkward for him and me.
a. Find a way to avoid too much pressure on bites. Earthquaking, blowing, saying no or anything else didn’t work for me. Grabbing his beak very gently nullified the pressure he was able to exert on my skin. This worked for me.
2) Use target training as a way to bond with your bird: I used the abundance of videos about target training and learned him two tricks “say yes” and making a full 360 twirl on command.
a. Use a small stick that is long, but not too long.
b. A clicker worked wonders for me, you can also try an app with clicker sounds.
3) Give it time: Every day my bird changed. Slowly but surely he would make new sounds, be more relaxed around me and before I knew it his first nip didn’t continue into a bite. He just stopped after his nip, that was huge progress!
4) Give him enough attention: I spend about 30-60 minutes 1 on 1 time and he spends about 3-5 hours outside of his cage. He does his thing and I do mine.
a. Sometimes he barely gets any 1 on 1 time or gets outside of his cage. It doesn’t affect him much, just make sure to keep him entertained with toys and foraging stuff.
b. Yes he poops and makes a mess of stuff. So make sure you don’t have expensive stuff nearby that is easily breakable or cannot get dirty.
This last tip is quite a controversial topic in every bird community so hence it comes last.
I’ve clipped my bird his wings. This was needed in my eyes (due to my lack of experience and his general forward, no fear mindset) as this made everything way easier for me.
He changed from being all over the place and just doing what he wanted, to being more dependant on me.
He can still fly about 4 meters diagonally upwards and just flies in general, it just takes way more effect. Yes I will let his flight feathers come back and leave them unclipped. It was just an inbetween step for training purposes.
That’s all I got. This got me so far, now my aim is to reinforce our bond and my handling ways with him. Then it’s off to free flight training maybe?
