New conure owner saying hi!

[Leaf]

Hey, everyone. Ran into the parrot forums many times over the past week while doing research on conures. You guys seem like a nice bunch, so I figured I'd pop in and say hi.

Meet Auri, my new 3.5-month-old pineapple conure.


(From her first night in my apartment.)

We're on our third day together!

She's ... actually quite outgoing, or perhaps just extremely curious. When I'm a good distance from the cage, she shadows me around its perimeter, and she always seems to be watching closely whenever I'm doing something nearby. I've had hamsters, parakeets, dogs, even rats in the past (rats so far being the easiest combination of friendliness and intelligence), and I'm pretty impressed by how much attention this conure apparently pays me.

So I really have done tons of reading, both articles and posts from individuals detailing their own experiences as new conure owners, and I noticed a trend: bird seems pleasant enough at breeder or store, but starts biting once they're situated in their new home. (I'm extremely sure that this is because prey birds aren't inclined to act aggressively in new situations, because they usually lose fights against bigger creatures out to eat them.) Auri was no different! She seemed outgoing enough the first day, kind of pondering me through the bars of the cage, so I gave into temptation and brought her out. It doesn't take much work to get her out of the cage. She's apparently been conditioned to step up, and does so as long as you stick a finger in front of her legs. That's when the biting started - curious nibbles at first, to which I didn't react, and escalating over a couple seconds into a really hard chew. Ow! And still I didn't react.

A couple more times of this, and I figured I was doing something wrong.

1) I'm a totally new creature to her, so she might not realize my hands are .... real things.

2) By not reacting, I might be conditioning her to think biting is a neutral act, to me. But if *she* enjoys the act of chewing, then she will do so thinking that my response will be completely neutral.

So it got to the point that every time I went to step up, she would chew on the finger, and then step up. I tried pulling away a few times. Definitely did not work, as expected. Then I tried *very slowly* pushing the finger toward her as it was getting chewed. Better, then, because this actually caused her to loosen her grip and focus on re-balancing on the perching finger, but this didn't seem to solve the root problem of recognizing that fingers weren't for chewing. I then got an idea.

I had on an oversize, overworn grey shirt, and scooped her in my lap, making kind of a hammock (she really seemed to be content with this), and waddled over to my piano. Making sure she had a clear view of the keys and my fingers, I played. Pachelbel's Canon - my own little variation.

She was totally mesmerized! And she closely watched my fingers moving across the keyboard. I played for just over a minute, and went back to try to get her to re-perch ........

SHE DID NOT CHEW. She beaked curiously, gave a lick, and stepped up! As if she had a newfound respect for hands! Oh man, I can't describe the relief. Since then, she has not bitten. Not even once. Not even the one time the 2nd day I felt like testing her and shoved my fingers in front of her as she was inching away on the perch. Just a curious touch with the beak, a quick squeeze to express that she was annoyed, and, that's it. She knows my boundaries, and I know hers. Really cool, because I have not reached this kind of communication and boundary-setting sort of relationship with other different kinds of pets in the past. I've been playing piano for her on occasion since then. Just earlier, she hopped from the lap onto the forearm to get a better look at the fingers as they played!

As I said, she's rather outgoing (or very curious). Starting the second night, she's been acting like she really wants to get out of the cage. Kind of paces on her perch, squishes herself against the front of the cage, staring at me... this last one actually continued for so long at one point that she fell asleep:


(I wanted to melt.)

But, yeah, 2nd day, whenever I responded and opened the cage and invited her out, she would just shy away slightly. Then I'd move away and she'd be back to following me around from within the cage or plastering herself on the bars at me. So weird. Now I just leave the cage door open whenever I'm home. And she's getting more and more easygoing (not shying away when I get really close or even stick a hand in there, etc) as a result. Today I was able to actually hand her a NutriBerry while she was playing on her toy:



And she let me pet her as she was eating her Zupreem on her bowl just earlier.

Birds are great!

 

[damir]

Very cute!! Very nice!! Welcome

 

[GaleriaGila]

I love your energy and openness. You've really educated yourself, and you also seem to have a real knack for relating to birds! Congratulations, and welcome!

 

[damir]

Which cage do you have? Would you mind sharing the model / size.

I am looking into purchasing new (big) cage, once we move to new place (in few days).

Your cage seems to be very nice.

Thank you!

 

[Flboy]

Welcome, beautiful baby! I swear she is smiling!

 

[Leaf]

Which cage do you have? Would you mind sharing the model / size.

I am looking into purchasing new (big) cage, once we move to new place (in few days).

Your cage seems to be very nice.

Thank you!

Definitely quite happy with it. It's the perfect size for her as a young conure, though I do plan on going up to the next size within the next couple years.

I ordered mine from Amazon as a Prime member. There currently is a $30-off coupon available:

https://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Products-Wrought-Hammertone-3151BLK/dp/B000FRV3M2/

and there's a youtube video by Manda & Rio that reviews the cage in detail-

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJ098UJqM8"]prevue cage review UPDATED and which cage for which bird - YouTube[/ame]

Hope this helps!

 

[Terry57]

Hello and welcome! Auri is beautiful and with a beautiful name to match
I am really happy you joined us and I loved your intro. I look forward to hearing more about Auri

 

[damir]

Which cage do you have? Would you mind sharing the model / size.

I am looking into purchasing new (big) cage, once we move to new place (in few days).

Your cage seems to be very nice.

Thank you!

Definitely quite happy with it. It's the perfect size for her as a young conure, though I do plan on going up to the next size within the next couple years.

I ordered mine from Amazon as a Prime member. There currently is a $30-off coupon available:

https://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Products-Wrought-Hammertone-3151BLK/dp/B000FRV3M2/

and there's a youtube video by Manda & Rio that reviews the cage in detail-

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJ098UJqM8"]prevue cage review UPDATED and which cage for which bird - YouTube[/ame]

Hope this helps!

big thanks

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Auri is adorable and I love the name!

 

[Leaf]

Oh, and thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. I appreciate all the kind words, and I'm sure Auri would, too

Birds have always been my favorite type of animal, and I've been in chance contact with many birds since I was young, from mourning dove infants I've chanced across during hikes:



to fledgling white throated swifts that fly into freeway overpasses and need a place to crash for the night while they recover:



Only made sense to finally get a pet bird

I do plan to stick around and post about Auri on occasion! For now, here's a video to commemorate our third night:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRErQ-M0j5o"]New conure shy around hands? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[IndySE]

Oh man how incredible. I didn't think birds would be such music appreciators, but it totally makes sense

My GCC can do some hard nips. I learned there's two types, the more explorative 'what's this' which can be forceful but don't mean to hurt you, and the angry/fear nips that intend to do some damage. I didn't use music (though what an amazing idea!) but just used two words. 'Ow!' is meant to correct for explorative nips that go too far so he knows his boundaries. I usually move him away from the area/my finger or even gently disturb his balance so he focuses more on that (called 'earthquake method' I believe) If that doesn't work, back to the cage you go. 'No', however, is reserved for naughty behavior... immediate cage.

It makes sense to me, but I have to say it doesn't work as well as your music method. I don't play any instrument, but I do draw. I wonder if Kermit would like to watch me draw sometime. I'm curious to try !

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, I admire you folks who manage to have some level of control...
The Rb is flighted and fast and fearless. He is impossible to "time-out" (for me, at least). The only salvation is that he yells "OWWW" right before he bites. If you're fast, you can run or shake or duck your head to make sure your hair covers your face and ears!
I know... I'm pathetic!

 

[Leaf]

Okay, new updates:

- Got Auri to be more confident around my hands. Now she play nibbles and love nibbles, being very gentle on the fingers but getting carried away sometimes with the skin between the fingers, especially between the thumb and index finger (I think it's an ideal chewing texture for a lot of small-medium parrots). But she's very responsive to gentle corrections such as pushing toward her slowly while firmly saying, "too much, too much." In such a case she'll let go and immediately go back to amiably being petted. Then she'll sneak in a beak or two a few seconds later but be much more gentle. I think she's understanding when she's getting carried away with affection.




- She's a snuggle type! When she's settled down and resting on or playing with her hammock, if I announce myself and offer my hand, she snuggles into it, and if she's really feeling cozy, she'll force herself onto my palm and kind of collapse to let me pet her for ten minutes. (I'm careful to only pet her head and cheeks, because I would like this relationship to remain platonic )

- She's bathed twice, but out of her drinking water, ha. I'm making plans to train her to bathe via mist or on top of her cage where the additional perch and metal bowls are. I may just put in a couple more water bowls around the cage to give her more access to clean water - she eats with gusto and often inadvertently crunches pellets into the adjacent water bowl. But she dips pellets very daintily - she'll hold the pellet in her beak, dip her beak into the water a few times, then kind of chew thoughtfully.

Oh, I admire you folks who manage to have some level of control...
The Rb is flighted and fast and fearless. He is impossible to "time-out" (for me, at least). The only salvation is that he yells "OWWW" right before he bites. If you're fast, you can run or shake or duck your head to make sure your hair covers your face and ears!
I know... I'm pathetic!

Not at all The Rb sounds super lucky to have someone he can just be himself around!

 

[Terry57]

Great update!! Good luck about the bathing in the water dish, Jax and Jazz always bathe in their water dish no matter how many baths they have taken..lol

 

[Leaf]

More updates!

I have not been bitten or even nibbled very firmly since day 2. She seems to treat my fingers and the rest of me with a lot of affection

Since she's taken so well to step-up, I've been letting her on my shoulder. No poop accidents or nibbling incidents in the past three days since we've started (she does poop around the apartment but it's always in one of two places where she's picked favorite perching spots), except for the very first time I let her on and she curiously nibbled my ear. It wasn't hard or painful, very much just a curious and light nibble. But I immediately commanded her to step up onto my finger and instead of taking her off my shoulder, allowed her to watch my other hand stroke the ear where she was nibbling. Now she only occasionally veeerry lightly nibbles, and is more prone to nuzzling behind the ear. I can't really see back there, but I'm pretty sure she also tries to preen my hair.

Since my last post she's been begging more and more to be out of her cage. As mentioned before, she has pooped outside the cage, but they seem to be in only the two favorite perching spots (nearby chair that has the towel that I use to wrap around her cage at night, and the lamp in my bedroom). Fingers crossed I don't find surprises anywhere else, heh. But sometime within the next week I plan to start potty training, using either a shallow plastic bowl (easily weighed down and cheap to buy) or brightly colored hand towels which I could place around the apartment for her to poop on.

Terry, problem solved with bathing! While on my shoulder yesterday and watching me rinse her bowls, she flew down to my wrists (I was leaning forward and resting my elbows on the countertop, so the wrists were flat) and pecked at the running water. Now she bathes in the sink on my hands, and most recently she stepped off and hopped around in the puddle. Now this doesn't necessarily solve bathing in her drinking water, but I'm fairly sure if I offer sink bathing daily, she will not feel the need to bathe inside her cage when I'm gone.

She also flies! To pre-empt, I requested when I picked her up from the breeder that her wings only be lightly clipped so she could still somewhat glide and slowly descend. She can't really gain height, but she can maintain for a decent amount of time and I've seen her change directions multiple times with a good leap from a high perch. My apartment is somewhat flight proofed in that the glass windows all have vertical blinds.

My first clue was a couple days ago, when I placed her on the towel-covered chair near her cage and I went to clean some stuff up at the other end of the apartment. She chirped a few times and jumped off somewhat erratically (it was the first time I'd seen her attempt this), and I managed to catch her as she approached me. I couldn't tell if she was curious or just wanted to be with me, so I ignored the event at the time.

Second clue was yesterday. I placed her on the towel rack inside my bathroom while I did my #1, and she jumped and flew directly onto my shoulder, nearly startling me. That's when I got the message that she could be indoor flight trained.

Since then we've been training in short bursts. I've been experimenting with stepping up from farther distances, and while it's not 100% immediate as it depends on where she wants to be or what has her attention, she does jump toward the outstretched finger within a short amount of time. I'm anywhere between 6 inches to a foot away.

For longer distances I use the towel perch near her cage to my piano bench, which is ~10 feet. The key phrase is "Auri, fly!" and the sign I use is the perch fingers pointing at and touching each other (like an inverted football goal using index fingers as the horizontal instead of thumbs, so "l_____l"). The first attempt, she missed and I had to catch her (still slightly erratic), so we spent the rest of the day doing jump practice, and I supervised her other experimental flights around the apartment.

Yesterday and today, she has much more control, and I am extremely pleased to say that she recognizes the inverted football goal sign as the proper landing target. She's actually been bullseye accurate nearly half the time, landing with one foot on each index finger. At first it took her a while to respond, but today I started using Nutriberries (her absolute favorite treat so far) for incentive and she responds to the command and sign much more readily, getting noticeably faster each time. I'm not sure, to be honest, how to proceed from here besides reinforcing what she's already learned, because I feel like her progress so far has been phenomenal. I suppose I can try getting her to respond to only "Auri, fly!" and guiding her to my shoulder or producing a finger-perch mid flight, the latter of which I've done multiple times on her earlier experimental flights.

Long story short, Auri has blown away my expectations with her sweetness and intelligence, and I'm not sure how I lucked out with such a perfect bird. I was prepared to love a bratty monster (and I'm sure she'll hit that phase sooner or later in a couple months or a year when the hormones start kicking in), but for now we're quite the happy pair!