New Conure owner

[P3RS1AN]

Hi everyone, I am the new owner of a beautiful 3 month old male GC Conure. So long story short I went into pet smart to purchase a treat for my parents cat and as I walked down to the aisle I caught a glimpse of green. I turned around to find Haji. I stayed with him for about 5 minutes and the whole time I he was following me around his cage. Bopping his head up and down, and tapping on the glass with his beak. Over the next week, I carefully took 3 family members back to pet smart with me, and what do you know. Again, every single time Haji reacted the same and only to me, completely ignoring my family members even with their best efforts. So I did as much research as I could and yesterday Haji came home with me. He is eating, drinking water, flying around my room and his cage like it is absolutely nothing. Within a day if I hold my hand out and with my other hand hold a treat, he flies out and rests and eats his treat. He lets me pet and give him light scratches behind his neck and on his cheeks. Both times extending his neck and puffing his feathers in joy. My only issue at the moment is that he bites and he bites hard. I’ve tried looking around into what I can do to teach him not to bite, but I also know he is still only 3 months old and extremely curious. Is this something I just have to give time for him to get used to? Is there any training I can be doing in the meantime to only help teach him not to bite even after he’s ready. Cause guys I have had dogs, cats and snakes and I have never bled this much. I love this little guy and if I end up having to wear a long sleeve or hoodie I absolutely will 24/7. Any and all help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Not just on this topic either, if there’s absolutely anything you believe I should know as a first time owner please go ahead and say it. Repeat it in fact. I’d rather read the same thing a few times, than to need to know it and not.

 

[LaManuka]

Hi everyone, I am the new owner of a beautiful 3 month old male GC Conure. So long story short I went into pet smart to purchase a treat for my parents cat and as I walked down to the aisle I caught a glimpse of green. I turned around to find Haji. I stayed with him for about 5 minutes and the whole time I he was following me around his cage. Bopping his head up and down, and tapping on the glass with his beak. Over the next week, I carefully took 3 family members back to pet smart with me, and what do you know. Again, every single time Haji reacted the same and only to me, completely ignoring my family members even with their best efforts. So I did as much research as I could and yesterday Haji came home with me. He is eating, drinking water, flying around my room and his cage like it is absolutely nothing. Within a day if I hold my hand out and with my other hand hold a treat, he flies out and rests and eats his treat. He lets me pet and give him light scratches behind his neck and on his cheeks. Both times extending his neck and puffing his feathers in joy. My only issue at the moment is that he bites and he bites hard. I’ve tried looking around into what I can do to teach him not to bite, but I also know he is still only 3 months old and extremely curious. Is this something I just have to give time for him to get used to? Is there any training I can be doing in the meantime to only help teach him not to bite even after he’s ready. Cause guys I have had dogs, cats and snakes and I have never bled this much. I love this little guy and if I end up having to wear a long sleeve or hoodie I absolutely will 24/7. Any and all help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Not just on this topic either, if there’s absolutely anything you believe I should know as a first time owner please go ahead and say it. Repeat it in fact. I’d rather read the same thing a few times, than to need to know it and not. View attachment 80938

Welcome to the forums, @P3RS1AN and the adorable Haji!! Your query is, for better or worse, not an unusual one with young green cheeks, as they are often sold as being "hand reared", but frequently this means that they are removed from their parents before they are taught any manners. With a young one like Haji, the best method to stop biting is known as "shunning". This involves each and every time he bites, you pop him down somewhere safe and neutral, like the back of a chair or a table. Never back in his cage for "time out" as this might be exactly what he's looking for, and not on the floor where it's not safe for a little bird to be. Then you turn your back on him and make absolutely no eye contact for just a minute, no longer as the immediacy of the lesson may be lost, then carry on as normal. This mimics the behaviour of adults in the wild, who would ostracize a young bird for biting, and as a "prey" species no parrot wants that. For this method to work best it needs to be done consistently with every bite and by every family member, but GCCs are VERY smart so he should catch on pretty quick. Again, welcome to the Forums, I'm glad you and this adorable little one found us!

 

[P3RS1AN]

Welcome to the forums, @P3RS1AN and the adorable Haji!! Your query is, for better or worse, not an unusual one with young green cheeks, as they are often sold as being "hand reared", but frequently this means that they are removed from their parents before they are taught any manners. With a young one like Haji, the best method to stop biting is known as "shunning". This involves each and every time he bites, you pop him down somewhere safe and neutral, like the back of a chair or a table. Never back in his cage for "time out" as this might be exactly what he's looking for, and not on the floor where it's not safe for a little bird to be. Then you turn your back on him and make absolutely no eye contact for just a minute, no longer as the immediacy of the lesson may be lost, then carry on as normal. This mimics the behaviour of adults in the wild, who would ostracize a young bird for biting, and as a "prey" species no parrot wants that. For this method to work best it needs to be done consistently with every bite and by every family member, but GCCs are VERY smart so he should catch on pretty quick. Again, welcome to the Forums, I'm glad you and this adorable little one found us!

Thank you so much for the quick response and advice!! I appreciate you including the information on how they’re raised and their process of actually learning from a parent it was extremely informational. I will begin incorporating this into our training ASAP. Thank you again!!

 

[LaManuka]

Thank you so much for the quick response and advice!! I appreciate you including the information on how they’re raised and their process of actually learning from a parent it was extremely informational. I will begin incorporating this into our training ASAP. Thank you again!!

You're most welcome, @P3RS1AN, I only wish I had a resource like this when I had my GCC, who btw looked just like Haji. His name was Baci, I named him after my favourite brand of Italian chocolates, and it's also Italian for "kisses" cos he was so sweet! He never bit me when he was a baby but WOW when he hit puberty he would bite me REALLY hard, and because I was not a member here then and I'd never had a GCC before I didn't understand what was going on with him. Puberty with these guys can be a whole 'nother ball game, so it's good to have that bit of insight ahead of time. I hope you will stick around and continue to share your and Haji's journey with us.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Yeppers! Green cheeks can be quite beaky when young! The deepest (not the most painful) bites I've gotten were from green cheeks. You've got quite a bit of good advice here, so I won't repeat what's already been said . Hope to hear more about Haji as his training progresses!

 

[onamom]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your new baby! It sounds like you chose wisely and let your baby choose you!

My biggest advice is to research bird safe cookware if you haven’t already and make you remove candles, air fresheners, etc from your home. Get lots of foraging toys. I like to go to Bonka Birds or MY Safe Bird Store online. Look into diet and chop making.

For the biting, in addition to the above advice, I’d come prepared with a little foot toy you can try to redirect his attention to if you think he’s getting first. Maybe a mahogany slice, little vine stars, etc. Keeping his beak busy is worth a shot.

 

[P3RS1AN]

Thank you so much to all of you for your advice and support. I will absolutely be sticking around and sharing plenty of Haji with all of you! I want to see and follow all of your beautiful precious babies as well. Thank you for the cookware tip @onamom , I had heard that as well and we are switching everything that we can to non teflon asap. I knew about air refreshers but not the candles and I will be throwing the one we have out asap. Thankfully we haven’t lit it in a few weeks. A foot toy would absolutely come in handy as well and I had no idea they were even a thing. @Vampiric_Conure thank you so much, all of you are so amazing. You both along with @LaManuka have been great help. Goodnight to you and all your feathered friends

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Thank you so much to all of you for your advice and support. I will absolutely be sticking around and sharing plenty of Haji with all of you! I want to see and follow all of your beautiful precious babies as well. Thank you for the cookware tip @onamom , I had heard that as well and we are switching everything that we can to non teflon asap. I knew about air refreshers but not the candles and I will be throwing the one we have out asap. Thankfully we haven’t lit it in a few weeks. A foot toy would absolutely come in handy as well and I had no idea they were even a thing. @Vampiric_Conure thank you so much, all of you are so amazing. You both along with @LaManuka have been great help. Goodnight to you and all your feathered friends

Yer very welcome! Air purifiers with a HEPA filter are another helpful item when you have birds - they help cut down on dust/allergens. Mine is on 24/7 and vacuumed out regularly. I must have had mine for, oh god... pushing 13 years!

 

[AprilRobin]

Welcome to the forum! Other people have given you great advice already, so I just want to suggest a couple of YouTube channels: "Poodles and Parrots" and "Flying Fids" - both of them have GC Conures.

I have the book "Why Does My Bird Do That?" by Julie Rach Mancini and it's very helpful. A few scattered pieces of information are questionable now (many of us don't feed meat and dairy products to our birds as a daily part of their diet), but much of the material about behavior, training, supplies, etc. is still useful.

 

[rheashard2]

Congratulations and welcome to forums! There's a lot of information here. Browse through the different threads. Be consistent and patient. Get your little one used to getting into a carrier for possible vet visits, travel, or outings. Since he's young consider an avian harness. I've used Aviator for decades. That will give you an extra degree of security with outings. A birds natural and automatic response is flight. Again welcome.

 

[cnyguy]

Welcome to you and Haji! Haji sounds a lot like my new cinnamon GCC Nelson. He chose me like Haji picked you, and made himself right at home the same way too. And Nelson is also what I call a recreational biter. He really enjoys biting me and he can bite hard too. I have to wear a long sleeve shirt when he's out, but he likes to climb inside to snuggle and sometimes take a nap in my sleeve. It's said to be very common for young GCCs to bite and I've been assured that they grow out of it. We're working on ways to curb the biting and there are some signs of improvement already. Nelson is 5 months old and has been with me for almost 7 weeks.

 

[P3RS1AN]

Welcome to you and Haji! Haji sounds a lot like my new cinnamon GCC Nelson. He chose me like Haji picked you, and made himself right at home the same way too. And Nelson is also what I call a recreational biter. He really enjoys biting me and he can bite hard too. I have to wear a long sleeve shirt when he's out, but he likes to climb inside to snuggle and sometimes take a nap in my sleeve. It's said to be very common for young GCCs to bite and I've been assured that they grow out of it. We're working on ways to curb the biting and there are some signs of improvement already. Nelson is 5 months old and has been with me for almost 7 weeks.

Thanks for your reply! Say hello to Nelson for me please would it be okay for me to ask what some of the things you’re doing are?

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I dont know of anyone has commented on your "ink" but I find that birds often like to try to remove things like scabs, cuts, ink artwork, or anything they see as a flaw to be removed as part of grooming you. A long sleeved hoodie may help protect your skin.

 

[rheashard2]

Above is correct. My CAG has been trying to remove my daughter's tattoos for years! I wondered when I saw pic with your ink. The feathered cutie looked so good there. So you may luck out. Long sleeves is a definite consideration.

 

[cnyguy]

I've been using some distraction techniques with Nelson, giving him alternative things to chew on. Sometimes it works, but he often discards whatever I gave him and concentrates on my fingers again. If he's too persistent he gets a "time out." I'll leave him sitting alone on the open drawbridge door at the top of his cage for a short time. That also works some of the time. And I've been saying the same thing to Nelson that I used to tell my Quaker parrot Ralph when he wanted to bite a little too much-- "My fingers aren't edible. You can't eat them." That's not particularly effective. The only thing it accomplished with Ralph was that he learned the word "edible."

As has been suggested, parrots will preen their humans and try to remove anything they think shouldn't be there. That's not the case with Nelson. He just enjoys chomping on my fingers.

 

[P3RS1AN]

I dont know of anyone has commented on your "ink" but I find that birds often like to try to remove things like scabs, cuts, ink artwork, or anything they see as a flaw to be removed as part of grooming you. A long sleeved hoodie may help protect your skin.

Is the first I’m hearing of this and it makes total sense, with the only thing being Haji has yet to bite me on that arm, choosing to bite the none tattoos arm instead. I attempted to wear my motorcycle gloves as well as a long sleeve yesterday. Haji was very iffy and reluctant with the long sleeves. He’ll come right up when it’s bare skin but as soon as it’s covered he’s hesitant. And he would come nowhere near me when I had the glove on. He’ll bite it a few times then waddle away until I take the glove off. I will just have to deal with that until he grows out of it, or I train him out of it. Whichever comes first haha. Thank you for the advice though it is greatly appreciated!

 

[P3RS1AN]

I've been using some distraction techniques with Nelson, giving him alternative things to chew on. Sometimes it works, but he often discards whatever I gave him and concentrates on my fingers again. If he's too persistent he gets a "time out." I'll leave him sitting alone on the open drawbridge door at the top of his cage for a short time. That also works some of the time. And I've been saying the same thing to Nelson that I used to tell my Quaker parrot Ralph when he wanted to bite a little too much-- "My fingers aren't edible. You can't eat them." That's not particularly effective. The only thing it accomplished with Ralph was that he learned the word "edible."

As has been suggested, parrots will preen their humans and try to remove anything they think shouldn't be there. That's not the case with Nelson. He just enjoys chomping on my fingers.

Haha I had a good chuckle reading this. I’ve been using distraction techniques as well. I’ll try to pet him and as long as he’s not biting I encourage him and celebrate with him verbally and give him a small seed, and if he does bite I tell him no biting as I step back and turn around to try the shunning technique as another member recommended. I don’t know if it’s just me wishfully thinking but I think I’m getting bit less? So as opposed to being being everytime my hand went near it was more like 70% of the time. I will continue to read everything you all say and incorporate it into our training sessions! I hope that one day me and haji have the same bond as all of you do, and we’re more than happy to be on that journey with you all! Thank you all again!