Territorial Biting

[missammo]

I have a green cheek conure named Pocky that has a lot of trust issues. Her family moved away and gave her to my dad. About a few weeks ago she came to live with me. She has a huge biting problem. Pocky hates fingers. It's impossible to get her to step up on your finger since she doesn't like them. When you put your fingers or hands near her cage to open it or change food and water she starts to come after them. She will also randomly bite your neck if you make the wrong move. I would definitely consider her biting to be dominance and territorial. We would love to get to a point to where she could trust us and allow us to pet & snuggle her. But we are very far from that at the moment. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Amanda & Pocky

 

[Littleredbeak]

I found this article particularly useful for gaining trust, Working with Fearful Parrots: A Study in Videos | Learning Parrots

 

[Laurasea]

Hello, welcome to the forum!! Thanks for taking in Pocky!!

Its completely normal for some parrots to be protective of the cage. Especially a fearful new addition. And it takes time to build trust. Sometimes you have to go so slow and nit rush, not force them to bite you to make yiu back off. Always talk and explain to them what you are doing, create routines.

If you haven't had a parrot before...teflon , non stick cookware, popcorn machine, space heat, insta pot, air fryers can all off gas toxic fumes when used that will kill a bird in seconds, even behind closed doors and on a different floor in the home. Rgere are my household dangers, please read up. B

Google target training, and watch the yiu tube videos. Its a great place to start with a fearful bird. You tube Bird Tricks has many great videos.

I will add some helpful links. First will be my story with my fearful quaker
http://www.parrotforums.com/quakers/87445-welcome-home-orbit.html

https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/stress-reduction-for-parrot-companions/

This is great, starts off with basics then later on talks about bites.
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/bird-behavior/