Biting Conure. How to stop? UPDATE!!!

[mlward]

Quote:
It is sad.

Parrots aren't like puppies or kittens. You can't just bring 'em home and expect them to fall all over with you with love & affection. Because they ARE so intelligent, they need time to build up trust and come to appreciate being part of your flock. And a week is no where near long enough to develop that trust. With time he could turn out to be a wonderful companion but that becomes more difficult every time a parrot is rehomed. Please try to make sure his next home is his "forever" home.

 

[aldren90]

One thing you should never do is poke back at them they will think biting is just a game if you do this he will definately bite ou and it will hurt

 

[Luvs chickens]

I have a new red throat conure . He is 4 years old , named peapod and he had never been in a cage except to crawl in and out of a pair of cockitiels cage for food. His main source of food was ritz crackers. needless to say I am now the proud owner of a pair of cocktiels also.

the first thing I did was separate them into new clean cages but, kept them in the same room.I have had them for a week and he is getting used to a cage. He bites randomly. can be so sweet purring and rubbing his beak on me then bite. I am taking it slow. I have been saying NO and putting him back in his cage when he bites.I have been trying the step command . but, when I say it he starts dancing. He is getting better but. I always wear a jacket with a high collar when working with him. His nails are so long but, I am waiting to trim them as he is difficult to handle , should I just hold him down and trim them or wait until he trust me more? I Love him and he is here forever. But, he does occasionally swear.

 

[featherfinder]

Quote:
It is sad.

Parrots aren't like puppies or kittens. You can't just bring 'em home and expect them to fall all over with you with love & affection. Because they ARE so intelligent, they need time to build up trust and come to appreciate being part of your flock. And a week is no where near long enough to develop that trust. With time he could turn out to be a wonderful companion but that becomes more difficult every time a parrot is rehomed. Please try to make sure his next home is his "forever" home.

I know its a saad story and i believe the same thing with animals. Do not get them unless you intend to keep them. Just went threw this with my ducks and my bf but we have worked out and they are staying and have a forever home. I have never really been much for caged birds but my bf has so we agreed to take him in because we do want him to have a good home and if we can not find him a good home it looks like we will be his forever home. We have been working with him and he has been getting slightly better. We can put our hands inside of the cage without him flipping out and trying to bite us, we just can not get close to him yet but we are working on it. We have found that he really likes walnuts so that is wat we have been using with him. We were also planning on getting a conure of our own but we wanted a sun conure and one that was already friendly. We had done our research before taking in the green cheeck and were not planning on taking him in so we had agreed to get this sun conure we found on craigslist that had been moved from place to place. The day after we took in the green cheeck we went and got the sun conure because we had already told the people we would take him in. His is great and completly friendly and i think he is helping with the green check (mojo) and making him friendlyer. Mojo sees how much we handel sonny (sun conure) and had actually started to get verbal when we take sonny out and seems to get mad and one of us will go over to his cage while sonny is out and mojo will let us pet his head but only when sonny is out. I dont know why he does that but that is the only time he lets us touch him. Either way Sonny deffinitly has a forever home since he was our planned bird and Mojo this is his forever home untill further notice unless i can find him a good home. but it would have to be one that is not going to keep moving him around and will work with him like we are and that is hard to find so i think he is staying with us which is just fine

at least i know here he will get the attention and work that he needs.

 

[Luvs chickens]

to update on my Peapod. We had a quick parrot training class. He is perfect now. such a lovey. never bites . couldn't ask for a sweeter boy.

Quote:

 

[featherfinder]

I had made some progress with the green cheek (mojo) he would let me put my hand in the cage without flipping out or trying to bite it and he would take treats threw the wires of the cage. But he took a few steps backwards. I dont know what happened but he is meaner now then he was before. I was working with him everyday and now i cant even get close to the cage before he screams bloody murder and trying to bite. Unfortunitly due to this he is going to a relative this weekend who wants to try to tame him. Sonny (our sun conure) on the other hand is duing amazing! He is quite the little cuddler now and I love it.


Glad to hear about Peapod as well. What class was it? maybe i can recomend it to my uncle when he takes mojo. Hope you are enjoying your new found friend!!!

 

[ChristineR]

I highly recommend Sally Blanchard's books and website. She's an expert in parrot behavior. There's also an online forum like this one, where you can get a lot of info and ask questions, too, which is really nice.

Her website is really "busy" and disorganized (in my opinion), but there is a lot of good info. I recommend clicking on the Site Map to find your way around. I really like the Companion Parrot Handbook, but I would try to find it on Amazon.com cheaper. There's a lot of good, easy to read information in it. She also has another book, called the Beak Book, which deals specifically with biting (I found that a lot of the biting info is in the Companion Parrot book, too).

https://companionparrotonline.com/

In my own experience, the most effective way to stop biting is to not give any sort of reaction to it. I know, easier said than done, but that's what's worked best with my little green cheek conure. I think this would be a lot harder with a bigger bird, but conures are fairly small. My GCC, Fiona, totally has my daughter buffaloed, but she quickly learned that she gets no reaction from me when she bites, so she rarely tries it anymore.

There is hope! It just takes patience.

 

[featherfinder]

Quote:
Thank you for the book tip I will deffinitly be looking into that. Also I have tried the whole not reacting thing with my conure. We have 2 a sun conure who does not bite and a green cheeck. The green cheeck is the one i have been talking about with the biting problem. He can be quite the little jerk. I cant do the none react thing with him because if i dont im going to the hospital later for stitches. He tears anyone up who puts there hand in his cage. There has not been one time he has not drawn blood.

 

[ChristineR]

Yeah, I got a green cheek after we lost our Sun Conure. Our avian vet recommended a green cheek if we were determined to get another conure for a 9 year old girl. Supposedly they are better for kids (quieter, less nippy, etc). Ha! We loved our Sun and I don't think she ever bit my daughter and only bit me a couple times when I was giving her medicine.

I've grown to love Fiona, our Green Cheek, but she is a little stinker and definitely has become "my" bird. She will sit and be nice on my daughter's arm or shoulder, but if she puts her hand up, she gets a bite. Fiona knows that if she opens her beak to bite, the little hand goes away.

 

[featherfinder]

At least you can hold him. My green cheeck it doesnt even have to be your hand lol. He got out of his cage and ran to my feet and bit down. Its like hes attracted to skin no matter where he is he has to bite it. I dont know what his problem is but no one can work with him and he will open up to no one. My sun conure i love. He is my bird. Well technically he was my bf's birthday present but he prefers me

He is the same way as your green cheeck. He is fine on peoples shoulders but unless you are me or my bf he will bite you to. he has lots of personality though!