3 Year Old Conure

[djmcumbria]

Hi all, I am Daniel and I am new to the Parrot world.

Recently I adopted a 3 year old Green Cheek Conure called Vinci.

Vinci was part of a breeding pair however he sadly lost his mate some time ago and is now VERY lonley (this all happened before I got him) however I have a lovely big 6ft by 3ft cage for him with plenty of toys for him to keep him occupied.

I knew when I got Vinci that it maybe near impossible to have him tame enough to even let me go near him let alone hold him but this was the chance I thought was worth taking as I fell in love with him from the moment I saw him and I just had to bring the little fella home.

I was wondering if there was anything I could do with Vinci to tame him down a little and if not would he be ok in his cage with loads of toys to play with and interaction from us?

also what is the correct lifespan of the Conure as I get mixed responses and if I can't tame him down and keep him in his cage will this in anyway bring that down? I don't want to cause him any harm when trying to the best thing for him, I am not looking to get him a mate as his previous owner tried this and he really wasn't happy and made him go of his food so he needs to be alone she said but with LOADS of human interaction.

Many Thanks in advance from myself :63: and Vinci .

 

[antoinette]

Welcome Daniel glad you have joined our awesome friendly forum

Congrats for taking Vinci in, he sure is lucky to have a caring and loving guardian.


Green Cheek Conure are awesome birds
It takes time for a bird to trust and bond, trust has got to be earned.

Sorry for all the questions
How long have you had Daniel for?
Are you able to let him step up onto your hand at all?
Does he come out the cage often and on his own?

We require more input in order to assist you

 

[Julianna]

It sounds like you have a great set up, and Vinci is definitely lucky to have such a good home. Green-cheeks live about 20-30 years. Like Antoinette said, building trust takes a lot of time and effort. It all depends on the individual bird, of course, but I'd guess that some day you'll be able to handle Vinci pretty easily. It will take time, work, and lots of treats from you. Just take it slowly and first just get him comfortable being around you, then get him comfortable with your hands being next to him, then maybe you can coax him onto a hand with a treat reward. It may take a long time, but with patience you'll get there. Good luck!

 

[MonicaMc]

I consider parrots to have three different lifespans. There's the average lifespan, expected lifespan and potential lifespan. None of them are the same, really.

Budgies have a potential lifespan of about 20+ years. Their expected lifespan is around 12 years. Their average lifespan is actually around 6....

I don't know what those are for green cheeks, but I do know that the potential lifespan is over 20 years and average/expected should be early teens to mid teens.


Lifespan is determined by health, genetics, diet and potentially even exercise. Accidents, illness and other things may shorten a lifespan.



It is possible to tame him and work with him. I would suggest looking into clicker training him and just feeding him treats and food by hand to earn his trust for now.

 

[djmcumbria]

Hi all.

First of all thank you from us both for all your kind words and advice.

I have had Vinci for around 2 weeks now and he does not step up yet. He eventually ventures outof his cage front if you leave it open but where he is new I don't let him out often.

I will let him out and stretch his wings. Would anyone recommend getting his wings clipped to stop him hurting himself?
Also I was told by his previous owners he likes to play with mirrors to look at himself however I am worried that he thinks it's his partner and I don't want to upset him anymore than he is.

Thanks in advance once again.

 

[Hayden1987]

You could try target training him, once he is consistent when he comes out you can use this technique to fly him to his stand or to his cage when you are ready to put him away...
Time and trust go together with forming a bond with any animal.. use treats and just sit and talk with him. Once he realises you aren't gonna grab him he may settle enough to be handleable.

I wouldnt clip his wings, but thats my personal preferance.

Hayden

 

[legal_eagle]

I think having the wings clipped is a great way to speed up the taming and bonding process, because it requires your parrot to become dependent upon you. I did that with my GCC who is 14 and then let them grow out once she was tame ... now she loves to fly and uses her wings to follow me around the house.

 

[MonicaMc]

If it helps any, I have a 3 year old red throated conure that I've had for two months. Even after two months, she *hates* stepping up on hands!

She *loves* attention! She melts when you give her one on one undivided attention with kisses and verbal talk. She *loves* scritches, and she'll even eat food from your hands or fingers! Granted, she might also bite them... so the food must be presented in such a way that she wont bite your hands!

Even after two months, she still has a huge fear or distrust of being on hands and it makes it difficult handling her! The person who had her before me was fostering her for 6 months, and not even she could get this little girl to step up! She has that big a fear of being on hands.

I don't know what happened to her within her first few years of life to make her hate being on hands so much! If she accidentally even puts her foot on my hand, she'll readjust herself so her feet wont be on my hand. If you try and force her to step up, she'll bite the snot out of you!




Oh, and she's clipped. And I hate it. And she does, too! I don't believe that clipping a bird makes it easier to work with them. I feel that it makes it more difficult for a bird to escape a situation that it fears, thus resulting in avoidance behaviors because a bird is then forced to endure "training", removing all choice for the bird to learn to trust you.

I know that in Jayde's case, she will be so much easier to work with being flighted than clipped. Right now, she's afraid to leave the safety of her cage but she hates being left behind. The only way to get her away from her cage is if she decides to climb up on my shoulder and I can then take her away, or if she decides to try and fly to me, where-in she ends up plunking hard on the ground. It's frustrating to both of us that she can't fly!

Since being here, she's lost 4 clipped flight feathers and two appear to be fully grown now, but the other two I can't even see yet... and it's not enough to give her flight.




Personally, I don't believe in clipping for training. Heck, I don't even believe in clipping to prevent, or try to prevent "bad behavior". I believe that birds should be given the choice to learn to trust humans, and this can easily be done using trust building exercises. These "exercises" are often under the guise of positive reinforcement training aka clicker training.

If you train right, you can avoid many bites from occurring! If you clip, and you force the issue, you are going to get bit. A lot.

 

[kellie]

I should think that you will definitely be able to tame and hold him eventually. Birds are flock animals and he probably hasn't been able to bond with someone very well since he was so bonded to his mate. However, just because a bird wasn't tamed before or acted a certain way before doesn't mean they always will. They can be trained at any age! When I got my sun, he hated humans, was terrified of hands, and it seemed like I would never be able to bond with him. I've had him for about three months now and in that time it has been a whirlwind of change, emotion and growth. He hated me the first month, would step up the second and now he lets me pet him and give him kisses and loves being around me but won't step up anymore! haha! Birds aren't dogs, they don't love you unconditionally, you have to earn their love, but once you do it is incredibly rewarding. With how much love you already have for you little guy, he will eventually come to love and trust you too. It just takes a while. Trust me, I spent many nights those first couple months crying or upset because I thought my sun wasn't ever going to like me let alone love me and then randomly I woke up one day and he let me pet him.

Your little Vinci is so lucky to have you, and he will definitely realize that somewhere down the line. Just be patient and stick with it. Feed him treats from you hand, talk to him, sing to him, let him get to know you!

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new little guy!~

 

[MonicaMc]

I used to have a flock of five adult, flighted budgies. None of them tame. I decided to try an experiment with them to see just how comfortable I could get them with me. I started by feeding them by hand every morning from inside the cage. Once they ate all the food, I'd give them their daily food for the day and repeat the next morning.


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUx81WHTUwk]1 Bird in hand Leads to Many - YouTube[/ame]


As time went on and they became more used to me, I started having my hand outside of the cage, and eventually, I was a few feet away from the cage and the budgies happily flew to my hand to eat. I'd get them back inside the cage by refreshing their food.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSm4uFZzVU]More Budgies!!!! - YouTube[/ame]




At the time, I also had a flock of cockatiels (and still have some of them). I had no intentions of doing this behavior with my cockatiels, but one of them had other plans. She started out by following me around the room and I didn't know what she wanted. She even landed on me a couple of times and the first time I thought she was a different tiel! She never landed on me before! Her behavior puzzled me, until I realized what it was she wanted... and I fed her by hand. Soon enough, she was comfortable enough to fly to my hand when I offered her food.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSm4uFZzVU]More Budgies!!!! - YouTube[/ame]



And because I started this behavior with her, I ended up having another cockatiel "following" me around but was much too shy and afraid to even land on me... so I gave her the option to eat from my hand, even though she had food readily available to her and she *didn't* have to eat from my hand.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9w9w8nMRmw]Hesitant Faye - YouTube[/ame]


And sure enough, over time, her confidence grew and she was no longer hesitant.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH9ZWxhCSAE]Not So Hesitant Faye - YouTube[/ame]



And because she was eating from my hands, the rest of the flock kind of wanted in, too! And I was also curious to see if I could get some other tiels who had no interest in humans to look forward to me coming and feeding them. Tomi Girl was kind of stand off-ish and not too crazy about the idea at first, and she definitely didn't want to step up on my hands! But working with her and making sure to try and keep each experience a positive one, she eventually became comfortable enough to get up on my hands. The biggest surprise actually came from Pistachio, an older male with a plucked head. He's my most skittish cockatiel and if I came anywhere near him he'd take off to avoid me... even if I had no interest in doing anything with him. Obviously, he was terrified at first, but the rest of the flock showed him that it was ok... and he gained confidence and learned to trust in me some... which is saying a lot for him! He eventually become trusting enough that he wouldn't fly off when I came near him and he'd step on my hand in order to eat. And then one day he flew to my hand. I was not only shocked, but stunned! A bird that used to be terrified of me flew to my hand of his own accord. I had ran out of food so I couldn't feed him, but I slowly walked over and got more! No way was I going to allow him a "bad experience"! And then there were times that even if I had no food, he'd fly to me and patiently wait for me to get him food to eat.


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjKmHswgiHs]Cockatiel Feeding - April 24th - YouTube[/ame]



Pistachio is Sunshine's father, and when I got them, Sunshine was 6 years old. She was previously tame, but Pistachio was not tame and was a breeder bird at one point in time in his life.



There's nothing like the amazing feeling you get when a bird suddenly decides that you are "alright" and flies to you of his or her own accord. No clipping required.





Trainers such as Barbara Heidenreich, Susan Friedman, Lara Joseph, Karen Pryor, Melinda Johnson and Steve Martin are some *great* trainers out there! Barbara and Lara both have their own blogs where you can learn a *LOT* of information from them! Susan has some free articles on her website that are in-depth. Steve Martin has some very thought provoking answers on his Natural Encounters website. Barbara, Karen and Melinda all have their own books and/or DVD's on parrot training! Can't go wrong purchasing any of it!

I have Melinda Johnson's book Getting Started: Clicker Training for Birds, and I have Barbara Heidenreich's DVD's Parrot Behavior and Training #1 and Understanding Parrot Body Language. Love them! I also own Karen Pryor's book Don't Shoot The Dog!

 

[djmcumbria]

Hey All.

Thank you for your reply's once again, I see their is some mix reviews on clipping their wings by some of you and I see both reasons being vaild however I guess it falls down to individual circumstances and in this case birds.

I will take ALL of the information you have all taking the time to kindly send me to mind and I will work with him and let you all know how he is doing.



Dan

 

[GCC2012]

Hi DJMCumbria,
After only having Vinci for 2 weeks I wouldn't panic about not being able to 'step up' etc. I'm new to birds too and have had our GCC Perseus for about 6 months now. It feels like a lifetime ago now but when we first brought him home he seemed happy and friendly....that lasted about a week! Then he went through the biting stage, not so much with my Husband but particularly with me he was very aggressive. It lasted maybe 3-4 weeks and then I guess he just got used to us. Now he steps u straight away and will run over when called. Loves to cuddle etc and is very affectionate.
Hang in there, 2 weeks isn't a lot of time and once he bonds with you he'll seem like a different bird!