a few questions about green cheeks

[moonmoon]

i did a few solid days of constant research on green cheeks before deciding to go ahead with my purchase. i felt lonely and i needed a feathered friend! this bird needed a home. but what i should have done and feel very foolish for not doing.. is looking up what can go wrong... to be honest, this bird has become such an incredible hassle ever since i got him. It seems a cokatiel or budgie may have been a more suitable bird for me, saying a green cheek is great for a first bird is not something i can entirely agree with after what i have been through in only 2 months! my gcc is 4 months old.. so im trying my hardest to cope with the fact the way he is acting may be because he is a baby.. there are several problems that i have tried so hard to make better: he hates his cage, never poo's in the cage, bites, screams at early hours of the morning.. i have a large cage with foraging toys, tried to teach him to poop in cage, biting problem is decreasing so far which is good but still becomes agressive during play time with toys he loves to bite (HARD). im scared because im about to have a baby... i actually had to go out and purchase a few baby cot nettings so that may solve that problem, i just dot want him to bite her. Sometimes i feel i cant take it anymore and wonder if i should re home him, but i just cant bring myself to do it, id break his heart and also the next family may feel the same and neglect him, or he could be re homed several times and that is just not fair on him... i cant do it with that thought in my head. so here are my questions for you experienced owners.
-1: at what age do they become adults? am i in for more trouble when they go through puberty? what behaivoural problems am i to expect?
-2: how do i punish him? i spoil him rotten and i need to stop rewarding his bad behaivour. (and dont worry i would never hit/flick him that would make things worse and not to mention its a horrid thing to do) if i put him down and face my back to him he just flys back to me. if i put him in cage he just screams.
-3: playtime is fun, but also very dangerous... he becomes aggressive (sometimes) and if i have my hands near him he will drop the toy and bite me so hard (today he broke the skin and i actually cried) i think it was an accident? is he just excited over the toys and got carried away?
-4: is there a way to get them to enjoy in cage time more? will he be like this forever? he is out of the cage 90% of the time and i cant do anything! its so hard to wash clothes/cook food with him clinging to me everywhere i go, as soon as i leave the room he cries out, i never get time to myself anymore, i feel im going crazy... ive got a larger cage with toys/space/foraging toys and nothing is working!! i have purchased $150 worth of toys to rotate so he doesnt get bored either but he doesnt like it in there still. will it be like this for the rest of his days do you think?
-5: he cries at night if he can hear people talking. he gets put in another room at night so he stays quiet.. but if my baby wakes up and cries and then he does too and i need to feed her and put her back to sleep she wont be able to cause he will be calling for me. he may get used to it or not even do it at all because when i go to the toilet at night he doesnt make a peep.. i really hope it goes well in this apartment. i will put the cage far away from that room as possible so it does not disturb his sleep.
-6: will this little ball of energy of a bird calm down when he is older? i am prepared for him and his changes, just wanting to know

anyway i feel i needed to get this off my chest and i am eager to hear everyones replies and ideas! once again i must say i know i really should have thought it through more before buying him so i dont need be told that, but re homing him is not an option.. i got him so it is my responsibility to look after him and try my best. i really truly appreciate anyone that comments and takes the time to help me and give me advice. thanks!
i feel one day he will really learn and i should not give up on him and i should keep trying which is why im asking for some help. scolding/negative messages are not going to make anything better so i appreciate the nasty ones stay out. im trying my best here. thanks again.
~hayley

 

[Ann333]

I REALLY hope someone with more experience can help you!! I just got a baby green cheek conure as my very first bird and it breaks my heart to hear that you think of him as a hassle and a danger to a child. My baby is nothing like this, yours is still very young and im sure you will be able to bond with him and train him. I do wish you had done more research before bringing him home, a few days is not enough, i spent about 14 months researching to make sure i got the right bird species to fit into my family. Also being lonely is not a very good reason to bring ANY animal home especially when youre about to have a baby. You have only had him two months will the breeder not take him back I think that might be the best option? Or did you get him from a pet store because then i would not take him back? But whats done is done and i am glad you are here to get advice and hopefully we can help you correct these issues!!

Green cheeks reach sexual maturity at about 12 - 18 months and will become hormonal, some develop problems and others are not that bad, it really depends on the bird.

Punishing a bird does not really work, you need to reinforce the good behavior instead. Such as only let him out of the cage when he is quiet, maybe try whispering to him to help him understand.

Pressure training is very important with young birds! It teaches them to not bite too hard. What has worked for me and my cheek is i let him "explore" with his beak, but i blow air in his face if he bites too hard and if he keeps biting he goes back into his cage and loses his favorite toy (me).

Him being out of the cage 90% of the time has probably got him used to being out. He needs to spend time in his cage and learn how to entertain himself. Try putting him in his cage and play with him and his toys from the outside to encourage him to play independently.

At night, my green cheek has a third sleeping cage in a quiet room in my house away from distractions and i keep it covered at night. This works well for us, because he would get very irritable at night time and scream because we were disturbing his sleep.

Please keep asking if you have anymore questions, and again im sorry but this is all from my limited experience (less than one month and with a fairly well behaved little conure) I really hope you get other answers.

 

[moonmoon]

i dont view him as a hassle all of the time, dont get me wrong i love him more than anything. my main reason of getting him was because i wanted a little friend and that is a perfectly good reason!, but this bird actually really needed a home. but this little one ive got is certainly a handful. all of your answers have been helpful to me and i thank you! playing with him while sitting at the cage is a great idea, being out all the time is the only way to keep him quiet but i am going to put much time and effort into helping him learn, im sure everything will be fine after some time. thankyou!

 

[ZephyrFly]

I agree all of Ann333's answers, you might see some changes for better and worse when he reaches puberty and it might be subtle or a shock to the system, but no one answer can prepare you. I have a young GCC, he's adorable but he plays rough too big think we're making progress (I think he's 4months old), he's just playing and getting over excited.
We need to take a new approach to poop training as we've had the same problem as you, though our guy will poop in his cage if no one's there, means in the morning we have to leave him alone for awhile so he does his morning poop there and not on us!
You want to reinforce his good behaviour, he'll lose interest in the bad ones then because he doesn't get attention or treats for it.
Have a looking in these forums for behaviour problems and training (especially training, it's good stuff) there's a lot of good forums all about dealing with these issues and they work!

 

[moonmoon]

ah yes the poop problem is common in them from what i have read lol. i hope it goes well for you. ive tried waiting for him to poop in the cage too but he just holds it in which could be bad for his bowels so im trying very hard to teach him in other ways. as for puberty i hope it goes well, ill do my best and keep patience for what is to come. goodluck with yours too, and thankyou

 

[Ann333]

All I did, the first two weeks, was any time ANY time he went potty I would say "Go Potty". I was hoping he would put those two things together. Then after the first two weeks I had paid very close attention to his body language so I could kinda "read" when he was going to go. So what I did was started saying "Go potty" really excited and happy when he went in an appropriate place I made a big deal about his potty when he did it right and when he did it on me I just said "Go potty" in a normal voice without the happy excitement and would then put him down while I cleaned up. Being off mommy even for a few minutes was enough that he got the idea really fast and less than a month later he has stopped pooping on me completely. I expect accidents, but so far he's doing great.

This is just what worked for us. It may not work for you if your conure doesn't view being put down as a bad thing. If that's what he wants then maybe try altering this system a bit.

 

[moonmoon]

if he is on my head he jumps off to poo, but he does do it on my clothing from time to time, i have been doing that but i was wondering how to let him know pooping on ME is not what i wanted lol. so i will do the same as you... excited when off me, not when on me.

 

[Ann333]

Yep that pretty well sums it up! I really hope that helps. I know pooping was the first thing I wanted to work on haha that for me was worse than the biting lol.

 

[moonmoon]

yeah my main problem is him not liking the cage, i did what you said today for hours our play time involved his cage completely... he did great! he was in there and even stayed when i left.. but as soon as the door shuts thats it "meep meep meep" constantly lol. after some time i think it will be ok, especially if i rotate the toys, but for a first try today the idea has helped, thanks!

 

[Ann333]

That's great!! Also don't go giving him attention when he's calling for you. Completely ignore it. Eventually he will understand calling out doesn't do any good and will stop.

 

[Ann333]

Also one thing that has REALLY helped me is to go to the forums tab (at the top of the screen in blue) and scroll down the forums listed until you get to training. Open up the training forum and go through page by page and read all the threads that you think will be helpfull. There ir A LOT of good information already posted in old threads. Also you can use the search tool at the top in blue as well. I don't like the search tool though. Just reading through old threads helped me more

 

[Minimaker]

Unfortunately birds are flock animals and they want to be with you. If you bought a dog, you wouldn't lock him in a room and forget about him when he's a nuisance would you? You have a new baby, and adding a pet at this time is more than a challenge because babies take every ounce of everything you've got from birth to age 4. It wasn't the best time, but now that you've got him you could work on training him. Buy a bird training video and work on it. If you can't because of time constraints it might be best to take him back to the pet store you got him from because the next people who buy him might have the time you don't have because of your new baby who needs you the most right now. There's no shame in that, because it may be better for the bird and also for you.

 

[4dugnlee]

Does he by any chance have a playstand? My sun conure used to want to be on me all the time (which was fine by me..lol) We made a PVC playgym and now he will stay on me for a while, but then always goes to the playgym. He also goes to the playgym to poop. He does get me sometimes but, oh well. My sun was 5 years old when I got him so missed the puberty (well, I'm sure I won't miss "missing" it), but he does get hormonal. When he is hormonal I have the opposite problem where he won't leave his cage. I think with some training, rewarding positive behavior, and time, your little one will be ok. There are great training threads here on the forum. You may need to start from square one as far as the screaming for you and biting...but it can be done. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[tman007]

Moonmoon I have a gcc Andy first take a deep breath. Lets start with the poop see if you can make a perch outside his cage when you take him out put him on the perch and wait a minute and he will do the morning poop. As for the hard bites he is a baby and he test everything with his beak. Just grab his beak with two fingers tell him easy, it may take some time but it will help. As for him bitting you when you play with him he is trying to tell you the toy is his, he thinks you are trying to take it away from him. You my think you are playing but he doesn't. Now as for his sleep he needs to be were it is as quite as possible if he hears you ,you are keeping him up. He needs to go to bed at 4:30pm and stay covered up until at least 7:00am. Its winter and he needs to go to bed when the sun goes down, sorry my phone is going to die

 

[LeaKP]

Green cheeks are cheeky! Once that is harnessed, they are soooooo wonderful. I would suggest you not allow him on your head and shoulder until the "pecking order" is established (pun intended ha). A good compromise that worked for me was letting Peep on my knee. Now it's his preferred place but the shoulder is a swift second place.

 

[OneHorseRanch]

WHen my GGC gets to screaming we all just leave the room. He gets quiet after a while then he makes nice calling sounds and we come back in. My bird is going through stages that also make me wonder if I've made a mistake. he sure is sweet when he wants to be and really bad when he's bad. I kiss him on the head and tell him we'll be ok. He's about 1 1/2 now so I think my problem may be hormonal. When he gets to biting hard I just put him back to his cage or in his cage. He does a lot of beaking and he really likes his head rubbed, even then his attitude can change. We just have to be aware and not get angry with him. Good luck with your bird, they are needy little critters.

 

[moonmoon]

hi! sorry for the late reply! baby is here and everything is fine, i was just really worried thats all, i have time for them both since i get alot of help from my partner, as i said i could not bear to let him go, i love him too much. the pooping problem has been ok since he is in a routine of certain spots he likes to go, so i just put newspaper down and refresh them each day. a play stand has been really helpful and my new home is much much bigger so he is happy about more space. i have accepted the fact i have to get up to let him poop each day, i cant let him hold it in cause its bad for him.. but him not pooping in the cage makes it easier for me to clean i guess thats the bright side of it. the biting is under control unless he wants to cuddle he will nibble my fingers i was told these were a good "first bird" but i really dont think so lol, it has taken me alot of work to teach him the best way i can but it has paid off

 

[Lavalleer]

I've had my gcc for 6 weeks and he is now close to 6 mo. old. He had some of the same issues you are dealing with but has stopped most of them. He is out of his cage when I am home but when I am cooking he gets put back. He still cries for me and then he bangs on his toys when he doesn't get the attention he wants. I just ignore him and he eventually calms down and starts eating. He also bites when he is playing with his toys. I blow on his face when he does that. Time and consistency is what your little guy needs.

 

[aprilrayn]

I just wrote the longest reply cause my GCC sounds so similar! But it DELETED it!!! Gah. Will try to write it again later!

 

[Flboy]

I just wrote the longest reply cause my GCC sounds so similar! But it DELETED it!!! Gah. Will try to write it again later!

Funny, have done the same so many times, combination of late nights and early adult beverages!

Moonmoon, I know how overwhelmed you feel, even tho I am a 'tough guy' in my sixties, I have panic attacks worrying over JoJo! A GCC is a full blown parrot in a mini body and will die proving it if directly challenged. That same toughness also translates to a very loyal companion!
With a little work it gets better!