A few questions...

[HiroGcc]

Hi, I'm a first time parrot owner and I have a young green cheek hes been weaned about a week and a half now. I want to make sure I do everything right so I have a nice happy bird. So I have a few questions hopefully y'all can help me with some suggestions. First hes normally very sweet and cuddly loves to be scritched and petted however he constantly wants to be on my shoulder and head every time he goes to my shoulder or head I immediately remove him and put him somewhere more appropriate, however hes pretty determined and he will keep going back to my shoulders and head. So the question is should I be doing anything differently or will he eventually get the idea that hes not supposed to go on our heads and our shoulders?

Secondly usually right in the morning after I get up and I get all his breakfast together I take him out to eat, he eats on my desk usually I put him at his bowls and he will munch some then come back to me ( he likes to be with me as much as possible which is all the time) however in the morning he can be quite nippy also around 3:30 pm he gets nippy too. Not loving cute nippy but uncomfortable bordering on painful nippy so right now I'm ignoring it if they are quick bites but if hes on my hand and wont let go I quickly drop my hand a few inches to knock him off balance and distract him into letting go which he usually does ( I read somewhere that you should do this to stop them from biting it doesn't hurt them and its similar to if a branch of a tree were to give out). Normally it's a quick bite I generally chose to ignore. But when he has these nippy moods if its really bad I put him in his cage and praise him for going in (he doesn't like to go in his cage) then close the door and walk away. Usually I leave him for 15 minutes or so unless he falls asleep then I would leave him till hes ready to come back out. Am I doing the right thing or is there anything else I could or should be doing differently, anything that will stop the biting? I read that after weaning they have a nippy stage and with patience they get over it. Is that what this is or am I looking at a nippy problem that I should be working on fixing right quick before it becomes bad?

 

[Auggie's Dad]

It sounds like you are approaching these situations well and you have a happy healthy conure. They ARE nippy - there is much we can do to minimize it, but having some nippy-times does not seem to be a sign of anything other than conure ownership.

One thing I'd recommend though is to make sure he gets enough sleep - not only at night, but a good long nap during the day is good too. Instead (or in addition to) putting him in his cage when he gets nippy, put him down for a nap BEFORE he gets nippy.

It sounds like it's somewhat predictable: if he gets in a 'mood' around 3:30 every day then put him in for some quiet time around 3 then come back at four.

As for the shoulders - persistence is key, they will catch on in time.

 

[Beilana]

I know with Hiroshi he gets nippy around the same time, very hyper and playfully so. Auggies Dad offered very good advice. Good sleep and naptimes are important!

Another thing you can do is offer him something else to chew on, I recommend drinking straws. Hiroshi LOVES them. I tie them in knots and he takes his time untying them. You can also tie them around treats or other interesting things

 

[Auggie's Dad]

When I see Auggie getting in one of his moods I hand him my keys - he beats the $#*! out of them for a few minutes, throws them across the room, then he's calm.

I don't know how it doesn't hurt though: he picks up the keys and thrashes them from side to side so they keep hitting him in the head.

 

[HiroGcc]

Yes I think I read in another post about your keys and I offered mine up but he didn't seem to like them at all, maybe they were too noisy. I had a crunched up ball of paper I was offering him because he really likes to rip paper but today his poops were loose in the first half of the day and I was concerned it might have been the paper so I took it away. Then he started chewing my hydro bill which I just laughed at and told him I feel the same way about that bill lol. I will do the nap thing though, that sounds like a good idea he usually falls asleep on me around 3 but then the kids come home and he gets woke up and cranky. He likes to sleep on my chest with my hand over his body while I rub his neck and sometimes his beak. We put him to bed around 9-9:30 at night because the kids get up around 7:30-8 am to get ready for school. His cage is in the living room and we cover it with a sheet for sleeping. We don't use the living room at night so its a nice dark quiet place to sleep.

 

[GreenCheek]

As far as the head/shoulders thing, it really is a hard habit to break. But with consistancy (must be every single time he gets up there!), he should eventually stop. I personally really don't like the idea of shouldering any bird. It's too dangerous IMO.

And when I first got my gc Cody (around 3 months old) he was a huge biter! But I used a method similar to the one you're using, and that's the "earthquake method" where you just wobble your hand. It stopped Cody's biting in a matter of days. Now, he still nips. And that's just being a green cheek! But the constant, painful pressure bites are a thing of the past, or just special for when he gets very angry!

 

[Beilana]

Then he started chewing my hydro bill which I just laughed at and told him I feel the same way about that bill lol..

hahahaha!!! Smart little bugger eh

 

[Birdamor]

Sometimes people confuse beaking with nips and nips with bites. I have my own definition of each and I'll share them with you, it might help you decide which one he is doing and why:

Bites are when you can see by the bird's body language that he is mad and wants to hurt you. This could be by the obvious action of flying or running out to you and attacking your face, head, nape, shoulders, hands, feet, etc. or it can be determined through the display right before the action. The displays vary from one species to another (like an amazon fanning his tail and pinning his eyes, an ekkie's intent and unwavering stare from a frozen body position, a grey's puffing up, a too erecting his crest and sticking out his chest, etc.) but, conures, in my personal experience, are the 'obvious' kind, they will fly/run out and attack you. Bites also break the skin and can come with or without prior provocation from the human.

Nips are also called love bites. They don't break the skin and they are actually a sign of love and a warning and not real aggression. This warning could be a "Watch it, buster" (like a woman would stick an elbow hard in her husband's middle when she sees him looking at another woman -birds do this when they don't want you to pay attention to anybody else but themselves or when they feel you are not paying them enough attention even though there is no 'competitor' around); a "BE CAREFUL!" (like when you would grab your kid's arm and pull him back hard because he was going to cross the street without looking both ways -birds do this when they perceive a danger and want you to call your attention to it, like when a stranger or somebody they don't really trust walks into the room or comes near you); or a "Leave me alone!" (like when you push somebody out of your face because he/she is pestering you and you are simply NOT in the mood -birds do this when you are asking them to do something they just don't want to do, like stepping up or going back to their cage or whatever -sometimes, cantankerous older birds will bite you when you pester them but babies are never cantankerous).

Nips or love bites are never out of the blue and they don't break the skin. People sometimes think that the bird just went and bit them for no good reason but this is never really true, there is always a reason only people don't see it. And, even though they are called nips or lovebites and they don't usually break the skin, it doesn't mean they don't hurt. They do. They are not meant to but they do. But this is because we have no thick coat of feathers to protect our skin - other birds, on the other hand, would not really feel much when they get nipped so the harm doesn't come from their intention, it comes from our been 'naked' birds -our bad, not theirs

Bites from real aggression don't necessarily have to be a reaction to something that happened just before the bite. Sometimes, when birds have been abused or neglected, they lose their trust in people and fear and/or hate them and they will attack people who never did anything to them just because they are people. But, again, this never happens with babies.

Then there is beaking and that is, in my personal opinion, what babies go through right after weaning. Birds use their beak the same way that babies use their mouth, to explore and to learn how to recognize objects, textures, tastes, etc. Beaking is not meant to be painful but sometimes it is, same as a baby biting your chin hard can hurt you to the point that your eyes fill up with tears. They simply do not know their own strength and/or the consequences of applying too much pressure but they learn to be gentle as they get older. Birds also use their beaks as a third hand and will hang on to you when they feel insecure (like when you are moving them from one place to another and they can't or won't fly -when they are fully flighted, they just take off instead of grabbing you and hanging on by their beaks). And last but not least, babies beak you when they are hungry. You said your baby weaned a week and a half ago and, going by the usual math, he should be around 13 to 14 weeks old but babies still receive supplemental feeding by their parents even after they are eating on their own so it is possible he is just trying to tell you he is hungry.

So, if I were you, I would observe him very carefully and take note of what was going on prior his nip/bite/beaking, see if you can figure out what he is really doing and, if it is a nip (I really do not think he is biting you), try to avoid whatever you identify as the trigger in the future (it always works out better when you adjust to them than when you try to make them adjust to you). I would also offer him a bit of formula twice a day (mid-morning and mid-afternoon) to see if it was just hunger. Plus, I would put him to bed much earlier than 9 pm because, by then, it's night already and all little birds should go to sleep with the sunset and wake up with the sunrise.

As to wanting to be with you all the time and climbing on your shoulders, well, that's what all parrots do, especially babies. Babies are never alone, they have their parents in attendance all the time, they have their brothers and sisters to keep them company and to cuddle with in the nest (they actually pile up one on top of another and, even when the nest is big, they are all huddled together as tight as they can make it in one little corner) and they have all the other birds in the flock to make them feel secure. And, although you don't say exactly how old your baby is, if he was weaned only a week and a half ago, he is still a very young baby (going by the usual math, he should be 13 or 14 weeks old) and he would want/need to be with his mommy all the time. One human mommy is not as good as bird daddy, mommy, siblings and flock but you are all he has. And the shoulder thing, well, that's because parrots are highly intelligent animals and know that our face is the window to our spirit. They look into our eyes, they try to feed us or be fed from our mouths, they preen our hair, they kiss our cheeks, they bump our noses with their beak, etc. And the shoulder is the only place where they can reach your 'window' and show their affection in a intimate, physical way so who can blame them for wanting to perch there? Not me!

 

[HiroGcc]

Birdamor thats a great explanation, going by what you said hes given us some decently hard warning nips and maybe a couple oops i didn't know my own strength nips. Usually he is very sweet and today was really good he only nipped hard one time when I was taking him off my head. In the morning when he first comes out he likes to fly from person to person I think hes streatching his wings maybe some before breakfast excersize my guess is the previous days we tried to handle him too much and get him to stay at his food which he was telling us to back off and let him fly around a bit first because thats what he did today and then went ahead and happily munched his pellets after awhile. I put him down for a nap today before he got nippy, he was a bit mad at first being in the cage but after a few minutes he settled down and did his own thing. Today was the last day of school here so my kids wont be getting up till 9 or 10 am (hopefully) the sun doesnt go down till around 9pm here and before that hes still ina good mood and not cranky or nippy. He takes alot of small naps on my chest throughout the day. I think yesterday he was especially cranky because we had severe thunderstorms most of the night with a tornado watch in effect and he didnt quiet down till after 11pm but today he was really well behaved and only nipped me hard once.

 

[HRH Di]

Birdamor is right on target with the "definitions" of biting/nipping/"tasting". Your bird's body language is really pretty easy to interpret. Max gives fair warning that he's going to bite and he only does it for a few very good reasons, so it's easy to avoid.

Jade is a bit vindictive if you do something she doesn't approve of and can be nippy then., but these are little pinches. I was having a hard time with her biting me when I got home from work and let her out of my cage. I realize now that she missed me and these are actually "kisses" with a little bit of a reprimand for being gone so long. She's young and, I think, at these times, bites harder than she means to. She's gotten much better about it, the past week or so.

I'm currently trying to figure out why Popcorn the cockatoo is biting so much. We're just "bird sitting" for a few weeks, but he's drawn blood on both of my boys. He hasn't bitten me or really even tried to. I'm beginning to think it's just "new home" stress. He also had a BFF at his previous home who he was with his whole life, Milo the B&G. I think he may be in mourning.

 

[HiroGcc]

well I have lost the battle of the bird on my head, however when i put my hand up there he no longer holds on for dear life making me pull my hair out from between his birdie toes now he usually steps up and if he doesnt i put my hand behind him and gentle push him towards my hand and he steps up. The shoulder thing is going ok hes a smarty pants though and he will sit on my upper arm which isnt close to my face so i let him sit there but when he thinks you might not be paying attention he will scoot onto your shoulder, I just take him off and put him in a more appropriate place. ive also started having him fly to me when i call and potty training, id say right now 75% of the time I call him he flys to me. A good portion of the time I am able to get him to poop at his perch and he usually poops withing a few seconds of me saying "poop". Hes flown to his perch one time on his own just to poop so there is definatley progress but I think we have awhile more to go with the potty training. The morning nippyness is gone and during the day when hes about to have a nippy moment i can usually tell and i distract him with his toys or unusual sounds. the rest of the family isnt so good at being able to tell and sometimes they get nipped but thank god my kids are resiliant because they are not afraid of him at all. Hiro absolutely hates my budgies and if they are out at the same time he will charge them and try to attack he also likes to poop on their cage.We cover the top of the budgie cage because he likes to go on top and taunt them and they go up and fight with him and I don't want any birdie injuries to happen. I also just built him a fantastic perch thingy i will take pics soon he only has about 4 toys on it right now but i found a great website with tons of ideas for making homemade toys perches swings etc. my perch cost approx 12 dollars to make and he absolutley loves it.

 

[herper]

newbie question time. why s the head and shoulder a bad perching area, and where on the body is ok?