Advice On Stressed Out Conure!!

[ParrotMomma]

Hi! Okay, so I have a male Jenday Conure who will be one year old in March. I've been with him since he was a hatchling and this is my first "big" upgrade from raising Budgies. He is the only bird I own. I have tried introducing another bird, but had to give her up due to the fact that she was stressing him out and he had complications with her (she went to a good home, don't worry). I love my noisy baby, but sometimes I can't clearly understand what I need to do. Over time he has gotten too attach to my family and I, this isn't a bad thing, but when I leave for work it seems to make him really upset because as soon as he hears me or anyone come home, he tends to scream from the top of his lungs until we get him. I started trying to correct this by letting him come out, but only letting him perch my hand when he stops screaming or turns around on command. I have questions on how to play with him, he nibbles A LOT, for some reason he lets me pet him, but then will start nibbling my fingers. It didn't used to be an issue, but now its every time. I buy him lots of wood chew toys, but fingers are still an option to him. I want to know how to lower his energy as when we "play" he seems to get overly excited and any fingers at that point will be as i say "beaked". Are there any simple games to help entertain them? He also doesn't seem to pay much attention and prefers to do as he pleases and likes giving "kisses". Another problem that seems to have emerged is that I think he has stressed feathers. Also one of his tail feathers seems "crushed" and another has parts where it looks transparent. What is it that I can do to better the health and behavor of my feathered friend?
Also I had gotten his wings clipped in the beginning to prevent him from flying and hurting himself as we gets excited, but even though one wing seems to be growing it out, the other still hasn't shown signs of wing growth.
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[Allee]

Welcome to the forums! Your Jenday sounds like an adorable little character. The tail feather probably broke while he was climbing around his cage, the feather will molt out and be replaced. The transparent feathers you mention could just be worn or maybe it's from being handled a lot. Feather condition can also be from an incomplete diet. The feathers in the second photo look very healthy except for the broken one and that's nothing to worry about.

You could try some new bonding excercises, try to make the time he has out of his cage the highlight of his day. Change things around a little, maybe move his cage, change his perch and toy arrangement.

A lot of people have had good results with clicker training if you haven't looked into it already.

http://www.parrotforums.com/training/60435-clicker-target-training.html

Sometimes when things go off track a little it helps to go back to basics. Here's a great article to help you get started.

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

Best of luck, I hope you find the answers you need.

 

[EllenD]

Welcome! Yes, the Jenday, Sun, and Patagonian conures are quite loud! I have only personally owned green cheeks, who are supposed to be the "quiet conures", but I'm starting to believe there is no such thing as my guy screams quite a lot. So don't think your Jenday is abnormal, they all pretty much scream when they want something, so when you get home he's really excited and wants out of his cage...Can I ask, where do you keep his cage? From the way you described that you "go get him out" it sounds like you have him in a room away from the main living room of your house. My first suggestion would be to move his cage to the main, most active room of your house, where there are usually people. This does a few things, it will allow him to always see what's going on and always be with people, so that you coming home and him getting to see you or other people will not be as huge a deal as it is now, and I guarantee a lot of the screaming will stop. It will also help tremendously to socialize him, which will probably help the nipping and his problem with not playing alone but rather always needing attention. If he's in the main, active room of the house where the people usually are then seeing people will become less of a huge deal and he will stop needing to see where everyone is and craving so much attention. So he will start playing with his toys on his own and stop being so needy, so to speak. It will definitely lessen the screaming for attention. Right now he feels like he is secluded from the rest of the house, he feels left out, he can't see what's going on, and this is why he's screaming for attention, and not entertaining himself. Once he's in the main room with people just around him constantly he will do his own thing. I would at least try it for a month, move his cage to your living room or TV room, wherever people spend most of their time. You can always cover his cage at bed time and continue watching TV or talking, as soon as they are covered they go to sleep and you generally won't bother him.

I would also make sure he has a ton of toys and that most of them are different foraging toys he can chew on, rip apart, and search for treats in. They need a job to do to keep busy or they get very bored very easily and then they scream. Also, the more he chews and rips apart toys the less he'll chew on other things and people. Petco sells this stuff that looks like a multicolored paper rope. It's on the wall with the bird toys and you get a pretty large roll of it cheaply. You can string it all around his cage, through the bars, and he'll spend hours just trying to get it out of his cage bars. My Senegal parrot is a chewer and he absolutely loves this stuff. Also a cardboard box filled with different kinds of paper crumpled up, pieces of cardboard, any bird safe material that you can fill the box up with that he can shred works awesomely! You hide his favorite treats throughout the box, inside the crumpled pieces of paper, and put the box at the bottom of his cage. He'll spend hours ripping the balls of paper apart looking for the treats!

It seems as though he's acting like a pretty typical conure, he needs more contact with people, out of cage time is great, but just having his little house where the people are will set him at ease. His tail is pretty typical of an active parrot, my Quaker's tail feathers look similar, my Cockatiel's tail is awful from bad landings, and my green cheek conure's tail is the same from the Quaker preening it for him. Your jenday's tail looks like he may be chewing on it a bit in that area that's curled a bit. Again I think that's from him being a bit stressed from being segregated from where his people are, and from not being entertained/having enough to entertain him. This should also improve by moving his cage into the main room of your house and giving him more toys that are stimulating to him. If he's bored and frustrated because he can't see you or isn't with everyone he will start to chew feathers and overpreen.

You are doing the right thing by not giving him what he wants when he's screaming, you never want to go to him when he is screaming, only when he stops. If you have him out and he's on your hand and he nips you, just quietly put him down immediately. You can say "Ouch" and then put him down, that way he will associate "ouch" with him biting people and then ignoring him. You just have to stick to not giving in to him when he's screaming because he wants you, and by ignoring him every time he nips. Just say "ouch", put him down, and walk away out of the room for 5 minutes. Don't put him back in his cage as you don't want him to think of his cage as punishment, just walk away or sit on the other side of the room for 5 minutes, then try again. If he nips again then do the same thing...he'll get it. Once again though, I guarantee if you move his cage to your main room the nipping will lessen too.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[ParrotMomma]

Thank you for the replies! I actually keep his cage in the living room. I will try doing the "ouch" thing and going back to the basics. Thank you so much for easing my mind on his feathers.

 

[davefv92c]

cage placement is a big deal in their world. our U2 did not like being in a window and wanted the drapes shut, moved him to a more centered spot in the living room and now he leaves his cover alone and I'm able to open the front of the cover and shove it back instead of having to remove it all the way everyday which is a chore to put back on everyday. I only push it back half way cause he likes the darkness it creates for his daytime napping in the back corners. he has also started to let us know with a scream or 2 in the eve when he wants covered up, and I don't hear from him again till morning when he whines to get uncovered. all of em are different Maxx loves his window and if I forget to open the drapes and blinds in the morning he sure lets me know about it. I think he enjoys watching the stray cats in the neighborhood, the lady next door feeds them and his window faces their area a real PITA dealing with tom cats fighting on my porches and stuff. she is a little off and a pet lover when her dog passed she buried him in a garden and had a real tombstone made up and put out to mark his resting place just says Skipper on it. i would never complain as someday we will all be old and a little off. hell I'm halfway there now. lol lot of things can stress them out figuring what it may be can sometimes be hard. mine don't seem to like anything large and new i bring into the living room small stuff to if it is noticeable enough. got out a mini drone i bought a while back and was flying it around in the kitchen area and they did not seem to be bothered but all where keeping a good eye on it i guess maybe tryin to figure out what kind of bird it was. when it entered the cage area of the living room they all freaked so it got landed and put back away so it was not being looked at and all went back to normal in a few minutes.
i did have a big cage setback with Maxx when i moved him from a 32'' octagon cage due to not being big enough to a 40''x 32'' i was real dumb as i did not give him anytime to look at it i put it together right in front of him decorated it and put him right in it. after being on these forums I'm learning stuff like this,and i now recognize what was wrong when this happened.

great place
thanks