Advice wanted! Green-Cheek, with sordid past, bites!

[OhSoTalented09]

Hello All!

I am looking for some advice.

I recently got a Green Cheek Conure; I am his third home and he is under 1 year old. His first owner was a young girl who neglected him and left him up in her room all day alone since her mother did not like the noise (she was scared of him so never really interacted with him). His second owner is involved in the military and they had to move, so she only had him for 2 months. I was told by his second owner that he could be "a bit nippy." He is only semi hand-tame and is a bit cage aggressive.

A little nippy is vastly understating it! I allowed him time to settle in and get used to the other birds (a green cheek and 3 parakeets) from a distance before interacting with him. He does go on my hand, though he is learning step up. But I find that he will consistently try to bite! He is somewhat cage aggressive and will try to bite me though the bars; though he has learned that once he leaves my hand alone he gets a treat and that seems to work (he does take treats from my fingers and I am able to get his dishes out of the cage without him biting me, but he does bite the dishes). However, when I take him out and he goes on my hand willingly, sometimes he is fine, but other times he will be fine for only a little bit before suddenly biting my hand. Hard.

I sometimes think it happens because he wants another treat and it is all he thinks he can do, but sometimes he has a treat in his beak when he suddenly attacks!

I have tried showing him the back of my hand (but he tries to find soft skin), I have also put him down for a bit after he bites, but nothing seems to stick. Honestly, I am not sure if it is fear, anger at past neglect, or maybe we haven't formed a good enough trust bond yet, so I am looking for any advice you all can give!

He obviously wants love; he shows great interest in me (sleeping as close as he can to me, squawking when I leave the room, coming right to the edge of the cage when I am speaking with him). He is super cute and playful and can be loving, but I just don't know what to do with all of the biting!

TLDR: I have a Green-Cheek who is very bite-y and I am not sure what is truly causing it and what to do next!

 

[Laurasea]

Thanks for taking this guy on! Sure you will be the one who understands him and helps him past this.

He got a rough start, and learned biting was the only way. Yep it's going to take some time to get him past this, maybe months. But I 100% believe you can! As I have done when mine turned to biting from yep my mistakes.

On cage agression, I just would resoect that it's his cage, and work around that. Letting him out for cleaning and rearranging.

On the rest of the bites, you need to extra sensitive to his body language. Be very respectful of him. Work hard on trust. Keep up with a million bribes. Work on him waiting longer after a step up before he gets the treat. Keep bonding and talking to him. Keep showing him you understand him. Work hard on keeping yourself zen. He can read your mood. If you get frustrations, step back , get yourself centered again then start over. Keep in mind this is how he has learned to deal with people.Green cheeks are fearless and like to keep us inline with their beaks.

You are rehabilitating him, letting him know that people can be trusted, that you will pay attention to to his body language. From what you've said he does want to interact with you so that's a big plus.

 

[T00tsyd]

Syd was gorgeous until just over a year old and then suddenly he bit me as often as possible for no reason as far as I could see. Now at nearly 3 he doesn't bite anymore. The best advice I got was to simply not be available to be bitten. I found he would do anything for a sunflower seed and to this day if he is a bit grumpy I can lead him to wherever I want him by showing the seed. This guy sounds a bit lost. He has had a rough time and keeps changing flocks. He possibly feels very frightened.

 

[Laurasea]

This is from a post by EllenD, I saw it in an old post from 2018 that just got bump.
And I agree about respecting his one and only home base , his cage. My GCC and 2 Quakers are cage agressive, but sweeties out if them.
Ok here it is by EllenD
Bites in, by cage "the answer to that question is yes, or even yes 90% or more of the time, then it's most-likely a territorial issue about his cage...Remember that his cage is his "safe space", that's the only thing in that house that is all his and that no one else ever goes into, and some birds are just way more territorial/protective of their cages than others...Some species of parrots are pretty-much ALWAYS territorial over their cages, such as Quakers, which I can personally attest to, but it's also dependent on individual birds as well...And if Rhage is perfectly happy, friendly, gentle, and having fun once he's out of his cage and is only acting this way when you go to take him out of his cage (or rather when you put your hands/arm inside of his cage, that's probably the best way to think about this), then he's upset that you're invading his territory/safe-space...

***It's not so-much the "step-up" that is the issue, and it sounds like you've been approaching the problem with that thought-process, that his issue is that "He just doesn't want to step-up"...But if he's readily stepping-up when outside of his cage with no argument, then you have to think that it has nothing at all to do with him not wanting to "step-up", nor does it have to do with him not wanting to come out of his cage, which it also seems you've been thinking...as you said, "he has a great time once he's out of his cage"...So if you stop thinking of this issue in-terms of him not wanting to step-up and not wanting to come out of his cage, but rather he just doesn't want anyone's hands/arms inside of his cage, then you're going to be able to figure this out a lot more quickly and find a solution. Worth a try.

Basically you need to simply respect his territory and his "safe space" as being his and only his, and find another way to get him out of his cage. The best way that I've found with my female Quaker Parrot, who is now 3 years old and has been acting the exact same way from the age of 13 weeks old about her own cage, is to simply open-up the cage door and ask them "Do you want to come out and play?", or whatever you're wanting him to come out to do (they understand the differences between "play" and "shower" or "cuddle" or "eat", etc., so if you ask him if he wants to "come out" and do something he'll know what you're asking). At first when I started simply opening up Lita's cage door and waited for her to come out on her own, it took a while and it was important that I be patient. I would open her door up and say "Come on Lita, do you want to come out?", then I'd simply wait there for her to come out on her own, which would ALWAYS happen, but in her own time...However, once she figured out what I was asking her to do, she started doing it immediately (which probably took a couple of weeks for it to happen automatically). At first I think that she didn't know what to do when the door opened, like it was a trick or something...What helped tremendously was obviously Positive-Reinforcement with her favorite treat, which is a piece of granola...Doesn't have to be Rhage's "favorite" treat if you don't know what that is yet, but surely there is something you can reward him with as soon as he comes out of his cage on his own, plus lots of verbal praise.

So the key here is just to keep your hands/arms, well, basically YOU staying out of Rhage's cage and showing him that you respect his territory...Once he comes out of his cage on his own, which again may take a while and you'll have to be patient, then immediately start verbally praising him and offer him a treat that he likes in your open, out-stretched palm...This is important because his territoriality may also extend to the outside of his cage as well. So if he comes out of his cage but is sitting on the cage door, or climbs to the top, he may still be territorial..."

 

[noodles123]

My cockatoo was a re-home and she didn't want me to touch her for 1-3 months (3 was step-ups...and she knew how already).

You need to slow down and build trust--don't keep him locked up if you can help it (consider letting him out if you can find a way to safely do it without chasing or toweling him)---Mine went into her cage when she was ready for bed or when she wanted food, even though I couldn't touch her during that time...Consider blocking off parts of the house to make things less interesting (while still allowing him out)---AND block any high ledges or dark areas as that will make him less likely to want to return to his cage..
You will definitely have to become a student of his body language in order to avoid getting bitten.

 

[OhSoTalented09]

Hi Everyone! Thank you for your replies!!

To clarify; he does bite me even when we are in a completely different room than his cage! Sometimes he will be on the stick and sidle over to the hand holding said stick to try and bite it!

 

[T00tsyd]

Hi Everyone! Thank you for your replies!!

To clarify; he does bite me even when we are in a completely different room than his cage! Sometimes he will be on the stick and sidle over to the hand holding said stick to try and bite it!

LOL! He's certainly determined! I went through a spell of wearing a woolly hat to protect my ears, gloves to protect my hands and a scarf to protect my face. I looked pretty silly but I stopped getting bitten. It was worth it.

 

[Orin2017]

Many sympathies about the biting. I have a GCC that looks just like yours. She is intelligent, very emotionally bonded to me, and yes I have experienced biting under a variety of circumstances. Each circumstance is unique.

She used to love my wife and I equally and biting us was uncommon. Then my wife left the state for heart surgery and upon her return our GCC acted like my wife was THE ENEMY. Attacking out of the blue. Biting. This is a slow going process to reverse but here is what I have learned thus far.

Biting sometimes isn’t aggression. It is a bird using its beak as hand to climb. Sometimes she forgets how hard she can bite before the behavior is viewed by us as bad and punishable by time out. I made a small jail cell out of wooden dowels, which is boring and small. She doesn’t like it in there and I keep her incarceration short and contextual to biting. I won’t punish my GCC for using a beak as a hand. But she knows what “no biting” means and she reduces pressure when biting when we clearly communicate with our choice of words and our tone of voice, such as saying “soft!”

Right now my GCC regards my wife as the other woman, in an unwanted polygamous marriage in which my wife isn’t wanted. She will bite me if she thinks I am guilty of forcing her to accept broken boundaries with my wife. For instance, if I hold the bird too close to my wife, I’ll get bit, along with her, but I will know why. My GCC holds me responsible. It seems cruel to try and force my wives to get along (here I am referring to one wife as my GCC, since she obviously regards me as her husband). Yet progress has been made. There are no more unprovoked attacks, just jealousy bites.

Want to see someone get bit? Watch my wife come and try to love on me. My GCC will chase my wife away and even bite me for not exercising fidelity. No joke! Serious jealousy issues!




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