Behxo
New member
Hello everyone! I'm new to the forums here so I hope that I'm posting on the correct board.
I recently just got a new green cheek conure named, Bowie. He or she (not yet sexed but I will just say "he" for now) was born on 9/30/16 and was brought home on 4/15/17, unfortunately from a pet store after I searched everywhere for a nearby breeder. (I wasn't comfortable with having one flown in from a different state and wanted to meet the bird first) He appears to be a very healthy, active little bird, eating/drinking well and playing with every toy also appearing very comfortable in his new home. Everything was great except the biting that I have been working on preventing, although I know it can take weeks to months to train. I'll give a little bit of additional information.
Bowie has a very large cage with a playtop covered with chew toys to stay in while I work 9am-5pm Monday-Friday. Once I get home around 5:10pm, he gets to come out to play from then till about 8-8:30pm for when he decides he's tired and goes to his cage to sleep and be covered with a blanket until about 8am. He did have a safer version of a happy hut for a bit but I removed it today. I do plan on taking him out more often and to work with me (a quiet and relaxed office environment) where his second cage is so he will have more play time and being socialized, but not doing so until he is 100% comfortable with me. Saturday and Sunday, he gets more time with me and out of the cage.
He gets one nutriberry in the morning fed from my hand through the bars of his cage, trying to familiarize him with my hands without biting. During the day he has vitaseed mixed with zupreme pellets in his dish (he avoids the pellets, attempting to slowly change to mostly zupreme rather than mostly seed) with fresh filtered water switched out twice a day. Once I get home, I feed him a mix of boiled sweet potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, and kale sometimes with crushed pellets to get him to eat them. He seems to very much enjoy it! Although some food still gets flung around haha.
Not sure if I should be serving mushy fruits and veggies because it's breeding season but if it's more "solid" it'll just get tossed by him. I will train him with 1-2 more nutriberry balls before bed to train "step up."
I start with my wooden ladder to use as step up, gets a treat, steps down, gets a treat... But sometimes he will see my hand using the ladder and will immediately go to train and attack it so I have to switch hands to distract because he will not even pay attention to the treat in my other hand or if I even try to use a toy. Sometimes he will do well with hand stepping up with no bites at all, while other times he will step up, but once he stops with eating the treat he immediately goes to bite. I do not put the ladder or my finger against his chest to try and make him do it if he doesn't want to, I simply out my finger somewhat near him, show the treat and ask so he will do so if he wants.
Other times, I will have him on a perch next to me while I play video games for him to exercise and be out. He will "fly" (clipped wings) to me and start to gently nibble on my hat which is fine, but recently a lot of the time he will make his way somewhere else and bite VERY hard, unprovoked on my neck, ears, anywhere there's skin. He will walk on down to my hand and start to nibble but then completely chomps down to the point that I bleed.
I've tried gently blowing on his face, I've tried the "earthquake" hand, and tilting to lose his balance to get him to stop but he just latches on. I've even gone the route to just completely ignore it and keep my hand still but he still makes me bleed so I have him step up on the ladder to go back onto his perch or in the cage if I have to get up and clean my wound.
I'm not doing a thing to provoke him to bite, not doing anything to make him do something that he doesn't want, I'm just simply sitting there. I'm a bit at a loss on what to do, I know he wants to be with me but I can't handle bleeding at his expense when I'm just minding my own business. Do I need to change his diet? Is this hormonal? Is it because of young age? Should I take him to the vet? Is there something else that I can do? I'm a bit at a loss and a little worried because I just want to be a good bird mom, having him live a full happy 30 years if he can live to be that old.
Thank you everyone for reading my very lengthy post, I'm hoping to receive some great advice.
I recently just got a new green cheek conure named, Bowie. He or she (not yet sexed but I will just say "he" for now) was born on 9/30/16 and was brought home on 4/15/17, unfortunately from a pet store after I searched everywhere for a nearby breeder. (I wasn't comfortable with having one flown in from a different state and wanted to meet the bird first) He appears to be a very healthy, active little bird, eating/drinking well and playing with every toy also appearing very comfortable in his new home. Everything was great except the biting that I have been working on preventing, although I know it can take weeks to months to train. I'll give a little bit of additional information.
Bowie has a very large cage with a playtop covered with chew toys to stay in while I work 9am-5pm Monday-Friday. Once I get home around 5:10pm, he gets to come out to play from then till about 8-8:30pm for when he decides he's tired and goes to his cage to sleep and be covered with a blanket until about 8am. He did have a safer version of a happy hut for a bit but I removed it today. I do plan on taking him out more often and to work with me (a quiet and relaxed office environment) where his second cage is so he will have more play time and being socialized, but not doing so until he is 100% comfortable with me. Saturday and Sunday, he gets more time with me and out of the cage.
He gets one nutriberry in the morning fed from my hand through the bars of his cage, trying to familiarize him with my hands without biting. During the day he has vitaseed mixed with zupreme pellets in his dish (he avoids the pellets, attempting to slowly change to mostly zupreme rather than mostly seed) with fresh filtered water switched out twice a day. Once I get home, I feed him a mix of boiled sweet potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, and kale sometimes with crushed pellets to get him to eat them. He seems to very much enjoy it! Although some food still gets flung around haha.
Not sure if I should be serving mushy fruits and veggies because it's breeding season but if it's more "solid" it'll just get tossed by him. I will train him with 1-2 more nutriberry balls before bed to train "step up."I start with my wooden ladder to use as step up, gets a treat, steps down, gets a treat... But sometimes he will see my hand using the ladder and will immediately go to train and attack it so I have to switch hands to distract because he will not even pay attention to the treat in my other hand or if I even try to use a toy. Sometimes he will do well with hand stepping up with no bites at all, while other times he will step up, but once he stops with eating the treat he immediately goes to bite. I do not put the ladder or my finger against his chest to try and make him do it if he doesn't want to, I simply out my finger somewhat near him, show the treat and ask so he will do so if he wants.
Other times, I will have him on a perch next to me while I play video games for him to exercise and be out. He will "fly" (clipped wings) to me and start to gently nibble on my hat which is fine, but recently a lot of the time he will make his way somewhere else and bite VERY hard, unprovoked on my neck, ears, anywhere there's skin. He will walk on down to my hand and start to nibble but then completely chomps down to the point that I bleed.
I've tried gently blowing on his face, I've tried the "earthquake" hand, and tilting to lose his balance to get him to stop but he just latches on. I've even gone the route to just completely ignore it and keep my hand still but he still makes me bleed so I have him step up on the ladder to go back onto his perch or in the cage if I have to get up and clean my wound.
I'm not doing a thing to provoke him to bite, not doing anything to make him do something that he doesn't want, I'm just simply sitting there. I'm a bit at a loss on what to do, I know he wants to be with me but I can't handle bleeding at his expense when I'm just minding my own business. Do I need to change his diet? Is this hormonal? Is it because of young age? Should I take him to the vet? Is there something else that I can do? I'm a bit at a loss and a little worried because I just want to be a good bird mom, having him live a full happy 30 years if he can live to be that old.
Thank you everyone for reading my very lengthy post, I'm hoping to receive some great advice.
