Confusing Conure behavior

[gracebowen]

What is going on here?
It seems like he wants scritches but when I try he bites.

 

[gracebowen]

[ame="https://youtu.be/Y9D4XdC4k2E"]Confusing Conure - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Jen5200]

Aw - he’s a cutie! I have two GCCs that are prone to biting and their body language looks very similar to what I saw in the video. With mine, I started approaching from the front rather than “from above” for scritches or to step up (both of those situations were very prone to triggering bites with mine). For step up - I would extend my finger slowly, out of reach of the beak and from a very low position and wait for a foot to lift (permission) and then move in slowly for a step up. For scritches - I don’t scritch on my shoulder anymore because I just can’t see the body language very well. I now bring my hand up lower, in front of them and sort of make a scritching motion a bit away from them (like thumb and forefinger coming together) and wait for the head to drop or lean in toward my fingers “yes please”. It’s working pretty well for us now that they’ve figured out what I mean and what they need to do to convey that they’d like their head scratched lol. And my fingers are grateful for the many fewer bites that I get. My suns are both much more relaxed about me just scratching them - my GCCs are prone to nipping and it seems to work better if I use this process with them (we both enjoy it much more lol).

 

[gracebowen]

Jenn I will give that a try. Thank you for helping.

 

[dhraiden]

He may be comfortable perching on your shoulder, but not recognize your hand as "part of" you, but another entity trying to disturb his being settled/comfortable.