Conure Aggressive about Toys

[FloridaPeaches]

I've had Peaches for two months now and she is doing very well. She follows me everywhere and wants to be on my shoulder as much as possible. She is still nippy because she is so young, but I am teaching her that isn't acceptable and thankfully it's more of her testing her boundaries than just being aggressive. In the last week though she has become defensive about her toys, biting me when I touch or go near them. She will lunge at my hand and bite down as hard as she can. She has a small collection of seashells she loves to play with, (why wouldn't she? She's Florida girl after all.) and lately I've been giving them to her in her cage to play with. Yesterday she was in her cage and I opened the door to hand her her toys. She lunged at my finger, bit down and began throwing her head around without letting going. I was able to get her off thankfully because it felt like she would go all the way through my finger (which, I must say, is pretty amazing considering how small her beak is.) This is the first time she drew blood and that is completely unacceptable. I've always played with her toys so why is she suddenly so aggressive about it? I shouldn't be afraid to touch her toys, but I need to know how to correct her behavior. Has anyone else had this problem with young birds?

 

[FloridaPeaches]

Does anyone have any advice for me? I really need to know what to do!

 

[Jen5200]

My sun Baby sometimes gets that way about sea grass mats. I have no idea why, just a little over possessive about it maybe. Normally if any of mine get weird about a particular toy, I just remove it and put it out of sight for a couple of weeks then rotate it back in and see if it happens again. Mine are all older than Peaches, so I’m not sure if it’s a “baby” thing. If it’s with all the toys, then I might try playing with her outside the cage with them and see if it’s the same as inside the cage. I tend to move the toys around weekly, rotating them in and out so things don’t stay in one place long in their cages. I haven’t really seen a lot of possessive behavior with mine except with Baby and her darn seagrass play mats.

 

[FloridaPeaches]

My sun Baby sometimes gets that way about sea grass mats. I have no idea why, just a little over possessive about it maybe. Normally if any of mine get weird about a particular toy, I just remove it and put it out of sight for a couple of weeks then rotate it back in and see if it happens again. Mine are all older than Peaches, so I’m not sure if it’s a “baby” thing. If it’s with all the toys, then I might try playing with her outside the cage with them and see if it’s the same as inside the cage. I tend to move the toys around weekly, rotating them in and out so things don’t stay in one place long in their cages. I haven’t really seen a lot of possessive behavior with mine except with Baby and her darn seagrass play mats.

She does that with all her toys, that's the problem. And the weird thing is I do play with her with her toys outside of the cage and have done this since getting her, but now all of the sudden she won't allow me to touch her toys in or out of the cage.

 

[Tami2]

I agree with Jen. Could be toy or cage possessive or both.

Check this thread out:
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

Good Luck!

 

[Jen5200]

My sun Baby sometimes gets that way about sea grass mats. I have no idea why, just a little over possessive about it maybe. Normally if any of mine get weird about a particular toy, I just remove it and put it out of sight for a couple of weeks then rotate it back in and see if it happens again. Mine are all older than Peaches, so I’m not sure if it’s a “baby” thing. If it’s with all the toys, then I might try playing with her outside the cage with them and see if it’s the same as inside the cage. I tend to move the toys around weekly, rotating them in and out so things don’t stay in one place long in their cages. I haven’t really seen a lot of possessive behavior with mine except with Baby and her darn seagrass play mats.

She does that with all her toys, that's the problem. And the weird thing is I do play with her with her toys outside of the cage and have done this since getting her, but now all of the sudden she won't allow me to touch her toys in or out of the cage.

I do wonder if it’s a phase. I would try playing more “hands-off” games, like tossing toys to her or showing her something and then letting her have it. Have you tried any training with her? Mine really seem to get into doing things for treats and it is a more hands-off method of interacting that might tide you over until she gets past this. Target training, basic tricks - stuff like that. It might be helpful to engage her brain a bit - mine go thru bite phases and I often run them through their repertoire and it’s fun for all of us and doesn’t present opportunities for bites.

 

[FloridaPeaches]

​

I agree with Jen. Could be toy or cage possessive or both.

Check this thread out:
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

Good Luck!

That is very helpful, thank you!

 

[FloridaPeaches]

My sun Baby sometimes gets that way about sea grass mats. I have no idea why, just a little over possessive about it maybe. Normally if any of mine get weird about a particular toy, I just remove it and put it out of sight for a couple of weeks then rotate it back in and see if it happens again. Mine are all older than Peaches, so I’m not sure if it’s a “baby” thing. If it’s with all the toys, then I might try playing with her outside the cage with them and see if it’s the same as inside the cage. I tend to move the toys around weekly, rotating them in and out so things don’t stay in one place long in their cages. I haven’t really seen a lot of possessive behavior with mine except with Baby and her darn seagrass play mats.

She does that with all her toys, that's the problem. And the weird thing is I do play with her with her toys outside of the cage and have done this since getting her, but now all of the sudden she won't allow me to touch her toys in or out of the cage.

I do wonder if it’s a phase. I would try playing more “hands-off” games, like tossing toys to her or showing her something and then letting her have it. Have you tried any training with her? Mine really seem to get into doing things for treats and it is a more hands-off method of interacting that might tide you over until she gets past this. Target training, basic tricks - stuff like that. It might be helpful to engage her brain a bit - mine go thru bite phases and I often run them through their repertoire and it’s fun for all of us and doesn’t present opportunities for bites.

So far she has only learned to step up and I have been trying to train her to go back to her play top to go the bathroom. Worked well the last few days but now it isn't working at all. I know I need to train her tricks, but haven't chosen one yet that I think could be useful. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Jen5200]

Target training is probably the most useful. I trained mine to follow and touch the end of a chopstick as well as my finger so that I can ask them to go to a specific spot. We also play games with it sometimes to make it fun - up high, down low, tricky places. There’s lots of videos out there with different methods. I also ended up teaching mine to spin in a circle, bow, and wave. They really seem to enjoy it - they get treats and it makes them figure stuff out .