Conure overly attached

[Paulp1]

Let me start with some background first. Indy came into my life about 5 years ago when he flew into a friend's garage and landed in central minnesota. Despite many attempts to locate his old home no one ever claimed him. His age (and sex) is unknown but people familiar with conures say he seemed rather young. Up until 6 months ago he stayed in his cage while I worked or slept.

Six months ago I became quite sick and no longer work. For a number of weeks I could not even walk always and he spent most of the time out of his cage, even finding a perch near me to sleep.

We moved to a new single floor place this month, which was made even more traumatic as the day before the move he got outside during a storm and was lost for several hours. He was found a half a block away soaking wet walking on a nature trail. Way to wet too fly.

He has a developed a new quirk. If he is out of his cage he will not eat unless I go with him. The first couple of times he came to me making his "i need something" chirp I thought maybe I forgot to put food out. But no he just doesn't want to be away from me when I am home.

Any advice on how to get him to accept that he can't wat h me every second of his life?

 

[chris-md]

Hello and welcome!

Sounds like you both have had some real ups and downs lately!

Here’s the honest truth: your fighting nature on this one. What you describe actually describes a typical conure: clingy, needy, always wanting to be on or with you. I’ll bet he likely even screams or makes other noises when you leave his line of sight?

There are things you can do, primarily teaching him independent play, combined with station training.

However, what you are doing is trying to train away a natural behavior. Unlike dogs, with birds it’s usually a losing battle to one degree or another. You might see slight improvement but I expect you’ll probably have to adjust your expectations about how much change you can expect to see.

How do you make a golden retriever quit being so friendly? You can’t really - short of severe mistreatment. It’s just what they do, it’s who they are.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Hmmm let me see if I can find a post I made a while back about this exact subject. Ahh hear we go:

I have 2 conures. If I am at home...they are on me....I am at home a lot...they are on me a lot...this is what I look like if I am at home (yes they are potty trained):

Sometimes I look like this:

And sometimes I look like this:

Or this:

If I want to take a break this is what happens 1 to 5 minutes after I put him down to eat a piece of chocolate:

Your conure is normal....

I'd like you add that my 2 boys will not do anything but scream their heads completely off if I'm home and they aren't in the same room as me. My advice is you get some play stands or more cages and put areas around the house your little one can be safely on with food and water at each. Sounds like a lot of work right? Yeah...that's what a loving relationship is like with a conure, they are clingy and needy but also loving and so worth it. Your bond just got stronger suddenly and it's a good thing.

 

[Paulp1]

I've mostly gotten rid of the screams for me by replacing them with clicks. I've never raised a bird before so pretty much have had to work intuitively as the things my ex wife, who used to breed conures, didn't seem to work.

For his screeching, I took to clicking at him. Eventually he started clicking back and now when he wants my attention will normally make a clicking noise. When he was lost I was calling for him by name and could swear I heard his alarm yell in response, but couldn't find and I can't walk very good so I wasn't able to move much through the woods looking for him.(the neighbors dog found him)

He was real nippy when he first came to live with us. Not the preening nips or holding with the beak nips but hard painful ones. When other attempts to stop him failed I tried imitating the squawk he makes if you accidentally touch a new pin feather. He seemed to figure out right away that he was hurting me.

 

[Paulp1]

Thanks. I have more cages and stands for him but they are in storage right now as we just moved a week ago. Maybe once I get more of his stuff here he will feel a little more secure. It'll take some time as I'm limited in how much I can do now.

As an aside, I used to think the "emotional support pet" thing was a joke, even though my doc gave me a letter for him when a new apartment manager was insisting Indy had to go after living with me for 4 or 5 years with their knowledge. When he was lost and it looked like he might be gone forever I realized how much I had come to depend on him to help me deal with the changes in my life.

 

[BoomBoom]

Hello and welcome!

Parrots don't take to change very well. With the move and the stormy adventure, I think Indy's feeling a little disoriented. He's in a new place and you're his anchor and safe haven. Once he gets used to things he might feel a little more on confident. Having more of his stands and stuff out once you take them from storage will surely help make him feel more at home.

Until then, I'm sure he will appreciate having you closer than usual Best of luck and enjoy your time with Indy!