Dry skin/training

[BentleyandNori]

Hello all! I recently posted a question about my green cheek conure but I have two small questions to ask. I’m attempting to train my conure and I have a training stick and clicker I use. The problem is he bites and holds on to the stick every time we’re target training. (Sorry I don’t have a clip of that) I don’t want to reward him when he does that. I just want him to touch it once. Is there a better way to train him? I am new to parrots and I don’t see much online to help.

Secondly, he has been preening himself excessively every day. I attached a photo of him with what appears to be dandruff or dry skin. Is there anything that can be done about that? Thanks in advance!

 

[rheashard2]

Conures do have a bit of dust from downy? feather breaking down. It's kinda whitish and fine. It's definitely not the dust storm of a CAG. Birds preen and a lot of time. They remove dust, dirt, feathers if indicated. Depending upon size, breed this can be hours in any 24 hour period. A little misting with water will aid this process. Double check here where conure folk have posted about best diet for feather and total body health. It takes time to stick train/clicker train. It's not uncommon for the stick to be viewed with suspicions and as a threat. Be patient about acceptance; some will easily, some will slowly, some will eventually, some (like my CAG) will wait for you to get bored and arthritic fingers before she'll get on a stick.

 

[BentleyandNori]

Yes I wasn’t sure if this was just dust or not. The flakes just look a little large in my opinion but I honestly don’t know. I will wait to talk to the vet, but I just didn’t want him to be in discomfort until then. As far as the training stick I will continue to work with him. I just didn’t know if I should be rewarding him when he bites and chews on it. Thank you!