How long did it take for your conure to be fully trained?

Brooklyn12

Member
Jan 16, 2021
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So I've had my green cheek conure since end of January of this year. He was born in November and is 9 months old. My first conure , he's a good boy, loves to cuddle and is a little clumsy which i love him for. He knows quite a few tricks , still has his moments where he nips but not hard thankfully and of course has his moments where he is the loudest bird ever but that comes with the territory lol. My question is how long did it take for some of your conures to be fully or pretty close to fully trained. I get a little discouraged at myself when he acts out ( going thru my hair and randomly nipping my neck, randomly biting my hand) and even tho I correct him right away it gets to me. I know every bird is different but I'm just wondering how was/is it for everyone else. I feel I'm doing a good job but can't help but feel I am not sometimes lol. Any stories/advice id greatly appreciate.
 
Going thru your hair and randomly nipping your neck are not behaviors to be trained away. Even the randomly biting your hand most likely not too.

You just need to consistently work on Bite Pressure Training. DEvelop the command "Be Gentle." Remember they don't have hands, so they use their beaks where a human would use their hands. When birds interact with each other, they learn the right pressure to use because they gently correct each other.
Also green cheeks are known to be a little bit nippy in general. Bite pressure training is really good because you don't want to attempt to Extinguish a strongly built-in behavior, you just want to re-direct it. What Should happen is that you should only get actual nips IF the bird actually Wants to nip you for communication.... and, as you get to know the bird's personality well, and other than hormonal times, that should not happen Too often.

So work on Bite PRessure Training, to help your bird learn how best to use his beak.
 
What is fully trained? I am not sure that exists. If your little one is only 9 months then I am afraid you have the most testing time still to come. Soon he will experience his first hormone changes and then everything might well change. When Syd was about a year old he started to bite with a vengeance and changed from a cuddly angel to a blood drawing demon. Be ready! He got over it eventually (weeks) but at the time I was terrified. The info here was that he didn't know what to do with himself. It was tough for a time but now aged 4+ we have a lovely relationship where he understands. Take your time, put work in now before hormones hit on bite pressure training etc but don't be too surprised if it all goes out of the window for a while. I don't think Syd was what I call reliable until he was over 2yrs. Having said that my 2 yr old grandson was here yesterday and really loves him but I won't let him near the cage with those little fingers.

The best piece of advice as an afterthought. Learn his body language. Know when his mood changes and be prepared to get out of the way.
 
Excellent advice above. Training actually never ceases, because like humans, parrots never stop learning. THey can be 'trained' to do some action, but they will stray from the script and you might need to reinforce. And every parrot progresses at their own pace, depending on the trick or action. Example: Salty learns new tricks often in 1 or 2 sessions, it's pretty amazing to watch him think thru the trick and just do it. However, it took us a whole YEAR+ to get him to put a harness on with out wigging out, and he still will balk and pretend he doesn't know what I am asking for, sometimes. And, parrots will 'cheat' if given the opportunity. Oh yes. Takes a pretty smart animal to do that. Just remember to be consistent in how you communicate with him, lest they dont understand.
 
they are all different. GCC use that beak to keep you in line. Mine could bite me many times a day, but I read her and avoid 99% of nips I've had her 8 years we cuddle she us awesome, then fir a second she thinks my hand is going to kill her, I pause a few seconds, then we go on nicely no Bite. If I bump a feather wrong she is ready to bite, I say oops sorry, she vocally scolds me, we wait, then she us over it and sweet. If I did not read her I'd be bloody every day!! Its a continue conversation of body language . But she has a rock star personality and I live her. I just think of her more like a cat, pet me pet me, I'm going to kill you, ok Pet again lol you know?
 
Laura, I like your avatar idea so much... I may steal it. IF I can figure a wat to take a photo of my right hand holding a brush while using my right hand to work the camera...

This is a fun thread!
 
I left an important point out of my earlier post in reply. I put that Syd understands but actually much more important is that time has taught me and now I understand. Syd is 'domesticated' superficially but his spirit is still wild. His reactions to any perceived threat is extreme but then he knows his life depends on it. We have both learned our boundaries but that has taken a time of trial and error. We can now hold conversations about our behaviour where we have both learned to say 'I'm sorry' and we both accept forgive and move on.

Today he suddenly decided while watching me wash up to fly into the soap suds and hot water. It hadn't occurred to me that he would make that decision. He squawked, took off and landed on his play perch. I had only moments before prep'd a bath for him in his cage and grabbed him to dunk him in the clean cold water. Let's just say that I wasn't flavour of the week! He bit everything of mine that he could find, luckily for me not drawing blood. Speed was my only concern.

A few minutes later locked in his cage with him looking at me with an evil eye and me watching him for any adverse affects he suddenly said 'I'm sorry baby' I knew then he was fine and with that he set about having a proper bath much to my relief. He has just had his favourite treat!
 
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What is fully trained? I am not sure that exists. If your little one is only 9 months then I am afraid you have the most testing time still to come. Soon he will experience his first hormone changes and then everything might well change. When Syd was about a year old he started to bite with a vengeance and changed from a cuddly angel to a blood drawing demon. Be ready! He got over it eventually (weeks) but at the time I was terrified. The info here was that he didn't know what to do with himself. It was tough for a time but now aged 4+ we have a lovely relationship where he understands. Take your time, put work in now before hormones hit on bite pressure training etc but don't be too surprised if it all goes out of the window for a while. I don't think Syd was what I call reliable until he was over 2yrs. Having said that my 2 yr old grandson was here yesterday and really loves him but I won't let him near the cage with those little fingers.

The best piece of advice as an afterthought. Learn his body language. Know when his mood changes and be prepared to get out of the way.
Thanks so much for the advice . I had a tiel for 14 years before my GCC and I sometimes compare the two even tho they are completely different and one had 14 years around myself and my family.
I’m trying to just take up a bunch of knowledge as I can, and from the comments body language seems to be the biggest thing which I of course will learn with time.
 
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I left an important point out of my earlier post in reply. I put that Syd understands but actually much more important is that time has taught me and now I understand. Syd is 'domesticated' superficially but his spirit is still wild. His reactions to any perceived threat is extreme but then he knows his life depends on it. We have both learned our boundaries but that has taken a time of trial and error. We can now hold conversations about our behaviour where we have both learned to say 'I'm sorry' and we both accept forgive and move on.

Today he suddenly decided while watching me wash up to fly into the soap suds and hot water. It hadn't occurred to me that he would make that decision. He squawked, took off and landed on his play perch. I had only moments before prep'd a bath for him in his cage and grabbed him to dunk him in the clean cold water. Let's just say that I wasn't flavour of the week! He bit everything of mine that he could find, luckily for me not drawing blood. Speed was my only concern.

A few minutes later locked in his cage with him looking at me with an evil eye and me watching him for any adverse affects he suddenly said 'I'm sorry baby' I knew then he was fine and with that he set about having a proper bath much to my relief. He has just had his favourite treat!
Time and experience , I’m glad he knew it was a misunderstanding !
Excellent advice above. Training actually never ceases, because like humans, parrots never stop learning. THey can be 'trained' to do some action, but they will stray from the script and you might need to reinforce. And every parrot progresses at their own pace, depending on the trick or action. Example: Salty learns new tricks often in 1 or 2 sessions, it's pretty amazing to watch him think thru the trick and just do it. However, it took us a whole YEAR+ to get him to put a harness on with out wigging out, and he still will balk and pretend he doesn't know what I am asking for, sometimes. And, parrots will 'cheat' if given the opportunity. Oh yes. Takes a pretty smart animal to do that. Just remember to be consistent in how you communicate with him, lest they dont understand.
That’s so cool to hear. I believe Yoshi is the same way, he seems to understand the trick pretty fast , after 1 to 3 tries he understands what I’m asking of him. I will be sure to stay consistent with everything I do with him especially with how I communicate with him. Thanks for the advice 😀
 
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Going thru your hair and randomly nipping your neck are not behaviors to be trained away. Even the randomly biting your hand most likely not too.

You just need to consistently work on Bite Pressure Training. DEvelop the command "Be Gentle." Remember they don't have hands, so they use their beaks where a human would use their hands. When birds interact with each other, they learn the right pressure to use because they gently correct each other.
Also green cheeks are known to be a little bit nippy in general. Bite pressure training is really good because you don't want to attempt to Extinguish a strongly built-in behavior, you just want to re-direct it. What Should happen is that you should only get actual nips IF the bird actually Wants to nip you for communication.... and, as you get to know the bird's personality well, and other than hormonal times, that should not happen Too often.

So work on Bite PRessure Training, to help your bird learn how best to use his beak.
I will for sure work on Bite pressure with him, he’s a smart bird when it comes to learning and understanding. I will be sure to work on it with him starting today . Just going to brush up on some threads on here explaining them more in detail. Thanks for your advice , it is much appreciated 😄
 

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