I think I led my SC on and now she's nippy

[kitsune]

Hi folks! New sun conure owner her! We love Pickles parrot, (s)he's a red factor. Pickle-pepper is a goofy, affectionate, active little bird of about 3.5 months. I read online that they start looking for mates at around 4 months.

We got "him" recently - no DNA test, the seller said "probably a male." Well...I've been doing research online and Pickles' behavior seems like a horny young female trying to nest. (S)he is super friendly with my husband and father-in-law but bonded most strongly to me. She started playing in the couch cushions and it was so cute we let her, but my husband thinks she is possibly vent-rubbing the pillows and trying to nest. My husband said he saw her trying to vomit for the pillow and she tried to vomit for me once too. She will put her butt in my face and raise her tail up and down, and flap her wings at me when we are cuddling. I made the mistake of letting her nibble on my teeth every day and I have fed her warmish food from my hand regularly mimicking regurgitation. We also made the mistake of petting her on her wings too, now she only gets head scratches. We don't want to encourage hormonal egg laying behavior.

When we mess with her couch-pillow-cave she will lunge and bite us. We took her pillows away from the couch since she was getting pillow-cave-aggressive and she got pretty mad and bites us when we all hang out near her former pillow cave. I can kinda redirect her bites onto toys and towels and I know she still loves us, but I think she feels like I "led her on" by making her think she's my mate. She sometimes bites me when I am hanging out with both her and my husband. She doesn't draw blood but I don't want her to become a nippy maniac because we are total newbs at bird ownership.

Any thoughts? We love our Pickles Parrot but I'm afraid we taught her to bite when she was a baby because it was so cute and she is clearly exploring the world through her mouth. I have waaaay more experience with dogs than birds, but I am discovering dog psychology differs somewhat from bird psychology. oops.

Suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

 

[itzjbean]

Oh, I love red factor suns!

But you are incorrect in that they 'try to look for a mate at 4 months old'. This is simply not true. They are still babies at this age, and don't reach sexual maturity until 18-24 months. More typically you will see them start to pick a favorite person and exhibit hormones around the year age....so your sun is still way too young to be showing any 'nesting' behavior. What you are seeing is a common conure thing, they like to pick a favorite person and yes, will regurgitate to show affection.

They learn to regurgitate for their friends, toys, etc. but any age parrot can do this, babies included! It's a sign of affection in the bird world. Not necessarily a sexual maturity thing or looking to nest. They just like having close bonds with their flock, and you and your husband are now her flock.

My baby will flap suddenly too just randomly, when we cuddle, too. I think it's just a sign of excitement personally.

Birds like playing in cool places, and mine will get aggressive/beak/bite when he doesn't want to leave. So what's more likely is that your sun conure is telling you she's going to have things her way! But as humans we need to show them that this is not acceptable and that behavior will not be tolerated so its good you moved the pillow cave stuff.

Birds bite for a number of reasons, and it's important to get to the bottom of why she's biting. With the honeymoon phase over, birds start to see what they can get away with, and will get upset when they are no longer allowed to do something they want to do. They'll learn. Just be consistent and develop a routine for when she bites. (put her in a dark room in a carrier for 5 minutes for time out) and she'll learn to behave.

 

[kitsune]

Thank you that's all very helpful information. I am trying to inform myself as much as I can about how to understand our baby's behavior because she really is delightful.

 

[LeslieA]

First, red factor Suns are BEAUTIFUL, so congratulations!!! Most red factor Suns are female, so I'll be saying she. What you're most likely experiencing is her regression to chickdom. That's quite common. (She doesn't know male from female humans.) She's in a new environment, so expect four major things which may or may not happen depending on each bird:
1. Cluckiness,
2. Wing flipping and head bobbing,
3. Hiding amongst pillows and blankets,
4. Curiosity about your face particularly your mouth. (At around 6 mos the curiosity will include hair.)
Take this opportunity to bond with and train her. Now is the time to start clicker training and
foraging practice. She'll reach sexual maturity around two. Again, right now she is displaying behaviors learned in the nest.

You mentioned dogs. Do you currently have a dog in the home?

Please know that I rarely recommend a Sun Conure to anyone as a first bird. Start noise training while young! We commonly refer to this as her INSIDE VOICE. Whispering it when she's quiet is a good place to start.

In a red-factor expect mild mate-seeking behavior next Summer followed by mating behavior next Fall. Again, this is bird dependent.

There are many conure-owning members that will surely guide you. To start, I assume you've found and visited an AV.

 

[MonicaMc]

I like the fact that you are taking responsibility for a behavior(s) that you may have unintentionally encouraged!

I also love the fact that you are trying to distract her with other things to do! Fantastic idea! Keep it up!


Yes, birds are different than dogs - but in some instances, they are the same. A dog that barks all the time or jumps up on you when you come in the house and destroys the house when no one is there? The recommendation on fixing? Exercising and training! When it comes to birds, if they are flying around not "listening" to you and they're biting, the number one suggestion? Clip them. That would be like putting a dog in a crate or on a chain and *NOT* exercising them. It doesn't solve the problem.... and birds don't bite because they are flighted! It would be like expecting a dog to stop barking because it's in a crate...

It's puzzling how we treat animals based on what they are, when something that could work for one species (i.e. exercise and enrichment/training) can also work for others!



So....... having said that, wanna guess my suggestions? LOL Main one will be training! Keep up the distraction! And teach new behaviors! Target training, turn around, high four, 'big eagle', etc. I don't recommend flighted exercise as often as I should, but wearing a bird out does have the possibility to give you some "calm" time. Encouraging foraging activities can also help! Instead of spending 5 minutes at the food dish eating, you could make it take 15-30 minutes! Make your bird work for it's food!

 

[noodles123]

The pillow cave thing is best out of the picture (that is a sexy accident waiting to happen..if not now, in the near future lol)

 

[kitsune]

Thank you all for the suggestions! We are working on distracting Pickles with chopsticks to climb on and balls to chew on. We are pretty good with "step up" and we are learning to fly too, in spite of having clipped wings. I'm going to get a clicker and start clicker training. We are definitely working on our inside voice - I start whispering to her when she repeatedly starts screeching in ears, usually only when my husband gets home or first thing in the morning lol. We have mostly gotten better about the caving behavior - we can all sit on the couch together in the "cave" spot and Pickles no longer attacks! lol. We are working on "come" and biting specific objects on command. I want to eventually get Pickles to accept the Aviator leash so she can go on walks and hang out outside with me, but we aren't even close to that yet! I think I'm going to make one of those bird necklaces with exciting chewtoys because Pickles is wayyyyyy too obsessed with my mouth right now. Glad to hear that this is relatively normal behavior, hopefully we become less nippy soon!

Thanks!!!

 

[noodles123]

You mindset will serve you well later, but she seems too young to be "horny". That will likely come later lol (but not THAT much later...Google sexual maturity or puberty in your particular species and that will give you a general range).



This is probably closer to limit-testing/terrible-twos...and/or bonding issues. All things take 10x longer than any parrot pet article will ever indicate on pet websites lol.

You are correct in fearing leading your parrot on though, because this can and does happen at a certain age...Stick to petting only the head, use no nesting materials in cage, remove "happy huts" and cave-like structures, do not cuddle under blankets etc. JUST FOR THE FUTURE lol...As you know, parrots love routine, so even though your bird is young now, I wouldn't start things I couldn't maintain.