Jango ... the now-biting-Green Cheek Conure !!

[DesiConure]

Hello folks. I don't post here often but do peruse the boards from time to time. For those that even remotely remember (which I HIGHLY DOUBT); I had posted a few threads around when I first got Jango (August 2015) at the tender age of roughly-2-months old . That is the time my avatar is from; from when he was a 2-month old.

Jango is now approaching roughly being 1-year old ; and what was once a non-biting bird; evolved to a nipping bird to now a downright aggressive, clamp down, hold down hard-skin-breaking bird. Ouch!

Not even an entire hour goes by where he doesn't scream for attention off the top of his perch. And the times we put him back inside his cage (which he bites us viciously in the process of) ... he'll also scream from inside the cage. We give him A LOT of attention from day one that we've had him; we talk to him, sing to him, give him yummy treats he likes to eat and so on. Basically my point is he is a well taken care of and loved bird. But what gives with his biting attacks!? Seriously I don't get it, so frustrating. Why is this; any sincere input or tips??

 

[Piasa]

My experience with green cheeks, especially males, is that they want to be the big boss. Now that Jango is maturing, he is trying to boss you by screaming and biting. It will go away if you don't reinforce it, but it may resurface time to time.

If you can train Jango to step up on a rope perch (pretty easy) or a stick or towel, you can use this to move him back to his cage. I know, way easier said than done. I hold a double-layer piece of denim that I have Beau step up on if he is being really aggressive. He doesn't always step down from it to go home, so what I do is put him behind a perch so he has to move to it to get toward the door, then kinda roll him onto the perch. He usually puts his beak down on the perch, but won't step off until I maneuver his feet onto it.

So the above is how you can manage until he begins to learn that being mean isn't rewarding.

Biting happens for a reason most of the time, however obscure. Try to figure out what is causing him to bite and modify your behavior so he doesn't. When he bites hard, put him back in his cage and ignore him until he calms down. Learn his body language and back off when he asks you to.

Similar with screaming. He wants something and is trying to tell you by screaming. Maybe he doesn't want to be ignored, but if you go to him when he's loud, he is being rewarded for being loud. So pay attention when he does quiet noises by giving him attention, and ignore him when he is loud.

Encouraging good behavior works faster than trying to discourage the bad by ignoring.

 

[Flboy]

Rethink everything! This flow changed the dynamics between Bongo the Barbarian and the family!
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html

Search on her other threads!

 

[webmotion]

Hi DesiConure - have you had any change in behavior with Jango since your post?
I certainly relate to your problem - my green cheek (Boo) is turning 2 in July and I got him at 8 weeks. Up until this spring, he did not bite but since April of this year he bites me a lot.
He's always out of his cage when I am home and I leave him out when I go out for a few hours but during the weekdays I put him in his cage when I go to work and he goes in his cage at night.
I will admit before the spring I started once in a while leaving him out at night because he seemed hard to wrangle back in his cage - sometimes he would go, other times he clearly wanted to be left out.
Now he never wants back in his cage and bites my fingers when I try to put him inside - and even when after I chop up fruit/veggies for him at dinner time, he'll race for my hands when I put the dish out with his feathers up.
He's extremely loving and affectionate but has issues with my fingers and gets his feathers up when he sees them - probably thinking I'm going to try and put him back in his cage.

I'm not backing down though, I don't want him thinking he's the boss of me lol.

I'm anxious to know how Jango is now so look forward to an update!

 

[WilliamKenyon]

Hey Desiconure. I have looked at the situation and am now wondering if he is a bit cage territorial . Since you said that he stays in his cage apart from being out for attention he might not be getting a bit territorial about his cage area. You could combat this by getting a sleeping cage for him. You could also use his travel cage if you have one. By doing this he will not see his day cage (the main one) as a place to be defended. Another thing that could help is a play stand. Using the play stand he can get time outside of his cage without having to be on you where you could get bitten. One more thing is about this age conures often go through a hormonal stage where they can be a bit nippy. Often however this stage subsides and they return to there normal behaviour. I hope this helps. Good luck with you beautiful baby bird.