Luna is trying my patience - I need help

[ChristaNL]

Ponytail!
braids etc.
wear a cap (if your hair is not long enough)

Time to do some targettraining '_ (look for the sticky) and what Noodles said: dont make "her misbehaving" into a "fun game".

Parrots do things if it benefits them...
being ignored does not make them happy... so they will stop causing that.

It is like she raises a stink when you leave the room... if you look over your shoulder or turn back to adress her (even to correct <ahem> her) she got what she wants: your attention and you not leaving.
So you are rewarding the noisemaking, so she will keep doing it faster and longer every time she gets a tiny reward (like "the look').

My macaw launches a scream for attention once in a while- as long as I ignore her... it sloooooowly gets less and less, but one of my guests was so startled by the HUGE noise - he looked...
and I got to start all over again!


Reward unwanted behaviour once (by accident) ... start over again!
(Of course you can start over a zillion times, but a few should be enough for everyone, I hope...)

 

[TheNamesLuna]

Evening all.
Today has been a lovely day. I’ve only been to bitten twice!
Luna was out of her cage for about three hours and in that time thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the window watching the wild birds, playing on her swing and climbing on her ropes, climbing from one end of the living room to the other, and sitting on my shoulders trying to eat my ear (gentle beak play which I don’t mind).

Thanks for all the advice. Some of which I already do or have tried. I didn’t list everything I’ve tried last night.
There are things there that I tried today for the first time, like putting her on her play area for time out rather than in her cage. I then ignored her which she didn’t like. But she then flew across the room to the window & entertained herself with watching the wild birds.

I will post more in the next few days and let you all know how I get on.
Thanks again for the advice

 

[EllenD]

I agree with Noodle that your best bet is to use the Shunning-Method...It's common for young Green Cheeks to be "beaky", in fact it's almost expected. But the great thing about Conures in-general is that they are "Velcro Birds", the thing they want most in the world is your attention, so when you take it away from them it gets their attention.

The key to the Shunning-Method is that you don't put her in her cage like on a time-out, but rather every time she bites you (now there is a difference between using her beak to climb up onto you, so be careful that you are correcting the hard biting and not normal use of her beak) you simply say "No Bites!" or whatever verbal phrase you want to say (not yelling, just firmly) and then you put her right down on the floor wherever you're at...Birds HATE being on the floor because they are the lowest thing in the room and they have no dominance...So you simply put her right down on the floor and literally turn your back to her, and then you must completely ignore her, with your back pointed towards her, for 5 minutes...Any shorter a time and it means nothing, any longer a time and they forget that they did something wrong. And you must literally keep your back to her, because birds recognize that as them being "shunned"...If she climbs up your leg or she flies to your shoulder, you simply put her right back down on the floor without saying anything and again turn your back to her. You totally ignore her, no eye contact, back always to her, no talking to her at all. And after the 5 minutes just go and sit down somewhere and let her come back to you at that point, don't pick her up or just start talking to her again after the 5 minutes, just go sit down and allow her to come to you, and act normally...And if she bites you again immediately, then you say "No bites!" and put her right back down on the floor and turn your back to her for another 5 minutes...

I've seen this work on a Green Cheek Conure in one evening of doing it 5 or 6 times in a row, they are very intelligent and they love your attention, and it really does teach them that "If you're going to bite me, then you're not going to be with me", and they get it very quickly...