My bird is sweet most of the time, but how can I fix some of these bad behaviors?

[puckie]

My conure is really affectionate when he wants to be, I never try to pet him when he's telling me he doesn't want it but he usually does like to be pet. I can pick him up with my whole hand and hold him like that and pet his head and he will purr like a cat, he'll bury himself in my hair and is generally gentle. He nibbles on my face and ears a lot but rarely has he ever pinched me, but I can't seem to get him to stop. I don't mind it most of the time but he will go for hours if I let him and if I'm trying to do something else it can be really annoying. I'll try to have him step up and I'll put him on his perch but he'll just fly over to me. I'll shoo him away with my hand, not aggressively, he knows what it means when I do a shooing motion and tell him to go back to his perch. But then within a minute he'll fly back. We could do this at least 30 times before he'll stay put. He has lots of toys to play with but he's mostly interested in just sitting with me. He's always in the same room as me. He does just fine when I leave, no screaming or freaking out, he does good even all alone for the whole day (which rarely happens, I don't work and I hardly leave for more than a few hours). How can I teach him when I don't want him to be sitting with me? He seems so determined. I know it's bird behavior to be together but I live in a small apartment that is basically just a big living room, a kitchen and a bedroom and I'm always in the living room during the day when I'm home so we're still together.

I have a couple more questions I know not all of them may get answered but I figure I'll just ask them and maybe some people might know the answer to one or two.

He sits on my shoulder mostly very nicely when I'm walking around the apartment cleaning or doing whatever else but if I am wearing a shirt that shows a bit of shoulder he nibbles a lot and it hurts like tiny pinches. I think he is trying to eat my freckles because he does this even more to my boyfriend who has lots of freckles on his neck. They hurt like tiny needles and I know he's not being aggressive but I can't get him to stop. I've put him in his cage and walked away to read in my bedroom or whatever else as punishment and I've done this many times to show him my dislike but he'll continue to do this no matter what. After about two weeks of constant time-outs I finally just started shooing him away, I can't tell him to step up or bring him to his cage to climb up on it anymore because he knows it's time out when he nibbles (he knows it's a bad thing) so I have to take something to shoo him off with, like my phone. He'll fly right off if he sees my phone, he's not scared of it normally, if it's on the counter he'll walk up to it and touch it and inspect it in all the birdy ways, but if he sees it in my hand he knows to fly off my shoulder. I'm hoping it's not as simple as no shoulder because I enjoy him there when he is behaving and I like listening to all his little noises in my ear they are very cute.

And lastly, when all is good and he is behaving on my shoulder which isn't uncommon, I'll pick something up he doesn't like (example, a paper towel, he hates those, he gets VERY upset if I clean up a poop in front of him and will defend the poop like a little soldier) and he'll bite my neck really hard. It's like he thinks he's attacking the thing I'm holding, I'm not really sure, he's never aggressive like this to me personally unless I'm holding something he hates. Does anyone else ever experience this and how do you deal? I mean I could just not pick something up he doesn't like which are all poop cleaning related things, but is there a fix to this behavior instead? I don't think this is related to me shooing him off with my phone because he's done this a lot longer than the nibbling. I've had him for a bit over a year and the nibbling just started a few months ago out of the blue.

He is a good boy most of the time and I can handle his bad days but these are just some behaviors that happen even on good days.

 

[GaleriaGila]

I'll just ramble a bit on the subjects you brought up...

Your little sweetie sounds absolutely adorable. I suspect that if you're going to contain that flying behavior, you'll have to clip wings, and I don't want to do that, so I put up with the consequences of flighted-and-fearless! It's a very personal decision...
I have reduced biting to almost zero over the decades... not because I've changed the bird, but I have changed me. And a lot of that has involved giving up on a lot of my desires/expectations. After years of battle, I surrendered. I don't do stuff that gets me bitten. I NEVER do stuff that makes him mad... I don't touch others when he's out; I rarely try to get him to step up onto my hand first. Hand-held perch first, then hand. In some ways, I swallow my disappointment at having such a little monster for a pet, but he is what he is. I ALWAYS wear my hair down when he's on my shoulder, so all he can bite is hair. Really, I don't involve hands much... he doesn't like them. He seems to think the real ME is my head, perched on a weird moveable tree with questionable appendages.
Since he's fully flighted, the ONLY way I get him into the cage is to toss a chile pepper in and he flaps in after it. So food reward is a necessity for me. Time-out doesn't exist in the Rb's kingdom.
I have had some success with using the "earthquake" technique for biting. When he bites, give your hand a swift shake... it should make him let go. The idea... every time he bites, a mysterious earthquske shakes him up. Some people feel this is mean and/or engenders lack of trust. The same can work for clothes biting... give your shoulder a shake, or jump! For me, it has helped.
But please... listen to and try all the good advice you'll get here. Don't surrender until you know you've done your best. Then just accept and love whatever/whoever your bird turns out to be.
Parrots aren't always easy pets to understand and control, and your bird sounds ALL-PARROT!
My Rickeybird is in some ways kind of a worse-case scenario, but we have it all worked out between the two of us. Parrot-owners usually wind up determining their own personal comfort level with various behaviors.
Good luck, and good for you for reaching out.

 

[bill_e]

Nike is the same way, you cant move without her on your shoulder....not an issue if you're just lounging around but a real pain if you're trying to get something done. We will probably resort to a clip for the summer.

I have what I call "poop shirts". They are simply long sleeve flannel shirts and aside from getting pooped on, they are fairly thick have collars to protect the skin. I mention this because my wife constantly wears shirts which expose a lot of skin on her shoulders and neck and Nike is constantly nibbling on her and my wife is constantly yelling Oww!

Try as I might to get my wife to put on one of the shirts she wont and then gets mad a Nike for what is non-aggressive, normal behavior. I cant really understand it because she's always cold so the shirts would help her in multiple ways.

I wear them all winter long and in the summer I switch to polo shirts which also have a collar.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Potty training is a good way to take care of the poop issue. It's wleasy and rewarding for both sides!

 

[Flboy]

Nibbling is what they do! You’re loved and being preened!

 

[LordTriggs]

yup, what fiboy said. You're getting a conure based cleaning session which in bird world happens any time they're not playing or foraging for food. Freckles and imperfections will be a priority target as you're clearly unclean in his eyes

 

[Kiwibird]

Don't like him nibbling your neck? Wear a turtleneck he can nibble on instead to his hearts content. But nibbling is a bonding behavior that really shouldn't be discouraged. Have you tried offering the hands as alternatives to nibble, since the hands are likely less sensitive and you could still have that bonding activity.

Don't like poop all over? Potty train him! There is 0 good reasons not to potty train a parrot and it baffles me why so many people just let them poop everywhere! I mean, no one just lets their dog or cat poop all over the house... If my bird has an accident, I wouldn't ever punish him or be upset (remember, mentally parrots are like 2 year olds) but he is potty trained and 99.9999% of the time signals when he has to poop and holds it until we rush him over to a designated area, like his cage or play stand. Be sure to train your bird to return to certain areas (if flighted) or to figure out a cue or signal your bird can give they need to go (if clipped) so you can put them somewhere it's ok to go. DO NOT train them to poop on command though, that can be dangerous to their health to hold it too long.

P.S. Keep on (gently) shooing him away when he's doing something irritating. In nature, a bird who was annoying another bird would be chased off... As our birds surrogate flock, a well-bonded happy bird is not going to be traumatized by getting told to stop being a nuisance. It's a form of communication they understand. Just be gentle and not aggressive about it. I shoo my bird away if he's being pest and don't think twice. He's a very happy, well adjusted and well behaved bird because we give him continual feedback in ways he understands on his behavior, good or bad. Keep doing it with your bird and eventually you'll have a really well behaved bird Be patient. It took about 3-4 years before our bird really mellowed out and settled into being a really good boy who doesn't do very much that annoys us. It takes them a long time to learn and come to understand human behavior and how to act, what behaviors are or are not acceptable, in our world. Remember, many of the things WE find annoying are instinctual and would help them survive and socialize in the wild. They have a lot of adapting to do and things to learn to become good companions for a human home!

 

[Flboy]

I must say, JoJo has alerted me to many spots of basal cell cancer I am developing because of severe sun damage from 40 years ago!