my rescued conure's behavior

[DinasMom]

hi all,

i adopted a 6 year old, best guess, male conure. He was so loving at first, but now bites everyone in our family. We have a large cage, but he is a free flying bird and we feel bad if we have to lock him in a cage. The vets have not given much advice, they say you can clip the wings a bit, but then he won't be able to fly much. I bought a few books off amazon and honestly, I'm not even sure he is a male. I'm open to any suggestions.

a bit about us- we are a family of four, my kids go to school, husband works and I'm home with Henry the majority of the day. Henry won't "flog" me or bite if I stay away from his area.

thanks,
DinaMom

 

[Flboy]

Hang in there, it will be a slow process of retraining him. There is a lot of great advice here, I will be put to the test too! My wife's Bongo also thinks he is king and loves the taste of blood! I will be spending three days with him alone. I know I didn't put any ideas, but my reply will bump you back up on the list.
For sure, you can turn him around, their nature is to be cuddlie! He is just caught into bratty pattern!

 

[Flboy]

Tried finding the links, no luck!
Do a search on biting also bitting. What applies to a macaw also applies to your guy, just less blood!

 

[EdwardH]

It is possible that he is trying to establish his place in the flock (family) pecking order. Note to flock...Who's the boss? Bird of course! He could also be frightened so protects himself from those big, bad, nasty people. Short time outs for poor behaviour (it's not a good idea to allow a bird free range if it attacks people) should be implemented.
I would seriously consider clipping his wings for now (they will grow back in 6 months or so). This will allow everyone in the family to spend time with the bird doing basic commands like step up, step down, target training, recall etc. without being attacked. This will go a long way to reduce his aggression as well as provide positive interaction with everyone in the family. The end result is a much more relaxed and confident bird who looks forward to spending time with the flock , then his natural cuddly nature will come out.