Needy Little Guy.

[baron1282]

We have had our bird for about 3 months now. He is still young and around 9 months old. We love our bird, but he is so needy, and it does get frustrating at times. We knew owning a Conure would be a different experience but no matter what toy we put in his cage, no matter how long we have him out. As soon as we put him back in the cage he acts like we are killing him.

He won't shut up until we get him out of the cage, and he wants to be with us 24/7 until bed time. We are almost with him all the time and he is in our living area and is with us the whole day and can see us for almost all of the day when we don't have him out of the cage.

We try to put him on top of the play gym on top of his cage, but he won't play on it. He just jumps to the end of the cage and bobs his head for us to come pick him up. He does not even play with us when we try and play with him. He just wants me to hold him or my wife to hold him. He is real cuddly and it's nice, but we want him to be able to entertain himself. We watch TV together, and at night we will put him to bed and leave the side of the cage open so he can watch TV before bed time.

He is quit when it's bed time, and he won't make a sound until I lift the cage cover up in the morning. Which is a good thing.

He shows no interest at all in the toys we bought him. We have spent over $200 dollars in toys. We have things for him to shred, ladders, perches, and a forger. He just shows no interest in toys and we try to play with them when he is with us to show him how much fun they are. He just sits on his rope perch in the corner of the cage until we get him out. He does nothing in his cage but go down to eat and drink. If we left him in the cage all day he would do nothing but sit on the rope perch. If we do leave for the day, we leave the TV on for him, and we immediately get him out when we get home and play with him. Still he really just does not play around, he will Jump around on the couch and run and flap his wings and walk all over the place, but as soon as we get a toy he gets scared of it.

We don't know what to do about this issue. He is a nice bird, and we know he is in the biting stage of his life. Only 9 months and likes to push the boundaries on his bites. He has gotten a lot better being we got advice from a bird owner on how to discipline him for biting too hard.

Any suggestions? We have thought about getting another small conure for them to be play mates, but I would hate to risk spending the money and having two birds that don't like one another, plus we know that changes the relationship. Yet we think it might be for the best, being we are going to both end up working all day and he will have to be in that cage for at least 9 to 10 hours a day by himself when we both start going to work.

We do get him to play with paper towels. We kind of got a tug of war thing going on with him, and I got him to play with a plastic ball. He likes my phone case and I don't mind him chewing on it. I am thinking of getting another case and putting the one he likes in the cage for him to chew on. We do switch out his toys every other week, but he just does not play with them.

 

[nicolee003]

Wow, this sounds EXACTLY like my cinnamon gcc. Unfortunately he died in October. He was so needy and after a while we thought it was kind of annoying but now that he's no longer with us I wouldn't of had it any other way. Im glad he was needy and was cuddling up with us all day. About a month before he died we put down a deposit on a second gcc thinking this would help him not need us so bad. Unfortunately he died before his new friend was able to come home. We still went ahead and got Yogi (which was supposed to be our 2nd conure). Yogi has a COMPLETELY different personality and rarely wants to cuddle. He's completely content playing on and in his cage all day long. I guess that's a good thing but now I miss the snuggling all day

 

[baron1282]

Don't get me wrong, I love our bird. It is annoying at times, and he can bite really hard when he does not get his way.

I am sorry for your loss, I think I remember your post about that whole thing. I hope Yogi is doing well.

We just are thinking another bird might make our guy less needy, and generally more happy.

 

[weco]

Please don't get me wrong, because there is hope for you & your new feathered friend...you just have to do some more learning. For a quick comparison, think, at his age, he's still a baby in diapers, and while children at that age do play with toys, their parents, siblings, other family members or caretakers show them what a toy is for. There is a very good chance your new bird has no idea what a toy is for.....to a parrot, anything that it can tear up, re-design or otherwise make a mess with can be considered a toy. Like new babies, when we first bring a new bird home, we go to a petstore & pick out what we like...what catches our eye.....often going overboard after the second toy.

As to the fear factor, think of yourself as being 2-3 years old, being taken from whatever family you are used to then placed in some new surroundings where none of the faces, smells, sounds or voices are known to you.....might you act like your new feathered friend is right now?

Getting birds to try new foods is basically the same problem. Whatever a bird was weaned on is what it knows as food. In the wild, it has parents, siblings & a whole flock of aunts, uncles, nieces & nephews to show it what's good to eat.

I would slow down a bit & lit the little guy catch up to your expectations & while you are waiting, do some more reading on dealing with newly fledged conures, or how to deal with screaming conures, what causes conures to scream, first bird & similar topics.....

You have to start setting limits, what nipping/biting is not OK (remember beaking is not biting...parrots use their beak as a third foot & check everything with their beak), quit running ever time he yells, learn to put him back in his cage when he screams or wants on you & it's not appropriate.

Others will chime in here & offer more hints & suggestions, but if you wait too much longer it will be harder to correct his bad habits.

Good luck


Wait about getting another bird.....that's not going to solve the problem. There's a very good chance that you'll end up with two brats with bad habits.

 

[baron1282]

Thanks Weco

We know the difference between when he just nips and uses his beak as his third foot. We don't get angry when he uses his beak lightly. It's when he bites and breaks skin that is where we set the limit. We just in a firm voice say NO and hold his beak back. This has helped a lot.

As with the toys, we are still working with him with it. We play with the toys in front of him, and let him ease into it. We have generally learned to let him yell when he is in the cage and we wait for him to stop, than we take him out. So we have been doing good I think.

I guess if this is just a young bird thing, than we will get though it. I guess I just need assurance we are doing the right things.

 

[weco]

Parrots read body language too & pick up or displeasure by flock mates.....stern NOs & a disappointed face, slumped body language worked with my Patagonian when she moved in. Otherwise you're on the right track.....

 

[JasmineGCC]

Have you tried playing with a toy and ignoring your bird? Jasmine is shy of new toys but when I'm having fun with one she can't wait to try too! This works with food too - I mmmmm and yummy over broccoli and then jasmine has to nibble too

Jasmine has learnt what 'beeeee gentle' means and most of the time she will be. Any deliberate bites get a firm 'no' and a put down on eg the floor and I turn my back - she hates being ignored. Then I pick her up again with a 'be gentle'. If she continues she gets a wobble and enforced fly round room.

Hope this helps.

 

[cthulhus_minion]

My IRN constantly tries to get to the cage :/ So I understand your frusteration, sorry.

 

[FeatherLover]

Wow! I just joined this forum specifically to ask the same advice with my new GCC! We've only had her 3 days & she is so needy, screaming the exact way you describe yours, except we do not have a biting problem. It is frustrating & I can totally relate. It looks like there is some great advice here! Please update if you have any success with what you've tried & I will do the same!

 

[baron1282]

I am talking to the bird more while he is in the cage. I am trying to get him to like the cage and see it as a friendly fun place and not a place of punishment. I never put him in when he was being too bitty. When he starts to be really bitty I will get something for him to bite to take his mind of biting me. Plus telling him "NO" when he bites too hard has been working great.

I am going to start to move around things for him to explore his cage more. We got perches and everything, but he only uses one right now.

It's not that I don't want him out of his cage, but we got cats and we can't leave him out unless he is supervised by us. Plus he is so small that I would be scared I would step on him by mistake if he was aloud to run around free.

I do think my cats are more scared of him, and it's funny to watch my cats interact when we are watching. We allow him to get to know the cats under supervision so he is not scared of the two we have. It's funny to watch, but under heavy supervision, can not be too careful with cats around. He was scared of them at first, and didn't like them around his cage, now he is just ignoring them and even trying to bite them to show who's boss. Our cats have been real good and I am proud of them, even when he bit the tail of one real hard they didn't bite or lash out.

Just trying to get the bird to be apart of the family. I know that he can live for 20 + years and I can't have him with me 24/7 or roam free for that long. He won't become the neglected bird in the corner as we love him to death, but we are working with him to not be so needy and can have fun on his own and not be scared. He is still young and we understand that. So we hope he will be better when he is older.

 

[ConureCrazy]

Just a tip: you say you are rotating each week? With my sennie Oliver, it took him months, about 3, to even nibble on something. Just keep everything relatively the same. Don't redo his cage, unless he poops on a perch a lot or something, so he can get used to the toys and learn that it wouldn't hurt to play with one. It worked for Oliver. Now he's Mister Forage.