New baby named Petunia! Advice?!?

[Bebyy]

So just monday, the 21st, I bought my fiance a pineapple gcc! And on the 26th of this month she will be 4 months old.

Now we understand that babies do go through a "teething" stage and we think she might be there! All she uses our fingers for is to get to our shoulders and to munch on!

We have read and read a million different sites on how to 'fix' this. Alot of people say to basically just ignore it, but thats veryyy hard to do when shes biting the fire out of you! She hasnt actually drawn blood and we know she isnt being mean. She loves to cuddle up in my hair and she'll stay on our shoulder all day if we let her. BUT the problem is, when we decide we want her down off our shoulder she bites at us because she would rather stay put!

Also, we read on one site, not to let them on your shoulder because then they feel in control? i dont know..

We have never had a conure before, only budgies, and they are total opposites! We just need any advice possible!!

 

[Sherrie]

What I did with my GCC was to immediately tell him "don't bite" every time, and to put him in his cage for a little time-out whenever he bit too hard or bit out of spite or meanness. He hates that. He's a year old now and is not really very nippy at all except when I give him medicine or something or try to take his food. I have read that conures are nippy in general but it seems like all parrots are that way. I only have the one bird and he's turning out to be a great companion and seems to know to play gently with his beak now.

 

[Von1983]

Your bird has a LONG way to go to trusting you.

This is why she is biting. It is the only way she can communicate her uncertainty. It is normal behaviour.

Remember, her entire world has changed. Adjust your thinking to become in harmony with hers. Listen to her before you make a move. She is on your shoulder because she feels safe from hands, not for control. You have leapt a chapter in "the book" you see.

You have attempted to have her cuddling before you have gotten her used to your hands - this is why she is biting

They are strange creatures for sure lol. They like to huddle as it makes them feel safe, but your birdo is SO small and your body is so big! At this stage she doesn't really realise those hands belong to you. More like alien things that make her do things that she doesn't want to do.

My advice is to go back to basics. Don't attempt touching or cuddles however tempting. Talk to her while she is in the cage,read to her, sing, think out loud....anything to let her see you are not a threat. Put your hands into the cage to fiddle with toys and clean up, talking all the time reasurringly as you do so. You must earn trust before you earn the right to touch.

It may seem like a disappointing answer, but honestly, this is a crucial time in setting the level of your relationship. If you do not get it right, you can be faced with behavioural problems down the line or worst case scenario, your bird will never trust you.

You must listen to her and follow her lead. Let her be boss until she trusts you. You will find becoming in tune with your bird is the best starting block you can have.

Best of luck.

 

[Bebyy]

Thank you Von, i know what we 'need' to hear isnt always what we want to hear! But i would rather go ahead and nip this in the bud asap! (i find forums to be very helpful

The biggest thing im worried about is her never wanting to trust us and i really dont want that

The thing about us putting our hands in her cage and fidgiting with stuff is she easily come right out of her cage. And pretty much refuses to go back lol

The problem really seems to lie with her not getting her way, she gets mad when she cant do what she wants, so she bites...hard -sigh- she doesnt bite anywhere else really either except our hands and she 'preens' our hair when shes on our shoulder lol but we've established no more shoulders for a while, this should be interesting ha

 

[Von1983]

ahhhh so you must teach her "manners"

Yes, the time comes with us all.....it is not easy lol.

I am so glad you know you need to earn trust before you "do" anything as such.

It is SO lovely to hear!

 

[Bebyy]

YES! That is the word I have been looking for lol "manners"

Its just the teaching of the manners that is going to be the hard part, but I think we'll be able to do it and I know she will make a great companion! Shes already very lovey dovey and cuddly (which, again we have to stop that for now) But it will definatly be worth it in the end!

We're thinking of making her a nice play gym so shes able to be out with us and we can fiddle with things on the play gym and get her use to our hands! And hopefully that will establish some trust as well, and see that those terrible hands give her lovely treats when shes good!

 

[mtdoramike]

Von is right, but might I add, don't try and make her do what she doesn't want to do at this point. I know there will be times when you have to leave so you want her off your shoulder. This is where stick training comes in. There are a couple of good videos on Youtube about how to stick train your bird. Stick training is great for nippy birds, especially if you have to take them to the vet or make them do something they don't want to do.

If your bird bites, you need to show the bird whose boss right off the bat. If you don't now, you never will. Bad habits need to be corrected before the bird gets over a year old. If your bird bites, push you hand into their chest or beak rather than pulling away telling them loudly and firmly "NO BITE". If they are on your hand already, try dropping your hand a couple of inches, this causes the bird to lose their balance. So they are so concerned with regaining their balance they forget about biting or what I call pinching. You can all try blowing in their face or use your other hand to distract them all the while telling them "NO BITE". If they try and continue then force them back into their cage, close it up and give them a time out. This method has worked for me.

What you have to realize, they are just like children, she is trying you to see what she can get away with. A bird in general doesn't want a hand or finger stuck in their face or want to be held by us. We have to teach this to them and that it's not a bad thing.

 

[Bebyy]

I have heard of something called the 'earthquake' basically the same idea as to drop your hand a few inches to make them lose their balance, but the earthquake doesnt seem to work for her lol The only thing that seems to have any effect at all is to put her in time out, but while shes on our hands its just constant nipping. Like you said, it is more like pinching..but that pinch biting hurts lol So really theres nothing that works for her to make her stop unless we put her up, so i guess thats just going to have to be her 'punishment'

Thank you for the advice, I havnt tried blowing on her yet, will definatly try that

 

[Bebyy]

Just curious, is there anything that we could put on our hands that may taste bad to her (but obviously not harmful) so that maybe it would get her to stop biting? Something maybe like venigar?

I remember my grandfather use to put lemon juice on his kids fingernails to get them to quit biting their nails and it worked!

Just a thought lol

 

[Von1983]

I am a fan of letting them do as they please for the first couple of weeks if I am honest. I found with Cal that telling her off just sort of confused her. Here she is trying to make an effort in the ONLY ways she knows how - and I am telling her off. It is just my experience - all birds are different, but the discipline did not start until she was voluntarily coming out her cage and flying to me without me doing a single thing. Bearing in mind, it took a month for her to start to trust me as she was not HR. Maybe this is why, I don't know. All I know is those days seem very distant and I enjoy strenghening our wonderful bond further each day.

The earthquake....my goodness....I would not do this to my girl. I see the method, I understand it, but to me, doing this with a bird unsure of hands and/or the owner of the hand is only going to make the bird MORE wary.

Cal is 8months and STILL occasionally she climbs onto my hand testing with her beak before stepping up....she has not grown out of it yet. Imagine if I earthquaked her? She would never never trust me! :O Baby birds use their beak to feel out the world and check for stability. This accounts for a lot of "biting" also.

No bite works very well, but the trick is to never react to your bird. Simply say no bite and carry on. They can read tones and even facial expressions very well. They can sense when they have done wrong believe it or not. Time out's etc I don't know about as I have never done this. I like Cal to see home time as a positive so I can easily put her into her cage for ease and if there is an emergency. I always make sure she has a little bit of apple or grape waiting for her.

All babies nip to test bounderies but the simplest reason for nipping all over hands is this - they find the feel of skin rolling around there beak a pretty funky sensation lol. It is as simple as that. Cal did this when she was around 4 months old and I just used diversion. I got a toy, we played with it. Much like you do with a human baby to save them yanking your hair lol. She loved to play "basketball" with one of those cat balls with the stainless steel bell. She used to love to take it from my left hand to my right and back again. Then she'd scurry across the sofa and do the same with my husband.

Her nippiness stopped in the space of a couple of weeks. She learnt that it hurt. In the first few days that we got her, she would attack my hand if it got too close when I was just trying to sort out her water. She bit me and drew blood a few times - the blood shocked her. That in itself helped teach her when she was a bit tamer she had to be careful with that beak. I have never had blood since. In fact, a few weeks ago, she was playing on my hand and opened up a small cut I got from a knife and was sucking up for ages afterwards thinking she had done it. Her little face was so shocked and she was gazing as I cleaned it up saying: Ooooh....oh....oohhh and preening my fringe lol. I felt very bad.

Hope there's a few ideas for you.

 

[Bebyy]

Von i feel the same about the eathquake, we have only tried it about 3 times and it does nothing for her so theres no reason for us doing it. I know exactly what you mean about letting them have their way the first week or so.

So should i continue to let her keep going straight for my shoulder an allow her to cuddle up in my hair? Shes perfectly content up there and very happy. But i feel like im letting her control me, and i dont want that straight from the get go! As i have said before, this is our first 'large' bird and we just are afraid of messing up lol

Luckily she has only drawn blood twice but nothing bad, just a little blood. I actually wish she would go ahead and take out a chunk an let the blood run so she sees whats shes done, but of course on the other hand i sure dont want it to happen lol

 

[Von1983]

With the shoulder thing, most people would say no, don't let her. You do have less control about that for sure. Cal went through a stage of using my FACE as a landing perch so uuuuhhhh that had to be corrected lol.

I try to go by instinct as much as I possibly can so as Cal snuggles up on our shoulders and is easily brought down, I'm sort of struggling to give you the "correct" answer lol!

If I put myself in your shoes, I'm thinking you need to get her more used to your hands and setting her gently on the road to respecting you. If she wants to cuddle in your hair, that's fine, but she needs to be brought back out easily. I think you need to be doing some fun hand games like basketball or simply hopping from hand to hand. The shoulder is her current fascination because as I think I said before, she's unsure of you and is happy to sit with you, just not quite trust you yet.

It's really your job to teach her about how life is going to be. That doesn't mean bossing her about or calling it discipline. You can teach her these things without her realising. If she is on your shoulder, use a distraction to get her down. You could try as MT suggested and stick train? Some birds REALLY enjoy it. Cal got bored once she'd learned step up but it is a good way for you to both begin gentle training and have her enjoying herself too.

There's so many things you can do.

Have you not bought yourself a book yet? If not, I have 2 I can highly recommend. Parrots For Dummies is a book most people have on this forum. Even the really experienced ones like spiritbird, one of our fab mods. I also have a few conure specific books but my favourite is Anne C Watkins The Conure Handbook. It was great for me as a beginner but it is always there for reference also. It has some good ideas when it comes to parrot mentality and a superb section on conure body language.

Books are great because when you have a baby birdo, you will always be seeing something new that you want an answer for.

We can advise you all day long but in all honesty, if you want to get anywhere? You need to start learning FROM your girl. She is the only one who can tell you whether you are doing well or not.

You can describe things to your wonderfully helpful new friends on the forum *cough cough* but we aren't there. Petunia is the one LIVING it.

 

[Bebyy]

Yeah im just having a hard time with 'discipline' its so sad, she paces around her cage floor and makes the saddest little noises ive ever heard, because she wants to be with me!

And she has no problem stepping up on my hand once i get her out of the cage then she immediatly goes for my hair to cuddle. Especially when i get home from work, shes soooo excited! So she sits on my shoulder and quite often she'll fall right asleep! But i cant stand to see her in her cage pacing the floor and crying lol

And about passing her from hand to hand, doesnt work. She'll do it about 3-4 times then begins biting, its very hard to keep her occupied on our hands, unless like you said, we have sumthing to distract her...(my avatar picture)

And no i dont have a book yet, definatly need to invest in one though. Thank you so much for all your help!

 

[Von1983]

You will find something to occupy her. It's just a case of finding her trigger lol. You will get there, it is SUCH early days!

You will be fine. All this not sureness is totally normal lol! I was on the phone to Ant last week and I said to her I remember doing all my research dilligently, buying the books, being confident, getting Cal home and suddenly everything went out the window and I was a nervous wreck about doing things wrong lol!

Calm down, stop worrying and listen to Petunia, I promise - the panic will go away! haha!