New Green Cheek Conure owner, help please!

[Zephyr_VII]

Hi all!

I am an owner of a female Green Cheek Conure. I have had her since June 9th, and she is approximately 4 months old. Her name is Tango and she has quite the personality! I take her out for a couple hours every day, and try to play with her but she just kind of runs all over my girlfriend and I, being nippy too. I haven't tried training her as much as I should have, but now I am trying to, but I don't really know where to start. I have been trying to teach her "step up/down" and some days she does it the majority of the time, other days not so much.
I also want to teach her how to lay on her back but every time I try to she just squirms out of my hand and flips back over onto her feet. To all of you more experienced conure owners, how did you train yours? I am having a hard time since i am new. Should I do treats to train her? A clicker? Both? Plus, will she bond to me more once I start training her as well?

 

[Phlox]

I would definitely start slow...and keep in mind that not all conures like to lay on their backs. That's not really something you can train in my experience.

Start with step ups, maybe stick training. I also started right away with Phlox with recall training, since she was so motivated to be by me. It's always good to try to work with your bird's personality when you decide what to work on.

Figure out what food she loves best and save that for training.

There are lots of different theories on dealing with biting...I tend to try to teach beak pressure. I hold her beak very gently and reward her for beaking me softly. It's slow going with young, beaky birds like green cheeks, but once they hit a year or two, that does seem to lesson...assuming you've been consistent in your training efforts.

 

[MrsKay]

I trained my green cheek to lay on his back in a couple of weeks by turning him over in my hand, turning him over in my hand, turning him over in my hand. Every day, several times a day. He would lay on his back a bit longer sometimes and I let him stay that way as long as he liked (not long in the beginning). If he likes being gently rubbed on the neck or belly or feet, do all of that too while he is in your hand. Pretty soon he won't care what you do to him. I never used rewards, but it couldn't hurt? Just be persistent

 

[Ducatimom]

With Ducati he was a little nippy at first, seemingly only to me, but I'm sure that was because Will was a little confident in his movements. I was a little intimidated by that beak at first. I started using a glove and he got to where he would step right up if I had the glove on but he'd try and bite if I didn't. Eventually he would just fly to my head when he saw me start for the glove so I started without the glove. Then he would use my hand as a springboard to go to my head so we started training to at least lessen that and to let me put him on my shoulder. He was rewarded with a sunflower seed after every time he did what I was asking of him. We tried clicker training and it didn't seem to phase him at all. Not to say it doesn't work for other people. A lot of people do clicker training. But yes, definitely at least give her treats and lots of praises when she does what you ask of her. She will bond more when you start training. You're spending time with her and only her, plus you'll be giving her her favorite treats so that'll definitely help lol.

 

[ACE209]

Definitely go slow. Like phlox said not all birds like being on their backs. Echo who turns around on command whistles on command and says pretty girl, will not stay on her back. She just doesn't like it, on the other side Geronimo constantly lays on his back in my hand and will stay there for long periods of time so for him it's natural. If he's being beaky with your finger try a chop stick to teach him step up/down.