New Sun Conure Help

[trishs5001]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum. I'm an experienced bird owner but I have an issue with my new sun conure. I've never owned a conure before. I bought this from a breeder who claimed the birds were socialized. Upon going to purchase the bird it occurred to me she didnt socialize them at all as she had to reach inthe cage to grabthem. None of them came to her. I purchased on anyway as my only other choice was a petsmart. My question is howdo I socialiaze it?. He/she has been here a fewweeks now. Comes out of cage to play on its gym. Will fly to me some and will step up only when it sees the dried mango in my hand. Will not let me pet her. Seems afraid of hands (my guess all the grabbing out of cage from breeder is the cause) I've seen some improvement but this nonsocialization is all new to me as all my other birds came willingly and loved my attention petting.

Please help as I have fallen in love with this bird. She is hysterically funny in her antics

 

[kellie]

Lukah was the same way. All his previous owners grabbed him and none had ever trained or really cared for him. ): For the fear of hands, I used to put my hand inside his cage, not close to him, but just inside the cage and leave it there for thirty long seconds while I talked to Lukah. Then I would take it out. I would do that a few times a day. I also would kiss Lukah and then kiss my hand (sounds weird but I think it helped?) He didn't really understand that my hand and my face were part of the same person so I kinda just like made him see like "I like the hand so you should like the hand." I also spent a lot of time feeding him out of my hand.

For the petting.... I kind of did not do it a traditional or probably acceptable way, but once Lukah got kind-of used to hands for the most part (he would nibble on my finger and would let me hold onto his beak but not pet him) I kind of just... force-petted him and he hated it and screamed at me but then the next time he kind of didn't scream as much and then a couple times after that he was hooked to scritches. Start with only petting the head though because Lukah STILL hates anyone touching his wings, back or stomach, though I'm making progress on the back and stomach part.

I also tried touch training, regular traininng and all the bribing in the world, but in the end this is what worked for me, though its probably not the best way by any means.

Oh, also I had him for two months before he let me pet him. So be patient.

 

[Birdman666]

Generally speaking, try getting two popsicle sticks, and use those until he accepts you touching him with them. Then work on touching him all over, particularly the tail area. (Untamed birds tend to get defensive and bitey when their tails are touched. They have to learn to get over it!)

Then when he accepts being touched, slowly work your fingers down the popsicle sticks until you don't need them anymore.

We did this with two perches for the aggressive macaws down at the rescue, and it worked really well... I imagine a popsicle stick or a wooden BBQ skewer would work for a conure...

 

[MikeyTN]

Here's the deal, I've been breeding for many years now. Sometimes I would have to go into the cage to grab the baby out especially when there's a stranger standing there in front of them. Sometimes they freak out and will not come out. But IF I am alone, they come out on their own the moment I open their cage door. Some become little terrorist to their new owner but I always warn them to be patient, it happens and it doesn't mean they weren't socialized! Cause they can see how much the babies loves me while they were here. I'm just pointing that out cause it's not always true, but I wasn't there to see what your breeder was doing nor how the babies acted towards her.

So right now just be patient and offer treats to win them over, some babies will be good from the get go but some babies are stubborn. And start practicing step up command! You also can start clicker training if you want to as well.

 

[Birdman666]

These are pair bond birds. You kinda have to let the normal pair bond behaviors kick in. Don't push for too much, too fast. The bird will fear bite.

REMEMBER: In the wild, you would never in a million years get close enough to these birds to touch, much less pick one up. We are overriding their basic survival instinct here. This bird needs to quite literally know it can trust you with it's life before allowing such a thing.

That doesn't happen over night.

When we look at it from the bird's perspective, our perspective drastically changes!

 

[trishs5001]

Thanks for the advice was getting discouraged. Today it seemed she was regressing from progress we'd made.

As far as the breeder, she admitted the birds hadn't been handled much in the few weeks before purchasing. All my other birds have picked me so this is new to me having picked the bird instead.

 

[Birdman666]

That's one of the secrets to bird keeping. Pick the bird that also picks you...

And on that note. Stop trying so hard, and wait for the bird to come to you. Let him settle in a bit more. Let him want the interaction, then give it to him.

The more you force it, the more they fight you.

Treats, with conures it's usually safflower seed, which are tiny, so they have to take it gently from your fingers... that teaches them that fingers in and around the beak are good things. They contain food.

Then, if he allows it, they also give scritchies...

 

[legal_eagle]

I would take it slow with touching ... start on the feet and then slowly increase the amount of contact.

Of course, the quickest way to change his behavior would be to clip his wings ... he'll have a whole new attitude toward you and then you can let the wings grow out and he'll probably happily fly to you forevermore.

 

[Birdman666]

Agreed. I took that for granted. That's a very good point!

Assuming this bird has properly fledged at this point, of course.