Noise and nipping issue with new conure

[Roxy_9_2011]

I have a new yellow sided green cheek conure named Roxy. She is 5 months old now and I have had her for 3 weeks. She has been amazingly easy to train so far. It took less than a couple hours for the step-up command to stick =) I also have it where she will not poop on me but mainly in her cage (unless I keep her away from her cage too long and she can't hold it in any longer )

The first thing that is troubling me is the second I am not visible to her from her cage, she starts squawking louder...and louder... My bird-owner friends told me to never become visible to her until she goes completely silent and this should quiet her down. It has been 3 weeks now and there has been little improvement. Will it just take more time for Roxy? Or is it a hopeless battle that I won't win? I haven't tried positive reinforcement when she is quiet because I don't know how to correctly (so any ideas on that would be great too!)

My other issue that is just now appearing is her nipping at my fingers, hands, and neck. Was it wrong for me to say no loud and firmly to try and get her to stop? Is that more of a reinforcement? What is the best way to get her to stop?

 

[Pedro]

Hi Roxy, you don't think your moving to fast with the training. I have a Gcc about the same age & she is lovely. Although their attention span is limited & training sessions should be short.

 

[Helitorian]

FOrgive me if there are lots of mistakes in this post as I'm doing it in th dark (bird is sleeping still)

The training you've been doing, has it been at least a couple times a day for about five minutes each session? If not, like Pedro said, they do have short attention spans and can get bored or frustrated quickly.

As for the nipping, that's normal in GCC. I don't have one myself (unfortunately) but I know they go through a stage where they start pushing their boundaries to see who's top bird. I wouldn't be loud with your reprimand, just be firm and maybe set the bird down on the floor or a flat surface she can't hurt herself on and leave her for a minute. That's what I've been doing to curb the nipping of the Sun at the store that I work at and it seems to be working though no one else is consistent with her.

Hope that helped!

 

[roxynoodle]

Conures really really like to contact call you when they can't see you. I'm not sure you can break them of it. I taught mine to say, "Hey hey" instead of screech for me. It's much more pleasant to listen to. But, I almost always have to call back to her when I'm not visible.

Most baby conures will begin testing boundaries about 2 weeks after they are in their new home. With my Nanday, I had to put her back on her play gym or cage, tell her "Don't" and ignore her for a few minutes to break her biting habit. In her case, too, she loved drama. So she would try to bite to get a reaction. I had read to wobble my hand when she started biting, but that didn't work at all with mine. She loved that, and then would bite to get her "amusement park ride"! So it was a matter of very consistently putting her somewhere else and ignoring her for a few minutes, then trying again until she learned biting meant she couldn't be with me. I did have to have her wings clipped during this training time so she couldn't just fly back to me.

 

[Pedro]

Roxy 9 where is her cage located, that could make all the difference. I would think because she has only been with you for only 3 weeks she is still out of sorts & needs to be reasured that she is safe in her new environment. At her age she is still a baby, she needs guidence from you. It can take some time for her to really trust you.

Her calling could be she is just wanting to know where her flock member is so you could just call back to her to reassure her your still around. I talk to my parrots all day. As far as the nipping goes i know with my own GCC'S if I miss read their body language yes i can get a nip. They can't tell you they don't like something your doing so they will give a nip to let you know they don't want to do something. You have to remember that most of these young birds have only really known the hand-rearer & have come to trust them & all of a sudden they are sent off to a new home.

Once your little girl gets to trust you she will be a delight to own. If any of my parrots are being vocal i ask them what's up. I don't run to see what they want, just call from another room. If i get a nip i remove them from me & put them on their stand or cage. Simple. I don't have to use any form of punishment other than that. You only need to do it a few times & they know.

 

[Roxy_9_2011]

To Helitorian: I am trying the "place on ground" when she gets too nippy. I think that may be working, so thanks again!

To Pedro: Her cage is in the living where I am the most during the day. I have considered moving her to part of the hall where she can see me in my room, kitchen, bathroom and living room. I just wasn't sure if that would be "letting her win". I will try and talk to her when I'm not visible and see if that helps! thanks!

 

[Pedro]

Roxy 9 the thing is with companion parrots they only have us humans to teach them. The point is if we stuff up we teach the bird every bad habit in the book. Screaming & biting IMO are learned behavior & the sad part of it most of us don't even realize we are the problem. These problems can be avoided if we tune into our birds needs, read their body language. Get to know your bird & you will be surprised what they can teach you.

My birds don't have screaming fits & they don't bite. Next time your bird either screams or bite take note of what happened just prior to the behavior. You might find out you have done something the bird didn't like.

 

[PaulaK]

Roxy 9 the thing is with companion parrots they only have us humans to teach them. The point is if we stuff up we teach the bird every bad habit in the book. Screaming & biting IMO are learned behavior & the sad part of it most of us don't even realize we are the problem. These problems can be avoided if we tune into our birds needs, read their body language. Get to know your bird & you will be surprised what they can teach you.

My birds don't have screaming fits & they don't bite. Next time your bird either screams or bite take note of what happened just prior to the behavior. You might find out you have done something the bird didn't like.

As I too was having problems with bitting issuse Roxynoodle and i found out it was because i grabbed her when she was stuck to my shurt. Opps bad move. Fortunately I was lucky and must of formed a bounded becuse it only took me less then 10 minutes for her to trust that hand again. As for her being loud, Im working on that as well. I will try the call back to her and see if that helps