One of my conures just hates going back into its cage

[Calorious]

I live in Singapore (like how I've mentioned in my hundreds of other threads )
I usually don't have a place dedicated to the parrots where they can fly and play freely there, I may get one if I were to ever move out, but generally while I'm still not of age, I have 3 conures with my parents' house and they are cute, of course. They are still being brought out of their cages often, but they usually spend their night and most of the time still inside their cage.
My entire family usually have to chase these parrots to their cage. They never really want to return to their cage. Even if you bring them near the cage, they will fly away. So I'm sure even if the parrot cage door was extremely large, there's a <1% chance of them entering the cage.
Now, the main point of this thread was regarding my Blue Cinnamon Conure, he used to be very passive, he wouldn't bite whether he was in the cage or outside (because we raised him for about 5 - 6 months before he was even weaned yet). But now I know he bites, extremely hard.
He's a very active bird, even at his current age (he's about 9 months), he flies like a pro (unlike my other 2 birds), but the issue with his pro flying is that it takes me a good 15 minutes to try and get him back to his cage, while he flies through, jumps across, ducks under, and dodges every obstacle. He's extremely smart, so the second he sees one parrot go back into its cage, he will start to fly around trying to avoid being caught. This eventually led to his current behaviour now - He seems to hate being touched by humans. He physically tries to hide from a small finger tap on his head or any form of physical contact with humans, and if he can't hide by flying/moving in the opposite direction of the finger, he tends to bite.
I don't have the luxury of being able to have it fly freely 24/7 unfortunately. So I'm going to have to get these little guys to understand that they should go back to their cage when prompted. How though?

 

[sainraja]

You said he was 5-6 months old so he’s probably about a year old as of this writing. I’ve read that the first year they do bite. Quite a lot. It stops after that. But your Cinnamon might also be doing it due to the circumstance?

My conures also never liked going to their cage but they would always go in the evening when they felt sleepy. Does yours not?


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[Calorious]

Funny thing is even if my conure is yawning (he yawned infront of me the other time), he could still fly around and that's exactly what he did.

 

[sainraja]

Funny thing is even if my conure is yawning (he yawned infront of me the other time), he could still fly around and that's exactly what he did.

Oh wow! I’m guessing he just wants to spend more time with you. Or whoever his favorite person is (hopefully it’s you). I would just be patient with him, try to regain his trust and see if he will eventually entertain going into the cage.

I guess I should ask, your routine of taking them out and returning them to their cage has been consistent? If not, you might want to see if that will help.


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[sainraja]

And your other conures, they go in easily?


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[Calorious]

Taking them out and back in is usually not really consistent. They sometimes can leave their cage in the afternoon (about 3pm) and they go back in at 4pm.
And the consistent one is night time from 9 -10pm all the way to 11 - 11:30pm.

My other conures don't go in easily either, they can all fly. So their goal is to fly away from the cage lol

 

[fiddlejen]

1. Room Darkening Curtains.

Hopefully you have the birds limited to one room close to when it's cage-time? (Otherwise you may need to add room-darkening curtains to All the rooms.)

Use room darkening curtains to get the room quite dark like nighttime. The give them a little while. Once they are convinced it is nighttime, they are likely to head back to their cage to sleep, or at least be more likely to be willing to be moved there.

2. Use a handheld perch of some kind. (Ladders for my budgies, a particular type of drying-hanger for my conure. Don't actually chase them around. Wait till they land somewhere. Approach VERY SLOWLY with the perch, gently place it in front of them and ask them to Step UP. They will Avoid First, step away, fly away.. Slowly Quietly Gently persist. This is SLOW QUIET GENTLE pursuit. Once you have the bird onto the bird, move it Gently and Slowly toward the cage. The Bird Will Fly Away!! Just persistently continue. SLOW. GENTLE. It will take a long time. Having the room Dark will help. SLOW. QUIET. GENTLE. Actual "chasing" and "catching" of the bird, will just ramp-up its excitement and make it fly away more.

 

[wrench13]

Yeah the chasing and catching thing is a trust buster. FiddleJen's approach should be tried out.

Dont forget your conures seem to be approaching the big bad Puberty, when almost all parrots loose their minds, have mood swings, and get bitey. Thankfully , puberty passes and becomes a seasonal thing.

 

[T00tsyd]

Just as a thought the tone of my voice affects Syd. He can be really unresponsive until I go all sweet and luvvy dovey with him. I am sure he must be a male - he is so easy to wind around my finger! The minute I change my voice and speak softly and tell him how gorgeous he is he will do almost anything. Add a sunflower seed which is his best treat on earth and he's all mine. If he is doubtful about my hands I always back off and get a piece of perch which is generally close by and he will step up whatever mood he is in. Then I sweet talk him to wherever I need him to be.
He can definitely suss out my mood so sometimes I have to make the effort to convince him otherwise.

 

[Calorious]

Yep, all the conures are usually limited to my living room, which is the same room where all their cages are placed. Now I wonder why I never turned off the lights and waited for them. Thanks!
I always had to chase and catch, didn't really know what else to do considering how they all hated going into their cage so much.
As for T00tsyd, it's cute how Syd reacts to you this way! hehe

 

[noodles123]

If whenever you finally get him in his cage, you are shutting it, that makes them avoid it because they know the pattern. That is why you should let them go in and out for a few hours early on to make sure that know that JUST because they do inside, does not mean they have to stay there for another 5 hours. You also should avoid catching them because 1. that hurts trust, but 2, they will start to associate your hands with undesired confinement and stress- so if you are toweling or chasing when you want them back in, they think "hands= locked up=no thank you"


I just skimmed above, but I saw mention of lights and that was what I did with Noodles when I got her. I let her out daily, but I blocked out times where I knew I could stay but and during those early days, she was always out in the evening because she tends to know when it's time for bed and go back to her "roost" on her own (because she never really associated it with being locked up).


Once your trust levels are higher, another thing to do it try placing them on the perch with a treat and NOT shutting the door. Lots of times, even if a bird steps up willingly, if you are putting them in and shutting the door each time, they will catch on quickly.


Don't ONLY give treats when picking him up if you intend to put him in the cage either, because then, over time, he will think "Oh I see what you are trying to do--- you want me to step up for my favorite thing, but then what?! I get locked up....I think I'll pass on that offer".


If you totally shut off lights, they will usually stay put, as they have terrible night vision for the most part, so you want to shut windows and dim, not turn off.

 

[Calorious]

I can't really let them go in and out anymore because they are so familiar with the pattern to the point where the second they go like within 2m infront of the entrance of any cage, they fly. And also it's extremely bright in Singapore because of it's never ending sun. It's cute that Noodles is able to return to her perch to sleep on her own. I'll try to slowly bring each of them back into their cage and hopefully they are able to atleast stand at the entrance by themselves without wanting to fly. Thanks!

 

[Flboy]

As said, chasing is making things worse! Cage equals fun and treats! That’s your goal!
I also have many Shiba Inu’s. You never chase a Shib to make them do anything! A single mi-trust sets you back weeks!
Parrots are even more cautious!

 

[noodles123]

I can't really let them go in and out anymore because they are so familiar with the pattern to the point where the second they go like within 2m infront of the entrance of any cage, they fly. And also it's extremely bright in Singapore because of it's never ending sun. It's cute that Noodles is able to return to her perch to sleep on her own. I'll try to slowly bring each of them back into their cage and hopefully they are able to atleast stand at the entrance by themselves without wanting to fly. Thanks!

It is cute- It's just unfortunate she can't cover herself and double lock herself in too lol!

What's the longest you have let them out before to see if they would go back on their own?

 

[Calorious]

Cage equals fun and treats... I mean... I can tell they hate the idea of entering the cage because even if they are hungry and thirsty (and all the food/water is in the cage) they don't want to enter it just to eat and drink as they are afraid of being locked again.
I don't know what to do about this. Right now, I bring each of them near the cage and the BCC is still extremely cautious and knows when he's supposed to go in. When he knows, he grips onto the perch so tight like as if there was a hurricane.
The other two will stand on their cage but still don't want to enter it at all as they fear of being locked.

I've only ever let them out for a maximum of 2 hours because their flying space is not restricted by anything around my house. Granted, they don't fly to certain spaces like bedrooms but there's nowhere they can't possibly go if they got startled.
This means that I can't keep them out for so long because if the front door was open, they could just fly out anytime. They are just so afraid of being locked that they don't even want to enter the cage for food, I have to be the one to bring the food to them lol.