problems with cage

[hutcho]

My sun conure doesnt like coming out of his cage, he bites (gently) and runs away but once hes out hes friendly and affectionate and doesnt bite, any idea as to why hes doing this or is it a normal sorta territory thing? Hes the first bird ive owned so im not sure of whats "normal"

 

[MikeyTN]

They're known to be territorial with their cage! We have to get ours out then she's fine sitting with us. Otherwise she'll bite if your on or in her cage. Have you tried to just leave the cage door open to see if he would come out on his own? I know ours won't come out unless we get her out. The door can be wide open, she rather sit inside....

 

[hutcho]

Basically the only time hes in his cage with the door shut is when noones home/when we are asleep (im a student so im home with him out of his cage most of the time) and when we are home we have the door of the cage open with a branch going from the ground to the perch in the cage and he never goes in unless we put him in. If hes inside his cage with the door open he occasionally climbs out himself

 

[MikeyTN]

Have you try bribing him with treats???

 

[hutcho]

Honestly i only got him last week so im thinking it could be nerves cause its a new enviroment

 

[MikeyTN]

That could very well be it but like I've said, they're known to be cage territorial. I put ours in a brand new cage and she took over right away. It didn't phase her one bit changing cages.

 

[Kiwibird]

We have an amazon, but he'll pull the 'nip and run away' crap with me on occasion. I usually just shut the door and let him be.

In general though, he seems to prefer stepping up to the stick from inside his cage then transferring from the stick to the hand once out (and is fine/steps up to the hand consistently from then forward). He doesn't mind my hands being in his cage (like to hang a toy or cleaning), he just seems not to want to step up as consistently to a hand from inside the cage as he does the stick. Who knows why, but my view is he's a well behaved bird overall and allows me to swap toys/clean in the cage without attacking so why push him on the issue of wanting to step up to the stick? I'm sure he has some reason he prefers it that is not immediately apparent to me

How does your bird react to your hand being in the cage if you aren't giving he step up command? Being he is new, I would target train him and work on stepping up from inside the cage or some other proactive approach because that kind of defiance being allowed to 'slide' early on could progress to cage aggression later.

 

[hutcho]

If im putting in a toy or cleaning the cage he isnt to bothered, whats the best way to target train, like keep trying untill he steps up and reward or try a couple of times, leave him alone for a little bit the try again?

 

[Kiwibird]

Please note the bird in this video is already trained, so getting your bird to target and then step to your hand may take some time, but target training is the "recommended" method to train young birds. And if your bird already knows how to step up and just isn't inside the cage, this will still work because you can acclimate your bird to stepping up in the cage specifically by targeting it on your hand

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtptXFyb2c"]How to Target Train Your Parrot | Parrot Training - YouTube[/ame]