Sun Conure questions/suggestions

[Phoenix_Niko]

Hi all,

I recently got a sun conure who has some behaviors I'm looking for suggestions on.

While on my hand I noticed that he will do some things that I'm not 100% sure if they're good to be doing:

1. go for my mouth (and be super gentle!) He pushes his face toward mine and then just opens his beak and rubs his tongue around my mouth. I will pull in my lips (because it bothers me) and he will literally do it around my mouth. It's weird and I don't like it but he's obsessed with it and I'm not sure what it means.
2. I can tell when he's energetic/"frisky" (vs. calm and lovey which is mostly at night) and at these times he will bite. Hard. I've tried many things, but he isn't aggressively biting me. It's spontaneous (not necessarily when I'm doing anything he doesn't like) and like he's just testing me or exploring but it's painful. He's VERY comfortable with my hands to the point where I don't even have to say step up anymore he basically jumps on my hands and loves being on them. My old bird used to immediately go for my shoulder whereas this one doesn't. He's fine being on my hands. He will chirp the second he sees me to come out so it's not that he isn't comfortable with me. Is it something maybe I'm doing? I have a pretty consistent behavior while handling him.
3. He taps me with his beak ALL THE TIME. I'm thinking by just my general knowledge and what I assume that it's possessive behavior. It started with bobbing his head while rubbing it on me and it's now that along with tapping my finger with his beak while he's on it. It doesn't hurt so I don't discourage it, but as I am thinking it's possessive, should I?

Thank you for any and all suggestions/advice on any/all of these questions!

 

[MonicaMc]

1. go for my mouth (and be super gentle!) He pushes his face toward mine and then just opens his beak and rubs his tongue around my mouth. I will pull in my lips (because it bothers me) and he will literally do it around my mouth. It's weird and I don't like it but he's obsessed with it and I'm not sure what it means.

Considering that birds can get sick from our saliva, even when we are perfectly healthy, this is one behavior we want to discourage! Might try distracting with toys and training new behaviors.


2. I can tell when he's energetic/"frisky" (vs. calm and lovey which is mostly at night) and at these times he will bite. Hard. I've tried many things, but he isn't aggressively biting me. It's spontaneous (not necessarily when I'm doing anything he doesn't like) and like he's just testing me or exploring but it's painful. He's VERY comfortable with my hands to the point where I don't even have to say step up anymore he basically jumps on my hands and loves being on them. My old bird used to immediately go for my shoulder whereas this one doesn't. He's fine being on my hands. He will chirp the second he sees me to come out so it's not that he isn't comfortable with me. Is it something maybe I'm doing? I have a pretty consistent behavior while handling him.

He may just not be in the mood for handling, which is fine! Or there's something bothering him. Either way, if you can avoid interacting with him while he's like this, then reward, reward, reward desired behavior, that can help... or cuing him to do a behavior that would get a reward to diffuse the behavior; i.e. turn around.


3. He taps me with his beak ALL THE TIME. I'm thinking by just my general knowledge and what I assume that it's possessive behavior. It started with bobbing his head while rubbing it on me and it's now that along with tapping my finger with his beak while he's on it. It doesn't hurt so I don't discourage it, but as I am thinking it's possessive, should I?

I don't think it's that, but then through all the conures I've had, none really displayed this behavior consistently to *me*. Two at least I could tap their cages and they would tap back. It wasn't what I would consider a possessive behavior either. One would raise his head up high, then quickly lower his head while "hissing", then once his head was low, would make a bit of a "tch tch tch" kind of noise.


I feel like this behavior is more of a way to communicate, to show off, or perhaps something else. Birds do have a lot of feelings in their beak, so they may enjoy the way certain vibrations feel.

 

[clark_conure]

Meh

1) My conure want's to be a dental hygienist when he grows up. We kissy all the time. I'f your not prone to ailments and you're not sick...enjoy.

2) Time out method, for a bite above the threshold of pain put him on the floor like 10 feet away, or the far arm of the couch. Someplace away from you but he can come back to you from. Give an audible "NO!" This gives them a feeling of separation, being "shunned", time to calm down, and the long walk back cements it in. Time out is very effective on conures.

3) It's interaction. Conures are the kings of attention seeking behavior. Anything they can do to focus your attention on them...they WILL do. If it doesn't hurt I'd allow it and use it for bite pressure training.

Testing limits....anything not painful, is fine...clark climbs up my ear and then hangs upside down from it. They do what they do, in the end you want a bird that won't hurt you but has a huge personality....so I wouldn't discourage anything innocent.

 

[MonicaMc]

Just to reiterate... human saliva can be harmful to parrots, even when we are 100% healthy.


Bacterial Alert – “The Kiss of Death”

 

[clark_conure]

meh

my site has more sources...

http://www.parrotforums.com/conures/43363-fine-let-conure-kiss-you-lot-tongue.html

 

[MonicaMc]

Considering that no one on this forum is an avian vet, I don't feel it's safe to say that it's fine to allow birds access to our mouths when *we* know full well that the saliva of a predator (if humans could be deemed a "predator") can be harmful to a prey animal.


My own vet has told me of a story of a conure that was sick for months and no amount of medications would cure the bird. Diet, cage, water, everything seemed fine! The owners finally let slip that they kiss their bird. Vet told them to stop, and the bird was able to get over being sick from a bacterial infection.

 

[chris-md]

Monica’s right, as carnivores we have specific bacteria that can be deadly for birds. Allowing them to make mucus membrane contact is inviting a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a guarantee, like it’s not a guarantee you’ll get food poisoning from sushi, but it’s dangerous to do and should generally be avoided out of principle.

 

[clark_conure]

we don't swap spit, but if clark puts his beak against my lips and goes "click" noise was harmful, then he would have been sick a long, long time ago.

 

[itzjbean]

Boo also wants to be a dental hygienist. But I never open my mouth.

 

[MonicaMc]

Kissing their beaks is not the same as them licking our mouths! So that I'm fine with!

 

[Sunnyclover]

Oliie and Finley both also would like to attend dental college in the near to immediate future. I shut my lips as tight as possible.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Skittles gives me kisses all the time. I don't let him put his tongue anywhere near my lips though. I kiss him on the beak.

Our saliva IS dangerous to birds. We have certain bacteria in our mouths that is 'healthy bacteria' for US as it aids in swallowing and digestion. HOWEVER, this healthy bacteria is NOT good for birds as their immune systems lack the ability to process it accordingly. There is also a certain level of bad bacteria in our saliva as well (from food, plaque and germs). Its never safe to allow them to ingest it. Just because something doesn't happen the first or second time doesn't mean its safe.

Sometimes Skittles will just press his beak on my face or even on my chest when he is cuddling in my shirt. There ARE certain sounds and sensations that they are drawn to.

I happen to be of the mindset that birds do NOT bite for no reason. There is always something behind it. If its a hard, aggressive bite- then its obviously an expression of displeasure and/or fear. But not all bites are bad. Birds use their beaks for many things beside biting and eating. For example, before Skittles will climb onto my finger, he will grab my finger with his beak. He doesn't bite me, he is merely 'testing' to make sure its safe. He does the same thing when going from perch to perch.

Despite how "expressive" he is at sharing his opinion, he is rarely ever aggressive with me and every time he has been, I've found a reason and as a result I've been able to curb the aggression by preventing it.