Training Green Cheek Conure - Any advice for a newbie?

[Jon114]

I could use some help. 2 days ago I was fortunate enough to come in the possession of a green cheek conure, all free, cage and all, from a friend of my mom. The bird had been in the friend's possession for 3 weeks until she decided a parrot was not the bird for her. I believe the bird to be young, possibly 4-6 months. I have been handling and taking the "him" out of his cage after the first night. So far, he's seemed to had taken well to this. However, he has issues with, well...biting. It's easy to tell when I do something he doesn't like, he'll "growl", give a strong nip, and back away. However, his issue seems to lie within his lust for blood. Literally. After some persistance from myself, he'll happily perch on a finger, but then he begins to chew. Chew, chew, and chew. At first I merely thought this was him "testing the limits" and simply ignored the painful biting. However, it has not as the issue seems to have increased. I'm not exactly sure on how to curb the behavior. He bites fingers until the skin comes off, then rips it off, and EATS it. He's even lapped up my own blood. I've tried blowing on him gently, but when he's "in the mood" he simply ignores that. I've tried giving him the dirty look, and while this sometimes stops him, he goes back to biting within seconds. Maybe I'm taking things WAY too fast, so I could use some advice. I've had plenty of budgies, a few cockatiels, and a quaker parrot. All of them were from friends/breeders, and were tame to start out with, so I'm very new to training a bird. Please, help! My fingers are torn to shreds!

 

[aliray]

Maybe slow down and back up a bit. Try to avoid the bites if you can and try distracting him with something to chew on besides you, like toys ,plastic straws, wood pieces ect. and tell him no bite if he bites you and put him back in the cage for a while or on top of it and give him a very small timeout. You can always use a perch to pick him up if that doesn't work. Remember he is in his second home in 3 weeks and it is going to take time for him to trust you. Good luck. Also make sure he is not just tired and cranky or hungry and cranky when you go to pick him up. Found that out the hard way

 

[weco]

Aliray's right.....

While I have experienced bird mutilation from wild sun conures, I did not stand & let them enjoy tar-tare of my flesh.

I you really want to have a better relationship with this bird, stop trying to force it to do your bidding & leave it alone until some semblance of trust has been established & this could take months or it could be only a few weeks, but the bird has to trust you & it doesn't appear that is happening right now. You could sit & talk with the bird (while it's in its cage)...speak to the bird every time you walk by...tell it you are leaving the room when you do & let it know when you are coming back into the room. This will help with screaming & does not surprise the bird if you just show up in the doorway.

Like dogs & cats, treats often help. Youtube has a lot of training videos, some good & some that border on boring, but any of them would be worth your time, at this point. Searches for training a green cheek conure or training a parrot or conure training or parrot training should get you enough video material to get you started.

Because you allowed the bird to use your fingers as appetizers, it will probably try it again, until you start to set limits of what is & what is not acceptable behavior. Many birds consider their cage...their space & don't like fingers/hands invading their space, so the bird may prefer to come out on its own...when ready...rather than you sticking your hand/fingers in to get it to step-up & some birds prefer to step-up on a stick/perch over fingers.....

Using the same search parameters on the internet will get you a lot of reading material on training also.....

Good luck

 

[Jon114]

This morning -

He was screaming quite loudly this morning, and apon uncovering his cage, he was biting at his cage doors looking anxious to come out and play. So I opened the cage doors. He clambered to the top of his cage, and I then spent another 10 minutes quietly speaking to him. I offered my finger to step up, and although he seemed reluctant, he did not back away, and eventually hopped onto my fingers. I then tried the "laddering" techinique for about a minute. I placed him onto his playgym and gave him a few safflower seeds as a treat. I left him for about 30 minutes, and came back with some greens. I was hand feeding them, and at several points he tried to go for my fingers, I moved away slowly each time and he seemed to get the idea. I looked away for a split second and he decided to give my finger a chomp. I pulled away slowly, and he "growled" obviously displeased that I didn't let him have at it. I then resumed feeding his greens (this is were I think I went wrong) and after a few minutes of seemingly trust building handfeeding, he gave me another quick chomp, this time much harder and with a death hold. I pulled away, said "No" and gave him the dirtiest look I could muster up, which wasn't that hard considering I had already lost a teaspoon of blood by then. He backed away to the edge of his perch and remained quiet. I left, with him remaing on his playgym.

Now that my little story is complete, can anyone give my suggestions on where to improve my reactions to his misbehaviors? Obviously, I'm still doing something wrong, and it's still too early to expect "the world's friendliest bird". It will just take time I suppose. But when he bites me, or does something I don't approve of, what do I do?

 

[ACEPHONECHIC]

obviously you need to get control of the situation as soon as possible. It is very difficult if they start to get the taste of biting until the draw blood but distraction is going to have to play a large part. The attacking sounds as though there is a territorial part coming in to play as well. The cage and the playgym your bird is considering belong to him and you are invading his space.
If you open his cage and step back away from direct contact what happens will he try to fly to you. I can guess that his previous owner had a problem and was perhaps not completely honest with you. The bird is also confused to be moved around so much when so young.
If he seeks you out you are then not in his territory, if he tries to bite you need to dislodge him from you fingers which will distract and not allow enough time to draw blood. if you really want to succeed with this bird and it will be greatly rewarding if you do it is going to take alot of time and patience.
With my two young greencheeks who also like to try to nip I find a gentle blow stops them in their tracks. Also try distracting with something you want them to chew rip, a raggi parrot toy or similar.
Don't give up please so many poor parrots end up in a cage because they lack training.

 

[chippy]

When Wilbur tried biting at the beginning I would say, "No bite" and drop my hand slightly, but quickly, to throw him off balance. He learned very quickly that biting was not much fun. It didn't hurt him and was not a big enough movement to scare him, and was very effective.

 

[AnniePurcell]

Our conure had a slight biting problem when we got her. Our vet suggested that when she bites, put her down on the floor in a "time out" for a few minutes because birds don't like to be on the ground. It worked for us! They are smart birds and it didn't take her long to learn that biting=floor. She never bites now.

 

[danyell348]

also if you push into the bite (push your finger towards their beak instead of away) they immediately loose grip & let go. pulling away just makes them grip harder