VERY aggressive sun conure !URGENT!

[Ghostiebirbs]

I have a 4 year old male sun conure that used to share a cage with a female cockatiel (suspected 5-6 years old). The conure was very sweet (except to my dad, brother and any male visitors) until about 2 months ago when my cockatiel escaped. We got her back after 3 hours when we tried coaxing her down to her cage that had him in it by feeding him potato chips (her favourite and rarest treat) and eating them loudly ourselves.As soon as we put her back in the cage he started being extremely aggressive and attacking her and flying at her and biting to blood. We rushed the cage home and took him out and he started biting us on our faces, neck, hands, going for our eyes and biting until we bleed and not stopping; even when we turned a cold shoulder to him and stopped talking to him, he would go to the side your face was on and keep biting at it until you were forced to put him in the cage to avoid your face being gored up, where he promptly attacked our cockatiel the same way by flaying at her and grabbing her and biting. We've had them in separate cages since. The sun conure hasn't been the same to anybody and bites me and my mother until we bleed when we take him out of the cage and start to talk to him the same way we did before the incident and if the cockatiel is out of her cage he attacks her. He has spent 4 years in the same cage as her and was fine until the incident. My mother has been warning me that I have to sell him to get some money back or give him away to a specialist to 'fix' him. My cockatiel still adores him and when he's taken out of the room from her she squawks for him. I've tried positive reinforcement training and ignoring bad behaviour but his behaviour is so painful and detrimental to the person with him's safety it's impossible to ignore. My mother is threatening to give them both away behind my back and I need to act fast. I don't have an avian vet and live in an isolated area at least 12km (7.5mi) away from anywhere, not just a vet, the closest of which is 33.8km (21mi) away. I can't drive and my parents don't care enough to drive that far out for them. They are also unclipped but the sun conure doesn't fly at all unless he wants to attack someone. Please help, he's made me and my mother cry and the whole family has given up and abandoned him now. Nobody wants to hold him because he bites everyone (and I was his favourite for all 4 year)

 

[Laurasea]

hi,
This was a very traumatic experience for your sun conure. For the cockatiel too. But your sun conure was especially spooked by this. So it is is fear aggression. Then all of this other.

Its winning trust back, he feels you broke his trust. But you can repair your relationship . And it can be slow. Its not expecting to take liberties with him like you did before, until after you have earned back trust. You must pay attention to body language, and that moods may change fast because of fear.
Look into target training. Feed treats by hand lots and lots of times a day , without expecting him to do more than take tge treat nice.

Sometimes it helps to think of it as starting over like you just brought him home. And all the attention, and trust building and getting yo know each other.

Many of us have had something happen, and then have to prove we are trust worthy to our parrots again. At least I have. Don't make it a big deal in your head, you can earn trust back.

 

[wrench13]

Hi and welcome. I would like to know more about the whole situation, mind if I ask some questions?

Has your sunnie gone thru puberty already? When, and how long did it last?

Where are you located?

Is the sunnie eating the same as before?

Are you 100% certain that this is your sun conure? Check his leg band?

 

[Ghostiebirbs]

Hi and welcome. I would like to know more about the whole situation, mind if I ask some questions?

Has your sunnie gone thru puberty already? When, and how long did it last?

Where are you located?

Is the sunnie eating the same as before?

Are you 100% certain that this is your sun conure? Check his leg band?

I don't know if he (my sun conure Max) went through puberty yet but he did become aggressive toward my dad and tried to mate with several objects around the house at about 2 years old and hasn't stopped yet (he's 4, so it's been going for 2 years as far as I'm able to tell)


I live in rural New Zealand in the middle of a large mountainous forest


Max is eating the same as always and so is Sunny (the cockatiel) but she's more keen to eat food outside of seeds than she usually was before she flew away (she preferred seeds over bread and vegetables etc. before)



Max has the same leg band, and is definitely the same bird since he's never flown away