Zelda's Strange Ritual

[Iholm5]

I have a female DNA-sexed 5 year old cinnamon GCC named Zelda. As of about a month ago, whenever I am working at my computer she will slide down my arm and press herself up against my hand. She gets extremely fluffy and will start grabbing my hand/fingers with her beak and feet. I'm wondering if this is normal conure behavior and if so what it means. Should I encourage or discourage this or is this some sort of weird bonding thing? I am closely bonded to my conure and she prefers me over my wife, who she will bite if my wife tries to pick her up.

 

[SilverSage]

Sounds like someone wants snuggles.

I would nip the wife-biting in the bud though.

 

[Iholm5]

We are working on it. She's very attached to me but I've been having my wife pick her up and reassuring Zelda that it's okay since I'm not always home. She seems to be able to pick the bird up fine when I'm not there.

 

[SilverSage]

That's good. I would also hand her the bird a lot. When she bites the wife, treat it as if she bit you. Drop her on the floor and walk away. She needs to learn that biting the wife means BEING ALONE (The most awful thing!). This is natural birds logic: if I am mean, I am alone. If I am nice, I get to have friends.

 

[Birdman666]

We are working on it. She's very attached to me but I've been having my wife pick her up and reassuring Zelda that it's okay since I'm not always home. She seems to be able to pick the bird up fine when I'm not there.

The behavior you describe sounds like a feeding behavior. Grabbing the hand and going poofy, and doing the head bob.

And the other behavior you are describing is a typical pair bond bird overbonding/favorite person reaction. YOU are the trigger for the bites. "My favorite person's back put me down."

As the bird gets handled more and more by your wife/other people these should diminish with time.