Biting Problem

[silverdreammoon]

Hi I recently got a green cheek conure, he is 9months old. He has had two owners previous to me. He has no papers, i got him from a bird breeder, who got the bird originally from a vet who clipped his wings. I personally dont like wing clipping on birds, but other people's views may differ. Ok so he dances, he talks, highly intelligent - his name is billie.
He wont let me near him, he just about sits on my arm, but i have to wear a jumped because he grabs my skin and wont let go. He wont let me stroke him, he dose not like my hands at all.
I am usually good with birds (as I have been in the animal industry for 4 years now), but this bird is confusing. I asked the originaly owner to come and see if he can make any suggestions as to his bad habit of biting. The bird was very well behaved when the man came round, as soon as he left, the bird went for my hand and wouldnt let go when i tried to handle him.
I give him small treats everyday. He has lots of toys, I give him good quality food and fresh water everyday. He gets 8 hours of sunlight a day. When I am at work during the day I leave the radio on for him for company. I have put the cage on the ground ( last week it was on a high table ) - i thought he may have been biting from being above eye level - as far as i know birds can be quite dominant in that way.

Any suggestions? I personally thing that the bird may have bonded with the old owner and is finding it hard to rebond to someone new. Could that be the case? patience is what i need right now? I have told him no biting. I have tried using the ladder - making him climb the ladder - he is afraid of the ladder.
I wont arrange for the old owner to come back round because he is flirting with me.
I am not interested in him that way, i only want advice.

Thanks guys.

[silverdreammoon]

sorry about the few spelling mistakes

[marie83]

Most green cheeks are very nippy by default. The only things you can do really is learn his body language and learn to avoid being bitten. When you do get bitten ignore it, parrots thrive on attention, even bad attention.

Now as for getting him used to being handled, I suggest you read Michaels trained parrot blog (links at top and bottom of each forum page). Go back to the very begining with taming and training exercises. I promise you you can reduce the biting, I used to call my green cheek a psycho bird but now I rarely ever get bitten.

[silverdreammoon]

thank you for your help.

[Andromeda]

My GCC was a biter when my husband and I adopted him (at 2 1/2) but he is a very good bird now. It's important that you work with your GCC now while he is young to develop good habits because around the age of 2 they will go through a pretty bad biting phase as they sexually mature. If you have a good foundation it won't be as bad.

I agree with everything Marie said. GCCs are nippy birds. Definitely take a look at Michael's blog post as Marie mentioned because I have been working with my GCC on taming and training and he almost never bites. Honestly I can't recall the last real bite I had from him. He does nip to say "no" pretty regularly but they are gentle nips.

The more "good" behaviors your bird knows (not just taming exercises but things like wave, turn in a circle, go through a tube, etc.), the less likely it is to bite. Taming and training will take time but if you have 5 - 30 min. per day (or on most days) to work with your bird consistently using positive reinforcement you will see great progress over time.

Lastly I noticed you put "yes" for flight but I want to say that keeping your GCC flighted and encouraging flight every day will go a long way toward cutting back on biting. I understand he is clipped now and you said you don't like that so hopefully you will let his wings grow out again. Mine knows flight recall and I fly him (indoors) every day and it helps him to use up some of that crazy energy GCCs have and has greatly reduced biting.

[bmsweb]

We purchased a pair of GCC for breeding and they were the first adult birds I've ever had that were not tame and in fact would could easily bite to the bone! Training is the key to bringing the bird around. It took some time but both are well and truly tame now and do not bite at all. In fact none of our Conures have even come close to biting hard enough to draw blood or even break skin for that matter.

Birds mainly bite to protect themselves.

There is lots of information here about training your bird to do tricks and it will go a long way in developing a positive relationship with your Conure.

This is the way your bird will be in a few months time