How Do You Socialize With Bonded Birds?

[Grayson]

Well, the title says it. I have two bonded conures that don't seem to trust me very well. They trust me to a certain extent, meaning that they take treats from my hand, but beyond that they run away. I've been looking at articles on eHow, they said that I should just stand by the cage, share meals with them, stuff like that. But this is with ONE bird, I have TWO. Do I just have to do the same thing, or is there something special that I have to do with them? I'm just worried that since they are together, they won't bond to me as easily.

[Pajarita]

Well, GCCs bond really tight with each other but the hens are usually very sweet even when bonded to a male, it's the males that are very possessive/protective of the hens and would give you trouble but even them can be 'convinced' to trust you. I had a male and female bonded pair and although he would bite the crap out of me at the beginning, he ended up loving scooting down the front of my top and taking a nap in there while the hen perched on my shoulder and napped under my hair. And all I did was let them out, spend time with them (a strict schedule helps A LOT), give them treats and put him away from me whenever he would bite me... eventually, he stopped and once he discovered that I would allow him to go down my front, he never again bit me - outside the cage, that is, he continued been very territorial in it but eventually he also learned to wait on the back perch until I finished putting out the fresh food and water when I gave him the command 'Back off' (I would touch my finger to the back perch, give the command and wait for him to jump there -he was trying to bite that finger, actually, and that was the only reason why he would jump to it- and, when he did, I would quickly do the exchange). It took a couple of weeks of him jumping back and forth between the front and the back perch but he figured out that if he didn't stay in the back, he had to wait for his food and he LOVED his fruits so he learned to control himself in order to get them.