Sun Conure Help!

[Mad21Skilz]

Hi, I am 16. I have a Sun Conure named Lupa. I would like to know to know a few things(I hope this fits in this forum). First off, Lupa will let me pet her while she is in the cage. But only if my mother is not around. If my mother is around she makes defensive postures, such as. fluffing up, screaming, biting her cage, and pacing. Is there a way to fix this? Second, I would love to take the parrot out of the cage. I know she will let me pet her in the cage but have never tried out of it. I have also never tried to take her out(teaching her to step up). Is there a way for me to find out if she will let me teach her to step up without causing myself harm? My mother has never let me be around her while she is out. The first day we had her she bit me and mom never trusted it since. But now I can pet her back and head while she is in the cage normally with no problem. So, is there a harmless way I can figure out if my parrot is comfortable with me teaching her to step up? If so, how?

[Wolf]

First things first, never pet your bird any place other than on its head, beak or neck as if you are petting any other place on their body you are sending sexual signals.
Can you tell me more about your bird, things such as how old is it and how long have you had it? The more information that we have the better we can help you.
Sun conures are one of the more aggressive species of conures so you are going to get bitten sometimes, it is just a fact of life with a parrot. Keeping the bird confined to its cage will not help with this and in most cases will only make things worse for both you and the bird. Trying to handle a frightened bird is a surefire way to receive a bite or two and if you had just gotten the bird, I can assure you that it was very much frightened.
Who is the bird being aggressive towards, when your mother is in the room. Is he being aggressive towards you or your mother?
What time does your bird get up in the morning and go to bed at night? What foods does it get to eat? I ask because these things can affect the bird behavior. What does the bird do all day long? does it have toys and things to do when no one is there to interact with it?

[Mad21Skilz]

I am pretty sure we have had her at least 8 years but I have never attempted to make a lot of contact with the bird until recently. I was afraid. Now I am seeing her for the beautiful cuddly creature she is . About the aggression, she is aggressive towards me when my mother his around. Its obvious that she is her favorite person. We put the bird to bed about 6:30 to 7:30 and wake it up around 6:30 in the morning. My mother is not home often and I am at school. When I get home I communicate with and feed and water the bird. I have seen your logic behind only petting the head and will start that now. As of now, the bird eats a diet of the bird food we buy and some fruits and what not. As for what she does during the day for fun. Her cage has 3 toys, a swing, a toy she can shred(2 of them to be exact) and a bell. Anything else?

[Wolf]

Please be patient with me and I will do my best to help you, but before I go sticking my foot in my mouth too far, I am trying to get a clearer picture of what is going on with you bird and what factors may be affecting its behaviors. I should also be trying to evaluate you current bird experience, but I am assuming that it is not a lot. If that is an error on my part I am counting on you to correct me.
What is the food that you buy for the bird? Food is one of the main triggers for the start of the breeding cycle as well as providing the raw materials for the production of hormones and can also be a major factor in a birds level of aggression. So it actually is an important bit of information in assessing the birds behaviors and not my being nosey. Also birds are largely creatures of habit and don't deal with change very well. So the average daily routine is also helpful for determining the best way to approach this situation. The more detailed the information the easier it is to help you with the bird.
So far I can tell that the bird, Lupa, is bonded to your mother as she is very protective of your mother. Sun conures are known to very often be one person birds as they bond very tightly to their special person and will reject anyone else most of the time if their special human is present. I am assuming that you have your mothers permission to attempt to interact with Lupa as well as attempting to train her, but would like to hear that directly from you. It is doubtful if you will be able to do much of anything with her when your mother is present at least for some period of time. Due to the nature of these birds if you are successful with interacting and training her the dynamics of her bonding with your mother may change. There is no way to predict whether this will or will not occur.
Since you are now able to pet Lupa, my next question is does Lupa accept treats from you when you are talking to her and petting her. And if she does what are you using for treats? If she does not calmly accept treats from you through the bars of the cage then this would be your first step in creating a trusting relationship with her.
Knowing Lupas schedule will help to determine the best times to work with her so please explain what she does and not just for what you consider to be for fun. Does she get any out of cage time at all at present? Do you feed her more than once a day? if so when do you feed her what foods? How much time does she get to interact with you and/ or your mother daily?
I am thinking that if she is accepting treats that the next step would be target training, but I don't yet know where the bird is in her current training/ interactions.

[Mad21Skilz]

My bird eats a brand of bird food for medium to large birds. Such as, African Grey's, Cockatoos ,and Conures. From what I have seen it seems balanced. It has various seeds and nuts. Such as peanuts, sunflower seeds, a cookie-ish thing and many other types of little seeds. If you need more please tell me. My mother has agreed to let her out with me in the room to get her used to me(we will be doing tomorrow ). My mother has already taught her to step up and is willing to teach me(yes my mother is okay with me petting and training the bird and encourages me to do so). I will take a few bites for the team. She is not normally let out daily(which I understand is a problem and will be fixing). But my mother does take her out at least once a week(as she is not home often). The goal is. Have the bird accustom to me so I can love and enjoy her as much a possible when my mother is away. As for treats. She accepts treats from my hands easy, even while petting. So far I have seen that her favorite treat is either a sunflower seed or a peanut. I feed her more than once a day. Normally when her bowl is low I refill it. She gets about 30 min of interaction with me daily at the moment(will increase hopefully when I can achieve trust). My mother also pets and loves on her when she gets home. She does not have a lot of training as my mother is not very much of a training person. But I have been researching many different training techniques. Such as the clicker and positive reinforcement. I have also seen punishments when the bird acts up. Such as putting her back in her cage for a time out. I plan on teaching her to target first. Since(from my research) is the best first thing to teach a parrot. If you need anymore information plz ask I want to make this bird a family pet instead of a one person bird.

[Wolf]

I don't really understand why it is so difficult to get the name brand and variety of the food that you are feeding your bird, it really is a simple question. Perhaps my difficulty is that I tend to take a more holistic approach to parrots than other people as I really care about these birds, but then again they are my sole reason for spending my time here, with my main goal being to improve their lives as much as I can.
I don't hold much of a hope that you can turn this bird into a family pet as it is not their nature and I urge to forget about any concept of punishment as a viable means of doing anything other than destroying any trust that you might build with the bird.
You are thinking of Lupa in much the same fashion as you would of training and working with a dog or a cat, but parrots are much different than either of these. The methods of training a dog will not work for a bird, they don't function in the same manner. I can see that we have a long way to go.

[Pajarita]

Yes, the name of the product and brand she eats would be very helpful because, with them, we can check the ingredients but, for what you describe, it doesn't sound a good diet because you are not supposed to free-feed high protein food. This is for all parrots but some species, like sun conures, can get very aggressive when fed such high protein all the time (aside from the fact that it destroys their liver and kidneys).

Wolf is also correct about parrots been 'family' pets... there are a few that do work out this way but they are few and far between because they tend to be one person birds.

As to training, I would bond with the bird first.

[Mad21Skilz]

The bird eats Hartz bird diet for large birds. Sorry for not saying sooner. Did not understand the question. And I completely understand that I need to bond with the parrot before I start any type of training. Sorry for the confusion. Do you think this bird food is bad for her emotionally?

[Pajarita]

I looked and looked and couldn't find a list of the ingredients but, going by the picture, it looks like bad food to me (mostly sunflower seeds and black oil at that, dry corn, etc). No Hartz bird food is any good, actually. Bad food would end up not only causing malnutrition but also destroying their liver and kidneys so, if I were you, I would put her on a good, fresh food diet asap.

[Mad21Skilz]

Yes Sir/Ma'am!!