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Unpredictable biting conour

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Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Nako » Sat Oct 22, 2016 3:04 pm

Hi,
I'm new to the forum because I'm looking for advice, I have two birds in separate cages, I have a little 6month old cockatiel who is slowly but surely trusting me and I'm happy with her progress, however I recently rescued a green cheeked conour called reggie from a couple who just didn't have time for him, and he has become so confident with me and my partner, he is four and he sings talks dances and did start to respond well to step up, however recently he's become bitey, and won't let go. I've stayed calm said no and put him back to try and use negative reinforcement not to bite but it's not working, he wags his tail when he sees me and chatters away he's so exited he will run or fly straight over to me but then out of no where he bites and hard drawing blood often. Originally I thought it was because he didn't want to go to bed or back in his cage but now after 10-15 mins of having him out he bites me. I put him back wait a bit them get him out again and the same cycle happens. He loves being out and I want him out the cage for a few hours at a time but I'm struggling to teach him not to bite. My dad went Into hospital and I was late home one day so I went to give him.his favourite food and he tried to take my finger rather than the food ad if he was angry with me. He's a cuddle bird when he wants to be but this biting seems somewhat unpredictable. And my hands and arms are suffering same for my partner. Any advice???
Nako
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 9
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheeked conour male and female cockatiel
Flight: Yes

Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Wolf » Sat Oct 22, 2016 8:55 pm

The first thing that you need to understand is that negative reinforcement does not work with birds and in the long run only serves to make things worse. when you were late and he acted as if he was angry with you , he was angry with you for being late and unfortunately due to the treatment that he received from his prior home this is the only way that he knows how to express this to you.

GCC's, Green Cheek Conures, have a reputation of becoming rather bitey, especially when they feel that they are being neglected or when they are not happy. I do not know how long he has been with you, but it is very possible that he is holding a grudge due to the neglect that he previously experienced and he has to work his way through it, unfortunately he appears to be taking it out on you, rather than on those who did this to him and this means that although he is trying to trust you ( based on the behaviors that you have described), he has not gotten there just yet.

I have a Senegal that even though she had chosen to bond with me, bite me mercessly for over a year before she got it out of her system and now bites from her are few and far between.

GCC's bond very tightly to their humans and due to this they require near constant interaction with the person that they bond with in order to be happy. This is something that you will probably have to work through with him, so you may need to keep a small stuffed bird safe toy on hand to distract him from biting you by placing it between yourself and his beak especially while he is excited. A bird that is excited is always more likely to bite so it would also help you to not interact with him until he has calmed down first. This could mean that any time that you come home and go to see him that you will just have to talk to him for a few minutes while he calms down. The best way to teach a bird to not bite you is to avoid getting bitten in the first place.

Hope this help you to understand why he is acting in this manner. There are other members that know far more about GCC's than I do and hopefully they will reply to this as well. Let me know how things develop as we will do what we can to help you with this.
Wolf
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Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Nako » Sun Oct 23, 2016 5:49 am

Hi, Thankyou for your message, that was actually really helpful and I will try and wait for him to calm down from exitment before getting him out and I will try a toy as well and I will let you know how I get on :) Thankyou for replying
Nako
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 9
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheeked conour male and female cockatiel
Flight: Yes

Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby liz » Sun Oct 23, 2016 6:32 am

Welcome to the forum.

You do not say how long you have had him. I consider mine my children with Rambo who is 31 equivalent to a 5 year old with a speech impediment. Myrtle is 6 but is equivalent to a 2 year old.
I always gave my kids the benefit of the doubt when they were being bad that something else may be going on. Their head or belly could hurt or something in the room was annoying them.

It could be diet or lighting causing problems. They do not have enough words to describe it to us.
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liz
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Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Nako » Sun Oct 23, 2016 7:17 am

I havnt had reggie very long, about a two months now and I believe he's had a rough start to life as I just found out he has was in a pet shop then first home, then pet shop again them second home then to me, but he can be so loving when he wants to be but the hard unpredictable biting is making it difficult to give him the interaction he wants
Nako
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 9
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheeked conour male and female cockatiel
Flight: Yes

Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Navre » Sun Oct 23, 2016 8:26 am

Green cheeks also tend to "punch above their weight" when it comes to bites. They bite hard.

I recently had to quickly grab and move a couple of GCC breeders (long story). I knew when I grabbed them that they would bite, and bite hard. When they gave me only weak bites, I knew they were sick. When a greencheek is grabbed by a person he has never seen before, he is going to bite with everything he has.
Turns out that they were just malnourished. We have had them on a good diet for just over a month. I'm happy to report that one of the pair gave me a good, 90% of full-power bite the other day. It made me smile. I actually said to him, "there you go... that's better."
Navre
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Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Navre » Sun Oct 23, 2016 8:49 am

Probably more relevant to your problem:

I got my GCC when my son was overseas. When my son came home, my bird immediately took to him. She displayed for him (even though she was less than a year old), and she always let my son pick her up. She would, however, bite my son. A lot. I had told my son not to react to the bites. No screaming or anything like that.
My son is in incredibly tough kid, who either doesn't feel pain, or completely ignores it. He is also in the army, and follows orders very well. This resulted in the bird nearly chewing a hole in my son's finger. I actually had no idea how badly she was biting him, but he endured it for about a month. It slowly just stopped. My son is now, unquestionably, my bird's favorite person, and the bird never bites him. She never bites any males. (Females are still at risk March through June)

I don't understand the thought process of the bird in all this. Was she "mad" at him for being away, even though she had never met him? Were these "Where have you been all my life" bites? Who knows... Birds are strange. They have these brains left over from the dinosaurs. They're terribly ill-suited to be pets. They're not wired for it. We love them and must have them, but they'll always be strange little animals in captivity.

I wish I could find the video of me with "Mango" last week. Mango is a Sunday Conure. This was a Friday, so it wasn't his day. Mango was on top of his cage. I went to pick him up, and he attempted to bite me. I said to him, "yes, I know, you're the big, fierce descendant of a dinosaur. I must fear you and respect your heritage." He bit me once. I said, "yes, mango, we all know..you're a dinosaur" He thenstepped up and we hung out together for a half hour, like nothing had happened. Birds are strange.
Navre
African Grey
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Pajarita » Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:49 pm

Yes, John (Navre) is 100% correct. To us, parrots are really weird and strange... I am sure that their actions actually make sense but we simply cannot make heads or tails of some of their behaviors - mostly, anyway.

Parrots bite for many reasons... sometimes it's because they are overly hormonal and in pain (easy to happen with GCCs that are kept to a human light schedule and free-feed protein food like seeds, pellets, etc), sometimes it's because we don't pay enough attention to them (again, easy to happen with GCCs which are almost as needy as cockatoos, in my personal opinion), sometimes because they see a danger (which doesn't necessarily have to be an actual danger, mind you!) and they are trying to let us know about it, sometimes because we pay attention to somebody or somebirdy else (this is a complete betrayal, as far as they are concerned), sometimes it's because it's the only way they can get their point across (our fault entirely for not learning what they need and want) or because, having lived with people who did not treat them right, they have lost their trust in human and feel that all humans are like their previous owners. It's up to us to figure out why they do it, remove the cause and convince them that it won't happen to them again - not an easy thing to do but there you have it! :lol:
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Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Nako » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:04 pm

Hi, it's really nice to see so much advice! I was wondering what counts as a good diet for a gcc, reggie has a conour seed mix which has seeds nuts chilli dried coconut and fruit in it, I also mix oyster shell in like I do for my cocktiel, I also try to give him a range of fresh fruit and veg which he takes from my hand as he actually loves to try new food, he loves banana grapes melon and raspberry the most, obviusly not over doing the fresh food, he has millit as a treat as he responds really well to that, he had a mineral stone he doesn't overly touch and was scared of cuttle fish so I removed it, but before I had him I was concerned about his diet as it was seed, sweetened dried fruit (as I tried some because I didn't think I looked right) and the odd grape. Can I improve his diet anymore? Or have I gone wrong with his diet? I want to try everything to give reggie the best life aNd happy companionship. Also he is getting new feathers I've noticed, could this also be making him irritable because he's so itchy, i give him warm baths have plum spray and he uses his bell ad a scratching tool. Thanks so much for all the advice so far!!!
Nako
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 9
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheeked conour male and female cockatiel
Flight: Yes

Re: Unpredictable biting conour

Postby Navre » Sun Oct 23, 2016 1:13 pm

I don't see a need for dried fruit, if he has access to fresh fruit. It's not all good. It has to be sulphate free, or something. I don't bother much with it.

My greencheek gets a gloop of grains and vegetables every morning. I add fruit to it as I can. Bananas, apples, and grapes, usually. You can find the recipe for the gloop here somewhere.

She gets sunflower seeds as treats, but only from her usual biting targets. It seems to help. She is tiny, so we limit the seeds to 2 or 3 a day.

I had been giving her Harrison's pellets in the afternoon. Trying to change to TOPS pellets, but the way she eats, picking her pellets up and biting them, doesn't work too well with the tops. They just crumble and End up on the cage bottom.
Navre
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