Sun Conure Help!

[jennifergelinas]

Help!... I have an 8 month old Sun Conure who I hand fed from 2months. The bird was very sweet as a baby, would roll over on his back and lay on my chest for long periods. As he has matured, he has stopped rolling over, will only lay on his back for brief periods and bites my fingers and chin the whole time. Additionally, he has begun screaming a lot when I come/go, when someone is in the kitchen, when we turn on the microwave... We have ignored his screaming and it has not helped to minimize it. He is also displaying aggressive behavior when I put food in his bowl.

He used to come to both my husband and me, however, now he will not even let my husband touch him.

What happened? Where did my sweet bird go? and why is he screaming so much!

[Kim S]

Unfortunately, birds are not born tame. And this is the best example that handreared babies do not get tame by principle. It is still a lot of hard work!

He is maturing. And what do young people do when they mature? They become teenagers. They get upset about everything. They kick everything. They will do absolutely everything to get their way.

Good luck.

[YungAndintrigued]

Welcome to life with a Sun Conure. First off do not in anyway reinforce his screaming by giving him attention, when he calms down and stop screaming try to give him attention right away. Then when he screams again walk away, when he stops screaming come back. If he likes attention he will realize oh if I scream I don't get attention. I did this to my sun conure. he almost never screams now. instead he makes this funny little grunting noise when he wants attention that I mimiced from him when he was new to me. He caught onto the noise because I used to make it when ever I gave him attention.

Sounds to me like your sun conure is slowly becoming a one person bird. Has your husband stopped giving your sun conure attention as he matures?

[jennifergelinas]

He only really screams when I get home from work, which I assume is because he's excited to see me.. and when we go into the kitchen to wash dishes/use the microwave. I have a hard time not paying attention to him when I get home because I know he's excited to see me.

My husband used to be able to take him out of the cage and he would sit on his shoulder. At about 4 months, he just stopped letting him come near him altogether. We are working on associating my husband with treats so we can try to get him to tolerate him again.

Also, is it possible to spend TOO much time with the bird? Have I maybe spoiled him? I'm still learning, I know I have SO much to learn!

Your profile also says you have a budgie. Does having another bird help with socialization?

[YungAndintrigued]

Sounds like your making good progress on changeing his behavior except on the noise part. I mean if you can put up with the noise at certain time and allow it, I guess it is not a factor.

Hmm... spoiling the bird? I mean giving him treats when hes causeing havoic or doing something that you don't want him to do would be the only real concern of spoiling.

My Sun conure(Starbuck) Is not really fond of my budgie and vice-versa. So no having my other bird does not really play a great enough role to consider in socialization.