Conure progress jornal

[muffin-the-conure]

Hi guys
I have a green cheeked conure who is nearly 3. she is loving and great to have in the family.

I got her when i was 6 months old she was hand reared so I could take her out of her cage and sit her on my arm. That was it.

After a year I stopped taking her out of her cage due to a reason (I can not say). So 6 months passed without her coming out. So our bond was broken. Quite sad I know.

So after those 6 months I realized I was doing wrong. So I started talking to her, feeding her through out the cage and touching her feet. So 2 months ago I tried to get her out of her cage after some convincing she came out and sat on my arm. I started training her and I also bought her a parrot nappy and harness. So now 2 months on she sits on my fingers and flies around and plays catch. She has also started to fly allot more than she did she flies to my sister who is now 12. and flies back. She will sit on other people arms and is willing to learn more. She has learnt to sit on her back in my hands and wave only when i touch her right foot.

My problem is I cant put my hand in her cage and take she out. I have to wait until she comes out and climes to the top of she cage. I then have to put a towel on her to put her flight suite on. she then is fine and will be fine. How do i change this.

I have some other problems but i can only remember 2 at the moment. So when I remember I will post the here.

The second one is I recently got my hair cut it was quite long before. Like Justin Bieber lol. So now it is cut Muffin keeps launching her self to my ears and bites with all her power it really does hurt. So i now wear a hoodie to cover my ears and Muffin has got used to sitting on my hoodie and doesnt like sitting on my fingers for long, as she bites them after a couple of minutes. So I am in a bit of a dilemma. I love my bird and I want her to be like killi. lol

Please help

Abz and Muffin


Sorry for my mistakes

[Michael]

Sorry I don't have time to respond to everything but this should help get you on your way:

http://TrainedParrot.com/Taming

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Michael's article should help a lot. I think one thing you may need to do is forget that she was ever as tame as she was in the beginning. Pretend she's a wild untamed bird and start from the beginning.

The ear biting thing is pretty common, it seems. It's not because she is mean, she just doesn't know she shouldn't do that. It's a bit like a plastic or leather toy in texture and there really isn't any reason they should automatically understand that it hurts. But she needs to be very tame and comfortable with you before you can try to teach her to do something other than ear-nibble. The target training may help you there because then you will be able to ask her to follow the target away from your ear!

[GlassOnion]

The 'she won't step up unless she climbs out and sits at the top of her cage' is cage territorialism. She is probably still going through her hormonal stage so this behaviour may be harsher. You can't let her just walk out of the cage by herself, you need to establish nurturing dominance and teach her to step up in order to come out. If you don't set boundaries with her, she will dominate you and bite you and do whatever she wants to. Target training is probably the best path for you. Please read up on it (it's on this site somewhere) and train consistently with short frequent sessions. You need to break the cage territorialism.

Good luck.

[muffin-the-conure]

Please guys i really need help today when i tried getting her to step up from her cage she took a large chunk out of my finger I AM SERIOUSLY worried guys I really need some help. She does have very bad territorial problems. I was advised to put her into a smaller cage at night and away from the room she is normally in so that she realizes not to be so aggressive when near her cage. When i start clicker training it always ends up with muffin biting me or her getting really aggressive towards the clicker and stick. Do you think i should train her in the small cage away from were she normally is or her normally large cage were she is mostly aggressive? Please help me. I will start the clicker tomorrow.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

It sounds as if you need to start from the beginning as if she weren't tame at all. It's important to try to avoid situations where you get bitten, so try to do training using the target stick for a while, even if that means she doesn't come out of the cage for a while. If she gets aggressive toward the stick, you can just be patient and ignore it. If she's aggressive toward you, you'll need to back off to protect yourself, and it will teach her that that's effective. I'd keep the lessons easy and make sure she really understands what you are asking. What kind of treat are you using to train with? Is it something you can offer without danger of being bitten? How big is her larger cage? What kind of toys are in it? What is her daily routine like? When do you train, how often and for how long? What are you currently working on?

[muffin-the-conure]

Well I have conducted a investigate with my parrot. Last night I placed her in another cage to see what she will be like in the morning and in this morning she stepped up onto my finger with out any biting and came out of her cage. Now i have put her in her normal cage for the day and gave her a little red pepper and bread and she will not touch it. I have been doing some research and apparently a seed diet is not good for parrots. They should be on a pellet diet but the thing is I can get a hold of pellets in the UK. She doesn't really like eating veggies often, only as treats. I know that this is bad. So this morning i have started clicker training. 10 minutes 3 times a day. I give her a treat with sun flower seeds as she is mental about them. So far so good. I think she has learned about the clicker.

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n52 ... 104913.jpg

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n52 ... 104904.jpg

Hope you like the pictures of her.

[muffin-the-conure]

Day 3: So today I began the day with target training. Muffin has become great at it. So I thought I would take it up a Noach. so I OPENED the cage and Muffin sat at the door. I placed a perch in front of her and the target behind it and she stepped up. After she touched the target i gave her a treat. All was great then I tried my arm and she stepped up. I was so happy. She has also started to become less territorial. We both have a long way to go but at least it is a start. We than started target training in a room. I would move around the room with the target and Muffin followed me every were. It was like having a miniature dog. lol

[muffin-the-conure]

Day 4: Hey guys, so today is day 4. lol Well i can say in the last 4 days Muffin has gained allot of confidence and has become less territorial. She now step up on my arm from her cage and will fly to me from her cage when i place my arm up in the air and call her name. I think in a couple of months i will have the perfect tame parrot. I have also changed her training times to twice a day for 1 hour.

She now has a great routine: when she wakes up i give her some fruit to eat. Then when she has eaten a little I start training so that she is a little hungry and will be willing to train. So after half an hour i give her a little bit to drink then start for the other half. After she has had a session I give her some more fruit, egg or bread. Now when I get back from school I then train her for another hour when she is hungry. After an hour I set up her food bowl with 3 table spoons of seeds and some fresh water. Then at 9pm I cover her cage and leave her to sleep.


Now everything is great but I have one more problem now, Muffin has started to hate my fingers again everything was going great but she has starting biting my finger once of twice in every session. Can you guys please help me get her to get over this habit.

Fell free to comment.

Abz and Muffin

[GlassOnion]

I'm happy to hear you have some great progress!

I did want to mention that a lot of fruit is bad. You should get your GCC to eat more vegetables than fruits, because veggies are very important. Also, good quality non-colored pellets are important as well.