please help my sun conure has become crazy

[Taleah1989]

Ive joined this forum hoping someone can help me! My baby sun conure Achmed has been wonderful! Perfect companion n i love him 2 death! But the last few days hes become very different! hes started to bite me VERY hard continuously, he screeches even when hes with me in a familiar place eg on the couch or on the "play mattress" i call it where i lie with him for snuggles, and hes started to flick and kick his food everywhere as well as flapping wings and screeching i give him lots of cuddles and playtime feed him mixed parrot seed, vitamin pellets, fruit varying on what he likes grapes, watermelon, corn kernels, cherries, egg & biscuit mix. He has heaps of toys a big cage and the door is always open so he can climb and watch me if i need to do things. I dont understand what happened and what im doing wrong? Is this normal? Hes just a baby im trying to train but it feels like im failing I try to perserve with the screech and the constant biting but im starting to really worry that what i thought was a "bad day" has turned into his daily behaviour. I dont know if hes cranky or just full of beans someone please help me so i can help my baby

[ghostrider1964]

Might be time to restrict some freedom. I sometimes give my birds a timeout in birdy prison. I was once told the smaller the cage the better the pet. None of my cages are huge, but I leave my birds out most of the time unless they are in timeout. My cockatoo did some of what you say for a while. I broke him of it by isolating him in his cage in the spare bedroom away from everyone. All it took was a few hours and he was ready to be friends again. Time to time he gets that way when I am handling other birds and he feels he is not getting enough attention. I went to pick him up after handling the other birds and he bit me which was a first. He went on lockdown in spare bedroom. Now if he is pissy I lock his cage and throw a sheet over him. Most birds are social and want your contact. Deprivation of that is in itself a sanction Birds are very similiar to children. Spoil the bird and you will have a rotten egg

[liz]

Does your life revolve around him or is he the baby in the family. Too much attention gives them attitude and they will test you to see how far they can go just like a child. Too little attention is neglect and he will become a wild child.

Interact verbally as you go through your day. If he looks bored swop out his toys. Leave the cage door open whenever possible so he is not isolated. Duck and weave if you have to to prevent an attack.

He is full of beans. The smart ones are always harder to raise.

[Taleah1989]

Oh dear :S well life doesn't revolve around him I'm only 22 so I still go 2 work of a day but as my pet n responsibility I dnt want 2 neglect such a bird from the attention they crave as I dnt want him 2 dislike me I do get a lil annoyed n use a firm voice as opposed 2 the cute talk n I put him back in the cage if I can't handle the biting specially wen he latches on n won't let go! I do give in a little easy he gets everything he wants including my silicon ph case he stole. I just dnt want him 2 get bored n get into a habit of attacking the furniture :S I think it's time I got a lil tougher!

[liz]

Read the thread "what has your bird destroyed".

Myrtle has not attacked my computer yet but the door frames have been carved. Rambo the pedestrian has rounded baseboards.

If you give them the freedom they need things are going to get messed up.

[Polarn]

Just a quick comment about the silicone case, does he get it as inside his cage or as agog after he has destroyed it? Is so I'm not so sure if a silicone based toy would be the best, mostly becouse you prolly have no idea what kind of silicone it is made of, some silicones are quite toxic, for example if you use the wrong silicone when you re-glue an aquarium no fishes will survive in it, due to the toxic. Not really sure if it is as poisonous for birds and when not constantly oozing into the environment, the fishes water. Just wanted to raise a little warning that if he do have it as his toy it might be worth swapping it for something else.

[Polarn]

You might want someone good at cracking codes reading my previouse post, on the phone today... And my clumsy fingers isn't really made for an iPhone keyboard...

[GlassOnion]

I would suggest clicker training to snap him out of that mood.

Smaller cages do NOT make a better pet, small cages often cause boredom, stress, plucking, screaming. Also, "time out" only works until the bird realizes that it can fly away instead of submissively go inside the cage. And why make the cage that's supposed to be a comfortable place, a place to associate negatives with?

[Polarn]

I gotta agree with glassonion, at least I know that personally I do want my parrot to enjoy the cage, that is his place although he has to accept me going in there as well, but I try not to push him to much inside the cage, rather lure him out of the cage so that he can fly to the cage when he wants to be left alone. Over here we have restrictions on cage sizes etc, and looking on clips of birds on YouTube etc I think it would be considered BIG cages, we have lists over species and then minimum cage sizes, and for a bluefronted amazon for example the bottom of the cage has to be at least 17,23 square feet, no dimension may be shorter than 3.28 feet and the length of the cage has to be at least 5.25 feet. I kind of wish this information was easier to find over here becouse even tho we have these restrictions you see amazons and Greys etc in cages barely fulfilling the requirements for a cockatiel here. To be honest tho my cage do lack about 1,5 feet on the length. But it is twice as high instead... And never closed so he got the whole room as his playground... I know our regulations are quite insane, but I do believe bigger cages makes happier birds, but the minimum sizes for cages for macaws and bigger birds kind of require you to have a huge space for them.

[Taleah1989]

in regards to my ph case he only gets it when hes being a little terd and pulls it off while climbing ova my ph wheather im texting or talking. He only really throws it around and stands on it not chews it I didnt really think to the whole silicon is bad thing Im kinda just glad hes not latched to my finger instead. I know i shouldnt let him but its just so cute how he pushes the buttons n writes his own msg!
He has a very big cage with 3 perches a hanging mirror with bell, a hanging perch with little twirly things, a hanging ball with a bell in it, lots of balls and bells on the ground and ive got him a cuddlefish thing now hoping he bites it rather then me. He cant fly his wings were clipped b4 i got him but he loves to try and flap his wings and he has ample amount of space to do as he pleases in his cage. Ontop of that hes still growing. He loves being on top the cage as well so i put some of his toys and food on top to keep him amused.