We had a female Sun Conure for a year, and we recently adopted a new female Sun a month ago. The new Conure is about 5-6 years old. We do not know her history very well because as many other rescue birds it is uncertain, but at the beginning, she did not bite, although she looked afraid of fingers.
Now, she starts biting my hand about half the times I offer it to her to step up on. She hesitates but often steps up on my shoulder when she wants to come out from the cage and be picked up, but she has to hesitate for a long time. She quivers and trembles her wings and appears very eager to come out, but she needs good ten minutes of hesitating and thinking before stepping out at all.
Even if she climbs on my shoulder, I am scared of keeping her there, because she has bitten my in my neck and my ear twice pretty hard. Although this does not happen all the time, the bites I have gotten are enough to make me feel uncomfortable with her on me anywhere.
However, my husband does not have this problem at all. She does not bite him hard, he never bites him on the neck or the ear. He can handle her pretty rough, and she just lets him do that. she can sit on his shoulder forever without doing any harm to him.
How can I make her stop biting me? My hands are covered with scars and everytime she bites, I bleed. It is not a playful bite. I am glad it is only a conure, not a cockatoo.
Here are some things that I thought might help you assess the situation...
1) our old conure is very much attached to me and old conure and new conure do not get along. The old one is aggressive to the new one when they come within 5 inches distance
2) The new Conure bites me regardless of the situations--with or without my husband in site, with or without the other conure around.
3) She calls me when I go out of sight and stops screaming when I am back. She lets me stick my hand without attacking it to put food in the cage or clean the cage.
4) She accepts food from my finger without biting. She has never bitten me when I offer her food
5) I started clicker training her yesterday because I read here that clicker training helps decrease aggression. She has learned to target fast. However, I have not been able to use target training to make her step on my arm without attacking it.
6) My husband is not bonded with our old conure.
7) I try not to react when she bites. I put her back in the cage and give her timeout, but I admit I have screamed and acted very upset a couple of time, because I was so shocked.
8) The biting spell has started about a week ago, and she has bitten me at least once every day.
Does this mean that, since I am bonded with the old conure, the new one regards me as an enemy? Or did she pick my husband already and should I stay away from her except that I take care of her basic need (food, cleaning the cage, and bathing her)?
I would appreciate any advice you can give me.
Kuratenko
