by Wolf » Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:34 am
Hi and welcome to the forum. I noticed that you had posted in two places so I waited until I read both posts before deciding to respond to either of them, just in case it would be easier to answer in just one place. So I am answering here and welcoming you to the forum here as well, I hope you don't mind.
In both of your posts Boo's biting appears to be the major concern and there are many possibilities for why he is behaving in this manner. Some of his biting may be related to his previous treatment, some could be related to his bonding, some could be related to his diet and/ or lighting schedules. In my opinion from what little I gathered from both of your posts your bird is biting for several of these reasons and that means among other things that there is no one single answer that will solve this issue. In addition to all of the above things there is also the matter of personality that must be taken into account and there is real no cure or solving things of this nature, while you may be able over a period of time get it to tone down a little bit biting issues that are related to their personality are likely something that you will need to live with and learn how to work around as best as you can.
Sun Conures are one of the most beautiful birds there is to look at, in my opinion, and they will usually both amaze and amuse you for hours on end with their antic and exhuberence for life. But the downside to Sun Conures is that they also have a aggressive side to their personality, or so it seems with most of them. This is nearly always increased if the bird is hormonal due to it being mating season, molting season, or if the bird is hormonal due to being on a human light schedule or due to a diet that is too rich in protein, fats or carbs, The male is also usually more aggressive than the female as it is his job to defend the nesting area as well as his mate and offspring.
Like many parrot species, including Conures, they are monogamous in nature and will only bond to one person at a time and although they may tolerate other humans as flock members they tend to be protective and jealous of their special human. Some of them will not accept other humans at all and will attack anyone that they deem to be a threat to their human whom they perceive pretty much the same as they would perceive their mate. In fact that is the bond that the adult bird develops with its human a mate bond. If your bird sees you having physical contact with another person, it is very likely to see that person as a threat and attack them if given the chance. They do this to drive this other person away from their mate and if they can not get to the intruder then it may attack its own human in the attempt to get them to move away from the other person. This behavior is natural and is one that you are not likely to cure so you will need to recognize it for what it is and learn to work with and around it.
You can lessen the amount of aggressiveness that a parrot naturally displays by making certain that they are kept to a natural solar light schedule making certain that they get the full benefit of the light that occurs at the two twilight periods of dawn and dusk without the interference of any artificial lighting during these times. And you can also reduce the aggressiveness of the parrot by feeding it an appropriate diet that is not too rich especially in protein. These two things can help as they are the two main things relating to the birds production of hormones. The lighting is because parrots are photoperiodic and this is what normally triggers the production of hormones thereby controlling the time of the mating season, and the hormones are made from protein and if the level of protein is too high the bird will produce more hormones and even continue to produce them when mating season is over. Another factor that can help is not clipping your birds wings as flying is the only form of exercise for a bird that can reduce the amount of hormones in the blood.
From their biting is a matter of how much the bird trusts you and a matter of training. I never try to hide it if one of my birds bite me hard enough to hurt or to draw blood. I always react as if it hurts because it does and then I tell them to be gentle or no bite and will put them down right away and refuse to interact with them for a short period of time so that they begin to realise that if they bite me that they can't be on me and that I will ignore them. Now it is also a good idea to learn to read their body language as it can help you to avoid getting bitten although not always. Still if you know that your bird is excited then you know not to touch it until it calms down and you can often see this is their body language. Distraction can be useful to keep a bird from biting you so if you see that your bird is about to bite you could distract it from this by using a stuffed toy, a piece of paper or even a noise, whatever works. It is always better to avoid getting bitten and believe it that not getting bitten is by far the best way to teach your bird to not bite.