Need help learning to train my jenday conure to like others

[Loiscockerell]

Hello ive had my jenday conure fors a few years now and she was given to me from a friend that had another that my girl buddy wasnt getting along with it took me awhile to get her to trust me being my friend had saved her from a coupke that left her cover up in a closet all the time. To say tge least i am a first time owner of a mistreated small parrot that had trust issues with humans. At first she liked my daughter me and my husband and slowly she started to just like me now she bites and flys at any and every one who enters the room. With that said she has to stay in her cage unless im the only one in the room. Her leg band says she was hatched in Louisiana in 04 and just need some help on how i can get her somewhat tamed down. She is very posseive about her blanket and her cage and of course of me and at times this gets me bit can anyone please give me some insight on what i should and can do to help her like others and stop biting
Thanks lois and buddy from fort worth texas

[Wolf]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
I am quite sure that we can help you but due to the large variety of factors that are probably affecting your birds behavior and causing this aggression, it would help tremendously to have more information about your bird including information about her diet, what size of cage she has, where the cage is placed, how much activity occurs in the area of her cage, what time she gets up and goes to bed, when she receives what kinds of food and a general run down of her average daily routine.

[Pajarita]

Welcome Lois and Buddy! Please answer Wolf's questions so we can tell what needs to be changed, tweaked, incorporated into the routine, etc in your bird's case.

[Loiscockerell]

Thank ya'll so much her diet is basicly seed and fresh fruit and unsalted cashews her cage is rather large for the size bird she is i think....its what i think is called a two door flight cage she has alot of room and a few perches and som hanging toys in it and for whatever reason she loves fleece blankets to cuddle up in thebottom of her cage i try to keep her out as long as possible during the day until she gets cranky and trys to bite me and the i make her get back in her cage she wakes up around 730 8ish in themornings and lets me know at least once during the day when she wants covered back up to take a nap. I thought that was kinda odd at first but if thats what she wants then ill make it happen she starts getting cranky around 845-9pm saying nite nite so she gives kisses and i cover her up and ill hear her scale down the bars and go get under her blankets and she starts chattering and then gets quiet. Ive found over the last few years of being a first time exotic bird parent that they're like kids in alot of ways so i just try my hardest to tell the difference in her screams. She say hello whats up step up (even though she refuses to step up) i love momma and thats good stuff. That started after she nhad some fried chucken one night she doesnt eat alot of table foods she doesnt like veggies but loves dried and fresh fruits that she can hold

[Loiscockerell]

Oh and her cage is in my room mostly but beings it has wheels i roll her to the living room pretty much everyday anzd thru out the day shes in and out of her cage i could barely get her to cone out of the cage when i first got her she still hesitates to step on my finger if and wen i coax her off her cage i wheel it next to the bed or couch and shell come from cage to furnature tgen climb up my shirt and sit or she will crawl up under my chin she aleays gas to be sheltered for some reason i do know tbat she was passed thru at least four sets of hands before she got to me and im unsure o what life was like with all her previous owners except the ones that left her locked in the dark closet for days thats why i try to leave her cage doors open if its just me and her athime

[Wolf]

So tell me how long have you had her? She is 11 years of age now and sounds to me to be very hormonal and this in the main reason for the biting and aggressiveness. Have you had her DNA tested to be sure of her sex or has she laid an egg in the past? Or are we just assuming that she is a she?
She is currently on a human light schedule as opposed to the solar one that she should be on and eats a diet that is high in proteins and fat. Both of these are the primary triggers for the release of hormones that bring her into the breeding cycle and keep her in this state year round instead of just a few months out of the year. This means that her biological clock is in a free running state and is all out of tune with the seasons.
I am still not sure how much out of cage time she has and how much of it is one on one time or if you do any training with her. With so many brands of cages being made and being called the same names even though they are different sizes due at least in part to the size of bird it is intended for, I am still uncertain as to the size of the cage. The minimum sized cage for this species of parrot is 48 inches wide,20 to 24 inches deep( front to back) and not counting its stand at least 36 to 48 inches tall. From this size, the larger the cage is the better.
Some people, like me only have one cage for their bird and some of them do like you and move the cage between rooms, which I don't do. I suppose it could be partly due to laziness on my part, but in any case I prefer to keep the cage in one place all of the time. Some people have a larger cage for daytime use by the bird in an area that has more activity and human traffic and a smaller cage for use as a sleep cage that they put their bird in for the night in a darker and quieter area of the home. My home is just not large enough to allow this either.
All of my birds came to me from abusive situations and due to this I just could not refuse them the opportunity to have as stress free and as happy of a life as I was able to provide for them, they did not deserve the poor treatment that was inflicted upon them by their previous human caregivers. This is despite the fact that I had never even considered having birds living in my home with me and at the time of the first bird arriving I knew absolutely nothing about them. Ah how things change!
Any way my birds are on a solar light schedule, which is the same as the birds living outside my home live with and it is this light schedule that their body and internal systems were designed to function with and not an artificial human light schedule. Believe me that when it comes to hormones and aggressive behavior, I would not recommend anything other than a solar light schedule. And due to the fact that as a trigger for hormonal behavior and its accompanying aggressiveness, diet is the second most important factor in influencing this I also keep my birds on a low fat and low protein diet, besides which a healthy diet is essential to the birds basic health and well being. So they eat a lot of whole grains and vegetables both cooked and raw and some fruit as well. I try to give them a large variety of these fruits and veggies and leafy greens as well as a variety of fruits.
As difficult for me as it can sometimes be my birds are out of their cages just hanging out being themselves for a minimum of four hours daily and I spend about 5 hours each day with one or two birds on me for personal one on one time. Also all of my birds are flight capable and the toys that they have to destroy are mostly out of paper and cardboard although I do make some wooden ones for them when I can find the time to make them. I think, however that I am their favorite toy as they appear to take great pleasure in supervising nearly everything that I do.

[Loiscockerell]

No i have not had her sex teated im just going by what i was told by the woman that gave her to me almost three years ago. She basicaly spends at least five hours out of the cage and with me on my person. It took an act of congress to gain her trust wen i first got her. And to be honest i was kinda just as much as scared of her as she was me when i got her to my house i did like the book said and tried to make her step up by placing my finger horizauntly up clise as i could to under her breast and say step up and she would scream and try bite me or id hold my finger out and tell her to step up and shed start petting her own head.....she can fly freely in the house i never use my ceiling fans anymore unless she is in her cage i refuse to clip her wings for the simple matter that if god intended to have the wings short thats the way the birds would develope lol i dont think i can get her to even let me any where close to her nails to clip them and take a blood sample that way or i would have already had her sexed. Like i said before ive been winging it but the aggression towards others and towards me wen others get too close has gotta outta hand and i just feel that she needs to be trained its like everytime im makethe slightest progress she starts getting. Way meaner

[Wolf]

I have much different reasons for not clipping my birds wings than you do, but I am glad that you don't clip her wings. I agree with you that she could use some training and suggest that you begin with target training. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=227 This is a link to a topic that will help you to target train your bird.
The only really successful way to train your bird to not bite you is to avoid getting bitten in the first place. In most cases the bird learns to bite because their human is not listening to them as for a parrot this is a last resort attempt at communicating that it does not want a thing done to it and all of it other attempts to inform you have failed after a period of time it can increase to the point that it becomes one of the first attempts to communicate. To help you with this I recommend that you takes the time to learn about your birds body language. Here is a link that should help you with this area. http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww15eii.htm
While I do believe that some of the biting is caused by an attempt to communicate that has repeatedly failed and this could have started before you got the bird but not all of it. But I am also of the opinion that the majority of this birds biting and aggressiveness is being caused by hormones. There are only three things that you can do to help your bird to overcome hormonal aggression, these are (1) put your bird on a strict solar light schedule, (2) put your bird on a healthy low fat, low protein diet consisting of whole grains, fresh and cooked vegetables, fresh leafy greens and fruit and a very limited amount of seeds or pellets, preferably seeds, and (3) get you bird flying as this is the only form of exercise that will assist in removing excess hormones from the birds bloodstream. It is also the only form of exercise that benefits the bird in any case. How long it will take to have the desired effects on the bird depends on how out of whack its endocrine system is and how long it takes to bring it back into sync with the seasons by resetting it biological clock which is telling it to produce these excessive amounts of hormones.

[Pajarita]

Yes, the poor think is overly hormonal and, most likely, quite uncomfortable physically if not in chronic pain. And this is, most likely, the reason why she has been passed from one hand to another, kept in a dark closet, etc.

Now, the solar schedule works like a charm. No doubt about that as it is Nature's way, which is always right. We, humans, in our incredible arrogance and hubris, think we can 'tweak' things around at our convenience but, unfortunately for the parrots, it doesn't really work and they end up suffering. And so you will find people that tell you that they keep their birds at a human light schedule and that it works just fine for them but all we know about birds and every single scientific study out there says it's not so.

Right now, we are smack in the middle of breeding season so, in one way, it's the best time to start (because the bird has been kept at too long days and the change will be gradual and completely natural) but, on the other hand, it's the worst time because you won't see any improvement for months and months but, in my personal opinion, one should do what's best for them even if it's inconvenient for us (and, yes, I am aware that this is not a popular concept when it comes to pet parrots but it's my own philosophy with all the animals under my care -basically, that their needs come before my desires).

Now, if you start now with the bird light schedule, the fresh food, healthier diet and the target training, she will be much calmer by September BUT this doesn't mean that she will definitely be nice to strangers. It might or it might not. She might always treat you as her chosen one and accept nobody else or she might, eventually, be a bit friendlier to other people and not attack them as soon as they get close to you. It's up to their individual personality and completely unfathomable at this point in her life, especially taking into consideration how traumatic her life has been until now.