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Newbie Sun Conure Owner

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Newbie Sun Conure Owner

Postby kristinicole11 » Thu Jan 03, 2019 10:44 pm

Hello!

I have been looking for a group like this to get advice/tips/reccomendations/etc. from and am excited I found this forum! I am the typical animal lover- I have 3 dogs myself, babysit all of my friends pets and can quickly bond with any animal I meet.

My Fiance has been wanting a bird lately and has been researching/talking to bird owners for the past couple of months. He finally made the decision and recently brought home a rehomed 3 yr old Sun Conure Parrot named Mango (The lady at the bird store told us his previous owners had passed away and no one in the family was willing to take him in). We have only had Mango for two weeks now but he has immediately attached to my fiance, Josh and I felt like they bonded very quickly- Me on the other hand, I feel like Mango hates me. When I walk towards his cage he bites at it/aggressively squawks,runs to the back of his cage when I come in the room, will not even attempt to get on my hand/perch to get him out of his cage, has bitten me multiple of times (drawn blood).. He will let me feed him treats and takes them gently from me, which is a positive. I have done all the research and have been following all of the training rules with new rehomed birds, but he just hasn't warmed up to me yet.. I know it will be a process and I know I need to be patient with little Mango, but I just wanted to hear other bird owners stories in the same situation as I am and if they could offer me any advice/tips.

Thanks in advance!
Kristin
kristinicole11
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 0
Types of Birds Owned: Sun Conure Parrot
Flight: No

Re: Newbie Sun Conure Owner

Postby Pajarita » Fri Jan 04, 2019 10:16 am

Hi, Kristin and welcome to the forum! Do not worry for one single second. Mango hasn't really bonded with your boyfriend, the bird is just hormonal. Parrots don't bond that fast BUT, when they are overly hormonal (very easy with conures and parakeets because of incorrect diet), they do attach themselves to the person that reminds them the most about another person they loved. This is what is happening to Mango and why he appears to hate you.

All you have to do is put the bird under a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk, feed it the right diet and wait. Let me explain. A bird that has been kept at a human light schedule and fed too much protein will become overly hormonal because the body has not stopped producing sexual hormones once the breeding season is over so its gonads kept on growing which causes first physical discomfort and, in enough time, chronic pain. An animal in pain is an animal that will be, most likely, VERY cantankerous and even aggressive. It will also be terribly sexually frustrated because it has been horny for years without any real relief. His attaching himself to your boyfriend and his aggression toward you so very early in the honeymoon period are clear symptoms of this problem so what you need to do is eliminate the cause of the problem because once the bird is no longer overly hormonal, he will be more than happy to accept you as, if nothing else, a flock member.

You also need to make sure it's getting the right diet which means low protein, high fiber, high moisture and low fat. Sun conures are mainly fruit eaters in the wild so they cannot be free-fed protein food (seeds, nuts, pellets, nutriberries, avicakes, etc). I suggest you feed it chop, mash or gloop accompanied by a different raw eafy green, veggie and fruit every day at dawn and a budgie seed mix for dinner (switching to a good quality cockatiel mix in the summer -I would normally change the diet around beginning of March but if this bird has been free-fed protein, you will want to stretch the lower protein a bit more than normal to allow its liver and kidneys to cleanse themselves a bit).

Now, the days are already getting longer which does not work to your benefit because sunnies breeding season wil be starting relatively soon... It would have been better for you if this had happened during the summer so the days would get shorter naturally which helps to speed up the process but the sooner you start, the sooner the bird will 'calm down'.

So, for now, just continue interacting with Mango as you have been doing: keep it company, talk, whistle, give it a little treat here and there, etc. Don't worry about his behavior, just ignore it, and don't try to make him love you because, in all honesty, it doesn't work. People say things like 'Be the only one that feeds it' or 'Interact with it only when your boyfriend is not around', etc. but, to tell you the truth, none of these things really work if the bird is overly hormonal.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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