Terrible Twos??

[GreenCheekGodric]

I have a green cheek named Godric who I just adore. He will be 2 1/2 on October 24. Godric used to love being held and would literally climb me if I refused to pick him up. For the past year or so, however he gradually has been avoiding being held. If I put him on my shoulder or give him any opportuinty to fly off my hand he flies over to his cage immediately. He does, however seem to want me around. He screams and flaps his wings and causes a scene every time I leave the room and sits on top of his cage happily when I'm around. I have read tons of posts telling me to chalk it up to the "terrible twos" but it really does hurt my feelings, especially as he and I have recently moved out of my parents house and he is my only "room mate" into studio apartment.

What do you guys think?

[Wolf]

If all is as stated, meaning that you haven't forgotten to mention something that might have a bearing on the situation, then you and he have lost the baby bond and have not yet re bonded. If it has been this long it would be easy to overlook something that could be important.
Is it possible that since, your bond slipped, he bonded with some other member of your family? If so, then unless they remain away from your bird he probably will not re bond with you. If they remain away from the bird long enough he may re bond wit you.
In his natural environment he bonds with his parents, whom you replaced, until puberty and then he bonds with his mate. So he is looking for someone else to bond with, but if you don't allow him the chance to bond to anyone else he should bond back to you. I can't say how long that would take.

[GreenCheekGodric]

I see. Well I am the only person he sees on a regular basis. I'm just not sure what to do because I don't want to force him to let me hold him.

[Wolf]

Trying to force him would be a mistake as it would make things much worse and totally destroy his trust in you.
Go back to taming and bonding method just as if you just got him. Do 2 or 3 15 minute sessions each day offering him treats through cage bars while just hanging out and talking to him until he responds by accepting these treats then do the same with the cage door open while you are in front of it and offer the treats directly from your hand through the door. When he will come to you and take the treats begin target training with him.
Continue to let him out for free out of cage time as usual, as he needs to exercise and flying is the only exercise that works for birds.

[GreenCheekGodric]

Target training has always been an area of issue with me as for some reason Godric has always been afraid of stick-shaped objects. Broom? Chopstick! Pencil! You name it and he loses his mind. When I fist got him I would take him from his cage and put him on a junglegym on the couch next to me for about 15 minutes at a time, holding him in small intervals. Granted, he wasn't flighted when I got him which made this easier. Does this seem like a good idea?

[Wolf]

Hey if that worked for you with him it the past , by all means give it a go now. I don't see that it would hurt in any way. Also you don't have to use a stick, you can use your finger instead. Also you could acclimate him to sticks by getting a package of bamboo skewers from the grocery store and removing the sharp point and lay several of them out where he will encounter them in his wanderings, let him slowly get used to finding them laying about.

[NICrosis]

The bird is in his terrible twos. This is when most birds *coughcockatooscough* get rehomed. At this point, imagine it like raising a teenager, except when it doesn't want to go see finding nemo with the family because it wants to go see Final Destination with its friends, let it. The bird has always been independent, you just have to let it do its thing for a while.

[Pajarita]

OK, let's go one thing at a time. For one thing, unless you have a hybrid, you have either a Green Cheeked or a Maroon Bellied because although they look VERY similar, they are two different species (easy way to tell them apart is to look at the tail feathers, if they are all dark red, it's a green cheek, if they are green on top and a dark red under, it's a maroon bellied).

Now, the terrible twos (period between 2 to 3 years of age) are for species the size of grays and amazons, smaller species mature earlier and the GCCs (as well as the maroon bellies) go through it when they are 12 to 18 months (but it can be as early as 8 months old, it depends on the diet, food made with soy makes them mature earlier). But, if he's now 2.5 years old and this started happening a year ago, when he was around 18 months, it is possible that it has some bearing on the issue although, by now, he should be well over the hump. UNLESS you are free-feeding the high protein food (pellets, seeds, nuts, nutriberries, etc), and keeping him at a human light schedule instead of a solar (bird) one because then we are talking high sexual hormones which would make him continue looking for a mate and rejecting you in the process. Having said that, GCCs suffer more than other species not having enough out of cage time and one-on-one and would reject the owner when they are not getting what they need on a regular basis so the questions are:
1 - what are you feeding during the day?
2 - what kind of light schedule?
3 - how much out of cage time?
4 - clipped or flighted?
5 - how much one-on-one?

The only other thing I can think of is that you never did allow him to perch on your shoulder when he was a baby -is this the case?

As to 'holding' him, this is not something I would recommend doing with an adult bird. I would put him on the gym next to me and I would talk, sing, play with him, offer him my shoulder to step up, a treat, etc for about two hours every day (two sessions of one hour each are fine but he also needs a minimum of 4 hours of out of cage time -the 2 hours of one-on-one are part of the 4 out of cage).

[GreenCheekGodric]

**update**- I talked to the breeder who I remain in contact with and he is a hybrid of a maroon bellies and a green cheek conure

He is on a human light schedule as he will yell if he can tell I'm awake when I want him to go to sleep. He goes to bed around 11 (with me) and wakes up around 8 (with me).

He is fed a pellet diet supplemented with fruit. I do free feed as that was the way he was treated before I got him and I am afraid he will be hungry if I don't!

He is never required to be kept in his cage when I'm at home, which is always except for when I'm in law school (I leave the house at 8:30am and return at 4:00) but will generally choose to go back into his cage to sleep

He is flighted as I don't have the heart to clip him.

Lastly he has always been allowed to perch on my shoulder and used to love doing so but anymore will not sit there very long if he gets the chance to fly back into his cage.

Also, I take him to the vet regularly and he has a clean bill of health, I figured I would mention that.

[GreenCheekGodric]

Also, one-on-one time is unlimited as I live alone. If he allowed me to keep him there he would be allowed to sit on my shoulder whenever I was home, and when he did allow it, I would spend at least 1-2 hours devoted to just him. Now, I am always in the same room with him and speak to and gush over him often.