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HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby DarceeR » Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:11 am

Thank you again, I ordered some. My boys have already started doing the hat and hoodie but he found their nose uggh.....He seems calmer with me. I let him out with me when nobody is around. He will still catch an attitude and try to come after my hands etc but seems to enjoy hanging out. He does follow me all over the house...not sure if this is a good thing or not. He will climb up my pants etc but I am def more hopeful that he will continue getting better. He does love the new food choices. Thanks again, I am sure I will be back with more questions :-)
DarceeR
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 12
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: green cheek conure
Flight: Yes

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby Pajarita » Fri Mar 08, 2019 12:20 pm

Well, tell your kids to tie the hood tight around their faces and NOT to turn the face toward the bird when he perches on their shoulders. If it's any consolation, my husband used to walk around with long pants, boots, hoodies and gloves in the middle of the summer because he was so afraid of getting bit but not by a GCC.. he was afraid of the female senegal (which is not that much bigger than a GCC) and the big amazons.

GCCs are naturally extremely sweet-tempered bird and they only start biting when they have not been treated the right way - which, unfortunately, is very common because people free-feed them protein food (which makes them hormonal AND aggressive) and think that, because they are so little, it's OK to spend just a few hours with them which makes them to become resentful, confused and angry. They need as much one-on-one as cockatoos and that's saying A LOT! Mine is on my shoulder right now and has been there since 6 am with a little break so she could eat her breakfast and an earlier, shorter one because she wanted to take a bath in my kitchen sink when I was washing today's raw produce (she takes baths in her water bowl but she also loves to bathe in the sink with the budgies bath bowl -nice and big and shallow- and a trickle of a 'waterfall' from the faucet hitting the bowl on the side -this is so she can get in the bowl without getting water falling on her head which she does NOT like). I am now going to take a shower and she will be coming with me into the bathroom (not into the shower because I never take cold showers and they should never be bathed with warm or hot water).

The key to keeping a GCC happy and healthy is a very low protein diet with high moisture, low to almost no fat at all and very high fiber AND hours and hours and hours spent with them within a strict solar schedule (because hormones make them aggressive and physically uncomfortable) and steady daily routine (this reduces the stress of captivity and gives them a sense of being in charge of their own lives, something that doesn't happen in captivity and which is an important part of their psychological make-up in the wild).
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

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby DarceeR » Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:23 am

Hello there,

Thank you for the response. I am happy to say he is making progress. We have him on budgie seeds at night as suggested. He still gets the pellets in the daytime but is getting a lot more fruits and veggies than what he got before! He loves peppers and get a lot of them plus apples, mangoes and other fruits, several he does not care for. He will also eat a bit of cheese or noodles if we are eating them. He likes to eat from a plate when he is out. He attacks less as far as unprecedented attacks go (flying at you for no reason). He loves to follow me around the house but will still attack toes and fingers if he has a chance and I am not comfortable with him on my shoulder because he will bite after a while. The bites overall have become less and less forceful it seems but he will still slip one in there. I think overall there is good progress though and we all seem happier :-) Thank you for all your help!
DarceeR
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 12
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: green cheek conure
Flight: Yes

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby Pajarita » Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:30 am

No cheese, please! They love it because of the salt content in it but hebivores should not consume any animal product because they don't have the necessary enzymes to digest them, especially lactose (they are not mammals so nature never gave them the mechanism to break down milk products) and the fat, protein and cholesterol in cheese is real bad for them. Noodles are OK as long as they were cooked with no salt (birds consume very little salt and any more than they need damages their kidneys).

If you stop feeding pellets and give him gloop instead, he would eat much more produce.
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

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby DarceeR » Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:42 am

Thanks and roger on the cheese! He eats a ton of produce! Loves most of it :-)
DarceeR
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 12
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: green cheek conure
Flight: Yes

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby Pajarita » Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:33 am

Yes, they do love their produce! They are truly excellent eaters - even when they have never been given any fresh produce in the past. I got a brand new male GCC two days ago, he is a 'leftover' baby that is now 18 to 24 months old, was parent-raised (because the breeder had over 30 babies so he figured he would not hand feed any of them :shock: - and you can bet those babies were sold as pets and there are a lot of people out there with untamed birds thinking either they did something or there is something wrong with the bird!) and is all plucked and high-strung, the poor thing, from being housed with adult male breeders. He was used to being fed a terrible mix of pellets, seeds and lots and lots of sulfured dry fruits (the breeder insisted I took a baggie of it even though I told him he was not going to be fed that - I fed it to the street pigeons) but, on the second day, he tried a piece of apple and ate the whole thing at one single sitting! The poor thing must have thought he had died and went to heaven!
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

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby Pajarita » Sat Mar 30, 2019 11:14 am

I just wanted to add to my previous comment about my new GCC - I am astounded at how well this little bird has taken to the gloop and all the fresh produce. I'll ask my husband to take a picture of him eating his gloop (if he doesn't get all scared and flies away from it) so you can see - he loves it!
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

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby DarceeR » Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:14 am

Hi,

Wanted to touch back about Poppy and his behaviors. So it does look like he is about 19 months old so what you said about him becoming sexually mature is likely part of the issue. We are following the sun, he is getting plenty of fruits and veggies everyday as well as the abba 1600 for periods of time during the day. He still gets a small amount of pellets. He seems active and happy but is till very much unpredictable. He is not flying or attacking like before and I can pet him sometimes but he flips a switch. This happened today:

I had Poppy out this morning and he was being sweet (for Poppy). He didn't bite anybody, let me pet him a bit and sat on my shoulder snuggling. Got him out again a few hours later. Was able to rub his back and under his wings for about 2 minutes! Then he got on my shoulder and bit the poop out of me. IDK???? Little hole now, it hurts ;-(

The biting my neck while on my shoulder is new from last week, sometimes he snuggles and then he flips. When he flips I have a hard time getting him off or getting him to stop, pretty scary I tell you. Once he is off I put him in his cage and ignore him a while. He always wants to be on my shoulder too so I am super confused. So overall improvement but still very unpredictable. Any advice appreciated :gcc: :monk:
DarceeR
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 12
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: green cheek conure
Flight: Yes

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby Pajarita » Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:51 am

Well, I don't know what is making him 'flip' and not being there is impossible for anybody to figure it out but I can tell you that touching his back and under his wings is a no-no as both are erogenous zones and no animal (or human for that matter) appreciates getting all hot and bothered and getting 'no satisfaction' as the song goes :lol: . The only places you can touch in a bird's body are its head, neck and cheeks - that's it, nowhere else.

The other thing I would underline is that they need strict daily routines, meaning, no changes from day to day or from week day to weekend (and I have found that this is one of the hardest things for people to do - our lives being so very up and down all the time). They have to wake up with dawn, fed before or as soon as the sun is coming into the room, turn artificial lights on at that point, allow to eat for half an hour or so, rest/nap in the middle of the day, lights off when sun is halfway down to the horizon, dinner a bit later (there should be no seed AT ALL during the day, only for dinner), complete darkness and quiet for a restful sleep at night. This is the same never changing daily routine they follow in the wild (it's called the circadian cycle) and what their bodies need because it's what they evolved to follow. They also need hours of flight because it's the ONLY thing that dissipates bad (sexual, stress) hormones from their bloodstream...
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

Re: HELP with a recently rehomed conure please

Postby DarceeR » Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:06 pm

Thanks, with the exception of the exception of petting him incorrectly the other things I am following very closely. Seeds only in the evening. Eats in AM after waking, up 6:30-7 and down 7-7:30 depending on light. We actually move him to another room, close doors and blinds for sleep. I guess it is possible he will remain an unpredictable bird.
DarceeR
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 12
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: green cheek conure
Flight: Yes

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