Trained Parrot BlogParrot Wizard Online Parrot Toy StoreThe Parrot Forum

Newly Adopted Nanday Conure

New to the parrot forum? Introduce yourself and your flock to us.

Newly Adopted Nanday Conure

Postby Bronco90 » Tue Jul 23, 2019 9:20 am

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some major advice. I recently adopted a 20 year old nanday conure. His name is Tikki. Tikki is my first bird. The rescue I adopted him from had no information to offer up to me about his temperament, behavior, or his past life. He bonded instantly with me and I decided to adopt him. Tikki loves me... but hates everyone else. I have tried very hard to introduce him to new people and to socialize him with my fiancé as well and he will attack peoples faces. He has latched onto lips and ears as well as cheeks. He does no such behavior with me. He also screams constantly unless he is physically attached to me. I have perches outside he will have no part of. He screams constantly until I bring him back inside. I have play areas on top of his cage with separate toys and different activities he will also have no part of he will either fly to me, scream, or climb back down inside his cage. He has a huge cage and tons of toys, fresh foods and he’s on zuprem pellets. He is also my only bird. I’m at a loss because I do not know how to approach this situation without enforcing bad behavior.. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.
Bronco90
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Nanday conure
Flight: No

Re: Newly Adopted Nanday Conure

Postby Pajarita » Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:16 am

Welcome to the forum and thank you for adopting instead of buying a baby!

Now, without knowing more about him (actual food intake, light schedule, clipped or flighted, routine, how long you've had him, etc), I would venture the guess that he is overly hormonal. Why? Because there are only two things that make a hand-fed parrot attack people: 1) too many sexual hormones produced for too long a period and 2) physical severe abuse. But an abused parrot is not going to fall in love with any human right off the bat so, taking into consideration that you say he did with you, the only other option is that he is overly-hormonal - something that, unfortunately for them (it does not only make them very sexually frustrated, it's also physically uncomfortable to the point of chronic pain), is way too common with pet parrots because people are not aware that birds are photoperiodic (meaning, their endocrine system is governed by the number of daylight hours).

When you free-feed a parrot that is mainly a fruit eater (as all conures and parakeets are) protein food (pellets) and keep it at a human light schedule, you end up with a parrot that screams, bites, plucks, etc. Parrots are not naturally aggressive animals -nature did not give them the genes for it because they are not predators or evolved to live in a hierarchical society. They are protectors and defenders but not attackers. There are some birds that being terribly misunderstood by the people who keep them get used to biting as the only way to get their point accross to humans (they basically believe that we are all morons that only learn to respect their wishes when we get bit) but even these birds do not attack, they simply bite the finger or hand that is nearby (usually because it's where it's not supposed to be).

So, the first thing you need to do is change his diet because, almost surely, he is consuming way too
much protein (I feed gloop and raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and a measured amount of seeds/nuts for dinner -for a Nanday, it would be about on tablespoon of a budgie mix with an almond or half a walnut or a pistachio or whatever). I would also take him to the vet to get a bile acids test on him because if he has been eating wrong all along, at his age, his liver is most likely affected and, although they can live years with liver malfunction, this only happens if you are feeding the right diet and giving them liver cleansers and tonics for the rest of their lives. The second thing you need to do is to make sure he is at a strict solar schedule with two hours of exposure to both dawn and dusk and wait him out until the days are shorter and he stops producing sexual hormones. You won't notice any change for quite some time because the days are still pretty long and, most likely, he has been kept at the wrong light schedule for a long time - the longer it has been, the longer it takes for their endocrine system to go back on track with the seasons but it helps a lot if you make him fly because flight is the ONLY thing that dissipates bad hormones from their bloodstream.

I also would suggest you put him on a strict routine (meaning, do the same thing every day at the same time, same as they do in the wild). It helps them a lot as it relieves the inevitable stress of captivity.

And, please, do not put him outside by himself - being alone is misery for a parrot.
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


Return to Introductions

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 11 guests

Parrot ForumArticles IndexTraining Step UpParrot Training BlogPoicephalus Parrot InformationParrot Wizard Store