Hello all! I could use help with my little 3 month old female Sun Conure.
Before I write my post, I want to let you all know that I did my research prior to getting this bird. I bought a lot of books and read a lot on the Internet including on this forum; I watched youtube videos, bought training videos from Barbara Heidenreich, had my husband read some of the books too so that he doesn't do any more wrong than me. Experience wise, we don't have much but it's not our first bird; I used to have a budgie, and he lived with a cockatiel for a while.
We want to do the best by her. But even with all the resources I looked into we are clueless about many things. We need help to not screw this up monumentally.
Now, the situation. She's a hand fed baby who was well socialized at the breeders'. We've had her at home for about a week (I know, it is very little time). She has clipped wings from the breeder - they clipped her twice because she kept flying they told us. Well, birdie still doesn't care and after two days of testing, she realized she can still fly (I'm totally fine with that, being able to fly seems to make her feel more secure).
What are my questions? Well, let me try to explain.
1) she couldn't care less about company, or the state of the sun, or anything. I am a little surprised by that. She does not make a sound in the morning, nor does she make a sound at night. If we're in the room sometimes she makes the tiny conure chirps to which we reply, but past that she's extremely quiet and independent. She likes to come out of the cage but just to play by herself. Considering what all sources I found say, I was a little surprised by all that! I'm afraid that she's going to become lonelye because it may take her very long to decide if she likes us or not, but in the meantime I'm afraid she'll get sad because she don't get much interaction. I figure it could be just because she's been here only a week? What do you all think? I'm not asking of her to love us instantly of course - but she's gotten more distant is even seems, ever since she figures out how well she can fly despite the second clip (she is very good, she can gain altitude and all, just exerts herself because she's lacking all primary flight feathers)- the first three days or so, if we were to put our hands in the cage for any reason, she'd jump on our arm (so we'd take her out a little bit). Now she just looks on without interest. Occasionally she'll fly in my direction, only to stay for a few seconds / minutes and fly back to her cage. Twice or three time, she's stayed on my shirt for a rest (like, right around my collarbone). I put low music or bird song for her during the day when I'm away. I'm at home a lot these days. Also, I work partly from home (I'm a teacher and don't care for offices so Ido all my teacher work at home except the class time) so long term Charlie should have me around often too.
2) She spends A LOT of time sitting there fluffed up kind of napping but not asleep. I know birds nap / rest a lot but basically all shes does is eat, rest, and play a tiny bit each day. She has a bunch of toys that she does seem to like.
3) She tends to start eating when we walk in the room. It's a little weird after a while. For a bit I thought she was pretending to eat because sick or something. But she isn't, she's eating.
4) She makes baby noises, head bobbing and that general baby begging behavior in various circumstances and we don't understand. For example if she's on top of the cage to play and we're around, she does it. Also if she's on my shirt cuddling with it she will do that (this has happened 3 times and each time she just does that). She has food in her cage at all times, I don't see how she'd be hungry. When she does that she won't take food from us either. We thought maybe she wants a cuddle because she got cuddled with the breeders, but I doubted that would help since she doesn't know us or trust us yet I imagine, and unsurprisingly, nope she doesn't seem to like it. Sometimes if I'm singing she settles down and looks at me fixedly and curiously with her little adorable eye. We are very dumbfounded haha.
5) she likes to be in a corner when on top of her cage and won't come out. Twice I've had to grab her because we had to go to work / sleep and she wouldn't come back. I know how bad that is and felt awful doing it. But there was no other way. Even treats wouldn't lure her out. She wasn't playing or anything either, just in a corner hiding under toys.
6) I have been trying to get her to step up reliably. I know she's too young and not close to us enough for other training, the only thing we want for her to know for now is the step up thing because sometimes it's a matter of safety etc. The only treat she likes so far is dried papaya. I cut it in tiny pieces and make her step up, and since she loves flying, and started flying to my hand for the papaya herself out of impatience, also fly to it a tiny distance (8 inches or so). She will do the step up and fly when there is a treat on the horizon (even if I hide it behind my back - she know the routine now) but otherwise she generally does not care to.
We try to ask her only when she'd want to so that she's not forced - but we need for her to step up when we leave - anytime I put her back in the cage I give her a treat or a toy so that going back to the cage isn't bad. She seems to like her cage, seeing how she often doesn't want to come out, she just likes the top of it too much to go back inside I understand that part of this is a safety thing.
7) we are struggling to have her be anywhere but near her cage. The living room scares her (we took her there on a perch just as an excurusion, she seemed ok, very aware but not terrified, but ever since those few minutes there she refuses to go again, she just flies to my head or wherever. She tolerates no perch or playstand for more than a minute after which she flies back to the cage. She doesn't seem afraid of them, her body language is not saying so, but she just leaves.
8) She hates going to bed - but is cranky and sleepy in the morning. She's in a room by herself at night, with a cage cover, and I make sure she's got twelve hours of dark.
Overall she has quite a bit of character and his as stubborn as a sun conure is wont to be - bthat's fine with me in general - but what confuses me is she's a tiny baby and was very sweet and easy with the breeders - obviously she must've had a bond to them and they of course have all the experience. But we're wondering if we're going in a direction where that won't be replicated in our home. Because she's so young, uninterested in being with us, and in treats except papaya, I don't really know how to approach her. We don't want her to be stuck in the cage all the time, but when we take her out we end up having to "force" her back in which is not good in building mutual trust. We don't know what we're doing wrong and we're scared that we're antagonizing her by not understanding what she wants, especially with the baby cries and head bobbing/ wing shaking.
Sorry for the rambling mess, I just hope somebody can advise us! I'm obviously overthinking everything and worrying for no reason or for a reason, I won't know until you guys tell me haha! I just want to understand her and her needs better so that we don't have to worry that we're making her hate this place and us. Thank you in advance.
Attached is a picture of the birdie in question on her cage on my husband's arm on day 2.