Meet Matcha (+ questions)

[matcha]

Hey y'all! I recently brought home a 3 month old pineapple GCC girl. She is absolutely wonderful and precious! She follows me around my apartment and loves snuggling up with me.

I have a couple of questions about her behavior as I'm not familiar enough with conures to understand everything:

Why does she chew on everything - and what toys are good for fids who like chewing on everything? She seems less interested in wood and more interested in plastic.

Also, she makes this really low muttering sound that sounds like quacking if I pet her - I thought it might be anger or discomfort but she still puffs her feathers out for me to give her scritchies. What is this? I just don't want to overstep a boundary with her and cause her to distrust me.

 

[Rain Bow]

Hiya Matcha!
Welcome to AA! Birds use their mouths to explore things like we would when we run our hands across things. That's why they end up chewing things. Now chewing plastic to the point where they mare or damage the plastic is bad. If your fid is doing this you need to look towards Acrylic & avoid plastic. They often spit out plastic but they most definitely can swallow the plastic just as fast as they spit it out. It can get stuck in their crop & hurt them, so please if the plastic is damaged don't let her have it.

I'm unsure about your mumbling question as I hav e a Zon. There are a few members that maybe able to help you though.

I'm going to tag them, & hopefully someone will know the answer! @Farlie , @Zara , @Leih , @DoubleTake , @Hawk12237

 

[Lupen]

I have a crimson bellied conure, not exactly a GCC, but Zephyr quacks all the time too and it's 100% a contentment / playful thing. I wouldn't worry too much about overstepping your bounds you'll learn pretty quickly the signs - and if you don't she'll make sure you do.

Mine isn't a big wood-chewer either, until it comes to popsicle stick toys. They're thin so it's very easy for him to get through, maybe could try it out with your girl too? This is the one I got, he tore it up within a week or two lol. He also loves seagrass, vine balls, balsa wood. Another of his favorites with the vine balls/balsa. There's a ton of different foot toys out there she might like as well - little things she can hold in her feet/beak and roll around or chew on. Honestly though, Zephyr didn't play with toys much until he got older, around 6-7 months? He's 10 months at the moment.

He definitely always loved chewing on blinds though...

 

[Hawk12237]

Hey y'all! I recently brought home a 3 month old pineapple GCC girl. She is absolutely wonderful and precious! She follows me around my apartment and loves snuggling up with me.

I have a couple of questions about her behavior as I'm not familiar enough with conures to understand everything:

Why does she chew on everything - and what toys are good for fids who like chewing on everything? She seems less interested in wood and more interested in plastic.

Also, she makes this really low muttering sound that sounds like quacking if I pet her - I thought it might be anger or discomfort but she still puffs her feathers out for me to give her scritchies. What is this? I just don't want to overstep a boundary with her and cause her to distrust me.

Well hello and welcome to the forum. Nice little gal you got there in that pineapple. Let's see if I can knock the dust off my brain here and give you some advice.
Following you around and liking cuddles, aww she loves you already. You'll have a great bond in time as you get to know one another's routine and habits.
Why do they chew on everything? Ha ha ha, welcome to the club my friend, it's the beginning of a beautiful relationship, and a pile of chewed up things! Parrots are inquisitive creatures, some more than others. They love to explore. Test the waters, like saying...oooohhh what's that!!
Like @Rainbow (rain) mentioned, they use their beaks and tongue, to test things and that's their nature when it comes to exploring their new environment.
What toys are good? Ha ha ha, there are a billion toys on the market, what works for one bird doesn't necessarily work for another. Parrots develop unique personalities, likes and dislikes.
Trial and error is what I recommend. If they don't like it, put it in a toy box for later. I have two giant totes full of unused bird toys. They play with them later down line. I rotate my birds toys every time I clean cage. This keeps them interested and not bored.
I recommend steering away from toys imported from China, India, south Korea and tiwain. Paints used in these countries contain lead in their paint. Yea they make and sell to the U.S...bird toys!!
(I used to track N.A.F.T.A in my job, and the hazardous chemicals) Stick with locals or better yet we have some wonderful vendors on this site
that make very good and reasonably price toys for birds. They are all awesome and will answer any questions you have about toys and their
recommendations.
Stay away from plastic if you can. Most birds won't exactly eat it, just may accidentially swallow some. And then you have problems. Such as very brittle plastic.
Many bird toys are made of a more durable plastic that is not easily chewed up and swallowed. Wood is always better. Experiment in shapes and sizes, and presentation.
For example, my Senegal I gave plenty of wood and wooden foot toys which he loves, but prefers to make the square coffee table round.
He looks at his toy and then coffee table and probably thinks..."ahhh haaa...now that's what I call wood!" That little buzz saw go's to town on it!!
Again, size of wood really does make a difference.
I take a deck of cards, put a hole thru middle, put a wooden bead ( 1/2 inch to 1 inch round) between each card and string it up as a toy. they spend hours chewing up
the cards then beads. Birds like shiny things... and noisy things...I got my grey his own toy baby piano to play. His own train, and own ferris wheel I put nuts in...
Never be afraid to play with your bird. But always monitor the toys. Always!! By that I mean my bird wont play with piano unless I bring it out and watch.
The low muttering and ( I call it purring) is normal. My budgie dose that. Puffing up ….is in your case, happy and content bird.
Many mistake puffing up as an illness... no, only if your bird was listless....in your case, it's not. it's happy and enjoying it's surroundings...
the nerves when petting the bird will trigger a response to the feathers to puff up. My Zon, puffs up and closes eye when I pet her...
a sign of enjoyment.
Have fun, enjoy your new member, and welcome to the forum.
Any questions feel free to reach out to any member on this site, we have some very talented parrot people on here.

 

[Zara]

Welcome to the forum



@Rain Bow I have lovebirds but thanks for thinking of me

 

[Icey]

Welcome to the forums and I can see you have already been given great advice from @Rain Bow and @Hawk12237 .
I just wanted to say she is a cutey, and love her little puffy head

 

[Leih]

Chewing on everything quickly got me into making my own toys. I have a big storage cabinet in the bird room that is half full of toy parts. I feel that the faster they destroy something the more they like it, which is good for them. You will definitely want to look into foraging, anything they have to work at to get a reward. My conure likes the stuff others have mentioned but he also loves palm "shredder." it comes in a big roll. And also these plastic curly things.

 

[Leih]

Oh another thing I just remembered is to experiment with placement. A toy in one location may be ignored, but move it and it's a hit!

 

[fashionfobie]

Welcome to the forum Matcha Such a cute little face.

I somehow feel that your are going to be one spoiled bird!

 

[sunnysmom]

Welcome! She's adorable.

 

[DoubleTake]

You have been given good advice/info. I would try yucca wood, my boys and lovebird love that stuff. Birds just like to chew, it helps them feel stuff out/explore and the hard woods help keel their beak trim.

Do the bird noises sound anything like this? My guys are suns but he is just having a fun time.

 

[Leih]

Oh yeah, all of my birds love yucca! Those "bird kabob" things!

 

[d_msparkles]

What a cutie!! My girl does the “happy quacks” too. Conures have a huge range of sounds beyond talking and squawking, and you will start to learn what they mean.
Matcha would definitely not let you pet her head if she were angry about it.

 

[Rain Bow]

Welcome to the forum



@Rain Bow I have lovebirds but thanks for thinking of me

I knew that! I was looking for your good fid knowledge! You have a ton not necessarily just Love bird advice.

 

[Monica]

@matcha I was not able to respond to your last post about Cosmo in the sandbox.

As @webchirp mentioned, training will go a long ways into helping Cosmo! If you consider it this way, by "allowing" him to bite, you are only reinforcing his need to bite. In order to set him up for success, we need to find ways to avoid and redirect the behavior before it occurs. If he attacks you when you are sitting and relaxing, then don't have him with you. Instead, have a play stand or gym for him to be on so he can still spend time with you without being on you. If he still attacks, then move his cage around the house *OR* get a second cage to act as a play cage that he can be in and not get to you.

Matcha is fairly young as well, so her behavior may change in time, too. If you can set a foundation for basic training for both, that would definitely help you in the long run!!!

Target training and station training are two great behaviors to start with! Bird attacks when you try to change out their dishes? Teach them to station away from the dishes! Bird wont come out of the cage on their own? Or bites when attempting to take them out? Or is cage aggressive? Target training!

It can even help to set up a special treat cup with treats 5' or so to either side of the cage, so whenever you walk by the cage, drop a treat and go! Don't even bother waiting for the bird to take it, just drop and go! This is a simple way to get birds to become eager to see us!


If you would like to look more into training, please check out this thread!

Free Training Resources

Someone recently told me that there was only one trainer on the internet that had free training advice. This is, quite simply, false. This “trainer” they spoke of is an amateur that has taken advice from salesmen who market themselves as bird trainers. Not to say that they don't enjoy helping...

forums.avianavenue.com

 

[Nobirby]

As far as toys, mine love chewing up tibes from paper towels and such. Sometimes I cut them into half inch pieces and punch a hole into them, then alternate them with a wood bead on a string.
They also love chewing on my cotton crotched dish cloths.

 

[matcha]

Thanks all!

Monica, I greatly appreciate your training help and the resources. I'm already noticing some improvement with how nippy he is!
I do immediately put him up when he bites (which I know there's some debate about this being effective, but it works well for him because he goes where he wants otherwise!!!) and he doesn't get to hang out with me if he's bitey. I've also been rewarding him for hanging out without biting and for any time I touch him without him biting down on me. It's already working!
Going to work on Matcha as well....especially because she's a beggar for Cosmo's treats and honestly loves getting treats for scritchies.
She has her own set of issues but she's a lot easier to work with and is very responsive to training and rewards. Probably because she was clipped when I bought her and can't tell me heck NO by flying to the top of the cabinets...

Her issues are mainly nippiness when she doesn't want to do something but she has "warning" nips that aren't painful and she doesn't commonly bite down unless you ignore her warning signs (which is pretty much all birds - Cosmo is just harder to read so he resorts to hard bites a lot "faster"). She also loves being on my shoulder/shirt which is cute and all but she can get shoulder territorial so we go through phases of having to not let her up on our shoulders, which works. Sometimes she doesn't bite but refuses to step up like a potato with grabby feet.

Really excited to see how much Cosmo improves given his progress just from a couple days of work and reinforcement!

 

[Monica]

Well, the training can certainly help with getting Matcha off of your shoulder too if she doesn't want to come down!

Good to hear progress! Training is really all about making it their idea to do something and making it rewarding so they *want* to do the behavior!


If you aren't near the cage, I don't recommend putting the bird in the cage as that could result in the behavior you are trying to punish to well, not be punished... so if you aren't near the cage, I just recommend getting them off of you, as long as it's safe to do so!

 

[Nobirby]

As far as toys, mine love chewing up tibes from paper towels and such. Sometimes I cut them into half inch pieces and punch a hole into them, then alternate them with a wood bead on a string.
They also love chewing on my cotton crotched dish cloths.

Oh my, I need to proofread better. Tubes not tibes. Crocheted not crotched.