I've had my conure for about a month now. He was nice the first couple of weeks, a little nippy but not bad. This past week though he has been drawing blood. He does it any time any where, so I cant figure out what has changed. This is my first pet bird so I'm clueless when it comes to understanding their body language and noises. Whenever he would nip I would keep my tone normal and say no bite and put him down. A couple of times it hurt so bad and he wouldn't let go it was impossible not to cry out. Also I'm not sure how old he is, he was surrendered and the place I got him from thought he might be around 2. Any advice?
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My New Conure
- Thread starter laureen
- Start date
faislaq
I have macaws and don't post enough pictures
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Oh goodness, I'm so sorry. Is he giving any sort of indication that he isn't wanting to be handled or picked up? Or perhaps he doesn't mind being picked up but doesn't care for hands? One of our green cheeks is terrified of hands, but will step up onto a forearm or shoulder. 
Does he only bite during certain times? Like when you move him away from his cage or when you try to put him back? Birds are pretty sharp & will pick up on patterns fairly quickly.
Also, some birds have been taught that they don't have any choice but to step up. It's really hard to know without knowing his background, but that's the case with so many birds.
Does he only bite during certain times? Like when you move him away from his cage or when you try to put him back? Birds are pretty sharp & will pick up on patterns fairly quickly.
Also, some birds have been taught that they don't have any choice but to step up.
It's really hard to know without knowing his background, but that's the case with so many birds.
It's not him, it's you.
There's your answer in bold above. The first few weeks he put up with you being clueless and not listening to body language. After a time he knew you weren't listening to him and he'd have to be more obvious trying to communicate with you. Hence biting, which you FINALLY noticed!
You need to get with it, and now it will be harder to let him know you are listening to him.
Check out Barbara Heidenreich website and youtube. She does positive reinforcement training aka clicker training. She has examples of body language. Then if you do clicker training that will get you and your bird communicating and working together in a positive way.
If you post video of a body language we can sometimes tell you what it means too.
Also - what kind of conure is he and his name please?
Coldbreeze
Rollerblading along the road
Well if he is 2 then welcome to the terrible twos! I am not looking forward to that with my conure who is a merely 3 months old. I was clueless on body language but days before hand I studied this site and others and saw plenty of videos to get help on what some things mean. Fluffed up feathers is a warning. If that helps at all. Zazu let's me know what he likes by giving me cues. Most of the time we are on the same page. But there are times where he just bites me just cause. Like I'll tell hin to step up and he will and then as soon as he does he will give a nip to my fingers which I give a over the top reaction of OUCH and promptly put him back inside his cage and ignore him for 3 minutes by leaving the room. This had started to work as that has stopped i feel this only works because Zazu is heavily bonded to me. Follows me around constantly and just doesnt want to be anywhere but on me. So this trick may not work for you. But I will suggest that you simply say OUCH loudly put the bird down and leave the room.
Think of it as this way. When two birds are playing and once nips the other too hard what does that bird do? It let's out a loud screech and flies away meaning playtime is over. So try to think of it in a birdy way.
Think of it as this way. When two birds are playing and once nips the other too hard what does that bird do? It let's out a loud screech and flies away meaning playtime is over. So try to think of it in a birdy way.
If he is biting you because he wants to be put down or left alone then if you do that you are training the biting behavior.
You need to know body language first and do your action BEFORE getting bitten.
You need to know body language first and do your action BEFORE getting bitten.
Update.. the weather broke around the end of October so I was always wearing long sleeves which helped a lot because i wasn't so nervous picking him up. He would bite my arm everytime but because I couldn't feel it I gave no reaction. I just kept at it and a couple of weeks ago he just stopped biting and became the most lovable bird ever. Fingers crossed it stays this way.
