• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

9 Mo Old Male White Belly Caique

Nina789

Moving in
Joined
7/25/22
Messages
11
Hi everyone. We got our white belly caique when he was 4 months old and now he is nine months old. Before we brought him home, he lived in the same cage with his brother and got into a flight with his brother. The bird shop owner had to give him stiches on the right side of his body between his neck and wing. At the very beginning, everything seemed good and he was gentle. We feed him multiple servings of fruits and veggies, nutriberries, nuts, seeds and grains. We also take him outside (with harness) to enjoy the sun and nature when we walk. My mom has a one-year-old green cheek conure. We put them together sometimes for a day or two when we are busy. The conure tends to bite certain people but not hard and no major behavior issues. In early February this year, we went on vacation and left him with my mom's green cheek conure for around 10 days. We noticed some behavior change after we brought him home. He tends to bite more often and harder and becomes more demanding. For example, I get bites that lead to bleeding almost every day for the past week. He doesn't seem to understand his bites are hurting me. He bites whenever he is excited (ie: sunbathing, morning walks) or whenever he doesn't get things his way. He doesn't seem to be interested in playing with the forging toys we got for him, and he doesn't want to play on his own without us being around. It appears he only likes being on our finger or body/sunbathing/walk in the nature/eating. We want to encourage him to play on this own with the forging toys but it is not successful.

About a couple of months ago, we also noticed he has been plucking his feathers from his chest area. We took him to a bird medical center and the doctor is unable to tell if the missing feather is due to molting (he is molting and has a lot of new feathers coming out according to the doctor). The doctor also encourages us to show him how to play with the toys. We did but it appears that he is not interested. Should we get him a companion? How do we communicate that his biting is not nice. We kept telling him no no, no biting but he doesn't seem to get it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 

Attachments

Xoetix

Biking along the boulevard
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/12/22
Messages
6,625
Location
Southern VA, US
Real Name
Meghan (she/her)

Irishj9

Rollerblading along the road
Avenue Veteran
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
5/25/12
Messages
3,672
Real Name
JP
Well theres a lot to comment on there

First never leave a caique alone with another species. The caique is a sumo wrestler and is programmed to wrestle with his equally strong nestmates. Not your little conure. All caiques have VERY strong feet and beaks. They can hang their bodyweight off any of them and fight with the rest.

Ive never seen one caique brother attack another, especially at such a young age, so I suspect the shop owner is telling porkies.

YOU started all this agression by abandoning him to go on holidays. you are his family, his flock, his little world. And you just disappeared. Of course he became unhappy and irritated.

You think you can just waltze back into his life like he was a puppy?. You cant. He must be bribed. Every day. with goodies and treats

Biting is step 10 in a warning process that is all about body language warning signs. You drove through 9 red stop lights before you got pulled over with a bite

Hes thinking - How stupid is this human? - Ive been flashing warnings for the last ten minutes.

As for the toys. He decides what he wants to play with, not the humans. YOU are his toys. Anything you touch is his toys. And he doesnt take orders HAHA, ( you're lucky he takes bribes)

Distract distract distract. Bribe bribe bribe

WATCH THE BODY LANGUAGE!

And keep your delicate little conure away when hes irritated
 
Last edited:

Pixiebeak

Biking along the boulevard
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/18/22
Messages
7,320
Location
USA
Real Name
Laura
You've got Multiple threads going some how. Maybe we can combine them ?

 

Nina789

Moving in
Joined
7/25/22
Messages
11
Thanks for all the advice. We normally lock him up inside the cage (he has a big cage with toys and ropes inside) while we are gone for errands and let him out walking freely whenever we are home. We recently noticed he is less angry if we just leave the cage open while we are gone. Would you recommend getting him a sun conure or caique as companion? Thank you
 

Xoetix

Biking along the boulevard
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/12/22
Messages
6,625
Location
Southern VA, US
Real Name
Meghan (she/her)
Would you recommend getting him a sun conure or caique as companion?
Probably neither, until his behavior with you is better settled.
 
Top