Biting when stepping up!

[Papuga]

Hello everyone,

A few days ago I bought a new green cheek conure. The breeder said he is around 10 months old and a male. He has been hand reared.

However, every time I take him out of the cage and ask him to step up he has been biting me. I have read online that this is because he is hand shy and has to be trained to step up again. I have no problem with this but he doesn't want to do any training at all.

I have been encouraging him with millet and other tasty snacks but no matter what I give him he doesn't want to participate in training.

My question is should I maybe take away his food for an hour before training or would this be considered wrong and make him not like me ?

Also, if anyone has any advice on how to prevent biting or any bonding activities I could do with him to maybe make him like me more that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[sunnysmom]

Welcome. If you've just had him a few days, he's still settling in and getting used to everything. I would ease up on the training attempts for a bit and let him get used to you and his surroundings. Also, training sessions should be short. Like only 5-10 minutes at a time. I would also let him come out of his cage on his own. I never make my birds come out. Also, after he settles in more, you can try first having him step up on a perch/stick to save your fingers and as he trusts you more, switch to hands. He's young and in a new place. Try to take things at his pace. And a good bonding experience is just spending time with him. You can try hand feeding him some favorite treats to show him that hands aren't scary.

 

[Wardy]

Good advice above i would advise against removing food to encourage interaction during training.

 

[Papuga]

Hello,
Thanks for the advice everyone.

I would like him to come out of the cage himself but his wings are clipped so he can't.

Yesterday I used a glove whilst telling him to step up and he bites the glove much less than my finger. Is this maybe because he knows that biting the glove won't make me take it away unlike when he bites my finger I have no choice but to move my finger away from him.

Other than the biting when stepping up he is a really good bird.

I will continue to interact with him and maybe he will get less bitey over time.

 

[Wardy]

Personally i would advise against the glove you are potentially going to teach him to bite harder and what do you do if he bites when you take the glove off ? If you need to leave him in the cage for a while until he settles in a bit more this may be the better option. You say he was hand reared how much interaction did he have with the breeder though once the rearing was over ?
I got both of my conures from a breeder who hand reared them however he was unable to sell them due to the pandemic so they had very little interaction with him after rearing Mojo it was a few months KiKi approx 5 months neither liked hands initially KiKi still doesnt to be fair will step up if a treat is offered but apart from that want's nothing to do with my hand she will sit on me for long periods of time but hands no not for her yet this is a work in progress and she may never like hands.
Mojo is completely different steps up for both me and my wife will sit in my hand and sleep this was defianately not the case when i got her, She didnt come out of the cage for her first month this time was spent getting to know each other just talking to her offering the occasional piece of millet through the cage bars after maybe 10 days of this i started with some trainng firstly i done some target training through the cage bars targeting her around the cage before moving on to target training in the cage through the door. I then moved onto stepping up onto a perch with her in the cage and then finally onto my finger with her in the cage this worked well once she was stepping up i gave her the option to leave the cage she took this straight away i was then able to get her to step up to return her Mojo stayed in her cage for the first month of being with me.

I would like him to come out of the cage himself but his wings are clipped so he can't.

Even though clipped he can still make the decision to come out of the cage himself and depending on how harsh he has been clipped it is possible he can still fly however would not have the same kind of control as a bird with full flight feathers.

Yesterday I used a glove whilst telling him to step up and he bites the glove much less than my finger. Is this maybe because he knows that biting the glove won't make me take it away unlike when he bites my finger I have no choice but to move my finger away from him.

If you conure is biting it is either curious what's this here and is exploring said object with it's beak or it is saying get away from me leave me alone you need to consider this when offering your hand.

My advice would be to ditch the gloves take a step backwards and take things slow this will be more beneficial long term in my opinion you need to gain his trust and allow him to take things at his pace.

 

[Pat H]

Using the perch at first will help save your fingers.
Once on there, try putting your finger BEHIND him, gently nudging the back of his legs and wiggling the perch he's standing on to encourage him-- [along w/ verbally encouraging him]. Stepping backward is MUCH MORE DIFFICULT so see how it goes. Or it could be, if he takes a long time doing that, then offer your finger from the front, again slightly wiggling the wooden perch. From the front, make sure your finger is offered so he has to STEP UP instead of DOWN.