GCC troubles

[Naoxl]

Hi everyone!! I have a Green cheek conure, Athena, who I've talked about before being too clingy. Now, I found out a way to be able to "get her off me", I just lay my head on whatever surface I want her to stand on, and she (most of the time) gets off. Now my only problem is that for the life of me, I cannot get her to learn to step up. I did target training with her, I can do it outside the cage too now sometimes, but whenever I try to get her to step up while doing target training, she first tries to reach for the target, then absolutely CHOMPS into my finger as hard as she can. As far as I'm aware she's not scared of it, I'm not moving it, it's not too close to her, so I'm confused why she does that. Is she mad I'm not making it easy for her to reach her target? Or any tips on how I could get her to step up? She's rarely (it happens, but not often? scared of my hands, but she likes to be petted, and sometimes flies on my hand, or my phone which I'm holding, so she usually doesn't mind hands. I'm accepting any tips, and I'm eager to try them out!!

 

[Respect]

I had the same issue with my boy. Eventually I switched to directly holding a treat behind my finger instead of the target stick, and had much better results. (Targeting can still be useful for other movements and tricks though, so keep at it!)

Assuming she’s young and you’re her first home (I think that was the case) she also likely does not yet realize how strong her beak is. My boy used to give me gnarly bruises, now it’s just little pinches. In my experience what helped was whenever he’d bite too hard, I’d try my best to not react and either walk away or start doing something else (taking the attention away from him). When he’d give non-painful nips I wouldn’t directly encourage it, but still keep the attention on him.

Specifically the reason why she’s biting your finger is likely because she wants to make sure it’s a safe and stable surface, and/or she is more comfortable reaching and climbing with her beak than with her feet. If possible try to keep your finger close (but not so close as to throw her off balance or make her feel crowded) and at a level just above her feet (parrots typically feel more comfortable going upwards rather than downwards, and not being too high up will encourage her using her feet to climb rather than her beak).

Wishing you lots of luck with Athena!

 

[Naoxl]

I had the same issue with my boy. Eventually I switched to directly holding a treat behind my finger instead of the target stick, and had much better results. (Targeting can still be useful for other movements and tricks though, so keep at it!)

Assuming she’s young and you’re her first home (I think that was the case) she also likely does not yet realize how strong her beak is. My boy used to give me gnarly bruises, now it’s just little pinches. In my experience what helped was whenever he’d bite too hard, I’d try my best to not react and either walk away or start doing something else (taking the attention away from him). When he’d give non-painful nips I wouldn’t directly encourage it, but still keep the attention on him.

Specifically the reason why she’s biting your finger is likely because she wants to make sure it’s a safe and stable surface, and/or she is more comfortable reaching and climbing with her beak than with her feet. If possible try to keep your finger close (but not so close as to throw her off balance or make her feel crowded) and at a level just above her feet (parrots typically feel more comfortable going upwards rather than downwards, and not being too high up will encourage her using her feet to climb rather than her beak).

Wishing you lots of luck with Athena!

Yup, the woman I got her from said she's 3 months old! I was kinda successfully able to teach her to come to me on command, but I think she just thinks every time I walk away from her, she's supposed to come to me. Anyways, It's fine, I'll work on this first, then try to get her to get her to fly on my finger instead, which she sometimes does, rather than my arm, and just try to go from there. I will try using the treat instead too! I tried it first, then switched to target, because she didn't really pay attention to any seed that wasn't directly offered to her. But maybe, I just didn't try it long enough! I'll definietly try some stuff out tomorrow, and hopefully my fingers won't be getting more bandages eventually
Thank you so much for the reply!!