Green cheek persistent curiosity ends in attacking through cage

[TheBirb]

Recently my housemate decided to get a pair of young green cheek conures, brother & sister that are almost inseparable but also good with people.
My green cheek is purely a one person trusting bird, skittish around other people unless treats are in the mix, great around other birds & dogs BUT if provoked he is extremely aggressive.
He once tried to attack my staffy through his cage for barking at him & attacked my rainbow lorikeet for jumping super fast towards him which ended in a fluffy rolling ball of death, thankfully neither were hurt but they'll preen each other through their cages when one is out, go figure..

Anyway fast forward a few weeks and my conure will fly to their cage any chance he gets, if we're just chillling or watching a movie, eating breakfast/lunch/dinner or I just let him out to do his thing I can guarantee he'll want to fly to them over and over again. It starts with him being playful towards them but the young ones immediately try to bite his feet and he'll eventually try to attack them through the cage.
I always immediately stop what i'm doing & run to get him but that's starting to become quite bothersome, tiresome & worrying.
Occasionally he'll even bite me when retrieving him from their cage which previous to these birds entering our home he had never bitten me but he only does this if I pick him up when he's trying to attack them.
I've thought that maybe the young ones bite him due to jealously of being out but obviously very hesitant to attempt an outside meet and greet due to the provocative nature of the young birds and the instigated aggressive nature of my older, bigger & stronger conure that could potentially do serious damage to them if they instigated a fight outside of their cage.
The young ones are in the living room and mine in my bedroom, I did have mine in our living room but he was becoming quite moody & nippy being around them 24/7 when they first moved in so i moved him into my bedroom & he has since stopped his nippy moods completely, unless he has access to a mirror for an extended period of time.
Unfortunately the remaining size of my housemates bedroom won't accommodate their cage to do the same as we both bought the biggest we could find.
So I'm wondering if their are any tips or tricks to stop or prevent this behaviour/curiosity? Though I feel as though this is something I will just have to persevere, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[webchirp]

I have not had any luck with cheeks not biting toes through the cage. That is their space once they are inside and even a cage mate/friend that shares the space will get their toes bitten if they are on the outside while the other is on the inside. Look up @Monica for her wealth of posts on training.

 

[TheBirb]

Yeah, I wouldn't really want to mess around with training his birds unless I had too as he seems to be paranoid into thinking they'll favour me over him as it is lol they're very social birds.
I'm more or less wondering if there are any ways to train or lessen the curiosity that my green cheek has to fly over to them so frequently.
I'm looking for a standing perch that's taller than their cage but I'm not hopeful that it'll change the habit as he was always more than content to relax on my shoulder or chest beforehand and they're very good at getting his attention even when he's eating veg/fruit/treats or playing with toys.
Will definitely look into the training posts you mentioned, much appreciated.

 

[SandraK]

My flock consists of a mix of gccs, tiels, Quakers and a sun. I have plexiglass on the tops of all the cages that have flat tops and it does have 2 benefits. One is that the residents of the cage can't chew on anybirdies' toes if they land on the top and secondly it also means that the birdies landing on the top don't poop into any of the food or water bowls. But beware the careless fid who lands on the side of the cage because the gccs and Quakers are not forgiving.

The tiels are the most easy going and sun Tikki is ok with them but he dislikes the gccs and Quakers intensely.

 

[Monica]

First things first, I would recommend a temporary "fix", which SandraK has already spoken of - putting plexiglass on the top (and potentially the sides, too!) to prevent those toe-bites.... as webchirp said, birds are curious creatures!

Second, the training you are looking for would be station training, aka "stay put", which can be used to ignore other birds. This is a behavior you'll want to work with Jed alone, away from any distractions. If you have a playstand that you can work with him at, even better! You could teach Jed to fly between you and the stand. Make sure the stand has food, water and toys for when he's not on you. (not necessary during training!) Once he's good at stationing where you want him to, then you can introduce distractions. In short, you reward him for staying put and eventually for playing with his toys/foraging on his stand.

 

[SandraK]

You can also use the plastic carpet runner stuff you can find at most hardware stores which can be cut to size (length)on the sides which would be cheaper than the plexi on all sides. The upside to the plexi on top is that you can put fresh food dishes on top or playstands.