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Help me, please, with my feather plucker, self mutilator, scared, and aggressive CH Conure

Hankmacaw

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@Kassiani Don't lose the faith yet. I have told of my struggles with Hank many times and I just want you to know that it took three years (he had been physically kicked and beaten and slapped around for the ten years before I got him at 19 yo). He bit me many times and he wasn't fooling around. I broke down after several months, with me holding my hand in the air trying to stop the bleeding where he had just bitten of 1/4 inch of my forefinger and middle finger, and bawled trying to decide if I could keep him or not. I did have to work and couldn't with my hands constantly in bandages. I kept him and it was a three years struggles before we became friends and another two before he really trusted me (and me him).

Others, on this forum have had similar struggles - @JLcribber comes to mind. Tika was a mean bird. For darned good reason and it took years with him. You may always have to be careful and on your toes with Opie. Hank never 100% got over his abuse and once he lost it I just had to back off and let him work through it on his own - until the day he died.
 

Elysian

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Kassiani you are so awesome. The poor little naked birds are so vulnerable and really need someone special like you.

I know we are both worriers, so it's hard to not fret over what else you could be doing..
But have you seen info graphic that goes around on facebook (one of the rescues I follow posted it recently)? It says something like:
It takes a bird 3 days to decompress, 3 weeks to get comfortable with the routine, and 3 months to start to bond. You're almost at 5 months but when you look at it that way.. most of his time with you has been dedicated to figuring out where he is, what is expected of him, and that he won't get eaten.
You're just at the beginning of the good part now!
And you have nowhere to go but up.

I think I really lucked out with my Opie and Oggie not being cage aggressive, but then again we haven't even hit that 3 week mark. We're in the honeymoon period and once they are fully comfortable they could turn on me :eek:
Or I could do something wrong and ruin their tolerant natures.

You're doing so much better with your budgies than I have - mine were hand fed babies who came to me right after weaning and I still have never got them to accept a syringe!
No one else could do as well with Opie as you have.
 

sunnysmom

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@Lady Jane had posted some really good training/ taking videos awhile back. I will see if I can find them. I thought they had some good ideas that I hadn't seen before. Some birds just take longer to come around than others. Hang in there.
For some reason I can't find it. Maybe @Lady Jane can share again?
 

Kassiani

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The support and encouragement when one of us is struggling is just one of the reasons I love this place :) Thank you all, so very much!

Work was high stress today as my section had a presentation before the board of directors this morning, and this afternoon was filled with family legal meetings (immediate family) and family drama (extended family). I'm exhausted, and did not have a lot of time to spend with my boys.

I took a step back with Opie and just worked on some targeting. He actually voluntarily crawled down the side of his big cage to stand on the top of his travel cage. He even decided it would be OK to stand on the perch attached to the inside of the travel cage door while it was open. I didn't ask him to go inside and made sure the door remained perfectly still. I was very proud of us, lol! He even seemed very curious about me because I was sitting on the floor next to his travel cage--and he didn't try to take a chunk out of some part of me :)
 

Pat H

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Some people gave me their Timneh because they couldn't handle her ... tho she came out onto my hand when I picked her up [they were astonished], the next time I offered my hand... bit the heck out of me. She would not settle down-- continued aggressiveness... We finally placed an ad in the paper, and actually spoke to someone about her attributes... She had to have been listening. When I came home the next day... she had decided she was our bird and was loving it up w/ my hubby, nestled on the couch. Gave me the 'raspberries' when I approached. She was our precious Freddie--
 

Kassiani

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Some people gave me their Timneh because they couldn't handle her ... tho she came out onto my hand when I picked her up [they were astonished], the next time I offered my hand... bit the heck out of me. She would not settle down-- continued aggressiveness... We finally placed an ad in the paper, and actually spoke to someone about her attributes... She had to have been listening. When I came home the next day... she had decided she was our bird and was loving it up w/ my hubby, nestled on the couch. Gave me the 'raspberries' when I approached. She was our precious Freddie--
Oh my!! Lol! She sounds like she was quite the character!
 

scrape

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Is Opie scared of a towel? Maybe you could work up to training him to step on a towel draped on you? That way, he can't bite you. If he's terrified of it, it won't work.
 

Kassiani

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I use towels to clean his cage, and he avoids them at all costs because he associates them with being toweled.
 

scrape

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I use towels to clean his cage, and he avoids them at all costs because he associates them with being toweled.
Darn. Maybe a thick shirt sleeve eventually (pulled over your hand)? I'm just mentioning it for the future, I'm sure you will work up to it.:tup:
 

Kassiani

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So he learned a new trick today...others of you have experience with this. It’s called flip your dish off the cage—and scream at Mom to pick it back up, lol!
07289868-5BCD-4FC0-A2EB-9BF9AFD52466.jpeg
 

Kassiani

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And now he’s upset with me because I haven’t replaced it with more fresh food. I can’t. That was the last of this batch of chop, and I won’t have time to make more until this evening :facepalm:
 

SumitaSinh

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Fling food, waste chops, scream at mom, do whatever you like, Opie, but please please don't pluck... Mamma will tolerate everything, just let your pretty feathers grow back :heart:
 
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