1/2MoonMom
Meeting neighbors
- Joined
- 1/28/21
- Messages
- 52
So I am stuck. My half moon conure easily gets fixated on fabric that is on me but won't chew on her toys. She doesn't destroy my clothes and I don't mind her chewing on my pants drawstring or something while I read, but even when I have cut fabric off of the clothes she likes to chew she still won't touch it if it's not on me! I have tried clicker training her and rewarding for interactions with toys outside of the cage, (anytime she throws, bites, or goes up to a toy on her own) but this isn't translating too well to when she is in the cage. She basically will peck at the toy once and if there's no easily accessible treat it's back to pacing and calling. Sometimes, after an hour or two she will settle down and I notice that some of the toys have been chewed. I feel like the issue is that I can't seem to get from the step of her simply touching or pecking a toy for a treat to fully chewing something up for a treat. I have tried withholding the treat until I get longer interactions, even showing her what to do (ripping, throwing, crumpling etc,) but she doesn't get it. She will immediately get bored and fly to my shoulder or some other iffy behavior (biting).
I am concerned that my bird is becoming more bored now that I am going back to work in my office in person, and have noticed that she has been extremely nippy with me lately, which seems to be either hormones and weather or her increased boredom.
The one toy I have success with always is putting nutiberries in the stick ball toys, but because of her hormonal behaviors, I am hoping to figure out a way to have her start enjoying shredding things without needing a big treat involved. I KNOW she likes to chew because she does it with my clothes. I just can't figure out how to get her interested in doing this to toys.....
...so I am wondering if there is anything I can do to encourage the love of tearing toys apart for the heck of it! I think it will help her aggressive behaviors ...
How do I get to the next step?
Thanks
P.S. for anyone wondering what kind of toys I have tried, I have wood blocks (she sometimes chews on them), bird kabobs, little boxes with paper shreds in them (she won't touch them), and the stick balls you can put treats in. I also have some preening toys made of straws and other kinds of shredded papers/wood pieces as well as rope and block toys that hang. No plastics. She likes to chew up veggies when she is out of the cage with me, but doesn't seem to touch them inside the cage.
I am concerned that my bird is becoming more bored now that I am going back to work in my office in person, and have noticed that she has been extremely nippy with me lately, which seems to be either hormones and weather or her increased boredom.
The one toy I have success with always is putting nutiberries in the stick ball toys, but because of her hormonal behaviors, I am hoping to figure out a way to have her start enjoying shredding things without needing a big treat involved. I KNOW she likes to chew because she does it with my clothes. I just can't figure out how to get her interested in doing this to toys.....
...so I am wondering if there is anything I can do to encourage the love of tearing toys apart for the heck of it! I think it will help her aggressive behaviors ...
How do I get to the next step?
Thanks
P.S. for anyone wondering what kind of toys I have tried, I have wood blocks (she sometimes chews on them), bird kabobs, little boxes with paper shreds in them (she won't touch them), and the stick balls you can put treats in. I also have some preening toys made of straws and other kinds of shredded papers/wood pieces as well as rope and block toys that hang. No plastics. She likes to chew up veggies when she is out of the cage with me, but doesn't seem to touch them inside the cage.