My GCC is afraid of hands

[Babyjoey]

Hi everyone,

I’ve had Joey, my green cheek Conure for 5 months now and I got him when he was 10 week old. We let him roam around the house (supervised) and he is in his cage only when we are not home or when it’s his bedtime. He has always been very friendly with everyone and definitely not shy or afraid of people and Him and I just have a very special bondwe would spend all day together, he would cuddle me, kiss me he was obsessed with me.

But everything changed a week ago when I was cleaning and he got into a box which he couldn’t get out of (he was safe just couldn’t get out of the box) by the time I noticed he was in the box maybe 20-30 minutes had passed and I immediately took him out of the box and I was worried and kept saying “oh no my baby” in a frantic voice, the box was also dirty so I took him to the sink to wash him off and after that he jumped out of my hand and started running away from me and would not let me touch him or even come near him. He lets my husband touch him and he will step up for my husband but wanted nothing to do with me. It’s been a week now since this happened and now he does come to me, will climb on my clothes and get on my shoulder but he won’t let me grab him or step up for me, he actually starts running away if I try to offer him my hand so getting him in and out of his cage has been very challenging and I miss having him with me all the time like before I’m worried things will never get back to the way we were.
If anyone has any advice or has dealt with a similar situation before please help I desperately want my best friend back

 

[Wardy]

Joey has obviously had a bit of a experience that has stressed him and will possibly need a bit of time before he trusts your hands again, just be patient and dont flood him treat him like a new bird and try and gain his trust again.

You do say he wont let you grab him so getting him in and out of the cage is tough allow him to come out himself and work on training him to go back into his cage on his own.

Target training will help with this if you teach Joey to target you will be able to get him back in his cage without grabbing him.


He is coming to you just be patient and give Joey time.