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Need advice/help with conure behaviour

Dareel

Sitting on the front steps
Joined
9/4/22
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18
Real Name
Lee
No reduction as of yet but it's early days. He is so obsessed with me and almost panics when I leave the room . He even stops eating to try and get on my shoulder before I leave . Yes I am leaving the room ( when I can close the door before he gets to me, he's fast) and tell him " I'm going , Iggy' then shut door. He starts chirping very high pitched non stop after about 20 seconds. I say I'm coming back just before he starts and then walk in and say I'm back. Then treat him. Ill Keep doing this until we see some change then I'll wait a bit longer. Since anxiety was mentioned I have been looking into it and it seems that the big change ( new baby) may play a part in separation anxiety? . I've been looking for calming foods but the only one I find is only sold in the USA and I can't find anything in the UK. I have ordered the shredding toys and am going to get some more perches and hang them too



Thank you Ive tried pellets and he does eat them. He did take a big bite out of my finger too but hey ho.
 

Dareel

Sitting on the front steps
Joined
9/4/22
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Real Name
Lee
excellent!!! Any reduction in length of screaming or amount of screaming sessions?

My parrots take anything as a treat as long as I really praise and give kisses. So you can try handing out his pellets or regular diet. I use, pellets, safflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, tiny broken pieces of walnuts or pistachios ( tiny crumb size piece ) . I think handing a food reward is good, but at the stage I'm at often praise and a kiss alone work fine.

Are you practicing going out of sight for a few minutes, and using your flock call( I say I'm here , or I wolf whistle) then bsck to room before he vocals? Increasing time out of sight?

I've just started in home recall flight training mine. I'm using crushed up tiny pieces of toco shell. Because its something they are going nuts for right now. Hopefully in a few weeks they will just recall for praise

Good luck with the flight training . Do you mean getting him to fly to you?
 

Pixiebeak

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Good luck with the flight training . Do you mean getting him to fly to you?
Yes. I'm trying to get my quakers to fly to me when I ask.

You can try the opposite. Having Iggy station on a perch, asking him to wait before flying to you. Increasing wait time. This may help tackle the always flying to you from a different direction.

Nearly all parrots want to stay near their people and keep them in sight. But I have not had to takle such severe separation anxiety in mine or rescues....

It is a natural thing for parrots to stay with mate in bonded pair ..and you seen to be perceived as the mate...you only pet head , neck face correct? No snuggling into your clothing, or burrow into pillows, or playing in boxes?

Can you go over your goals again with me? In priority

If Iggy is well behaved on your shoulder, is there a reason he can't ride around with you? As I have 3 quakers and a conure I often have someone, or multiple riding around on me as I do chores. But mine spend several hours foraging. Take a mid day cage break.

What is his bedtime routine?
 

Pixiebeak

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I've heard the use of chamole tea..
Otherwise I just focus on behavior modifications. I leave advice on supplements or medications to others or your veterinarian
 

Pixiebeak

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This is a great stress article for parrots. Also be mindful of your stress. Burds read us .
 

Dareel

Sitting on the front steps
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Real Name
Lee
It's strange with him because when I am in the house he screams and screeches his head off if he knows I'm in the other room but when I leave for work my partner says he's fine so it's just when I am about. He isn't too bad at coming to me in all honesty. In fact it's quite easy to get him to come to me. I just need to control it. I've done the perch thing the last few days with clicker training. I've quite enjoyed playing with him so thanks again for recommending what you did. I feel it's a good start and something for me to build on

I don't mind him on my shoulder but there are times like when I am doing something, when I'm working from home or when I'm carrying the baby that I would like to be able to keep him off as it's not convenient. He's landed on the baby's head a few times with his claws close to his eyes so we are a bit cautious although he's far from an aggressive bird.

My goals in order

1)Be able to put him in the cage at least a few hours when I am in the house and not hear him screech non stop . It's important because we have a UV light and unless he's in there he's not getting enough UV when he's out.

2) feel safe when I leave the room and not panic flying to me everything I look to be leaving the room. We had a near miss with him getting caught in the door when he did this..heart in mouth time . He's gotten a lot worse the last few months. Maybe he's still adapting to the big change.

We put him to bed about 6pm ish so he has 12 hours ish , which is what I believe is recommended. I try to have a cuddle with him against my cheek and floof him a little. I only floof his neck and head. The odd kiss on top of the head which he likes. I tell him " it's seed time" and he's all excited shaking . I give him about 5 or 6 seeds to get him in his cage. His main cage is in a room away from interruptions ( baby crying at night or me going down stairs etc).

He's a lovely bird . I'm ordering a few shredding toys and a food skewer to refit his cage see if that takes his mind off us when he's in there

What is your view on mirrors? He loves strutting in then but we try not to let him near them too much as I read they are bad.
Is the training you are doing going well? Do you use clicker training at all?
 

Dareel

Sitting on the front steps
Joined
9/4/22
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18
Real Name
Lee
This is a great stress article for parrots. Also be mindful of your stress. Burds read us .
Thanks I was reading this just the other day. Was very interesting.
 

Pixiebeak

Biking along the boulevard
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It's strange with him because when I am in the house he screams and screeches his head off if he knows I'm in the other room but when I leave for work my partner says he's fine so it's just when I am about. He isn't too bad at coming to me in all honesty. In fact it's quite easy to get him to come to me. I just need to control it. I've done the perch thing the last few days with clicker training. I've quite enjoyed playing with him so thanks again for recommending what you did. I feel it's a good start and something for me to build on

I don't mind him on my shoulder but there are times like when I am doing something, when I'm working from home or when I'm carrying the baby that I would like to be able to keep him off as it's not convenient. He's landed on the baby's head a few times with his claws close to his eyes so we are a bit cautious although he's far from an aggressive bird.

My goals in order

1)Be able to put him in the cage at least a few hours when I am in the house and not hear him screech non stop . It's important because we have a UV light and unless he's in there he's not getting enough UV when he's out.

2) feel safe when I leave the room and not panic flying to me everything I look to be leaving the room. We had a near miss with him getting caught in the door when he did this..heart in mouth time . He's gotten a lot worse the last few months. Maybe he's still adapting to the big change.

We put him to bed about 6pm ish so he has 12 hours ish , which is what I believe is recommended. I try to have a cuddle with him against my cheek and floof him a little. I only floof his neck and head. The odd kiss on top of the head which he likes. I tell him " it's seed time" and he's all excited shaking . I give him about 5 or 6 seeds to get him in his cage. His main cage is in a room away from interruptions ( baby crying at night or me going down stairs etc).

He's a lovely bird . I'm ordering a few shredding toys and a food skewer to refit his cage see if that takes his mind off us when he's in there

What is your view on mirrors? He loves strutting in then but we try not to let him near them too much as I read they are bad.
Is the training you are doing going well? Do you use clicker training at all?
I think clickers can be a great tool. That being said to me just on a personal preference level they grate on my nerves. So I just use good birdie as my bridge.

I very much understand and agree on a goal of a quiet cage break. As this became an urgent matter for me while suffering some health issues. I was unable to stand or walk, so for safety my parrots had to be caged. Well my parrots used to being cage free the entire day...screamed non stop. As soon as I recovered I was determined to fix that!!!

While they were happy and easy to return to cage in evenings. They wanted none of that during the day and would fly off as I tried to return them. So I started as I shared with you. I put a high value treat in each
Cage for mine an apple slice. Then I got each one gave a treat seed for stepping up, and held a seed as I walked to cage. Then set them in the cage with their apple slice and left door open. After they knew yummy would be waiting walking them to the cage was easy. Then I did lots of walking to the cage and step to top of cage or in for a treat then back out. Random maybe 20 times a day. By now I could walk them to the cage no problem no drama no flying off. Then I went back to a high value treat waiting in cage , and had them go inside and shut the door. Letting them back out five min later. I decided on a mid day cage break goal was from noon to 2. So the routine was started , and at first was 5-10 minutes. Always getting them back put before screams started. And slowly increasing time caged. Meanwhile I still continued with random trips to cage to step in for a seed treat or to find a foraging item.

For me training works best broken down to small steps, and repeating often . I'm not sure how long it took I'm sure it was weeks at least. Till I reached 1-2 hours ..blissfully quiet

But now it is something they look forward to , often putting themselves up. Taking a nap. I only rarely and randomly put in something special now, maybe a bell pepper slice, a hunk of broccoli, a green bean a new toy, a foraging something like a ball filled with popcorn. A popsicle stick , a plastic bottle cap. I still randomly walk them to the cage just for a kiss and good birdie. Such a breeze now to quickly cage them at anytime if needed.

A good start is too try for their normal nap time. Or to encourage a bath before cage time. As most birds will be quiet an groom or nap after a bath. Usually a guarantee half hour post bath quiet and you can build off that.
 

Pixiebeak

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Definitely needs to be able to be near you on a perch but not always on you. Keep conditioning to use his perches. Set aside a time where he can be on you and you cuddle. My green cheek seems to require an hour of cuddling and head scrstcges and chatting daily or she gets upset . Plus some random other times hanging out while i read or sew.

Keep up with stepping out of a room and right back. And all your other good work.

This is an idea that I'm not sure of, but in theory to me might work....get a small hand held flag. Like they have for patriotic events. Keep it on you. When he trys to fly to you when you are holding the baby, raise the flag and say off. In theory this can cause just enough of a minor spook he won't land on you. Use judiciously and always pair with a simple verbal command like off. Of that's works the way I envision, eventually you just be able to raise your hand and say off, when you don't want him flying and landing on you.

The reason I think of that, is I used a tiny American flag with my green cheek. I used it because years ago, I could not get her off me when I needed to. She would run down my back, hide between my shoulder blades, in my hair ...it was a huge effort to have her step off. I happened to have a little flag. I thought it was weird and new to her. So I. Picked it up in my left hand and she was in my right shoulder. As soon as picked it up she ran down to my right hand so i said off . Dropped the flag and praised her. Had her step off to a perch and praised her again . I called it my naughty flag. It only took a few times of this. Then she always stepped off when asked. Its been years but any time she is being a Bratt about stepping off I just have to raise my left hand now and say off and she does. There are probably many other ways to accomplish this. It's just what worked for me.

So I share the idea...but you don't want to cause fear or fear of hands. It's an idea. A visual cue , paired with a verbal command
 

Pixiebeak

Biking along the boulevard
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Also you still want flying to you on command. That's an awesome safety thing to have. If ever an escape a recall command will save you guys hopefully. So when flying to you and its ok use a command phrase and a gesture. Take advantage of this flying to you already but keep pairing. And working on to flying to you when asked. Doing both. Having flying to you. And teaching him when he can't.

You don't want to ruin your lovely bond with him.

And my recall training is going well. Still requires me to only be a few feet away and holding up a high value foodies! But I can see they are getting the idea@@
 

Dareel

Sitting on the front steps
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Lee
Thanks again. Some very good ideas. I'll add a flag to my shopping list as it makes so much sense in theory. I have been wearing an home made shoulder cape with tin foil attached to a dish towel and put it on my shoulder which does keep him off but he just lands on my head . Like you say I don't want to put him off me or break our bond so the flag thing sounds better.

I'll give it a few weeks. I'll update you as you seem to really know your stuff.
 

Dareel

Sitting on the front steps
Joined
9/4/22
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Real Name
Lee
Ps one thing with the home made cape is not forgetting to take it off when you go into the outside world where people can see you. Yes I did this
 
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