Rehomed conure is aggressive: please help

[Jmcdonough]

We recently took in a rehomed conure. We got her a week ago and were told she’s a year old, super sweet and loves head scratches. We may have started things wrong at home, but we’re just looking for help because we’re at a loss. her cage and diet were horrible before (they fed her store bought seed as primary diet and her cage was a small travel one). We get her set up right away when we took her home to a large cage with toys and feed her a nutritious veggies and bean mix diet with seed varied.

We have cockatiels that are in a separate cage. She’s super interested in them. Very rarely, she allows us to take her out without problems, and she just flies to their cage and crawls around it for awhile. She won’t allow us to handle her, she just bites us HARD over and over. Randomly, and I mean very randomly, she’ll bow her head and want us to give her scratches.
She won’t let us put her away, she just bites the heck out of us. But she wants to be out. Whether it’s because she sees us or the other birds, she wants to be out and we feel bad.
Can someone tell us what we’re doing wrong. What should we be doing? How do we get her used to us and not bite? We want this to work but it’s not going well so far. She attacks the others through the cage so we obviously don’t take them out together (never have).

do we keep her in her cage strictly for awhile? Keep letting her out? What do we do?

 

[Emma&pico]

how long was she in her cage before you let her out ?

Will she take treats from you inside cage ?

 

[Jmcdonough]

how long was she in her cage before you let her out ?

Will she take treats from you inside cage ?

She was in the cage the first night and then we took her out the next day.. she was pacing and squawking to come out, we were also told she was hand tamed and loved to be held and since learned that wasn’t the case. We tried to let her come out (alternated her between our teils coming out) but now I’m wondering if that was a mistake.
She will take treats and food from us no issues but she goes right back for a bite. 99% of the time, she tries to bite us if we go near her.

 

[Emma&pico]

She was in the cage the first night and then we took her out the next day.. she was pacing and squawking to come out, we were also told she was hand tamed and loved to be held and since learned that wasn’t the case. We tried to let her come out (alternated her between our teils coming out) but now I’m wondering if that was a mistake.
She will take treats and food from us no issues but she goes right back for a bite. 99% of the time, she tries to bite us if we go near her.

She may well be hand tamed in her old home a week isn’t a long time to her she needs to adjust to you and your environment you may not see it but to her they might be forced interaction she’s probably giving you body language first before a bite to tell you to back off
You need to try not getting bitten(I know this can be hard )
I would maybe leave her in cage until she settled in there and knows this is her safe place
Sit by her cage chat to her @Pixiebeak as a brill idea have a treat bowl only for treats and only her favourite treats she gets from you start off no hands just sit chatting every now and then pop a treat in her bowl if she eats it near you tell her she’s amazing good girl loads of praise
You can offer her a treat through bars with your fingers make sure you are only treating settled calm behaviour or if she’s showing interest in you safflower seeds are gcc crack they will do anything for them

once she taking treats nicely through cage bars you can try opening cage and offering a treat once she’s not biting put the treat behind your finger so she as to step onto your hand for treat
If she bites say no bite shut door and no treat

best thing for gcc and birds is a routine obviously we can’t 100% stick to it but try breakfast etc at same times sat chatting at same times
I wouldn’t let get out just yet until you see her calm in cage

you could also target train her in cage so she touches a stick gentle no biting give her a treat this also helps getting them back in cage as to can target her to perch in cage

 

[Emma&pico]

Does she have any foraging toys in her cage this can help too keeping her mind busy having to work for treats etc

 

[Jmcdonough]

Does she have any foraging toys in her cage this can help too keeping her mind busy having to work for treats etc

So we should leave her in the cage until she’s calm and not stressed? Should we put her in a separate room until then or keep her where we want the cage to be eventually? She’s in the same room as the other birds and I think she likes their presence. When they’re out and flying, she likes to watch them. She get stressed and screams when she can’t see them.
and yes she has a few but we actually ordered more. Are there any foraging toys you specifically recommend? And any treats we should give her? We currently have a bowl of her diet out plus one seed bowl, should we get rid of the seed bowl?

 

[Emma&pico]

So we should leave her in the cage until she’s calm and not stressed? Should we put her in a separate room until then or keep her where we want the cage to be eventually? She’s in the same room as the other birds and I think she likes their presence. When they’re out and flying, she likes to watch them. She get stressed and screams when she can’t see them.
and yes she has a few but we actually ordered more. Are there any foraging toys you specifically recommend? And any treats we should give her? We currently have a bowl of her diet out plus one seed bowl, should we get rid of the seed bowl?

I would give her maybe a few days in her cage to let her know that’s her space if you have had her out from start and she mainly out not in her cage and to let her get use to you but saying that I have let my birds out straight away it’s whatever suits but non of mine took to really biting and would go back into their cages easily ish
Nope leave her cage where you want it to be no need to move her plus seeing your other birds interact with you will help her too to know your friendly

My gcc love millet sunflower seeds safflower seeds (these are favourite and they only get for me for tricks or interactions I take it out of their seed mix they get in their foraging toys) they love avariycakes nutriberries dried papaya coconut bits pip loves cashew nuts banana chips etc
But they will happily take veggies as treats just not their pellets but they do eat it in cage

I have a few foraging toys but you can make stuff super easy even puttting a cupcake paper over her seed bowl or wrapping seeds in paper etc
Mine prefer to eat out of they foraging toys to their bowls will eat the pellets in their foraging toys over bowl first

 

[Emma&pico]

Share toys conures love!

My green cheek conure Ta-dah 10yrs, spent much of her life rejecting and uninterested in toys I provided. :bored: I only had limited success. That is until secret Santa! When members @April and @Sarahmoluccan sent me unbelievable toys from lil monster and Things for Wings!!! Then @Emma&pico...

forums.avianavenue.com

This gives some good ideas on toys etc to keep busy