New Green Cheek Conure - First Time Bird Owner

[Jax]

Hi,

I got a green cheek conure last night, and I've never owned a bird before. Her name is Guadalupe. She seems pretty friendly, she let me pick her up before I bought her and after the ride home she was eating 30 minutes later and sat on my shoulder a bit.

Today after I got home from my university, I noticed she was really active - looking at me and squawking, so I thought she wanted out and I let her out by trying to get her to step up onto my finger and then giving her a nut. She proceeded to go onto my shoulder and then the back of my neck, and she refused to budge. She sat there for maybe 30 minutes chewing on my hair. She absolutely refused to go back in her cage. Every time I got her near she would run back up my arm and to the back of my neck. I eventually had to capture her in a box because she would not let me pick her up and I put her back in the cage from the box.

Just wondering if anybody has any tips how to deal with this behavior. Why is she afraid of her cage, and how can I make her more comfortable with it? How can I get her to sit on my finger or shoulder and not the back of my neck? Any tips on training her besides saying "step up" and giving her a nut if she does? Thanks in advance for any help. I'm really looking forward to learning more about birds!!!

[jenseits]

How wonderful that Guadalupe trusted you so quickly! Sometimes it can take eons to gain a bird's trust and your little one is already playing in your hair - that's great! I don't think she's afraid of your cage, actually. Being with you is just a lot more fun

You want to make sure that being inside the cage is just as much fun. So lots of toys! You can also save a favorite treat for when she needs to go inside - one that she likes a lot and only gets when she lets you put her away. My sun conure's favorite treats are any of the tropical flavored Nutriberry varieties. I just put one in his cage and he (usually) goes in by himself.

Another thing you want to make sure of is that stepping up or going into the cage doesn't always mean the fun ends. If she associates stepping up with being put in her cage and you leaving her alone, it's not going to make stepping up very enticing or rewarding. Vary the routine, so that sometimes you reward her for going inside her cage but then take her right back out for more playtime.

I wouldn't give a lot of nuts... not very healthy. For trick training, Stewie is happy with safflower seeds and rolled oats.

Hope that helped, and congrats on your new bird!

[Ginich]

I have a GCC-well, actually she is a Maroon bellied Conure. In any case, she would prefer to be out of the cage and on me all the time. She is also friendly and affectionate. Not possible-I work from home and have 4 other fids. So when I take Fiona out, instead of putting her on my shoulder, I have a small perch that sits on my desk or on the window sill and she stands on that. When I put her back in her cage, I always have a treat waiting for her to find like a romaine lettuce leaf or a piece of millet or a BIRDIEBREAD cone-so that she is happy to go back into her cage.

[Jax]

Thanks for the quick replies! Tonight when I got home I let Lupe out of the cage again, and she seemed a bit more obedient. Actually I wasn't giving her nuts but sunflower seeds, which seem to be the part of her conure food mix that she likes the best. Any ideas if that stuff is good for her? She loves it, but she is a big messy when de-shelling it. Anyways, she did a bunch of step ups even without me giving her a treat, so I was very impressed! She is learning fast. I'll hopefully be able to teach her a trick soon.

We put the small cardboard box into her cage that we carried her home in and she went into it right away and started squaking. Now she goes in there when we're not around and sleeps (I think). She seems to like it.. maybe it reminds her of her old home (it used to be in her cage at the person's house where we bought her). We also got her a plastic mirror toy and a rope ladder and a regular ladder because she seemed to have trouble climbing up to her perches. OH yeah and a fuzzy house thing to sleep in, but she hasn't been as interested in it as the box. Hopefully she'll like her cage better now. Anyways, thanks for the hints. I might post here more in the future when I have more questions.

[Jax]

So this morning again she didn't want to go back in her cage after we were handling her, but she stepped up really well every time! For some reason she bites my girlfriend more than me, and you can tell she gets really grumpy when its time to go back in the cage. I bought some treats for her that I thought I could use for training, but she still seems to like sunflower seeds better. So I guess the hard part will be finding the right treat to lure her into the cage.

I don't think she associates stepping up with the cage because she steps up great. It's just that she won't step down and likes to crawl onto the back of my neck whenever I move my hand near the cage.

Is it possible to pick her up and put her in the cage when she doesn't want to go ? I once tried picking her up from the back rather than waiting for her to step onto my hand, but she got really mad, so I don't think I want to try that anymore.

[kali]

i pick mine up all the time, but they love it :) all birds are diff i suppose, i probly wouldn't pick her up like that just yet. wait til she trusts u a bit more.

maybe you cold let her sit where she likes it on the back f ur neck, but make funny little whistling sounds and maybe eat something that she might like (banana chips, apple, mango etc..) and just wait for her to come around and investigate. you'll find something she really loves then, and you can use that to make 'cage time' a little more fun. save that 'special' treat just for the cage, so she can go in there and eat it while you eat yours right next to it. talk to her while she's in there for a few mins, turn on tv or radio for a bit of background noise, then walk into a diff room. hopefully this'll make it not so bad...

sorry i'm a bit drunk so if this doesn't make sense i'll check again in the morning.

[4HAND]

If you need to get her off the back of your neck just back up against a wall.She'll have no choice but to come around front.be sure to say "step off" or something similar when you return her to the cage so it becomes a conditioned response.Reward her consistantly for "step off".
Tena

[TJ Relic]

I've had to take my shirt off in order to get Rigel off my back, when I'm in a hurry to leave for school. He's all "woah, what just happened here?"m, as he hangs from my empty shirt.

If I'm not in a hurry in the mornings, I'll put him on his cage door, refill his food cup, walk away, and just wait for him to get bored waiting for me. He gets hungry, climbs into his cage, and I walk over and close it.

[Jax]

The only problem with rewarding her for step down is that she makes it such as effort to get her back into the cage that I have to shut the door immediately, and then she's sort of grumpy and won't take a seed from me as a treat. Maybe I haven't found what she REALLY likes yet... ? Or maybe the cage isn't good enough. I think it would be nice if it was a big higher. Maybe next week we can go to Ikea and buy something better to stand it on. It's currently just below my waist level. The other idea is maybe getting more/better toys or a better cage setup. Does anybody have any photos of a good cage setup?

Right now I have 2 perches, a rope ladder and a non rope ladder, a spinning mirror toy attached to the cage wall, an ugly cardboard box (she seems to like that the best for sleeping), a hanging fuzzy hut thing that she rarely goes into, and a hanging palm tree looking toy that she isn't too interested in, a cuttlebone, and I think that is about it. Maybe I need to get some more hanging toys or something. I'll try to post a photo soon.

[Jax]

Another question: Do I always have to reward her for "step up", or only sometimes?