Is wearing gloves ever warranted?

[Hypnotoad72]

Not for Scooter, who is slowly warming up to me - indeed, today he let me scratch his neck for a record 6 strokes before getting annoyed at my finger! That's a real accomplishment; poor fella was so scared when I first got him and he's really made some improvements, but I digress...

The gloves would be for my interaction with Rusty. He thinks my hand is an amusement park with 5 fingers. Roller coaster, tilt-a-whirl, lemonade stand, and ferris wheel all rolled into one.

Trouble is, he's still using too much pressure and I'm ending up with bruised skin due to his pressure. It's not biting per se, but he cannot help himself and I know that I am to fault; not having interpreted his signals and mannerisms any sooner...

Even with my ears, he will slowly start to nibble or chomp from the get-go. He doesn't interpret my prying open of his beak with my thumb and index finger (which I do slowly so I don't hurt him, but he eventually yelps when backing off. I almost think he likes it because he isn't associating excess pressure with my fingers prying him off, or he thinks it's a roughhousing game. Uh-oh...). Obviously I do everything to keep him from climbing onto my shoulder; neither conure will be a shoulder bird. But I digress.

Once his energy is spent, and I'm finding distractions to keep him from clamping down (he'll even hang with one talon while I use my hand as a ferris wheel, round in circles - and then waggle his tail and imitate my giggle), he will rest on my palm and will get a great neck and cheek scratching for several minutes.

So I know he doesn't mean to bite out of hostility. Indeed, every time he sees me, he'll run to that corner of his main cage and put out his wings in classic begging formation...

Trouble is, everything I try to do to get him to not use excruciating pressure with his beak fails.

In the main living room, when he acts up, I have done 'time outs' for him in the vet travel cage. That was recommended by a friend as she saw how he behaved and instantly said he craves attention and animation (the sheer opposite of Scooter!). He does end up more docile and very acquiescent to "step up" requests and I reinforce that for several minutes with big, animated compliments that are quite genuine. But by his cage (bedroom), he wants to play AND cling to the cage and never step up on command. Eventually he'll jump onto my hand and I'll sit on the bedroom sofa and watch a movie while being his ferris wheel (or tilt-a-whirl when he goes too far, but I'm trying not do that as he seems to love it). Maybe it will take several months of re-training and she's right, but I'm hoping you may have an answer.

On the plus side, I'm slowly growing callouses so maybe I won't need to worry about more drastic steps by summer's end... Until then, it's antibacterial soap after playtime in case he breaks the skin... actually, he breaks the skin very rarely these days; his clamps only cause bruises despite the pressure, but sometimes he will bite just right.

Thank you much for reading!


Rusty

[Icednova625]

young conures especially seemed to me to be nippy. I wouldn't wear gloves, i never seen it advised to wear them. Usually the bird will be even more frightened by the gloves on your hands.

[Courtzrocks]

In this case I wouldn't wear gloves. It'll make things worse because he might be biting really hard but you wont feel it through the gloves so when you finally decide to ditch the gloves he will think it is ok to bite hard and you will have to start all over again. I currently have a blood blister on my index finger and callouses all over my hands due to a certain miss Matches. They learnt to bite less if you don't react. Matches only bites when she is tired, getting teased or I am putting the harness on her.

[Anneka]

You got good advice from other posters. I too would not recommend gloves.
However, I want to mention to be very careful when using an antibacterial soap.

Antibacterial soap is toxic for the birds.

[jenseits]

Originally Posted by Courtzrocks

IThey learnt to bite less if you don't react.

I don't believe I agree with that. He's not biting in order to get a reaction out of you. He's biting because he doesn't know any better. By ignoring the biting, you're implicitly telling him that it's okay. I think you should let him know that he's playing too rough so he can learn where the boundaries are. Tell him "be gentle" and stop playing for a minute or so. He should start picking up on how much pressure is okay and at what level it makes play time stop.

[Courtzrocks]

Well mine does it for attention, she's a brat. Also if she carries on i say "NO, NO BITING" I mainly started to used that though when Matches would bite Beetle so I just carried it over to biting people too. Although, mine will do anything for a treat, so if she behaves she knows she gets rewarded.

[Zoe's Mom]

I have 2 conures, a green cheek and a cinnamon and I find my cinnamon more nippy then my green cheek. Maybe its a common link .

[Conure crazy]

I have the same problem with my cinnamon. She begs for attention then bites so hard I want to cry. I've also tried not reacting & time outs. She seems to be better some days & worse other days. I have been told to have patience, be gentle, & expect this for 1-2 years. I know a few people with green cheeks & maroon bellies and they all agree that the babies didn't know how hard they were biting for the first 1-2 years.

[Anneka]

I do hope this nipping/bitting ends up at one point, because mine does the same thing as yours. Begs for attention and then looks for an opportunity to get my finger. :(

Interesting though that GCCs are the most popular conures kept, most of us love them. Yet, they are known to nip/bite hard.

[Courtzrocks]

I must have picked a winner cos my Green cheek has only bitten me once and that was when getting her out of her tiny little cage from the bird fair, never bitten anyone since. She was parent raised and untame though so i wonder if that has anything to do with it?