Conure bites only one person! don,t know what to do!

[hameda]

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum as this is my very first post here. I have a 1 year old male sunday (half sun half janday) conure that bites only my mom. This issue started at about 3 months of age and is degenrating ever since. Eavry time my mom reaches for anything , paper clothing, or anything else with her hands, he suddenly puffes up his feathers and attack her. he nearly always draws blood. Today was awful, as she was taking a shirt or something, he jumped on her face and bit here and drew blood. He also bites her finger EAVRY time she reaches to pick him up. there are 4 other ppl in the house. besides an occasional nip, he never hurts anyone and always accepts to be picked up. Nonetheless, my mom still takes great care of him. never did she hurt him. but now she is desprate for a solution, me too. we have tried a time out cage, nothing.......I really don't know what to do anymore. Can someone please guide me!!!

[parrotntn]

First, WELCOME!!! to birdboard...Glad to have you and your family.
Although I don't have any experince with a conure, I'm sure somebody in this great place will chime in.

For her safety, until this is resolved, he doesn't need to be loose around her if she is in the same room, she could need stitches or loose an eye. Never underestimate a parrot's possibilities.

Now, I would be curious if he bites her when nobody is around and it's only her in the area. Where was he today when he attacked her face. (jumping at the face and drawing blood is an outright attack).

I would be curious as to her reaction. Most normal reactions are OUCH...or scream or expletive. If he's getting a good theatrical reaction, he's getting feedback. It maybe negative, but he's getting something. He's conditioned to getting that feedback from her and only her.

Are you two affectionate in front of him? And he's nice to you?
If so, he might perceive her as his threat to his relationship with you.

Is he flighted?

When you say "timeout", specifically what does that entail? Does he react to positive feedback? Treats for things he did good? from anyone?

What are his attributes. What is he good at?

Basically, it'd be good to describe what the human's are doing during/before and after a bite/attack.

Finally.. YOU GO HUG YOUR MAMA!!!! That's a great lady. As a parent, these are the things we do.

[oONightFireOo]

Welcome to BirdBoard... I'm new here too... and have absolutely loved every minute of it, and hope that you will do the same!

I actually had a similar problem with my Galah Cockatoo, Rosie. She tended to bite me, and not ever bite David. It was really weird to me - because she would always try to come and hang out with me and was without a doubt "Daddy's Baby" but I'd still get torn up...

So what I started to do was all the fun stuff. It worked very well for me, and now she may test the water with her beak, but never really bites anymore...

Here is how it worked for me...

Since Rosie was constantly biting me, I talked very sweetly to her, gave her her toys, and always handed her the snacks. I also "preened" her pin-feathers which she always LOVED. David (whom she rarely ever bit) did things like give the baths (which she hated at first), cleaned the cage, and would do the not-fun stuff - like check her wings, nails, beak, and all of that jazz...

Eventually Rosie stopped biting me and really enjoyed my company - and still enjoyed David's company. Now she is the sweetest girl and I'd be lost without her - but my hands did look like hamburger meat for quite some time... but now... after she got used to her surrounds and new home... she's as sweet as can be...

So that may be something that is worth a shot...? I would just recommend taking everything slowly. Don't overwork him - and be patient. Perhaps teach him a trick and praise him whenever he does anything good. Eventually he'll get that your mom isn't a threat...

Just don't give up (=^D.
It may be a long road - but it will be one well worth the journey!

Best of "Luck"!
~Kevin

[hameda]

Wow, thank you for the welcome and quick response.

Here are some adetional details. Yes, he would bite her eaven if no one else is around. Basically eavry time she touches something he attacks. He would stay on her shoulder for some time is she,s not doing much with her hands. Today, he was on my brothers shoulder and jumped at her when she reached for some cloth. He is starting to grow back his flight feathers so can fly for some distance now.
The "time out cage" is simply a small cage that he's put in for 10 minutes when he does something wrong. This way i got him rid of bad habits such as goung on furniture he's not suppose to. But it's just not working for the biting.
So basically the bites comes when she touches something. He errects all his feathers and would run from one end of the room to the other to bite her. If he canot get to her, he could bite the person that's holding him from going there.....but nearly as hard as he would bite her, but still hard enough tu hurt.
A for mom's scream, it's a bit loud and as you said theatrical, but who can blame her with such bites. I took notice of that latly and told her to try to not scream, but haven't seen any diminishement in the biting. I'm going to try nightfire's advice and see where it gets us.
any more advice would be very welcome as I am really depresse because of that!

[Valo's Moirana]

Originally Posted by hameda

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum as this is my very first post here. I have a 1 year old male sunday (half sun half janday) conure that bites only my mom. This issue started at about 3 months of age and is degenrating ever since. Eavry time my mom reaches for anything , paper clothing, or anything else with her hands, he suddenly puffes up his feathers and attack her. he nearly always draws blood. Today was awful, as she was taking a shirt or something, he jumped on her face and bit here and drew blood. He also bites her finger EAVRY time she reaches to pick him up. there are 4 other ppl in the house. besides an occasional nip, he never hurts anyone and always accepts to be picked up. Nonetheless, my mom still takes great care of him. never did she hurt him. but now she is desprate for a solution, me too. we have tried a time out cage, nothing.......I really don't know what to do anymore. Can someone please guide me!!!

alright - i'm also trying to get a feel for the situation here... i have experience with a greencheek conure in constant attack-mode....

so, we have 4ppl.... who is the primary care taker? aka who makes the food and gives it to the birdie (what's his name btw?), who gives the treats, who spends the snuggle time, who provides baths and who take the bird out of the cage?
those are important factors... the first thing to figure out is what leads to the reaction you're seeing. does he consider your mom a thread? jealousy?

so, without knowing these answers, i can give you some advice that might help, but requires the cooperation of all 4ppl. generally, in a case like this, you would want to reverse the roles of the favorite and unfavorite person - aka, the person who usually gives treats and food, does not do those things anymore, but the unfavorite person does.... it requires some courage on you mom's side. a way to start would be that ONLY your mom gives your bird his favorite treat (piece of apple, banana, sunflower seed - all those work great for conures), but ONLY your mom can give those. every time she walks past his cage, give him a little treat. this might sound like a lot of treats, which it is - but it's only for a short period of time, and therefore fruit is a good thing to consider (after a while reduce the times of giving treats to every second time she walks past the cage and then reduce more and so on). soon the bird should associate your mom with a treat, and therefore be happy to see her... from there you'd progress that your mom shows him the treat and asks him to step up. once he steps up, she should give him the treat. once this works (might take another couple of weeks), she can take him to a perch somewhere else - have him step up on the finger while showing the treat and moving him somewhere else, giving him the treat there... and so you move on. the key is that ONLY your mom should be giving him treats....

this is only a general outline of the routine we used for our little valo, and by now BF can give valo headscritches and can hang out with the little birdie, without having a piece of flesh removed from his neck.

regarding the being flighted - if the bird is flighted, it might take a little longer, but this approach should still work... valo is fully flighted - it might take a little more courage

hope this helps for now.

[parrotntn]

If you are going to try to let mom woo him over, let her do it through a cage first. Offer treats..have her sit beside the cage first, talk. play music..
decondition the bird to the reaction he is getting from her. He's only doing what mother nature built into him.

Be very safe...
Keep us posted.

[Valo's Moirana]

Originally Posted by parrotntn

If you are going to try to let mom woo him over, let her do it through a cage first. Offer treats..have her sit beside the cage first, talk. play music..
decondition the bird to the reaction he is getting from her. He's only doing what mother nature built into him.

Be very safe...
Keep us posted.

i actually meant to say that... through the cage bars at first (didn't come out like that, did it? )

thanks for pointing this out, mark

[hameda]

thanks,
yeah that's what i thought, in the cage because i don't wanna her to get hurt anymore. I might make her give a bath tothe bird (by the way his name is MishMish) as it is by far his favorite activity!

[Valo's Moirana]

Originally Posted by hameda

thanks,
yeah that's what i thought, in the cage because i don't wanna her to get hurt anymore. I might make her give a bath tothe bird (by the way his name is MishMish) as it is by far his favorite activity!

make sure that none of the other people (nor you) is in sight - but still close enough that you could jump in in case mishmish decides to be grumpy again