My Agro Green Cheek Conure :(

[lissy80]

Hey Guys,

I have had Kobe for almost 12 months...to set the scene...I got him after I had seperated from a previous partner, it was just my cat Evie and I and then we got Kobe....he was only 6 weeks old, I weened him and nurtured him until he was old enough to look after himself. He was cuddly and affectionate with most people and very friendly with Evie, at times he could be nippy but nothing major or painful, more just the normal baby beaking behaviour. Perhaps here he recieved too much attention as it was just the three of us. 6 months ago I got a new partner whom Kobe absolutley loved...he even started regurgitating on him, which he had only ever done on me!!! Ok things continued to go along nicely...4 months ago I was made redundant and I have become quite stressed and distracted, so he has been neglected in the sense of attention and treats ect...2 months ago my partner got a new kitten, Alfie, Kobe hasn't been out of the cage a great deal so hasn't had much to do with Alfie....he has behaved normally with me feeding him ect and if I open the cage still comes out on his own. The problem is I have now realised the neglect he has incurred and I am trying to make an effort to turn it around....he will step up out of the cage sometimes giving me a firm beaking on the finger or hand...this isn't the problem...I am actually getting to the point of not wanting to get him out as he has launched and bitten my nose from being perched on my hand and ears from sitting on my shoulder, it is so painful that I burst into tears and grab him and throw him off, I am left bleeding (this has happened a good times) I don't know what I can do to fix this situation...is there anything I can do???? Sorry this is sooo long, I wanted everyone to have the whole picture.

[NotEnoughTime]

It seems what you and your partner have done is make Kobe think you are his mates. Although some people don't seem to think this is a problem there are certain aspects of being a mate that you cannot provide. This results in certain agressive behaviours when you cannot fill those needs and/or aggression against someone who is *not* the mate...

You and your partner should have a read of these sections from rationalparrot.com :

Parrot Biting
How Not to be a Tease

Good luck!

[chapala]

Sounds very unpleasant being bitten on the nose! You might want to stick train your bird if he isn't already. That way you can take him out of the cage on a stick instead of your hand, saving your hand from bites plus keeping him further from your face. Is he flighted? If he's that aggressive that he launches himself at your face, I also would consider a wing clip.

Can you tell us any more about the biting? Does the bird not want to come out of the cage? I would reward (with tiny treats, like an almond cut into 5 or 6 pieces, and praise) any behavior that is good, such as stepping up without biting, or learning to step on the stick. Are you the only one handling him? Or is your partner the one the bird is bonded to, so that you are the rival? it could be that you may need to back off handling him. You certainly need to keep yourself safe. If you get him out to place him on a playstand, training to a stick should help a great deal.

[lissy80]

Not Enough Time...thank you so much for the articles, from reading it is more than likely the "mate" thing. When I got him I gave him a lot of attention as he did me, like I said it was him, Evie and I and he was a baby. No excuse though, I have made a mistake. I actually have a feeling that "he" may be a "she" and has bonded to my partner and is attacking me accordingly. The article helped a great deal.

Chapala...yeah he is stick trained, he has no issues with coming out the cage, I tend to let him make his own way out of the cage and he steps up then. I have always handled him, when my partner came along he was handling him too...he is my bird and my partner has barely anything to do with him now, I guess a bird was a novelty for him, however, as mentioned above I feel that this may be part of the problem. I will get Anthony (my partner) to start handling him again to see if that is the problem and if so work from there....I am not letting him sit on me at the moment because the bites really hurt, my nose is still stinging from last night, he is out on his playstand right now, so I am going to try and involve him again that way, do a test when my partner gets home and go forward from there...

If it is a mating issue....can this be helped at all by the introduction of a conure mate? Ofcourse I would have to have his/her sex determined (DNA) firstly....or is this just another possible disaster.

Thanks again guys.

[Phenomenon]

Originally Posted by lissy80

Not Enough Time...thank you so much for the articles, from reading it is more than likely the "mate" thing. When I got him I gave him a lot of attention as he did me, like I said it was him, Evie and I and he was a baby. No excuse though, I have made a mistake. I actually have a feeling that "he" may be a "she" and has bonded to my partner and is attacking me accordingly. The article helped a great deal.

Chapala...yeah he is stick trained, he has no issues with coming out the cage, I tend to let him make his own way out of the cage and he steps up then. I have always handled him, when my partner came along he was handling him too...he is my bird and my partner has barely anything to do with him now, I guess a bird was a novelty for him, however, as mentioned above I feel that this may be part of the problem. I will get Anthony (my partner) to start handling him again to see if that is the problem and if so work from there....I am not letting him sit on me at the moment because the bites really hurt, my nose is still stinging from last night, he is out on his playstand right now, so I am going to try and involve him again that way, do a test when my partner gets home and go forward from there...

If it is a mating issue....can this be helped at all by the introduction of a conure mate? Ofcourse I would have to have his/her sex determined (DNA) firstly....or is this just another possible disaster.

Thanks again guys.

Unfortunately, bringing another bird into the present environment wouldn't resolve your issues.

I wouldn't bring another bird in the house just yet. I would learn about mine and how to handle him/her and encourage him/her to replace aggressive habits with more acceptable ones. If you bring another bird in at this time you will likely have two unruly birds on your ands and thus your problem may be compounded.

To tell the truth, the birds may not even like each other, or they may breed and then you may have babies to feed..etc..so many possibilities.

Good luck resolving the issues.

[NotEnoughTime]

Originally Posted by Phenomenon

To tell the truth, the birds may not even like each other, or they may breed and then you may have babies to feed..etc..so many possibilities.

Too true... It takes time but you should be able to work-through these issues based on the advice on rationalparrot.

Good luck!

[lissy80]

Thanks guys.

I have done heaps of reading over the past week and have started introducing a new routine to him. He seems much happier already. He hasn't bitten me in a few days not even the nips he was giving my hand. He is actually on top of his cage at the moment with his sister Evie (cat), they are cuddling and watching the rain together. I am now beginning to think the neglect (attention) is actually the main contributor here. I do think the mate thing is still in the equation as he recently finished molting and the agressive biting was quite full on. Which is why I had considered getting him a mate.

I don't want to introduce a bird for me and anything I do I only want for his happiness, so I am quite happy to not need to have another bird =-)

Thanks again, I am going to keep going with this new routine and see how it goes. The poor little fellow went to being out every day spending time with the family to watching us walk passed his cage having a chat to him when we got home. Won't make that mistake again! I know how to train him ect I had him before he was weened and he was a very good little birdie for the past 12 months, so I think I can put it down to attention and also sexual maturity, which would of been made worse by not having the constant contact with us. Oh thank you guys.