I’m looking for suggestions on how to be able to touch a conure bird I inherited from a friend. He is 18 years old. He’s a peach-fronted conure. He wouldn’t come out of his cage the last four years she had him, after having had him from his youth. He has only two claws on one foot and none on the other. He was supposedly born in Florida. She was told other birds ate his claws off. He is very afraid of things that are like a broom handle. My roommate was the first person Rico, the bird, was willing to get on his hand and come out of his cage in four years, even though Rico previously came out every day. Since then he has chosen me to be his “favorite” person now. I’ve had him for a year and a half, but still he won’t let anyone pick him up, pet him, or touch him at all. He wants to bite. He readily climbs onto my hand or arm to come out of his cage. Just no touching! He is better than at first, he used to freak out if hi tail brushed against my hand. So he is better. He needs to see a veterinarian because of a swollen nostril. Do you have any ideas for de-sensitizing him to be touched and picked up? I’ve never had a bird before, but am generally good with animals having had over 20 horse and 20 dogs, cats, and chickens. But Rico is a challenge. And I hate to get bit! And I don’t want to lose his trust by forcing him into his carrying case and be handled by the vet. And he will most likely need to have some kind of treatment applied to his nostril. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The problem with big cages is that they have bar spacing that's too wide and the birds can get stuck and hurt (or worse). We need a line of cages that are larger than 32x21 but have 1/2" spacing.
@@audrey2749 I have only found one (A&E 30"x40"). It wasn't too too expensive but the doors are small and make it very difficult to clean/access for maintenance or placing toys and perches. I had to turn the top half of the cage 180 degrees to have one door on the front (top) and one in the back (bottom). It's a real pain. You would think the cage designers would have put access doors on the sides so you can reach the inside of the whole cage!
@@3_up_moon Yea it can be hard to find the right cage, most that are available don’t seem very practical. Kings cages sell them but they’re expensive. I have a similar one to the SLT4 2620 but mine is an avione brand as I’m in Australia
They also make the bars on the 32x22 cages very thin and fragile. They are made for smaller Parakeets like Budgies and Cockatiels that are not very strong and are not suited for any bird that’s stronger. The problem is these large cage companies put a lot of the smaller companies out of business then they decided to limit the variety of cages they have. I want sturdy double flight cages.
When I received my first parrotlet the breeder gave me a lot of bad advice. He told me to hold him in my hands so he couldn't get away so he would learn to snuggle.🙄 He hates snuggles!!! (I never did this) He also clipped all his flight feathers so I had to be extra careful because he just dropped to the ground. Luckily I had found you guys first but there was still several mistakes I made. I didn't know how to really read his body language so I made him step up probably when he really didn't want to. While it did desensitize him to so much because sadly he couldn't get away it wasn't the way to do it!! Now that he can fly everywhere and I know SO much more he can choose to hang out with me or play on his stand and back in his cage to eat and play he if far less nippy!!
I'm so convinced most parrot screaming is caused by wing clipping and caging. My greencheek hardly made a noise other than talking, and my new Hahns is only now loudly yelling if I put her in the play cage a few hours (she did destroy a toy today, so she must have stopped yelling awhile lol). Lil parrotlets are so tiny, I can imagine they easily feel like they are dominated. I love the idea of,' could you do that with a macaw?' So much small parrot husbandry would feel bad with a macaw.... can I do this with a macaw....that is my new mantra now!
Small birds need big personal spaces. Whether it is in a cage or handling you have to recognize they are the centre of their own universe. Get their permission, recognize their individuality and their autonomy. You are building a relationship and establishing communication not establishing authority.
I have a crimson bellied Conure who is now nearly 3 yrs old. I used to have her out of her cage from the moment she woke up cos I felt like she should just be out the whole time and with me as much as possible, she wouldn’t even poop in her cage she was so uncomfortable in there 😳. ….obviously that wasn’t sustainable 🙄 After watching bird tricks things changed, she’s still out quite a few hours per day as I love spending time with her, but she has loads of play stands and fun things to do, and her favourite treats to forage are only for her cage time which she loves. Thanks for all your videos, they’ve helped me tons
I made sooo many mistakes with my green cheek conure 'Piper', it was back in the early 90's and how I wish BirdTricks were around back then. Piper was a cheeky little boy who was into everything, but he loved to snuggle under my chin when I took a nap. If he thought it was time for me to wake up, he would gently lick and beak my lower lip, this could be a mistake though, and sometimes he would bite down hard (leaving a V shaped cut, so maybe don't,lol). Piper also started talking, he learned (without my teaching him to say, I Love you, Taste good, Good morning) and a few others. I miss him! Thanks for teaching all the new parents how to be the best when it comes to training.
Mine used to box my ears in the morning when he realized nipping me wasn't working, only made me annoyed and zzzzzzz. He used to say Big Bird (he called himself big bird) wassup buttercup, cracker, superbudgie, and more. I miss him, too. He died last month :(
Love your channel, BirdTricks! We adopted a 10 year old Conure. She’s amazing. We have ordered your toys but kept in some of the other bigger toys. Now my goal is to help her find the ones she wants to chew the most! Off to order some of your tiny toys! S. Warren! Thanks for all your education!
My quaker parrots taught me form the very beginning how to properly handle them. I treat them the same I treat my aunt’s Moluccan because I know they’ll respond the same way and bite hard. Thankfully those lessons transferred to my ringneck and GCC. It also helps that my GCC is fully capable and willing to play with toys 3x his size, just like a macaw.
Y’all are really helping me with my hormonal conure right now - he’s also getting hormone injections per recommendation of my vet because it’s been increasing over a few months and not seasonal. I am about to binge through horror-moans to get him fully back on track!
I breed & hand raised my Crimson Belly conure a couple of years ago. She's at the stage now of having ME completely trained !!! Talks, loves me, tolerates my husband, screams to be let out, hungry, loves communicating with my other birds, comes when called, (if she sees a good treat). We read, & love each other extremely well, a great companion. It just takes time & patience to bond.
With 2 African Grays & 2 Indian Ringnecks; I ended up getting 2 aviaries which are most helpful with the Indian Ringnecks to keep them out of trouble and danger when i cant keep an uninterrupted eye on them (they are so busy & fast lol)
I truly love birds, i could never buy one tho, because in India there's so little information about birdkeeping and these big big cockatoos and macaws are kept in tiny little cages for sale. Its heartbreaking and cruel. Recently i met a parrot ( an indian variety ) and like i was just respectful of its boundaries and didn't stick my finger in his terribly small cage and he walked out to me and turned his head as if to say "here scratch me" and the owner was like HE'S JUST BEEN BITING ME FOR 6 YEARS!! Ive been watching your channel for atleast 2 years now. I just wanted to say you'll are doing such Great work. I may get 2 rescue birds now only because they're in horrible conditions. I may not be able to provide the large walk in aviaries but your videos will sure help me to prepare as best as i can
If you are taking birds from horrible tiny cages into anything larger, and giving them love and care, they don't need walk in aviaries. Your house is a walk-in aviary! Good luck, may you rescue lots of beautiful parrots ❤❤❤🐦
Great tips, thanks for sharing/posting! Would this also be similar to a Meyer's Parrot as well? We adopted a Meyer's Parrot who is approx. 8-9 years old; he moved in with us about 6 months ago. He does go places that we prefer him not to go and most of the time I can get him to step up without using a perch. I'd love more info on training with a clicker & treats. Thanks.
I have a question re: toys... for "nesty" birds like lovebird hens, who are absolutely obsessed with making nesting material out of anything they can chew... what kind of toys do you use? because anything they can chew is gonna trigger their hormones (they will stuff their tails with it so it IS nestig behavior), and anything they can't chew to bits, they ignore... PS: maybe you could do some vid on paired lovebirds (or parrots in general? I guess the presence of an actual mate WILL make all parrots more hormonal) and how to prevent them from laying too often? because as it is, I more or less manage it, but sometimes I've had to put up the nest because one of my hens was about to lay an egg, even with no nest (and honestly, if they're gonna lay, I'd rather have them lay in the nest and be busy with the eggs for at least the incubation period -- assuming I sterilize the eggs,-- that way they're not thinking on laying MORE eggs)
Our green cheek conure died yesterday of a traffic house accident . It hurts so bad , he was very special , would follow us everywhere inside and outside the house . He would even get in the shower with us . He never tried to flee , he felt secure with us . We’re heart broken .
i don't own any pet birds yet, may never aside from that special duck, goose or chicken we fall in love with. I always do a whole lot of research before I get real serious about adding a living being into our lives. I have had several poultry and waterfowl over the past 12 years. Many more when I was young before we moved to town. My 1st conure experience was Charlie. He was a rescue, Sun Conure and my Mom loved him! Charlie decided my Dad was evil and attacked him anytime he went near Mom. After Him(?) taking a chunk of Dads ear Mom asked I rehome him. He went back to the rescue.
The cuddling is a hard one! I don't allow my GCC (Rea) in my hair at all, but she does like to snuggle up in my hand to nap. Also, cage time! I am not sure what it was but when she was young she absolutely could not stand being in the cage. She rubbed off the surface of her beak and nose, screamed constantly (it's a large cage with lots of toys so this was really hard on me). Luckily as she gets older she's fine in the cage and destroys her toys. I am happy I got her from a relatively good shop who made sure we got smaller destructible toys, no nesting huts or fabric toys, and had decently good diet advice (we actually talked about BirdTricks chop). BUT I do want to take this opportunity to say for anyone wanting to get a GC or bird in general from a shop, don't let them talk you into an unweaned bird. After looking at a lot of options we decided on a local bird store, they do clip their birds but made a deal with me to save me a bird out of a clutch and not clip her. Anyway, they assured me she was about to be eating pellets (she was 8 weeks) and "would only need formula for 2 more weeks". Super stressful experience for a new bird owner, we made it out a few weeks later of that process alive. I'm not saying it's impossible but I was not qualified at all to be handling a baby bird while also going to college. Anyway, I love videos like this that keep me in check! I've been watching for about a year, but only have had my bird a few months. Sometimes its easy to fall into these bad habits.
Really good, really true to hear. People inexperienced in baby birds should not have to wean babies on their own. So glad you made it through that experience ❤
... birds don't even need to be hand-fed to be sociable. they just need enough handling (as babies). sadly nobody does that. but really, I think selling unweaned birds should be illegal. ... aside from the fact that the baby will get much more handling, thus in the end it does help? I know some of my lovebirds are hand-reared, and they didn't even know how to step up when I got them. they're not afraid of people, but they still prefer to be with the other birds. I also have co-parented two (lovebird) hens (meaning, their parents do the feeding, I handle them from very young). they're not one bit less sociable than my actually hand-reared birds. sadly, stuffing their crops twice a day is much easier than actually spending time with them...
@@niky00045 birds that are raised from day 10-12 that see their human feeders as the source of all food, and are raised in loving homes that spend lots of time socializing them with humans will naturally be more tame than parent raised or 'stuff their crop twice a day' birds. People are using 'hand fed' as a euphemism for heaps of human-led interaction.. .but indeed, only if you actually do that interaction will you get good results.
@@niky00045 also, it is incorrect to say 'nobody does that.' Loads of breeders, especially of conures and macaws, spend weeks-months socializing and training good habits, like easy Step Ups, etc. You may not have heaps of good parrot breeders in your area, but worldwide best-practice breeders exist in most areas if you go looking. You are right that handfeeding is not synonymous with lots of good handling, but many breeders exist that ensure both handfeeding and socialization/early training happen in tandem.
How about all of them. We have a new baby golden conure. She refuses to get off of me and keeps chewing on my ear & glasses. I try to remove her gently, (bec of the pain), but she still holds tight. Eventually she loosens her grip & I am able to gently remove her, but it is always a struggle for me. I don't put her in her cage, but rather on top of it, which has her favorite toys....(yes, toys she destroys). We are trying to train her, (but she is stubborn and it requires a lot of patience, (of course). We will continue doing so, but it is a struggle, but we will persevere. She doesn't step up readily either; when she does, it's usually on my wrist and not my fingers.
Could you possibly do a training video on how to yeach your conure to step up please. Our conure has not yet been touched by us 🙈 I would love her to step up or let us pet her. That said she has only been with us a week and she is now eating from our hands which is major progress 😊
Interesting thing that happened with me and my birds concerning permission based training: I have 4 birds, all Bourke's parrots. All of them were hand-raised and stepped up as babies. Three out of four continued to step up, but one just decided she wasn't interested in it anymore and refused to step up! She got to a point where she decided she didn't like my hand, and she ran away from it-her way of saying no. I never forced her to do otherwise. She's getting close to 2 1/2 years old now and the only times she steps up for me are times when she is nervous, or occasionally if I approach her with the right energy (essentially: you need to step up *now* because I'm concerned about you-I can't get it consistently and besides I don't want to exploit this in case I need to use it someday!). She definitely wants to do her own thing, so I let her. Giving her freedom like that has caused her to decide when she wants to come spend time with me and when she does, she is just the sweetest. Why? Because she chose to do it on her own. 🥰
reminds me of my lovies. they'r ein a small flock setting (I have 5, and they form quite a flock). most know how to step up, but they usually refuse, because they may like attention (aka me talking to them and offering food), but they don't want to actually come with me XDD only in neutral settings they will consistently step up.
Well this kinda did help me to understand what to do/not to do, I have recently bought a Blue Throated Conure, and yeah at first it didn't let me even pet it, but as time went on she started to change, and this is not me forcing her to do anything, I just open up the cage, and let her do her thing, and she even landed on my shoulder several times.
I needed the reminder and reinforcement of tricks, ie step up and how useful they are and destressing normal transitions, into the cage, out of the cage, etc.. My green cheek has been in puberty I guess for about a year and a half and she's become a biting monster. I think me reaching into her cage to do normal things with her food, etc. violated her boundaries during a breeding or high hormone time and it's never stopped. I can get her to 'step up' on a towel so I can carry her to the bedtime cage or put her on her playground right by me at my desk. I am able to pet her through that towel, whether that is advisable or not? but if I am not petting her as she is rolled up in the towel for a very quick moment (and she's quiet for that brief moment) then she is biting the wadded up towel like mad and if she sees my hand or any flesh while she's on the kitchen towel, she's all over it for biting me. I learn more than one or two things from every video. THANK YOU!
Thanks for the tips! I've had my conure for over a year now, he'll be 2 in March and everyday is a learning experience. Now how do I get him to love veggies as much as fruit lol
I only close them in the cage when I’m not home. Or out for a few house working on the farm. Even at night I leave it open. They choose to go in the sleep and play. I have a smaller cage that’s like buggie sized. Full of swings and toys they like to hang out around.
What he said about accidentally bullying the birds because they’re so tiny… here’s another way to think about it. Chihuahuas are considered one of the meanest dogs out there. Why? Well one, they’re not trained properly because “it’s tiny so it doesn’t have to be trained”, but two, these dogs are constantly being bullied by humans. Picked up when not asked, being moved without notice, ignoring their body language… and then finally the dog gets sick of it and bites and learns biting is the only way to make you stop and listen. The same seems to be true for these tiny birds
I have put some toys in my conures cage. He bites on to those but sometimes he gets angry at the toys and becomes quite frustrated. Is it ok to behave him like that or should I take those out?
I watched both videos and these were great tips. Your Conure is so cute! I'm a little confused because I recently took my 2yr old Conure (JelliBean) to our vet and had told her I removed items she had started making a nest with in her bedtime cage to avoid hormonal/egg laying issues. But my vet said I probably really stressed out my bird and I should let her do this. She is an avian vet so I'm really confused now, as this goes against everything else I have learned. Any thoughts? Also I'm in a really dry but cold climate and wonder if you recommend a warm air humidifier? Thanks so much!
Sadly, when people do trigger hormones constantly with things like that, they lead to needing extreme vet help (see a comment above yours about her vet actually having to give hormone injections because of over stimulation!) eek! So although vets can be amazing with diagnosing medical conditions, I would not necessarily take their behavior-related advice as 100% fact.
since when is a vet trip less stressful than just remodeling their cage? ... I know even my Patty (who is used to going out and not easily stressed) would rather have ME do anything than go to the vet. PS: also, cage reorderings are a pretty common way of "calming down" hormonal birds. they may not like it, but I've never heard of a bird actually stressed out by it.
@@niky00045 oh and to be clear, she went to vet for her nail trimming, she goes as needed, regularly and does pretty well and enjoys the staff and interacting with them.
If you could, what would be a minimum sized cage, I want a conure one day (not ready and probably won't be for a while) and I grabbed a little booklet from PetCo that said a 24" by 30" would be good. If that was what you already had would you say buy another cage that's bigger or would that work?
I feel like I'm going about toys wrong in some way. Maybe it's not enough training. Basically my conures will just take the treats from the toy and not try to touch it again. But if they can't see the treat, they'll ignore it anyway. And it sucks cause i know they're bored. Hopefully tomorrow will be better; just gotta keep trying
Good luck! Birdtricks vids on getting your parrot into toys will help heaps. My conure was the same to start with. Eventually he was mad keen on toys ❤🐦
My green cheek won't play with his toys in his cage! He begs to come out and ignores them (or is scared of them). How can I help him enjoy his toys as much as spending time with me?
Same with dogs. Their cage should never be for punishment. But a place to rest and eat treats..😁 Make cages an enjoyable place for birds and dogs. I found the best parrot toys were made by bird lovers who originally ran their business from home. Most of the toys from the big pet store chains are over priced crap.
My conure was left alone at home and free in the house, when i got home my TV Remote was missing all the numbers haha. Mine hates when i talk on the phone. he also chew on my picture frames ect... they are cute but geeez they play too much lol
I have a sunconure and he always goes on the TV trying to "chew" it and i always grab him without asking if he wants because one bite of his beak on screen and its gone. Also, i do the same when he goes to chew the leather coach and the metalic parts of the clothes. I will try to train him to go away from those places with a treat.But the question is,when his not intrested nor hungry in the treat,what do you do then? 😄
Our 5 conures have there own room all to themselves they have a double critter nation's that they can go into whenever they never do cause they have access to a whole room
I'm like grab training my gcc so I can like grab him without toweling in situations I need to grab him, I'm also training that to him for harness training because it's quite hard to get it on without grabbing him
Being able to do it and doing it 100% of the time INSTEAD OF a willing step up is very different. I am all about conditioning to it to have the ability for sure.
I have the problem that I've allowed my conure to be out of his cage for too long and now he starts bobbing and calling to me whenever I have to leave him in his cage and he completely ignores any toy I put in the cage but he also really isn't bothered by any toy I get him
@@annelindabuckley20 Youre right they do. However, these birds are not wild. Just like a chihuahua isnt a wild dog and cant run free and survive. Pet birds need to be flight trained and have as much outside cage time as you can give them, but they also need that inside cage time. Like Dave said in this video, we all need our personal spacw, our bedrooms for example, a birds cage is thier bedroom and they get mental stimulation from inside the cage so they can quietly enjoy themselves as we would solving a puzzle or playing a card game alone.
Just persevere with putting great toys and foraging opportunities, and treats, in the cage. Leave him there for short amounts of time, then longer times, and only remove him from the cage when he isn't calling to you. Give it time, he will adjust (my conure was the same!).
My greencheek has a terrible habit of attacking my totally blind old chihuahua…I’ve tried to discourage this the best I can but I live in a small apartment & he seems the like the power of putting fear into my little dog. Does anyone have any tips I can try to break this habit?
My first Green Cheek Conure was a dream to train. Then I brought home what the previous owner said was a female but I was retry sure it was a male because of the behaviour I had seen. The previous owner was terrified of the bird and wanted it gone. He was a terror. His behaviour was like those guys you see on tv that check their wive’s phone and emails and don’t let their wife eat until they are done and usually end up killing the wife. He didn’t listen. I trained him to go to a perch on the door and he was willing to go there to go in and out of the cage. I was getting to the point of getting him to step up onto my arm. But one day, instead of going after my Amazon’s feet, and she always backed off, he went for her face and she nailed him, taking off his beak. COVID made seeing a vet quickly impossible but we finally got in. He was hand fed for a while and then I started putting it in a bowl. He has gained weight. The day I put him in his new, smaller cage, he flew out from under my arm and flew up to my amazon again. So I caught him and severely trimmed his wings so that he cannot fly far. He steps up now after me taking care of him. He steps up from his cage to be weighed morning and night. My other Conure, another male, would not go into his cage for 4 days, so his wings got trimmed. He usually steps up but he didn’t want to. So now, he does our daily training and cannot fly off. Compared to my other birds, conures are jerks. They all go after the other birds. My other birds are a brown head female, two male moustache parakeets, a male Quaker and a female Amazon. I am bringing them closer and closer to accepting the other birds, who all get along, but it’s still a work in progress. And it will happen. It’s so bad that I cannot let my Amazon or other birds out if the conures are out.
I understand its gotta be hard if your bird is aggressive but dont clip thier wings. Its not going to help the situation in the long run. Instead try and reset. Train from inside the cage. Have them do some basic touch training with the end of a chopstick and offer a treat. Some birds will just not get along and thats alright. Clipping a birds wings makes them more stressed and they can get even more aggressive as they cant fly away from fearful situations and have no other choice but to bite. Make sure youre taking it slow. You have goals for your feathered friend but hes got boundries too. Its about a bond and a friendship. Not a dictatorship from you. I recommend you look into more training tips and tricks that dont have to do with cutting the birds wings when they dont behave the precise way you wish them to
I am ashamed to admit this but I was having problems with my GCC and clipped her wings slightly to make her easier to control. She could still fly but not well, she flew down off of the window ceil when I walked out of the room for 10 sec. and ended up on the floor where my dogs thought she was a toy and broke her neck. She died in my hand. I wish I would have seen these videos and tried so much of the advice here. I’m heartbroken. Regret is a bitter pill.
I just want to train my bird to stop biting me without needing gloves to handle her. Who on earth can just grab a GC like that and still have all their skin?! We all try very hard to not have the cage as punishment but more of “is she getting too excited or wired? Perhaps she needs so go back for some quiet time”...
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I’m looking for suggestions on how to be able to touch a conure bird I inherited from a friend.
He is 18 years old. He’s a peach-fronted conure. He wouldn’t come out of his cage the last four years she had him, after having had him from his youth.
He has only two claws on one foot and none on the other. He was supposedly born in Florida. She was told other birds ate his claws off. He is very afraid of things that are like a broom handle.
My roommate was the first person Rico, the bird, was willing to get on his hand and come out of his cage in four years, even though Rico previously came out every day.
Since then he has chosen me to be his “favorite” person now. I’ve had him for a year and a half, but still he won’t let anyone pick him up, pet him, or touch him at all. He wants to bite. He readily climbs onto my hand or arm to come out of his cage. Just no touching! He is better than at first, he used to freak out if hi tail brushed against my hand. So he is better.
He needs to see a veterinarian because of a swollen nostril.
Do you have any ideas for de-sensitizing him to be touched and picked up?
I’ve never had a bird before, but am generally good with animals having had over 20 horse and 20 dogs, cats, and chickens.
But Rico is a challenge. And I hate to get bit!
And I don’t want to lose his trust by forcing him into his carrying case and be handled by the vet. And he will most likely need to have some kind of treatment applied to his nostril.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Getting to work with you was the BEST! We learned SO much!! Love you all!! ❤️
Sheeeesh
The problem with big cages is that they have bar spacing that's too wide and the birds can get stuck and hurt (or worse).
We need a line of cages that are larger than 32x21 but have 1/2" spacing.
You can get larger cages that have smaller bar spacing they just tend to be very expensive
@@audrey2749 I have only found one (A&E 30"x40"). It wasn't too too expensive but the doors are small and make it very difficult to clean/access for maintenance or placing toys and perches. I had to turn the top half of the cage 180 degrees to have one door on the front (top) and one in the back (bottom).
It's a real pain. You would think the cage designers would have put access doors on the sides so you can reach the inside of the whole cage!
@@3_up_moon Yea it can be hard to find the right cage, most that are available don’t seem very practical. Kings cages sell them but they’re expensive. I have a similar one to the SLT4 2620 but mine is an avione brand as I’m in Australia
They also make the bars on the 32x22 cages very thin and fragile. They are made for smaller Parakeets like Budgies and Cockatiels that are not very strong and are not suited for any bird that’s stronger. The problem is these large cage companies put a lot of the smaller companies out of business then they decided to limit the variety of cages they have.
I want sturdy double flight cages.
Also, loved this video! These girls are so sweet and it’s clear the whole family loves little Miku!
When I received my first parrotlet the breeder gave me a lot of bad advice. He told me to hold him in my hands so he couldn't get away so he would learn to snuggle.🙄 He hates snuggles!!! (I never did this) He also clipped all his flight feathers so I had to be extra careful because he just dropped to the ground. Luckily I had found you guys first but there was still several mistakes I made. I didn't know how to really read his body language so I made him step up probably when he really didn't want to. While it did desensitize him to so much because sadly he couldn't get away it wasn't the way to do it!! Now that he can fly everywhere and I know SO much more he can choose to hang out with me or play on his stand and back in his cage to eat and play he if far less nippy!!
I'm so convinced most parrot screaming is caused by wing clipping and caging. My greencheek hardly made a noise other than talking, and my new Hahns is only now loudly yelling if I put her in the play cage a few hours (she did destroy a toy today, so she must have stopped yelling awhile lol). Lil parrotlets are so tiny, I can imagine they easily feel like they are dominated. I love the idea of,' could you do that with a macaw?' So much small parrot husbandry would feel bad with a macaw.... can I do this with a macaw....that is my new mantra now!
Small birds need big personal spaces. Whether it is in a cage or handling you have to recognize they are the centre of their own universe. Get their permission, recognize their individuality and their autonomy. You are building a relationship and establishing communication not establishing authority.
I have a crimson bellied Conure who is now nearly 3 yrs old. I used to have her out of her cage from the moment she woke up cos I felt like she should just be out the whole time and with me as much as possible, she wouldn’t even poop in her cage she was so uncomfortable in there 😳. ….obviously that wasn’t sustainable 🙄
After watching bird tricks things changed, she’s still out quite a few hours per day as I love spending time with her, but she has loads of play stands and fun things to do, and her favourite treats to forage are only for her cage time which she loves.
Thanks for all your videos, they’ve helped me tons
Great comment. Fab idea putting only the best foraging stuff in the cage! ❤😊
I just purchased a green cheek He loves coming out of his cage, but he never wants to go back in afterwards. He always wants to stay on me.
I made sooo many mistakes with my green cheek conure 'Piper', it was back in the early 90's and how I wish BirdTricks were around back then. Piper was a cheeky little boy who was into everything, but he loved to snuggle under my chin when I took a nap. If he thought it was time for me to wake up, he would gently lick and beak my lower lip, this could be a mistake though, and sometimes he would bite down hard (leaving a V shaped cut, so maybe don't,lol). Piper also started talking, he learned (without my teaching him to say, I Love you, Taste good, Good morning) and a few others. I miss him! Thanks for teaching all the new parents how to be the best when it comes to training.
Mine used to box my ears in the morning when he realized nipping me wasn't working, only made me annoyed and zzzzzzz. He used to say Big Bird (he called himself big bird) wassup buttercup, cracker, superbudgie, and more. I miss him, too. He died last month :(
So sorry he had to leave so soon, conures sneak into your heart, even if they are a bit cheeky.
Love your channel, BirdTricks! We adopted a 10 year old Conure. She’s amazing. We have ordered your toys but kept in some of the other bigger toys. Now my goal is to help her find the ones she wants to chew the most! Off to order some of your tiny toys! S. Warren! Thanks for all your education!
My quaker parrots taught me form the very beginning how to properly handle them. I treat them the same I treat my aunt’s Moluccan because I know they’ll respond the same way and bite hard. Thankfully those lessons transferred to my ringneck and GCC. It also helps that my GCC is fully capable and willing to play with toys 3x his size, just like a macaw.
So helpful! Thank you for sharing your experience
Y’all are really helping me with my hormonal conure right now - he’s also getting hormone injections per recommendation of my vet because it’s been increasing over a few months and not seasonal.
I am about to binge through horror-moans to get him fully back on track!
I breed & hand raised my Crimson Belly conure a couple of years ago. She's at the stage now of
having ME completely trained !!! Talks, loves me, tolerates my husband, screams to be let out, hungry,
loves communicating with my other birds, comes when called, (if she sees a good treat).
We read, & love each other extremely well, a great companion. It just takes time & patience to bond.
With 2 African Grays & 2 Indian Ringnecks; I ended up getting 2 aviaries which are most helpful with the Indian Ringnecks to keep them out of trouble and danger when i cant keep an uninterrupted eye on them (they are so busy & fast lol)
I truly love birds, i could never buy one tho, because in India there's so little information about birdkeeping and these big big cockatoos and macaws are kept in tiny little cages for sale. Its heartbreaking and cruel. Recently i met a parrot ( an indian variety ) and like i was just respectful of its boundaries and didn't stick my finger in his terribly small cage and he walked out to me and turned his head as if to say "here scratch me" and the owner was like HE'S JUST BEEN BITING ME FOR 6 YEARS!! Ive been watching your channel for atleast 2 years now. I just wanted to say you'll are doing such Great work. I may get 2 rescue birds now only because they're in horrible conditions. I may not be able to provide the large walk in aviaries but your videos will sure help me to prepare as best as i can
If you are taking birds from horrible tiny cages into anything larger, and giving them love and care, they don't need walk in aviaries. Your house is a walk-in aviary! Good luck, may you rescue lots of beautiful parrots ❤❤❤🐦
I really needed this video
In our house we probably let our birds be out to long . Which in turn makes the cages feel like punishment. Something to work on for sure.
Very informative. I think I'm ready to pick my new bird. Thank you
I love conures
Awesome as usual, guys! Learned a lot! Keep up the good work cause you are saving a lot of birds and bird parents!
Great video guys i have been with cgteen for almost 2 year's see you next time 💜
They're awesome! I am so glad they reached out to us!
Ummm.. I'm guilty of several of these. I shall readjust!
Great tips, thanks for sharing/posting! Would this also be similar to a Meyer's Parrot as well? We adopted a Meyer's Parrot who is approx. 8-9 years old; he moved in with us about 6 months ago. He does go places that we prefer him not to go and most of the time I can get him to step up without using a perch. I'd love more info on training with a clicker & treats. Thanks.
I have a question re: toys...
for "nesty" birds like lovebird hens, who are absolutely obsessed with making nesting material out of anything they can chew... what kind of toys do you use?
because anything they can chew is gonna trigger their hormones (they will stuff their tails with it so it IS nestig behavior), and anything they can't chew to bits, they ignore...
PS: maybe you could do some vid on paired lovebirds (or parrots in general? I guess the presence of an actual mate WILL make all parrots more hormonal) and how to prevent them from laying too often? because as it is, I more or less manage it, but sometimes I've had to put up the nest because one of my hens was about to lay an egg, even with no nest (and honestly, if they're gonna lay, I'd rather have them lay in the nest and be busy with the eggs for at least the incubation period -- assuming I sterilize the eggs,-- that way they're not thinking on laying MORE eggs)
Our green cheek conure died yesterday of a traffic house accident . It hurts so bad , he was very special , would follow us everywhere inside and outside the house . He would even get in the shower with us . He never tried to flee , he felt secure with us . We’re heart broken .
Terribly sorry for your loss. My conure was a runaway from another and did the same from me when i took it to the roof for some sun.
i don't own any pet birds yet, may never aside from that special duck, goose or chicken we fall in love with. I always do a whole lot of research before I get real serious about adding a living being into our lives. I have had several poultry and waterfowl over the past 12 years. Many more when I was young before we moved to town. My 1st conure experience was Charlie. He was a rescue, Sun Conure and my Mom loved him! Charlie decided my Dad was evil and attacked him anytime he went near Mom. After Him(?) taking a chunk of Dads ear Mom asked I rehome him. He went back to the rescue.
Awww poor Charlie and poor Mum. A spot or lot of training may have helped ❤🐦
The cuddling is a hard one! I don't allow my GCC (Rea) in my hair at all, but she does like to snuggle up in my hand to nap. Also, cage time! I am not sure what it was but when she was young she absolutely could not stand being in the cage. She rubbed off the surface of her beak and nose, screamed constantly (it's a large cage with lots of toys so this was really hard on me). Luckily as she gets older she's fine in the cage and destroys her toys.
I am happy I got her from a relatively good shop who made sure we got smaller destructible toys, no nesting huts or fabric toys, and had decently good diet advice (we actually talked about BirdTricks chop). BUT
I do want to take this opportunity to say for anyone wanting to get a GC or bird in general from a shop, don't let them talk you into an unweaned bird. After looking at a lot of options we decided on a local bird store, they do clip their birds but made a deal with me to save me a bird out of a clutch and not clip her. Anyway, they assured me she was about to be eating pellets (she was 8 weeks) and "would only need formula for 2 more weeks". Super stressful experience for a new bird owner, we made it out a few weeks later of that process alive. I'm not saying it's impossible but I was not qualified at all to be handling a baby bird while also going to college.
Anyway, I love videos like this that keep me in check! I've been watching for about a year, but only have had my bird a few months. Sometimes its easy to fall into these bad habits.
Really good, really true to hear. People inexperienced in baby birds should not have to wean babies on their own. So glad you made it through that experience ❤
... birds don't even need to be hand-fed to be sociable. they just need enough handling (as babies). sadly nobody does that.
but really, I think selling unweaned birds should be illegal. ... aside from the fact that the baby will get much more handling, thus in the end it does help?
I know some of my lovebirds are hand-reared, and they didn't even know how to step up when I got them. they're not afraid of people, but they still prefer to be with the other birds. I also have co-parented two (lovebird) hens (meaning, their parents do the feeding, I handle them from very young). they're not one bit less sociable than my actually hand-reared birds.
sadly, stuffing their crops twice a day is much easier than actually spending time with them...
@@niky00045 birds that are raised from day 10-12 that see their human feeders as the source of all food, and are raised in loving homes that spend lots of time socializing them with humans will naturally be more tame than parent raised or 'stuff their crop twice a day' birds. People are using 'hand fed' as a euphemism for heaps of human-led interaction..
.but indeed, only if you actually do that interaction will you get good results.
@@niky00045 also, it is incorrect to say 'nobody does that.'
Loads of breeders, especially of conures and macaws, spend weeks-months socializing and training good habits, like easy Step Ups, etc.
You may not have heaps of good parrot breeders in your area, but worldwide best-practice breeders exist in most areas if you go looking.
You are right that handfeeding is not synonymous with lots of good handling, but many breeders exist that ensure both handfeeding and socialization/early training happen in tandem.
How about all of them. We have a new baby golden conure. She refuses to get off of me and keeps chewing on my ear & glasses. I try to remove her gently, (bec of the pain), but she still holds tight. Eventually she loosens her grip & I am able to gently remove her, but it is always a struggle for me. I don't put her in her cage, but rather on top of it, which has her favorite toys....(yes, toys she destroys). We are trying to train her, (but she is stubborn and it requires a lot of patience, (of course). We will continue doing so, but it is a struggle, but we will persevere. She doesn't step up readily either; when she does, it's usually on my wrist and not my fingers.
Could you possibly do a training video on how to yeach your conure to step up please. Our conure has not yet been touched by us 🙈 I would love her to step up or let us pet her. That said she has only been with us a week and she is now eating from our hands which is major progress 😊
Interesting thing that happened with me and my birds concerning permission based training: I have 4 birds, all Bourke's parrots. All of them were hand-raised and stepped up as babies. Three out of four continued to step up, but one just decided she wasn't interested in it anymore and refused to step up! She got to a point where she decided she didn't like my hand, and she ran away from it-her way of saying no. I never forced her to do otherwise. She's getting close to 2 1/2 years old now and the only times she steps up for me are times when she is nervous, or occasionally if I approach her with the right energy (essentially: you need to step up *now* because I'm concerned about you-I can't get it consistently and besides I don't want to exploit this in case I need to use it someday!). She definitely wants to do her own thing, so I let her. Giving her freedom like that has caused her to decide when she wants to come spend time with me and when she does, she is just the sweetest. Why? Because she chose to do it on her own. 🥰
reminds me of my lovies. they'r ein a small flock setting (I have 5, and they form quite a flock). most know how to step up, but they usually refuse, because they may like attention (aka me talking to them and offering food), but they don't want to actually come with me XDD
only in neutral settings they will consistently step up.
adorable birdie
Agreed!
Thank u sir love from Chicago
Well this kinda did help me to understand what to do/not to do, I have recently bought a Blue Throated Conure, and yeah at first it didn't let me even pet it, but as time went on she started to change, and this is not me forcing her to do anything, I just open up the cage, and let her do her thing, and she even landed on my shoulder several times.
I needed the reminder and reinforcement of tricks, ie step up and how useful they are and destressing normal transitions, into the cage, out of the cage, etc..
My green cheek has been in puberty I guess for about a year and a half and she's become a biting monster. I think me reaching into her cage to do normal things with her food, etc. violated her boundaries during a breeding or high hormone time and it's never stopped. I can get her to 'step up' on a towel so I can carry her to the bedtime cage or put her on her playground right by me at my desk. I am able to pet her through that towel, whether that is advisable or not? but if I am not petting her as she is rolled up in the towel for a very quick moment (and she's quiet for that brief moment) then she is biting the wadded up towel like mad and if she sees my hand or any flesh while she's on the kitchen towel, she's all over it for biting me.
I learn more than one or two things from every video.
THANK YOU!
She literally Put a Bird poop Bomb on her sisters shoulder lmao!
Thanks for the tips! I've had my conure for over a year now, he'll be 2 in March and everyday is a learning experience. Now how do I get him to love veggies as much as fruit lol
Chop it all up so the flavours are mixed, and try apple juice on the veggies.... it works a treat!
@@michelehemlokhexwhite4310 Apple Juice has natural caffeine in which is not good for your parrot.
Great video! 💜
Thanks!
I only close them in the cage when I’m not home. Or out for a few house working on the farm. Even at night I leave it open. They choose to go in the sleep and play. I have a smaller cage that’s like buggie sized. Full of swings and toys they like to hang out around.
Cool premiere
What he said about accidentally bullying the birds because they’re so tiny… here’s another way to think about it.
Chihuahuas are considered one of the meanest dogs out there. Why? Well one, they’re not trained properly because “it’s tiny so it doesn’t have to be trained”, but two, these dogs are constantly being bullied by humans. Picked up when not asked, being moved without notice, ignoring their body language… and then finally the dog gets sick of it and bites and learns biting is the only way to make you stop and listen. The same seems to be true for these tiny birds
Omg SO TRUE
Naice bird handtame and good information
I have put some toys in my conures cage. He bites on to those but sometimes he gets angry at the toys and becomes quite frustrated.
Is it ok to behave him like that or should I take those out?
i got the same conure 5 days ago, he/she is 5 weeks old at the moment
We have a green check conure we love him so much
I watched both videos and these were great tips. Your Conure is so cute! I'm a little confused because I recently took my 2yr old Conure (JelliBean) to our vet and had told her I removed items she had started making a nest with in her bedtime cage to avoid hormonal/egg laying issues. But my vet said I probably really stressed out my bird and I should let her do this. She is an avian vet so I'm really confused now, as this goes against everything else I have learned. Any thoughts? Also I'm in a really dry but cold climate and wonder if you recommend a warm air humidifier? Thanks so much!
Most vets have been out of school for a while so I wouldn't trust them without doing some research
Sadly, when people do trigger hormones constantly with things like that, they lead to needing extreme vet help (see a comment above yours about her vet actually having to give hormone injections because of over stimulation!) eek! So although vets can be amazing with diagnosing medical conditions, I would not necessarily take their behavior-related advice as 100% fact.
since when is a vet trip less stressful than just remodeling their cage?
... I know even my Patty (who is used to going out and not easily stressed) would rather have ME do anything than go to the vet.
PS: also, cage reorderings are a pretty common way of "calming down" hormonal birds. they may not like it, but I've never heard of a bird actually stressed out by it.
@@niky00045 thank you for the tips, I appreciate it. So does JelliBean.
@@niky00045 oh and to be clear, she went to vet for her nail trimming, she goes as needed, regularly and does pretty well and enjoys the staff and interacting with them.
If you could, what would be a minimum sized cage, I want a conure one day (not ready and probably won't be for a while) and I grabbed a little booklet from PetCo that said a 24" by 30" would be good. If that was what you already had would you say buy another cage that's bigger or would that work?
I feel like I'm going about toys wrong in some way. Maybe it's not enough training.
Basically my conures will just take the treats from the toy and not try to touch it again. But if they can't see the treat, they'll ignore it anyway.
And it sucks cause i know they're bored.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better; just gotta keep trying
This should help - th-cam.com/video/0otgMUZK0BE/w-d-xo.html
Good luck! Birdtricks vids on getting your parrot into toys will help heaps. My conure was the same to start with. Eventually he was mad keen on toys ❤🐦
@@BirdTricks thank so much! I'll check this out :)
My green cheek won't play with his toys in his cage! He begs to come out and ignores them (or is scared of them). How can I help him enjoy his toys as much as spending time with me?
Same with dogs. Their cage should never be for punishment. But a place to rest and eat treats..😁
Make cages an enjoyable place for birds and dogs.
I found the best parrot toys were made by bird lovers who originally ran their business from home. Most of the toys from the big pet store chains are over priced crap.
1:08 these two having a conversation
My conure was left alone at home and free in the house, when i got home my TV Remote was missing all the numbers haha.
Mine hates when i talk on the phone.
he also chew on my picture frames ect...
they are cute but geeez they play too much lol
I have a sunconure and he always goes on the TV trying to "chew" it and i always grab him without asking if he wants because one bite of his beak on screen and its gone.
Also, i do the same when he goes to chew the leather coach and the metalic parts of the clothes. I will try to train him to go away from those places with a treat.But the question is,when his not intrested nor hungry in the treat,what do you do then? 😄
You save only the most valuable treats for those occasions, so he isn't sick of them or unhungry at the time, and make cables etc inaccessible!
What happened to your feeze dried chop? I was really hoping to get some.
Our 5 conures have there own room all to themselves they have a double critter nation's that they can go into whenever they never do cause they have access to a whole room
I'm like grab training my gcc so I can like grab him without toweling in situations I need to grab him, I'm also training that to him for harness training because it's quite hard to get it on without grabbing him
Being able to do it and doing it 100% of the time INSTEAD OF a willing step up is very different. I am all about conditioning to it to have the ability for sure.
I spent lots of time with my gc teaching him to stick his head through the harness for treats. Good luck
I have the problem that I've allowed my conure to be out of his cage for too long and now he starts bobbing and calling to me whenever I have to leave him in his cage and he completely ignores any toy I put in the cage but he also really isn't bothered by any toy I get him
Rubbish bird,s need freedom to fly
@@annelindabuckley20 Youre right they do. However, these birds are not wild. Just like a chihuahua isnt a wild dog and cant run free and survive. Pet birds need to be flight trained and have as much outside cage time as you can give them, but they also need that inside cage time. Like Dave said in this video, we all need our personal spacw, our bedrooms for example, a birds cage is thier bedroom and they get mental stimulation from inside the cage so they can quietly enjoy themselves as we would solving a puzzle or playing a card game alone.
Just persevere with putting great toys and foraging opportunities, and treats, in the cage. Leave him there for short amounts of time, then longer times, and only remove him from the cage when he isn't calling to you. Give it time, he will adjust (my conure was the same!).
I always wanted a conure. But I don’t know if my lovebirds would get along with it :(
The date is wrong. ??
My greencheek has a terrible habit of attacking my totally blind old chihuahua…I’ve tried to discourage this the best I can but I live in a small apartment & he seems the like the power of putting fear into my little dog. Does anyone have any tips I can try to break this habit?
I would only have one out at a time. th-cam.com/video/IMkAKQ18v6s/w-d-xo.html
My first Green Cheek Conure was a dream to train. Then I brought home what the previous owner said was a female but I was retry sure it was a male because of the behaviour I had seen. The previous owner was terrified of the bird and wanted it gone. He was a terror. His behaviour was like those guys you see on tv that check their wive’s phone and emails and don’t let their wife eat until they are done and usually end up killing the wife. He didn’t listen. I trained him to go to a perch on the door and he was willing to go there to go in and out of the cage. I was getting to the point of getting him to step up onto my arm. But one day, instead of going after my Amazon’s feet, and she always backed off, he went for her face and she nailed him, taking off his beak. COVID made seeing a vet quickly impossible but we finally got in. He was hand fed for a while and then I started putting it in a bowl. He has gained weight. The day I put him in his new, smaller cage, he flew out from under my arm and flew up to my amazon again. So I caught him and severely trimmed his wings so that he cannot fly far. He steps up now after me taking care of him. He steps up from his cage to be weighed morning and night. My other Conure, another male, would not go into his cage for 4 days, so his wings got trimmed. He usually steps up but he didn’t want to. So now, he does our daily training and cannot fly off. Compared to my other birds, conures are jerks. They all go after the other birds. My other birds are a brown head female, two male moustache parakeets, a male Quaker and a female Amazon. I am bringing them closer and closer to accepting the other birds, who all get along, but it’s still a work in progress. And it will happen. It’s so bad that I cannot let my Amazon or other birds out if the conures are out.
I understand its gotta be hard if your bird is aggressive but dont clip thier wings. Its not going to help the situation in the long run. Instead try and reset. Train from inside the cage. Have them do some basic touch training with the end of a chopstick and offer a treat. Some birds will just not get along and thats alright. Clipping a birds wings makes them more stressed and they can get even more aggressive as they cant fly away from fearful situations and have no other choice but to bite. Make sure youre taking it slow. You have goals for your feathered friend but hes got boundries too. Its about a bond and a friendship. Not a dictatorship from you. I recommend you look into more training tips and tricks that dont have to do with cutting the birds wings when they dont behave the precise way you wish them to
@@alexischristensen6496 I can't say it better than you did ❤🐦
@@alexischristensen6496 imho, you end up with a bunch of screaming, angry frustrated birds when you clip wings :(
I am ashamed to admit this but I was having problems with my GCC and clipped her wings slightly to make her easier to control. She could still fly but not well, she flew down off of the window ceil when I walked out of the room for 10 sec. and ended up on the floor where my dogs thought she was a toy and broke her neck. She died in my hand. I wish I would have seen these videos and tried so much of the advice here. I’m heartbroken. Regret is a bitter pill.
I guess this is an old video. I was looking for those bigger, natural purchase you guys sell I didn’t see any.
question is what is the body language 'hey im gonna bite you'. i cant tell and i get bit evrytime.
This pineapple green cheek conure looks just like my bird, zuzu. Sadly, my parrot flew away, and couldn’t be found since then! I miss you girl.🦜💔😔
I have a special needs conure, she can’t step up
That’s a pineapple
💖
Good advise. Why is it so hard to hear? Hugs 🤗
💯💯💯💯
I just want to train my bird to stop biting me without needing gloves to handle her. Who on earth can just grab a GC like that and still have all their skin?!
We all try very hard to not have the cage as punishment but more of “is she getting too excited or wired? Perhaps she needs so go back for some quiet time”...
Learning birds body language helps a lot before your bird just instantly bite because humans tend to miss the other signals before the bite
@@joebean3615 that is a much older comment. I’ve made good learning since then. Biggest factors I’ve learned is diet plays a huge part for them.
Hello
First comment
Next time, make it count, rather than saying.... well.... nothing....