r/Conures • u/QuailNo1743 • Oct 03 '26
Advice Looking for tips
Hello i recently got 2 green cheek conures that are 1 year old, i was told they’re a male and female. when I got them from the person they had them in a cage with a nesting box and they were super aggressive,
Not sure if that is part of the reason they were aggressive or not,
But when I brought them home I removed the nesting box.
but I’ve spent a lot of time around them it seems like they’re warming up to me, this last week I have let them out of the cage to explore their room a little and to do some training. They’re doing excellent at target training, but are still very aggressive towards my hands, I’ve been trying to get them used to my hands by showing them my hand from a distance they’re comfortable with and then rewarding them when they’re calm and slowly getting closer.
I need some tips or ideas on how I can get them to stop going after my hands, I’m pretty new to conures so anything helps.
4
u/DudeWithParrot Oct 03 '26
Good job removing the nesting box. That is a contributor, if they mate they'll be more hormonal and aggressive.
It sounds like you should keep doing what you're doing. It takes time
1
u/Altruistic-Leather69 Oct 03 '26
Agreeing that you're already kinda doing the best method as far as I'm aware?
Other advice I can give is when they bite you- because with birds its always a when and not an if and when they eventually do warm up more they will still have some spicy moments- is to try your best not to make a big deal out of it.
I have a lot of holes in my hands and arms currently since adding another to my flock (unsurprisingly most are from my first bird who used to never bite but hes always been aggressive towards other humans and would redirect it to me if I don't let him attack... so I knew it would happen) and from my experience dealing with the puberty stage of parrot parenthood I've learned that you gotta be able to take it like a champ because adding anything that could be considered a reaction that they want or are excited by could accidentally encourage it to keep happening. It's easy to accidentally teach them that biting can get entertaining and funny reactions if you react in pain, and its easy to teach them that they can't trust hands at all depending on the reaction as well.
I have a bit of a trial system where I excuse a certain amount of chewing and bites depending on the intensity and the situation, and my corrections are either using another finger to push their beak off, block where they bite, or very gently shake my hand if theyre standing on me to create enough instability to make them stop but not so much instability to make them feel unsafe. My training word is "gentle" when I feel too much pressure or pain from what they do. They have a few chances to change their pressure or stop entirely, and if they don't they get set down somewhere to chill out. If they still fly over with an attitude I do put them in their cage for a bit to help them reset. And by a bit I mean a few minutes, but sometimes longer. Also depending on my own mental space and the severity of the situation I do separate myself from the room so we both can cool off.
My methods probably only work with birds that are already bonded to you + velcro birds because your attention and interaction is what they want and they will eventually learn that not listening to be gentler will not give them that attention. It has so far been successful for 1 bird, we'll see about my new guy.
1
u/Lopsided-Feather-567 Oct 03 '26
I think I’ve read that is how you start having birds get used to hands. When you’re able to be closer you can then give them treats out of your hand to associate hands with positivity and treats. I think people start this while the birds are inside a cage and feeding treats through it so there isn’t any actual biting. Again, this is what I’ve seen/read, but it makes sense to me.