Post by Pappagallo on Mar 27, 2023 14:22:32 GMT -5
Hello everyone,
This is Nikki's mom. In addition to my Quaker Parrot Nikki, I have a Sun Conure, named Sunny who is one month older than Nikki.
A little background. Nikki was hand raised and I had her since she was 11 weeks old.
Sunny was not hand-raised and was abused prior to my squiring her. I think she came from a bad breeder (I got her at a pet shop who debilitated her for 6 months). I adopted her when she was almost 14 months.
Fast forward and both birds are about 19 years old. I feel like an idiot half the time because despite the length of time I have had both these birds, it has been an over all challenge for me. However, the real challanges I have faced have been with my Sun Conure and her biting. She still bites me. It is like every little thing sets her off. If I move to fast, she will bite. If she is moody, she will bite. If I can get through a month without getting bitten that is a really blessing. Most of the time she bites me relates to either stepping up (if she doesn't want to) or sometimes with flight recall. I guess if she doesn't want to or is angry she will bite my hand hard when landing on it. I is really annoying and painful when she bites. She doesn't dive bomb me or fly and attack me when I enter a room. Thanks be to God!
Now my Quaker has bitten but she doesn't bite that often and her bites are so superficial. I have never had to use bandages. My Sun conure has drawn blood.
It wasn't until last year in February that I decided to do serious training with both my birds in hopes that it would improve the biting. I will be honest, I am not sure if it has. I think the frequency may have gone down but the little stinker has left a few new scars on me in the past year. I have taught her some tricks and even do targeting and flight training (indoors obviously) with her. She is not an air head. That's for sure. Both she and my quaker get training at least 5 days a week.
Now I will admit that I have made some progress. I am able to pick her up more whereas in the past I relied heavily on handheld perches because of her biting. It took me 17 years before I could start getting her out of the cage with my hand. Now she sometimes bites but hey I am doing it. There was one week this month where I was getting bitten by her every single day. I hate it when she bites because she clamps down and doesn't let go. Yesterday, I played it cool though. I was able to have her continue to clamp my finger while I was able to get Nikki to step on. She eventually stopped and I put them both down on their gym while I went into the bathroom to stop the bleeding. She is mostly very sweet. After she bites me she seems to move on pretty quickly as if it never happened. How can I be more like that?
I have done everything that could be possible triggers: diet changes, adequate sleep, removing hormone triggers, etc. Please tell me she will mellow out by the time she is 20 years old. I even have been keeping a log of when she bites in which I describe what happen and write down any trends.
I really want to know if I am the only person who experiences this. I get really annoyed with other Sun Conure owners who are like "My sun never bites." Why did I have to get one that is part vampire. It is amazing that I have been able to live with her this long because when I first adopted her and she was constantly biting me and I wanted to re home her but decided not to because my mother and Nikki like her.
I will also add that she has bitten other people as well but I receive the brunt of it because I am the one who cares for her and am also the primary handler. My nieces and nephew gravitate more to my Quaker because she doesn't bite them and if she nips, it barely hurts and it is not hard. My mother who absolutely loves this bird went into shock and was even upset when Sunny bit her finger so hard that she bled and she called my father in to help her stop the bleeding. I was like "Welcome to my world." Once things calmed down she defending her like: "I think she thought I had a treat" or "maybe shes thought my finger was a treat."
Please tell me how to
1. Not let it bother me when she bites
2. How to overcome fear if I start to feel nervous when I need for her to step up onto my hand.
3. How to heal and remove the scars she left me.
