Conure biting- can you help? (560 views)

[tippa]

My Maroon Bellied Conure Tai lately has been biting me so hard that he is drawing blood. I am going honest here and say I am really scared of him .. I have been bitten many times before by other birds so i'm not that much of a wimp, but this conure has got razor sharp beak and it's very powerful!

Tai is 2 years old, handraised and was used to being handled up 'til this biting stage. I am unsure if it's a hormonal phrase he's going through that is causing him to bite. He is fine if I call him to fly over to my finger- he doesn't bite then, but if I ask him to step up he would literally tear chunks out of my finger .

I don't really want to stop handling him to let him get even more wild, but I just can't handle his bites anymore.

I've read somewhere else about a green cheek which never came out of the biting stage even though the teenage hormonal phrase had passed(she was 4 years old) I have fear that my conure may head the same way and never end his biting.

I know this forum focuses more on tiels, lovies, and budgies, but if any of you could think of anything that will help stopping this conure from biting I will really appreciate it. I really dont know where to go from here, i'm lost ,lol, HELP! ;D . If you don't have an answer to this then please just ignore this thread. I don't even know if there is an answer to this problem but I just ask anyway. Thank you for reading this thread.

[injood]

i dont know if conures are lsome what like african greys, so im just gonna assume that he might be exploring cuz i read about african greys go through a phase like that when they start to realize things even more its when they start biting to know what to be aware of and they do that its because their turning into adults, greys dont turn into adults until their 3 years old.
or it could be hormones.

i dont know if this would apply on a conure , but i hope someone here could help you out.

hope things work out and he stops biting

[tippa]

If he just nip the finger then I'm ok at that, but this is serious biting. When I ask him to step up, he does step up but then he reaches down like one of those bald eagles tearing up a fish he had captured, now imagine that fish is my finger

I am worried that by the time he comes out of the hormonal stage, he may become a wild bird and continue to bite because I haven't been handling him.

I wish I gone for a african grey in the first place, they seem like much more gentle birds those ones that I have seen.

Thank you for your reply and being helpful, it gives me a glimmer of hope

[Casey]

sounds like hormones. munch is hitting that stage again too and shes starting to get on my last nerve this last week. i get chased when i give her food.

thinking right now its hormone time for most birds, and ive heard greenies go through a nippy stage, though i thought it was under a year old they do. i know theyre known to be nippy, but biting and nipping are two different things. both my birds are biters, munch is at the nippy/biting stage right now soon it will be biting, give it a few weeks.. time to limit shredables and fatty and high protein foods, longer sleep hours (12-14) and remove any nest site. thats directed at you too, it should help tone down to attitude too.


if the biting proves to not be hormonal related you can try clicker training, target training, or other behavioural things. but my bets are on hormones. watch the rest of them lol

[tippa]

These conures reach maturity between 1 and 2. He is 2 so i'm thinking it's hormones and I hope he will stop this biting business when he's a bit older. He should be more settled by 3 and 4 years old.

I know the nippy stage you're on about at under 12 months- that is when conures test out their beaks, but this is not it. At the moment he is at that hormonal stage I reckon because this is serious biting(not nipping). Sometimes I saw him chases after my other conures and tries to bite them- he is so evil at the moment.

I read somewhere that sunflower seeds can cause hyperactivity in parrots; do you think this has got anything to do with his biting because he does have quite a few sunflower seeds in his diet daily.

[injood]

I agree with casey maybe u should try the longer sleep hours i had that going on with one of my tiels i separated him from the rest he had longer sleeping hours lots of preening toys no nest box and that helped me a lot


I hope things work out and that he grows out of that phase

[Casey]

you can give a strict limit of sunflower seeds, but i do know they are needed in the diet because in moderation they are very nutritious for parrots, but too fattening in large amounts, and the fat can cause hormone increase. so decreasing the fat in his diet might help out too. i would limit to just a few sunflower seeds a day

long nights
less fat
less protein (dont feed egg often or nuts often)
and nothing he sees as a nest. it might calm him down a bit in time, other than that you might have to ride it out.


i think its the season. for some reason munch gets nesty over fall and winter instead of spring. shes starting hers up and im already needing a vacation lol

[tippa]

I will try all those things suggested. Thanks guys

[Casey]

keep us updated!