I can't find the biting answer for my bird?

Question

I have a white eyed conure who can be mean. Problem is, I don't really know how to work with her, PLUS I'm very afraid of getting bit, and that's not good, because conures are little brats and know this and bite me more! lol

But anyways, here's the story. I got a conure from a client of my moms boyfriend. The women gave her up because supposedly she liked the womans husband but not the woman. When my moms boyfriend brought her over, the only story I got was she loves to be on shoulders, she doesn't like bare skin, and she doesn't like women.

Well, this bird loves me. To an extent. Im the only one she likes. I can reach in to the cage and pet her just fine. I can open the door and she will walk out to me. She talks to only me. I can reach in to the cage and pet her.

If anyone goes near the cage, she lunges at them. If they stick their hands in the bars, she lunges and tries to bite them. If someone else opens the cage, she won't come out.

Her being aggressive towards

Answer 1

Birds usually bite out of fear or because they find something threatening. It's best to use touch training with your bird because for one, he is nippy and for two, you are afraid of being bitten. I would work on target training explained here;

http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/ca...

(at the very bottom of the page) along with other useful training info.

When using a glove for training, it's more for your peace of mind than the bird's at all. It's to protect you, the bird would rather step on you naturally vs this huge thing attached to your arm that most people normally have to desensitize the bird to before using. My brother used glove training with his macaw and one day took the glove off and it was fine because the bird had already learned that stepping up was fun and okay and that the glove played no role for the bird. Gloves are just to help the person, not the bird. :)

I'm surprised you are bold enough to work with cockatoos but nervous about the conure... I'd take a conure any day, haha. White cockatoos are the most intimidating of birds for me personally.

It makes sense your bird doesn't bite when she has fallen because you are helping her now, almost rescuing and not a threat at all. So use this to your advantage and try trick training. If a bird is having fun with you and constantly being mentally stimulated, it will look forward to coming out and be eager to step up. Trick training isn't about getting your brid to "perform tricks for people" and "look cute" it's used to teach your bird how to learn and think and figure things out. It's mentally stimulating and fun for the bird. That's why it works.

More on conures;

http://www.birdtricks.com/Conures/

Answer 2

well with my parakeets and cockateils i have had to use like 'snow' gloves before i was going to try to get them out of the cage the first time they were home. most of them were not bad at all. but just in case i kept the glove on. and it is EXTREMELY bad if the bird controls you to be on your shoulder. because they will get the habit of going straight to your shoulder, you need to train her to stay on your hand until you want her on your shoulder. (or else she will start to bite once she gets on your shoulder and never come off)  and i would let anyone who wanted to hold her use gloves but go out of her sight when they hold her to not want to go to you. she needs to pay attention to the person who is holding her.

   does this help???