Last Updated on by Mitch Rezman
We have had numerous requests for help from Lisa regarding her troubles with her 2 Conures one of which is a Biting Conure.
We have suggested lighting to help control hormones, more toys, cage placement, and more which has helped somewhat, but it seems the problem continues and is getting worse over time.
We have decided to ask our readers to chime in here and give her some suggestions or solutions that have worked for them.
Please reply below this Blog post and she will see them.
Good evening, Catherine, it’s Lisa N. again we are having a huge problem our boy conure Kiwi is biting not only me but my husband to which he was always close now he’s molting and probably still going through his hormones but he really doesn’t masturbate anymore.
How to Remodel a Cage to Reduce 2 Bird’s Hormonal Behavior
He spends more time in the cage than out because we have so many bite marks I’m worried and upset that he’s turned like this.
How Do I Handle My Molting Green Cheek Conure With Another Bird?
The food and both his cage and Reggie’s cage are next to each other Reggie still doesn’t want to be around him, I’m just out of ideas he used to be our sweetheart now he’s so vicious if you have any ideas I would love to hear them seem like people on the internet has so many things to do it makes no sense… Thanks for listening to my problem.
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To help bring everyone up to speed, we have been working with Lisa for a long time now, and here are some links to past posts where we have responded to her problems with the two birds.
How Do We Teach Our Bird His Name?
We started out with Light treatments to ease their hormones, but as she has a boy and girl of the same species close together, lighting will only help for so long before Mother Nature comes back in full force.
Check out these beautiful cage setups.
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Please reply below this blog post and she will see your suggestions.
Good morning,
Catherine I just wanted to let you know our sweet little Kiwi WiFi or as he calls himself Wee Wee lol anyway when we took him to the vet for his nasal issue and then put both birds in for 72 hours it helped a lot
but my vet who has had over 40 birds over the years told me a trick to get him to like me and it works he comes to me all the the time he doesn’t bite me just like he use to be our little sweetie, but Reggie still wants nothing to do with him both of them don’t do any masterbating and Kiwi Wiwi wants to be with her but she still chases him away and sometimes will start a fight if his on the top of the kitchen cabinet she loves it up there so I know it’s territory for her but she just want to be friends like they use to be do you think they every will be I know birds are birds but up until January they were best of friends. Any suggestions. And I read the comments people left about my post and did appreciate it.
Thanks have a good day.
Dear Lisa
Glad to hear your birds are doing better. I would love to hear this little trick your vet told you. Maybe it will help over here. We have a biter too.
Don’t forget, January through March are hormonal times for our birds so give them some time. Come April they may become buddies again.
Updated 3/16/2022
Good Sunday morning Catherine I saw my letter this morning but I wanted to update you, Kiwi is back to being our little sweetheart (well most of the time there is no perfect bird).
Back to what happened I forgot to mention along with hormones and molting he was sneezing a lot we took him to the vet on Thursday and found out he had a little sinus infection she cleaned it out and since then he’s back to being our little sweetie the doctor did say the 72 hr would be a good idea for both especially Reggie she wants nothing to do with him but it wouldn’t hurt him to.
I apologize for bothering you with my problems you have been a great help to me especially since my husband is far along in his dementia so I take care of everything and I get worried if something happens to 1of our babies I hope people don’t think I’m not a good mommy there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them, so I promise not to keep bothering you about the same thing. Again thank you for everything.
Dear Lisa
We had a lot of really good responses to your plight with your conure.
If you will go to that blog post you should see many posts attached to check out.
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13 Mar 2022I hope I am replying in the right place regarding a biting conure. You say you have two conures. I am no expert but I had two I bought together as company to my little Radar. I said “ good boy” to radar so often he began repeating it to my delight. My GRANDdaughter asked me what if Radar isn’t a boy to which I replied to the 3-year-old precarious child, “we will spell his name backwards!” I thought I was so clever outwitting a child. Until—-radaR started laying eggs. Well back to the story. The two sun conures stayed with me precisely one week because I could not handle them and they were mean to Radar. He was still a boy at that time. I felt that they had been together a long time and bonded with one another to excluding all others. So I wonder if your conures are bonded with each other and it causes the one to be protective. I suspect if they are male and female that bond may be strong and it would explain only one biting. Good luck.
Have I told you about the time a repairman came to my home? Another time—- radaR is a character to be sure. Imagine the sun conure sitting on a lampshade saying, “Bye-bye” over and over the whole time I am on the telephone!
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13 Mar 2022It could be jealousy. The bitter might think he’s not getting as much attention as the other. It might also be due to the reaction he gets from you. It becomes a game. My Goffins has gone through this and is being restricted to an arm with a substantial sleeve, but being better and being given more alone time. more. Always as the only one, never with another bird. It’s about his ego.
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13 Mar 2022The cages are beautiful. Could it be that one is too large and the bird feels insecure? I had that happen with my parrot. When I moved him to a smaller cage he was a different bird!
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13 Mar 2022Hello Lisa,
I’m sure you’ve received many helpful comments but, sadly, human understanding can never override natural instincts! I also have two conures, male and female. They share a cage but are out of it pretty much all the time. The male has become extremely territorial and downright aggressive towards anyone who walks into my bedroom and stand near my bed. Their cage is next to my bed, and I have set up a play area for both birds on the side of the cage that is adjacent to their cage. The male, of course, because it is breeding season, now assumes that not only my entire bed, but my entire bedroom is HIS territory, and if anyone dares enter my room, he will let them know he is NOT happy. He will either charge at them, or, if they are close enough for him, attempt to bite. I have had both conures since 2012(10 years now) but this is the first year I have ever seen this vicious behavior in him. It’s really funny, in one sense, because since I’ve had them both, he has never, ever shown any interest in mating with my poor, lovely female, who is ready and willing each season. The male just walks away and takes care of himself in that regard!
I don’t really know what other advice I can offer except to say that this behavior is almost certainly down to breeding cycles. Locking him in the cage, in my opinion will not change that instinctive behavior. I’ve kept birds for almost 40 years now and I have seen this aggression before. One thing I have always done, in an attempt to appease(not change) the male breeding behavior is to shower him with as much attention and conversation(by name) as you give the female. It’s natural, I think, for bird owners to focus their attentions on the more well behaved bird, but, trust me, that will only generate more aggressive behavior from the male.
WHenever I address or talk to my female by name, I always include the male’s name as well; whenever I read them a story(yes I do…they love it!), I always mention both names when talking to them about the story. It really does calm both birds, but more so, it takes the sting out of the male’s aggressiveness. But, as I’ve said, at the end of the day, human actions and understanding will never override a bird’s natural instinct to protect its territory or its mate. It will just dampen things down during breding cycles.
Best of luck to you!
Mylam Thai
13 Mar 2022My Pineapple Green Cheeked Conure rarely bit me. Have you tried to give him his “Avian Time”? I used to go to bed and getting up in the morning at my own time (human time). However, ever since I have Sunny, everything revolved around him. His bedtime is now my bedtime…… when he gets up in the morning, it’s also my time to be up. Daylight Saving time makes it difficult to adjust to ….. for the Conure, it seemed like he’s self-adjusted just like my cellular phone. He used to go to bed before 7PM and gets up around 5AM. Now he goes to bed after 7PM and gets up 6AM. Not sure if there’s any scientific evidence for this….. however, it’s been working for me. Hopes this help.
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13 Mar 2022I have a line of c-shaped scars running from forearm to wrist due to our now-22 year old African Grey’s bites, so I sympathize with this issue! Our JB is overall a calm bird but she could bite quite viciously and draw blood…and hurt my feelings, too! I know that behavior is also communication so I wanted to understand the goal of her biting. I did an analysis of when the bites occurred and what the goal of the biting might be.. I realized that the bites occurred at specific times: putting her back in the cage after being out of the cage on her perchstand . To solve this, I started giving her a nut when putting her back in her cage because biting was an incompatible behavior while she was holding a nut in her beak. I am not saying this would solve the poster’s problem, but an analysis of When the behavior occurs, its probable goal, and a way of making biting an incompatible behavior might yield some results with the other measures being taken.
Julinka
13 Mar 2022Well I don’t know if this will help because the situations are so different. I had a white fronted Amazon that went thru the terrible twos. She would bite unexpectedly and draw blood. I too had bite marks all over my hands. I started making her go back into her cage after a bite. I also explained what I was doing and why (she was very intelligent- answered questions,, etc.) If I could not get her back in her cage I would simply walk away and leave her alone. Ignore her, etc. She would sometimes whine like a baby when I did that because she loved attention. Eventually she connected biting with being lonely for a time and she stopped. I had to respect HER boundaries, tho. She did not like being touched unless she put her head down for a scratch.
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13 Mar 2022I have had several birds but never a concue ……if you keep the birds together maybe try keeping them apart for awhile.
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14 Mar 2022Perhaps you have a situation where the male is finally mature and ready to set up housekeeping with the female. I think we under-estimate the sex drive of young male parrots. Also, being housed separately but next to the female could frustrate him even further. But if you house them together you are going to get a bonded pair and lose your ability to interact with him at all.
My three conures are all much older males that have never been exposed to a female and they don’t bite except one bites when he’s over excited or thinks I’m taking away his food dish. After many years I can usually predict this behavior and put him back on his cage.
It’s sad, but you might consider re-homing the female, or keeping her and re-homing the male to a single bird household or breeder situation. Green checks have huge personalities in such a small package that just having the one around would be every entertaining.
Kiki
14 Mar 2022My Timneh gets very territorial and nippy during breeding season. My solution is first to keep him out of any enclosed space (including a cage) that he might “claim” as his nesting site. This helps enormously as the openness of a tree stand in the bird room and a separate stand in another room for sleeping prevents the drive to protect his nest site. Second, I am more aware of body language and only approach him when I have his permission. If I need to handle him I offer bribes of nuts or seeds in exchange for a trained behavior. I cut his treats down dramatically to reduce the hormones during this time as well. I’ve also noticed he does much better on Hari Alternative pellets (lower calorie and no soy). So, in short, my tricks are: reduce intake of fatty foods, keep him out of a cage or any enclosed space, don’t provide opportunities for biting, and always approach with respect, the opportunity to train with me (flying, tricks, learning a new phrase), and some treat or toy to make myself a desirable part of his day. I don’t know if you’ve watched Barbra Heindenrich’s webinar on biting, but she’s really great at going in-depth in these issues as well.