Last Updated on by Catherine Tobsing
Elena T. is concerned:
I have a green cheek conure named Rae and he’s about 2-3 years old.
I’m not sure if Rea is a boy or a girl but I got him from the pet store pretty early on so I’m the only owner he’s ever had besides the pet store workers.
He’s a sweet bird and my family loves him but recently he’s been biting me.
It mainly happens when I have a pen in my hand or when I use my iPad.
It also happens when he’s with my mom and I go to pick him up. He’ll lash out and bite me or her. He used to not break the skin but now he has been and I’m currently healing from two bites :/
Hi Elena,
I’m certainly sorry to hear about your bird’s biting problem.
I will advocate that you get the bird sexed so you know how to better deal with it.
I’m going to make a WAG (Wild Ass Guess) that your green cheek conure is moving from adolescence to maturity.
You have likely been chosen as his/her mate.
The bites you are receiving the bird sending the message “how dare you to interact with anyone but me.”
For the time being, don’t let the bird on you or be within fighting distance.
Bites are absolutely unacceptable and should be avoided at all costs.
We also just passed through daylight savings time, and as the days are getting shorter your bird is stressing more thus acting out.
We want to reset your GCC’s circadian clock by shutting it in a cage for a solid 72 to 168 hours and subjecting it to 100 W light on top of the cage that does not get turned off for the entire time.
Once the long light therapy has passed, introduce a timer to the lighting and set to provide 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness while disrespecting daylight savings time.
By that I mean, we have 10 birds that reside primarily in five cages.
Up until this past Sunday, all the cage lights turned on at 8:30 in the morning and turned off at 8:30 at night all summer long.
After resetting all the clocks for Daylight Savings Time in the house, but not adjusting any of the timers, all the cage lights now come on at 7:30 AM and turn off at 7:30 PM all winter long.
We do this so the birds don’t get confused because they have 100 million years of equatorial lifecycles instinctual expectations.
Light therapy works on any number of negative avian behaviors.
One of our readers recently submitted this to us:
Stephen T. writes:
Subject: Light therapy.
“This is more a thank you than a comment.
Your light therapy suggestion is making a world of difference for my wife’s Goffin’s cockatoo Buddy.
He continually plucked chest feathers until about 2 months ago when we started using a daylight led light placed close to his enclosure.
His chest is full now and he looks great.
Thank you so much for that article”.
BTW ~ your bird will look much better and enjoy the daily brightness.
Stay safe
Best
MitchR
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