help with pineapple conure

[favesis37]

Hi this is a first post for me. Monday i got a "5" month old pineapple conure. At the store sunday he was so sweet, monday he was not.lol Now i know he was stressed, monday he ran up hubby's arm and bit his earlobe, tuesday he ran up son's arm and bit his earlobe, yesterday he bit my neck and my daughters finger. Today he ran down my hubby's leg and bit his toe. He steps up great, it is once he is out of his cage that we run into issues. Just today i started clicker training him, it took awhile to find a treat he likes, he is not a good fruit or veggie eatter. He does alot of head bobbing when he hears my voice. We got no papers on him , we were told they had none, so we arent' really sure of his age. any ideas?

[budgiebuddy]

I cannot be possitive on this but maybe, in something you did when he first bit whoever. You might have accidently rewarded him for bitting. Once he gets what he wants the first time he learns that bitting gets him what he wants! What you should do is if he bites like that again do not say anything and do not put him down and walk away. He wants a reaction and when he does not get one for bitting he will stop. It will hurt when he bites but you should not tell him it hurts. You should get him out if he bites, wait a few seconds then just continue playing with him. After playing for a little you should pet him nicely and if he doesn't bite you give him a treat. That way he learns that being nice gets him treats, bitting does not! Good luck. I hope this method works for you!!

[HyperD]

Another consideration is what you did after he bit..

You did not mention how he is with you... is he fine?

What did you do when he bit them? If he is fine with you and you put him on you afterwards, then you have taught him to bite to be with you.

As budgiebuddy said, now you have found a treat try and reward him for being good.

Also what happens if you try and block him as he climbs up the arm?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

He might just be trying it on, too. Just be aware of what you are doing and be careful not to reward a bite and TO reward positive interaction. Among other things, he could be trying to preen his new flockmates and simply be overenthusiastic. Or he might be exploring his new world with his beak, which is also a natural behavior. He'll need to learn what works in his new home and what doesn't and it's your job to make sure what works is a set of behaviors you can live with in the long run. I found with Scooter that just a small amount of being conscious of what I was encouraging shaped his behavior into a truly delightful companion in a very short time period with little directed effort. In the very beginning I was afraid we had a problem biter, but it just wasn't so.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

One other thought, sometimes overexcitement can cause biting. When I am playing with Scooter and passing things back to him for him to throw, sometimes he gets really excited and if I'm not careful how I hand items over, I get beaked instead of the toy, but it is clearly essentially a mistake or failure to discriminate between moving objects! Same thing can happen when he's "helping" me make breakfast, if I'm putting food where he is, I have to watch how I do it. If I do it quietly and slowly, he'll help put the items in the dish. If I'm too fast, I may get bitten, either he thinks something is trying to take food, or he's just plain overstimulated and that's one thing too much. Since he will invariable step up for me in the same situation I don't think it's a trust issue, it's just pushing too many buttons at once.