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Conure won’t stay off of shoulder

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Conure won’t stay off of shoulder

Postby Tarinann » Sat Jul 02, 2022 11:40 pm

Hello,

I am new to this group and hoping to learn how to train my green cheek conure. She is 6 months old and this is her third home. She has tons of non stop energy. She is so excited to see us and she loves to do a excited dance, bobbing up and down. Anytime we put anything in the cage she tries to quickly climb on us and:or fly to get on our shoulder. She came with clipped wings but can still fly a little. It is so hard to train her because we cannot get her to sit still and focus. She just wants to dance and get on our shoulder. She will sometimes bite and does not want to get off of our shoulder easily. We do give her out of cage time on the floor with us, on her play gym etc, but she just wants to get onto our shoulders. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Tarinann
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Pineapple Green Cheek Conure
Flight: No

Re: Conure won’t stay off of shoulder

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jul 03, 2022 8:45 am

Hi, Tarinann and GCC, welcome to the forum and congrats on your new baby (you did not tell us its name0. As to your 'problems', I am afraid that you have untenable expectations because of the species and age of parrot you have. First of all, at only 6 months of age, you are dealing with the equivalent of a 4 year old human child so, of course, the baby wants only to play and be with mama and dada. Your CGG is too young to be formally trained. It's still too flighty and its attention span is next to nothing :lol: Not that you should not teach it anything but what you need to teach is not done in a formal session, it's more a 'teach as you go' like you do with a small child, and just co-habiting things like stepping up and down, not nipping hard, no chewing on nails, etc and, most importantly, to eat a healthy and varied fresh food diet.

As to the 'won't stay off the shoulder'... well, my dear, being on its human's shoulder is, pretty much, all GCCs want out of life, and it's not only when they are young -when the need is much more acute- but all their lives. I have a 10 year old female who never bites, never screams and is the sweetest little thing and all she wants to do is cuddle on my chest and give me kisses all day long. I think that maybe you would have been happier with an amazon who are more independent and actually like just perching somewhere watching what is going on -we call them 'perch potatoes precisely because of this. Parrots might be all parrots and share lots of characteristics but each species has its own needs and, when it comes to GCCs, they need more one-on-one time than all other species except cockatoos.

So, please stop trying to train it until it's older and more 'settled down' and give it as much shoulder time as it wants... plenty of time to teach it stuff.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Conure won’t stay off of shoulder

Postby Tarinann » Sun Jul 03, 2022 11:19 am

Thank you for the info. We are not opposed to having her on our shoulders, but we were struggling with the training since she does always want to be with us. Knowing she is young with a shorter attention span helps. We are also working on getting her off of her seed diet onto pellets and fruits and vegetables, so seeds can be used as training treats.
Tarinann
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Pineapple Green Cheek Conure
Flight: No

Re: Conure won’t stay off of shoulder

Postby Pajarita » Mon Jul 04, 2022 8:40 am

Glad I could be of help! Now, pellets are not, contrary to popular belief, the best dietary option for parrots because they are way too dry (natural diets of parrots are 85-95% moisture, pellets have less than 10, a HUGE difference!), too processed (parrots in the wild eat EVERYTHING raw), have an unknown amount of protein which is very dangerous, and are usually made of inferior ingredients -I've been doing research since 1994 on this. I feed gloop and raw produce for breakfast and a heaping teaspoon of a good budgie mix with nuts for dinner (mine adores walnuts so she gets 1/4 of one). Everybody also gets a multivitamin/mineral supplement 3 times a week. GCCs are mostly fruit eaters so they can only eat very little protein or their livers suffer - this means that they cannot be free-fed (this is when you put food out in the morning and leave it there all day long) any type of protein food: pellets, seeds, nuts, avicakes, nutriberries, etc.

Here's one thing you can teach it now: put the bird on the far end of a table and call it to you (I say the name of the bird and then 'come!'' while patting my forearm), when it comes -aand it will because it wants to be on you- praise, praise, praise but don't give it any reward- this will begin to teach it recall without really stressing it out. Oh, and, as reward, don't use seeds (the only healthy ones for a GCC are too small for a reward), use a little piece of a nut.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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