Skittish green cheek conure

Hi there, I have a very sweet pineapple GCC that we bought for my 13 yr old daughter who has begged me for a parrot for years. She is hand raised and very sweet, loves cuddles from the whole family and chitter chatters away. Suddenly she appears to be ?frightened? Of my 13 yr old and will only allow myself and my husband to get her out of her cage. She shies and runs away from my daughter. She will sit on her shoulder if I put her there but it's almost like its under protest and if I am close enough she will try and get to me. My poor girl is heartbroken as this is her baby and she is being rejected. Any info, suggestions very welcome. Many thanks

Hi,

I think I saw your post on the GCC forum as well. I'm sure you'll get some good advice here!

I'm guessing something happened that seemed insignificant to your daughter but which spooked the bird. My suggestion would be to have your daughter do all the feeding and cage cleaning and stuff, and offer handheld treats and tidbits, but not try to handle her unless she offers to come to your daughter. In the mean time, have the rest of the family back off and avoid handling her, so your daughter is the only game in town. She'll need to be patient and find a way to encourage the bird to want to come to her. Forcing parrots often goes wrong! She could try some training with her, such as target training, using treats. Bribery is not a bad thing!

They can and do develop favorites and attachments and sometimes you can't easily get them to change their minds -- with work you can usually get them to be civil with others, but not necessarily to prefer them. Hopefully that's not what is going on here.

Thanks for replying, yes I found the GCC forum before this one! I had a feeling something along those lines might have happened. I will try those suggestions and see how we go! Fingers crossed!

I would agree with everything Deb suggested, but have one additional idea, depending on how well you can move her around the house. That would be to try having your daughter with the bird in an unfamiliar place (could be a seldom visited room in the house) away from the cage, so the surroundings are somewhat foreign. That way the most familar thing in the room is your daughter. This may help speed the process along without forcing the issue. Just a thought. Let us know how it is going!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Hi,

I think I saw your post on the GCC forum as well. I'm sure you'll get some good advice here!

I'm guessing something happened that seemed insignificant to your daughter but which spooked the bird. My suggestion would be to have your daughter do all the feeding and cage cleaning and stuff, and offer handheld treats and tidbits, but not try to handle her unless she offers to come to your daughter. In the mean time, have the rest of the family back off and avoid handling her, so your daughter is the only game in town. She'll need to be patient and find a way to encourage the bird to want to come to her. Forcing parrots often goes wrong! She could try some training with her, such as target training, using treats. Bribery is not a bad thing!

They can and do develop favorites and attachments and sometimes you can't easily get them to change their minds -- with work you can usually get them to be civil with others, but not necessarily to prefer them. Hopefully that's not what is going on here.

move the birds cage to her bedroom for a few nights...deb and roger have4 covered everything else...


dusty

2 steps forward 1 step back. Yesterday she came out to J-bear when she got home from school and they had a play, but then later and then this morning she would run away from her.
Miss apples is now refusing to go to my husband when she is with me, I have a feeling I may be the one and she's just telling everybody else to bugger off?

It's possible that is what is happening. I'd suggest you distancing your affections for a while... try completely ignoring the bird. Don't make eye contact, don't talk to it, don't feed it, don't respond to it, pretend as though it doesn't exist. It should be caged if somebody else isn't around to supervise out of cage time. Let the bird know that YOU're not the person for him. It will certainly change the dynamics for the bird. It avoids any discipline - just simply takes you out of the mix and puts everyone else back in the forefront.

Others (Deb and PDB) may have different (better) ideas, but I've found that ignoring behaviors that I don't like - whatever they are - are the best way to make them go away. And if I can prevent them from happening in the first place, well, that's even better!

I may have missed it, but how old is Apples and how long have you had her?

We've had Poe for about three and a half months, and he's gone through stages in that time where he absolutely ADORES me and won't go near the hubby and vice versa.

Currently, he is molting and seems to have no preference as to who's ear he gets to chew, or who's face he gets to scream in.

She may be going through a phase, or she may have decided she loves you and only you.

Having accidentally "stolen" a bird from my husband... I suspect VN is right if you are willing to do that. Otherwise it is possible Apples will be YOUR bird, and then either your daughter will have to be happy being second fiddle (you probably can get her to be civil to your daughter and husband if you work at it consistently even if she looooooves you) or get.... another bird... and try to NOT handle that one as much!

(I say this, with both Scooter and Scotty firmly preferring me and Blanco, who I swore not to take over, sitting on my shoulder demanding head rubs. But they tell me 'tiels really don't go hard over on one person as much as the others....)

Oh VN even if logistically I could do that I don't know emotionally if I could!! I share custody of my kids with J-bears dad so one week out of 2 I am the bird keeper. I explanned to J that this might happen because of that very thing which is why I encourage her to do the lions share of the care when she is at home. AND I adore her and I don't know if I could ignore her!!!
PP I think she's around 6 or 7 months old. I don't have a hatch date so am just going on when we got her at Xmas time.