I’ve run into this issue multiple times over the last few weeks.
It’s never happened before and I’m not sure why all of a sudden it’s started to occur.
My conure keeps biting me out of nowhere, I don’t believe it’s something I’m doing wrong as I believe he’s a happy parrot.
I tried various recommended discipline methods when my parrot was a chick and none of them have seemed to work.
This is when I decided to do some research, I eventually got my conure to stop biting me and I want to share my experience with you.
A conure will bite you for several reasons, but the main reasons are to do with dominance, playfulness, breeding stage or if your bird is sick it may want to be left alone and therefore bite you if not.
It’s extremely important to read your conure’s body language to understand why it’s biting you.
A conure and most parrots, show certain body languages that you can learn to understand how they are feeling over the action they take.
For instance, if your bird isn’t feeling well and is sick. It may be aggressive as parrots like to hide their illnesses and may want to be left alone.
How to Stop My Conure from Biting
There are several ways in which you can stop your conure from biting and you may need to try a few to find the “special recipe” for this.
Body Language
This first one is the most important and you will need to understand and study their body language.
Having a solid understanding of your bird’s body language will help you identify why your conure is biting you.
Studying their body language will help you understand which issue they are having that is causing them to bite.
These issues could be due to your bird being a chick, over fear, breeding stages, illness, or is generally playing around.
Once you understand the behavior, you’ll be able to identify which discipline technique to use or be able to stop what is causing them to bite.
Act fast
If your conure has started biting continuously on multiple occasions then you need to act fast before it turns into a habit.
The worrying thing is when the conure gets used to that behavior and feels like there isn’t any consequence for it.
Acting fast with the right discipline will increase the chances of your conure realizing that biting isn’t acceptable.
Taking too long to act or not acting at all will make the parrot seem like this is okay to do and they’ll continue to do it throughout their life.
Don’t shout at your bird
One of the worst things people say you can do is shout or show pain when a parrot bites you.
I understand it can be painful and it can be the first thing that comes to mind.
However, the parrot takes this as a weakness issue and will continue to want to dominate you when you.
If you can, don’t shout as soon as your bird bites you. Instead, control your emotions and put them back in their cage.
Walk away
Following from putting them back into their cage is that you should walk away after.
It’s suggested that you should put them in their cage, cover it, and then walk away.
Doing this will ensure that the conure knows they have done something wrong as they won’t want to stay in the cage.
If you do this enough as a disciplinary they’ll start to understand that biting will put them in this position.
Once they understand this, they’ll stop biting.
However, this will only work for some parrots and you may need to try alternative methods to tame your bird.
How to Discipline Your Conure from Biting
You now know how to stop your conure from biting but how do you discipline them into stopping it forever.
Firstly, if they’re used to biting for any type of reason then I suggest you use the reward method.
The reward method works in a way that you reward them with food for going a set amount of time without biting you.
Once they figure out why they are being rewarded they’ll stop biting to receive more food.
Some people have had some great results out of this and others not so, some people seem to think that this will only solve a short-term issue.
The next discipline option which I’ve also mentioned above is that you shouldn’t show emotion or anger when they bite you.
Ignoring the fact that they have just bitten you will suggest to them that you don’t care and a lot of the time they are biting you because they want to show dominance.
I understand that this can be hard as a bit from a beak can be extremely painful at times.
If it nips your skin in the right spot it can certainly cause some bleeding.
Lastly, is one of the most common discipline techniques.
But after they bite you or continue to be a nuisance you should put them back in their cage and cover it with a cage cover.
After a while of doing this discipline technique, you can ensure that your parrot will not want to go back into the cage and will know the consequences.
As you can see there are a few practices when it comes to disciplining your conure.
It’s important to know how to act appropriately with the behavior they’re showing.
The earlier you show discipline towards biting the easier it will be to control and that’s why I recommend everyone to start some sort of disciplinary action from when they’re chicks.
Things to Consider Before Buying a Conure
If you haven’t noticed already, It can be difficult to train a conure and these are some of the things you need to consider before becoming an owner.
Playfulness
They’re are extremely playful and like to make a lot of noise and this can result in them being a somewhat difficult bird to tame and calm down in certain situations.
Birds are generally pretty loud pets and if you’re not prepared for this it may be very difficult for you.
Territory
If they are not disciplined correctly they can be very aggressive when it comes to owning territory and this can result in some serious biting and aggressiveness.
Conures care a lot about their territory and you’ll have to discipline them about their territory issues and you’ll also have to know how to act if they start acting up like this.
It’s extremely important to understand when you need to walk away or whatever other disciplinary action you will take.
Commitment
You need to understand the commitment it takes to look after a conure.
Their typical life span is between 20-30 years, so it may seem like a good idea to purchase one at the moment.
But how will your older self, feel when it comes to owning it over this long period of time?
Biting
Conures typically bite more than most parrots, but it can easily be controllable if you teach them correctly and at a young age.
People can struggle with this, but it’s just because they haven’t disciplined them since they were a chick.
Once a parrot is conformable with its ways, you can guarantee it’ll be very difficult to get them out of it.
As you can tell, there are a few things to consider when it comes to owning a conure.
It’s not something you can really think about overnight, if you’re ever unsure you should visit a pet shop which has conures for a few weeks to see how you like them.
This may help you with your decision making.