Vim

Just to follow up, Vim hasn't bitten me again, and it's been a month. So all good things and thanks again for the advice. A few times I've hit a sore quill and she's lunged, but it looks like she catches herself mid-strike and instead just bumps me with her beak. Each time I tell her "Good girl," which is our reward/treat term, in an attempt to encourage this good communication (i.e. a beak-bump is enough to get me to back off). I think she's young and still learning to communicate with me, and of course I'm still learning to understand her communication. I continue to be amazed at how quickly she learns and how much she understands.

Hi Timbersmom and neoow. Thank you for the responses, it makes me feel better about the way I've been handling this. I'll keep on with telling her, "I bite," putting her down, and walking away. She hasn't bitten me in a week now, and I spend a lot of time with her each day. Vim was born in June of 2021, so she's 2. Right now she's a bit of a velcro bird. Boundary pushing is certainly on the table; she is changing a bit, although she still has a very gentle and shy personality. I've also increased her sleep from 12 hours to 13.5. With how attached she is recently, I am worried that she's becoming hormonal, even though I've tried to follow the rules surrounding hormonal behavior (no body scratches, plenty of sleep, no nesting material, etc.).

Hey Talon, thanks for the response. I'll keep on with just ignoring her when she bites, although sometimes that's hard to do since her bite packs a punch compared to our conure. I think maybe she's a bit hormonal this summer. Vim's very gentle and likes to hang out with me, and she loves scratches, so this is a bit unusual for her temperament. My gut is that she gets scared and is still just learning how to communicate. Sometimes when I hit touch a sore quill, she says, "I'm sorry" and winces. I've been trying to reinforce that communication. I tell her, "I'm sorry" in response, then "good girl" (our training "click"), and then I back off. She's very smart and seems to understand tone remarkably well. Perhaps the honeymoon period is over. I used to work in a pet store in high school and some of the rescue parrots there were testers. Others were tricksters, especially the cockatoos: they would fluff up and squint like they wanted to be pet, then they would bite and cackle! Vim's more of a snuggle bug, but she is still young and starting to mature. Her personality could be changing, and maybe she's pushing boundaries. I'll keep trying to better understand her language. My fear, of course, is that I've unknowingly been somehow reinforcing the biting. Over the years I've learned that it's easy to accidentally reinforce undesired behavior.

Hi there, and thanks in advance for reading my post. This is my second post about Vim, who is doing great. She enjoys my company, and has learned all sorts of tricks. I can say, "Hello," and she says, "Hi Kara" (my wife's name). I can say, "The Andy Griffith show!", and she whistles the theme song. I say, "What's wrong with you?", and she responds, "I have no lips!" Every day I train her for about a 30 minutes. One of the tricks we work on is step-up. We've been doing this trick for months, but the other day she bit the crud out of me after she stepped up nicely. I think she was kind of demanding a treat. A few days later, I was scratching her head at night, which she loves, and she bit me again! I think I touched a sore quill feather. And one more time a few days later, she got spooked on my shoulder or something and bit me on the nose. It doesn't seem like she's been angry with me on any of these occasions, more like an instinctual, in-the-moment bite. This is my third parrot, and while I'm not expert in bird behavior, I do have some bird-brain understanding. Vim's never been forced to step up: I always ask her and respect her when she doesn't want to be held. She's never been disciplined or had any sort of demonstration of aggressive behavior. I generally just ignore behavior I don't like, and promote behavior I do with kind words, scratches, or a treat. That's worked well so far because she's very well behaved, sweet, quiet (compared to our resident conure), potty trained... But now this biting out of the blue! No eye pinning, no ruffled feathers, no hissing, just wham! My response so far has been to remain calm and say, "Ow, I bite!" with a sad tone. When I tell her that, she looks like she understands (maybe that sounds strange). When she bit my nose, I calmly put her back in her cage and walked away. Does that seem like the right strategy? She really is a great bird, but I'm used to conures. I can grab them by the body, flip them over, ruffle their feathers, and it's all play to them. Vim's very body shy, proud, and she spooks easily, and I'm constantly working on trust accordingly. Thanks again, and I'll leave you with this picture.

Thanks to all of you who posted responses. Vim's been with me for almost a month now, and I'm happy to report that patience has paid off. She now wants to hang out with me at all times. When she and I wake up in the morning, she calls me over to take her our of her cage and put her on her perch. Any time I offer her my hand, she eagerly steps then dips her head for a scratch. Her personality is shy, quiet, and apprehensive, but very affectionate once she's comfortable. Not so playful, but attentive and quick to learn and not at all scared of new things. I feel lucky because she's a great fit for a guy like me! Still working on getting her not to pop the buttons off of my shirts... 😃

Thanks for all the responses. At this point she's starting to trust me. While she's in her cage, she lets me scratch her head. Every evening she steps up for me and hangs out on my shoulder for 20 minutes or so. The lady at the bird store told me not to let her climb out of her cage on her own. She said that down the line she may give me attitude when I try to get her out of her cage. The thing is, while she's in her cage, she absolutely refuses to step up. When I ask her to step up, she puts her head down and ruffles her feathers and nuzzles against my finger. So, I've been going against what they told me at the bird store. After she eats breakfast, I ask her to step up. She refuses, and I scratch her head. Then I wait 5 or 10 minutes and repeat. She refuses to step up again, so I just leave the cage door open. (Sometimes I coax her out with a target stick and a clicker.) There's a perch on top of her cage, and from there she's much more receptive to being held. She calls me over when she wants to be held--she makes a certain whistle and points with her head. I have not had problems getting her back in her cage at bedtime. That all seem okay? She's still very shy and apprehensive. She gets scared when my wife or kids walk up to her. But we're getting there 😃

Thank you for the responses, SRSeedBurners and Greytness. What you said makes me feel better about taking things slowly with her. Last night she let me hold her and scratch her head again, but this morning she's once again bashful. If I'm reading her correctly, then I think that everything is going well. I'll keep at it and report back. Thanks again!

Hi everyone. Writing a post to introduce myself since I'm new to the forum. I have been reading the forums for a while and there's a lot of great info! My name's Ben, and I live in a small town in Ca. We've had a male Jenday Conure, Pippin, with our family since 2001. He's a handful. He likes to hang out on his perch and demand attention 😃 He's target trained, talks in a squeaky voice, and does a few tricks for treats. He's also pretty phobic, and that's something we've been working on. Before Pippin, we had a Sun Conure, Gabby, but she unfortunately became egg-bound in 2007, went into surgery, and did not make it through. Anyway, on Monday, and after a long wait, we brought home a baby female Congo African Grey! We named her Vim. She is about five months old and beautiful. She seems to be doing well, eating her veggy mix, drinking water, exploring. I've been watching videos and reading about Greys for a long time, but now that she's here, I'm feeling a bit discouraged (for lack of a better word). The thing is, she is very shy. Emphatically shy. I understand that Greys are naturally phobic, but when Pippin and Gabby came home, they both enjoyed my company right away. But Vim is different. When I put my hand near her, she growls a bit. Not like an angry growl, but more of a fearful one. I have been able to give her a few treats by hand. Yesterday, she was flapping her wings and glided off of her perch onto the carpet (she's clumsy as can be). I picked her up, although she didn't seem to want me to, and then she let me scratch her head. She seemed like she really liked that, and nuzzled against my shirt. Afterward, on her perch, she let me scratch her head again, and then allowed me to put her in her cage for bedtime. But this morning I offered her a piece of fruit, and I left my hand in place after she took it. She dropped the fruit and bit me. I did not react much, but I did flinch and say "Ow" because she bit me kind of hard. I want to earn this bird's trust, and I'm fine with being patient. I have been working next to her, talking to her calmly. She smiles at me with her eyes, if you know what I mean, and seems comfortable (she naps, stretches, doesn't mind me walking behind her, etc.). I have not asked her to step up because she seems scared, nor have I tried to scratch her head again. Does that seem like the right tack to take? Just be present around her and let her come to me in her own time? Thanks for reading, and for any advice!