Beautiful Kai - Pineapple Green Cheek Conure

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Beautiful Kai - Pineapple Green Cheek Conure

by Sheila
(Texas)

Kai 10-04-2011

Kai on right Rio on left - Pineapple GC Conures

Kai is closer Rio is farther

I already have a Pineapple Green Cheek Conure named Rio. I am so crazy about him that he even has his own FaceBook page! Rio is 1 1/2 years old. I have been wanting a second bird for a long time now. Not necessarily as a companion for Rio, but as another little buddy for me. Tuesday night, I got my wish and got my second Pineapple.

I named her Kai and she (sex unknown) is 7 months old. She is a rehome because her first "Mommy" was moving out of state and could not take her. I was thrilled that I was getting a young handfes baby. Boy, little did I know that once I got her home, I had just adopted a VAMPIRE BIRD!!! I think some of it may be due to her being in a new cage and new surroundings, but she can be vicious! I think we are making progress though.

At first, she would not even step up. Now she will step up on command consistently. She is not cage aggressive and is more than happy to step up to come out of her cage. Her problem is that she can be sitting happily on your hand or shoulder, then the next second, she is hissing, raising her wings and lunging. Even if you haven't moved a muscle. She is very beaky and mouthy and that is OK. When she gets vicious, she gets put in time out back in her cage.

i have already made a small amount of progress with her and will continue to work with her daily. I have patience and all the time in the world for her to learn to love me back. She is just a bully to Rio. Luckily, he is flighted and can fly away when she gets rough. Kai's wings were clipped when I got her.

I am patient and kind and I am confident that she will come around to be a very sweet bird! I love my FIDS!

Comments for
Beautiful Kai - Pineapple Green Cheek Conure

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Oct 11, 2011

Big Difference
by: Sheila

Well today I was optomistic when I got Kai out of her cage and I was not disappointed. She allowed me to take her out and she and Rio had some play time, they are beginning to make friends. Later, I took Kai into the shower with me for the first time. I regularly take Rio in the shower and it is one of his favorite things to do. Today it was Kai's turn, she has haver had a shower. She LOVED it! She did not one time try to bite me hard today, just a little beaky. I think the stepping up the ladder trick made an impact with her. I will continue to work with her daily and hope to keep moving forward and she will become the sweet bird I know she can be.

Oct 10, 2011

Thank you
by: Sheila

Linda,

I have taken what you said to heart and no longer allow Kai higher than my elbow and not on my shoulder.

I am VERY committed to both my fids and and determined to become friends with Kai. I think I figured out that putting her in time out in her cage is exactly what she wants. She has her food and loads of new toys and her happy hut. I think she actually wants back in so I was reenforcing her biting behavior by putting her there. Today I tried a new tactic and it worked pretty well. When she would bite, I would tell her "NO BITE" and then make her step up in a continuous ladder until she calmed down. When she calmed down, I would praise her and tell her what a good bird she was. I was even able to pet her afterwards. She only bit me like 3-4 times today that were very hard and she got to step up the ladder each time. I think this is working the best and I will continue to be consistent with her in this. Again, I am determined that she will, if not love me back, at least respect me enough not to bite viciously in the future. I demand respect from her and I think end the end we can mutually respect each other.

I have not forgotten about my precious Rio. He gets lots of attention from me and one on one time. He gets praised and loved. I cuddle and pet him in front of Kai so hopefully she will get the idea that I am her friend and would never harm her.

I hope to continue the updates with great news each time. I look forward to many long and happy years with my fids!

Oct 09, 2011

Beautiful Kai - Pineapple Green Cheek Conure
by: Linda

I'm very proud of you for committing yourself to your birds, and wish there were more like you.

Just because a bird is handfed does not mean it will be docile when it comes to a new home. In fact, some of the Conures and a whole bunch of the Ringneck Parakeet family can revert back to native behavior at the drop of a hat. I had a Ringneck like this once, and she had been handfed and would take a "bite or three out of me" everytime I worked with her. I even had a number of conures bite me when I was handfeeding them. They'd bite a finger and kind of laugh. Course once they got into feeding, they were better. That is until they were done and then another little bite on one of my fingers. I wore a lot of bandaids as I was feeding around 30-40 babies at that time.

The only word of caution I have for you is to keep her off your shoulder. You are going to get hurt very badly at some point doing this. Train your birds to stay off shoulder. I've seen some very tragic injuries to people who would not keep their birds off their shoulders. One of my customers almost lost an eye because her bird became afraid of something and went directly for her eye. She learned, and almost lost her eye doing it, so please train birds to stay off shoulder as this position gives them way too much power over you, and they KNOW it. Parrots are highly intelligent and can be very manipulative as well.

Otherwise, you're doing a bang up job of training her, and she will learn she has limits, and this training is a must for small children and parrots of all ages. Both will do what they are allowed to do and will think up much more develment to get into if a parent is not paying attention.

Thanks for your uplifing letter. I called my Green Ringneck parakeet "The Green Thing from Hell", and your is Vampire! Please take proper precuations to keep yourself and your other bird safe.

Linda

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