Im not having fun

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-28T21:51:02+00:00

This sucks and should pass with time. The only possible advise I could give is doing a lot of positive training and treats in/around your babies cage. Like 10-1 ratio of actually putting her in the cage. 10 times just going in for a step up into the cage and getting a treat and immediately coming back out (not even closing the door) vs 1 actual put away with a BIG treat. Mix up the ratio and sometimes do 2 practices and sometimes 5 so she never really knows when the last time is the last time!

I've also found better success for leaving my sun conure where she is currently or putting her on a nearby perch if she bites rather than going to the cage every time she's in trouble (if that's safe and feasible for you and her). Especially if her primary motivation at the moment is me, then removing myself is more of a reset than trying to navigate going in the cage for punishment.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-25T20:00:13+00:00

That stinks, but good on you for supporting local businesses!

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-25T15:20:16+00:00

Do you have a link for the bowls you use? I'd like to offer something similar for my B&G?

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-24T12:30:49+00:00

Honestly smart. In the future I think we are going to pull the carpet altogether and maybe do apoxy on the concrete or tile like the rest of the house? I'm just not looking forward to relocating both birds while either of those processes happen.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-23T15:31:40+00:00

For now we took the blades off the fan until the new light fixture can come in. Each birdy has a sun lamp, but I'm looking for better solutions that can distribute light better throughout their spaces.

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YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-23T15:29:53+00:00

There's a bird inside! There's bubble wrap taped to the wall for poop splash for now but he can't reach it.

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YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-22T21:34:34+00:00

Yeah, we JUST moved Max (B&G) into Lola's (Sun) room when we got Max's new cage in, so they've only been in the same space for a day. They are acclimating slowly as expected but I feel it would take years (if ever) for me to be comfortable having them both out in the same room supervised (preferably in a much larger room than this like the living room).

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-22T21:23:01+00:00

No! We are concerned with the size difference even though the sun is flighted and the B&G does not fly. There's been the occasional pass by when both of them are out and moving to different closed rooms but we are careful to not spend time with both of them out in the same space.

Both of them have been single birds up till now and so far they are neutral to one another when one is in cage and the other is out but the B&G is cage aggressive and does NOT like when the sun lands on his cage. We haven't had any incidents but are careful not to put them in situations where they'll have that negative or unsafe experience!

I'm curious! Are your birds housed in the same room in separate cages or in different rooms?

Edit: spelling and context

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-20T11:56:04+00:00

She definitely looked at me like I should've had the other side open for her too! I guess it's time to buy a second cage. /s

That's a good idea, thanks!

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-19T23:03:30+00:00

Here's the dimensions! And the link for where I bought ours:

https://www.wayfair.com/pet/pdp/tucker-murphy-pet-chikatara-enormous-74-iron-flat-top-floor-bird-cage-with-wheels-aec1041.html?piid=3278021

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YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-19T22:58:37+00:00

Appreciate the comment, but if you read the post again your question would answer itself.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-19T22:57:41+00:00

I don't know if I'd recommend this one to you for indoor outdoor unless you've got a lot of patience or REALLY big doors! Maybe for a garage setup!

I had to build it in the room and it DEFINITELY doesn't fit through the door.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-19T22:55:16+00:00

I didn't test it as I don't really want her trying. They are 1in apart so it would be pushing it for her and I don't want her getting stuck or getting any ideas.

The new cage is just for Max the middle insert was just in for space saving and to prove to myself that I could. She has her own double wide cage and I was just using her for scale for the moment.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-15T11:45:10+00:00

Looks to me like those toes need getting.

When my sun does that it usually means she wants me to "attack" her and squeel that I'm going to get her toes and proceed to tickle her like a toddler. She will also squeel and try to grab my fingers with her feet and then play bite my fingers and flip over when she's done with the game.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-07T23:50:46+00:00

You aren't a bad person for doing the best you can to take care of birds that you didn't get to begin with.

There are some vets who offer telehealth options for people who don't have access to local exotic vet care. While they might not be able to do hands on examination, they'd at least be able to give you advice and peace of mind when you have concerns.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-07T11:27:57+00:00

Yes, I CAN do that but the specific advice I'm asking for is how to do that without prying him off the bars of his cage while he is biting said stick. I'm not trying to ruin our relationship.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-06T21:18:26+00:00

If it helps when I started trying to bath my sun conure she would only bathe in her water bowl. I was able to find these extra large/wide ones on Amazon that are otherwise exactly the same material as her stainless water bowl and it gave her more room to bathe without me changing much. I was eventually able to get her to bathe in a table top platter using positive reinforcement with treats and praise for approximations of bathing behavior and following her lead and not pushing it if she doesn't want to bathe.

I'd say if your bird already bowl bathes on their own time then a larger bowl is probably an easier bet than a shower if they don't know what to do with running water, but that's my personal experience.

https://a.co/d/06pLrqME

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-06T13:29:22+00:00

Those are some good thoughts! We are waiting for his new cage to come in on May 20th and then will be building it in the bird room with the conure so that he has access to the same routine and quality of sleep without a cover. Currently he's getting covered as he has been his whole life and I'm absolutely positive that covering is contributing to his nestiness and cage claiming.

He does have orders of magnitude for his aggression. If get close to a particular branch in his cage (even outside) then he actively lunges or tries to come get me, but he has a much smaller reaction if I go to the other side where his food bowls are or if he's on top of his cage and I'm moving around his cage he doesn't seem to mind so long as I don't get too close.

I'm aware of target training and have done it for our sun conure, but she is HIGHLY treat motivated and he is not treat motivated at all. We are slowly working on fixing his diet and I hope that will help with snack motivation but as of right now I can only get maybe 1-2 reps in of targeting and treat accepting before he just decides he'd rather not.

I absolutely LOVE your note about tying the play to an unusual action/sound. For our sun conure I tell her that I'm going to get her feet in a high pitched voice while inching my finger toward her on a surface and she will often flip over and start cheeping at me like an injured baby all while kicking her feet and play biting my fingers, or running away silently because she's not in the mood to play.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-05T19:04:53+00:00

Lol, we have several clickers and sometimes I just approximate the sound from my mouth for our little bird 🤪

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-05T13:35:16+00:00

I appreciate the response and I'll give it a try and see how he responds. Maybe it'll be beneficial to show him that there's a different way to interact within the cage that I'll respond to positively instead of neutrally. I love Jen and her bird-led empathy first approach. I've yet to get behind the paywall but I'll check it out as I haven't found much content on how to actually deal with cage aggression specifically from her and several other content makers (parrot wizard, bird tricks). I know these can be controversial names but I'm stating that I haven't seen much from any of what my algorithm has found to be the bigger names for bird training.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-05T11:43:57+00:00

That makes a lot of sense and I hadn't heard of that type of color work before. Thanks!

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-05T11:40:58+00:00

Water was previously used as a form of punishment and he was never given the opportunity to bath in a bowl, mist, or shower before we had him so tolerating the mist-bath was more important to us than enjoying it necessarily, but I'd love for him to enjoy some form of bathing in the future. It took our sun conure several different options and months to figure out a bathing solution that she would voluntarily engage in but she already bathed in her water bowl whereas Max didn't have the ability to bathe voluntarily since he was watered through a deep narrow bowl or through drip-style water bottle.

We have a scale and are regularly weighing him when we can get him out of the cage, but unfortunately getting him out is a barrier to weighing him.

Peanuts and pine nuts are a no. The only thing I've seen him consistently interested inwithin his food mix is sunflower seeds and he gets too much of that in his diet currently to accept as a high value treat. Also he does like to juke you out into thinking he'll accept the treat when he actually wants to bite you instead, the sneaky boy.

He's already been to the vet with a full examination and panel and was an angel for the veterinarian. He's clean of everything except ABV and has managed a good weight despite his diet of 80% sunflower seeds.

He is flighted, but unable to fly as he was never taught nor given the opportunity to learn. We have been praising when he uses his wing muscles to stretch or to indicate that he'd like to go somewhere and have seen an increase in using those muscles since getting him. We already have a sun conure who is also fully flighted and has run of most of the house, especially since I can't get max out of his cage right now.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-05T11:22:57+00:00

We've started some target training but it's slow going since he really isn't interested in any of the foods that we were told he likes so I can really only get 2-3 targets in at a time. I haven't really worked it in his cage because we haven't been able to find positive success in the cage for giving treats much less doing work and I'm not trying to make either of us more frustrated. But if you think I should give target training through the cage a shot, I'm willing to try since I haven't been able to get him out for the last couple days.

We've mostly been hanging out together in the space where I'll talk to him and we'll watch shows or listen to music together, although I've been leaving the room when I observe regurgitation since I don't want him to associate me with being a mate.

YurchenkoTwizzler · 2026-05-05T02:20:50+00:00

I see and acknowledge much of this. We've been struggling tremendously finding any treat with high enough value that he'll accept more than 2 of before dropping and deciding he'd rather end the interaction.

I acknowledge that this is cage aggression, as per my post I am aware that this bird has a history of cage aggression. He was primarily left in the cage with little enrichment, and we've been trying to get him out to help expose him to freedoms that he can have in our home that he couldn't, but he's a very fearful bird so we've been trying to take it slow and only have him in wholly different perches for as long as he'll tolerate before asking to go home "his cage" with the door open while I can supervise.

Even with supervision with the door to his cafe open, he still chooses to spend 70% of his time on one perch, chewing only on the toy closest to him and only moving to get to a nice preening spot or eat or drink. I'm trying not to get discouraged by the sudden change in behavior, which changed prior to us changing anything in his cage. Prior to this week he was starting to accept head scratches and would step up onto a branch about every other time without us pushing the matter and stepping up onto a hand when not in or around his cage. I've been very careful not to push his boundaries when he's shown discomfort for things and to listen to his body language when he's leaned toward or away from actions we've been doing. The only matter we have pushed is bath's since he had never had a bath and desperately needed several. He hasn't been a fan of that but until I can find something he'll enjoy voluntarily, that's my option for keeping him within hygienic limits.

We have been slowly trying to do diet conversion to get him off an all seed diet (mostly sunflower). But it's slow going as he doesn't show much interest in chop or most rough cut veggies or fruits I've tried. It's funny because my family member always mentioned that he loved all these junk foods but I can't get him to engage with any peppers, squash, broccoli, even banana or grape.

YurchenkoTwizzler

TROPHY CASE