Why Is My Conure Biting Me All of a Sudden? [4 tricks To Stop It]

A bird bite can be painful especially when it comes from a big parrot such as a macaw. That does not mean a bite from a small parrot such as conures or canaries is not painful. In today’s post, we take a deeper look at why conures bite, how to stop the biting plus how to treat the bite if it’s deep.

Do conures bite a lot?

When dissatisfied conures can bite a lot, some of the main reasons that conures bite include fear, aggression, protecting their nest, courtship, and being playful. The first step to stop conures from biting is understanding the reason why they bite and then addressing the problem.

Conures like all birds or parrots do not have a hand, in their place they use their beaks. Some of the ways conures use their beaks are preening, picking their food, and playing.

Some conures have even been reported to start the biting behavior all of a sudden. Where they were previously not biting.

In A HURRY HERE IS HOW TO STOP CONURES FROM BITTING

Why is my conure biting me all of a sudden?

Generally, conures will start bitting all of a sudden if they fear you, aggression, protecting their nest, and beaking.

Fear

Like all animals, even birds feel fear. Remember in the wild it’s survival for the fittest, and being fearful is just part of life especially when they stay in an area that is infested with predators.

One way of protecting themselves is by use of their beaks or claws and talons. Some birds have become so good at protecting themselves while others will choose to fly away rather than confront their opponents.

So, if your conures fear you they will use their beaks to protect themselves. They will even scream while at it, and given that conures are some of the loudest parrots around. The last thing you want is your feathered friend screaming at the top of their lungs.

#Solution

If you identify fear as the reason that conures are biting your fingers off. The next step is to identify where the source of fear is coming from.

It could be you, a family member, or another pet in the house such as a predator bird that you have also kept as a pet.

If you realize that your conure fears you, you should try establishing trust between you and your conure.

If the fear is coming from another pet that your conure identifies as a threat you should most probably keep the other pet in a different room or cover the conure cage with a piece of cloth when the pet is around.

One of the best ways to establish trust and eliminate your conure is spending more time with them, offering them their favorite treats, and with time you even cuddle with your conure for more bonding.

Aggression

If your conure is not afraid of you or using its beak to express affection such as via preening or playing with you, aggression is the next cause of the biting.

Aggression in conures and other parrots, in general, is caused by protecting their territory, breeding season, boredom, stress, hormonal fluxes, or dominance.

Conures can become very aggressive when they are protecting their territories, especially males, this mostly happens when there are other birds in the same room.

This form of aggression is high during the breeding season as hormone concentration goes up. Within the breeding season, some males may become dominant hence aggressive.

If a conure lacks enough mental stimulation due to lack of enough playtime, they will become bored and stressed and resulting in aggression which can also be accompanied by screaming.

#Solution

To prevent your conure from biting you due to aggression, make sure they get enough playtime. Preferably, about 2 hours of playtime outside the cage under your supervision.

Another way to make sure they are not bored or stressed is to ensure they are in a cage big enough for them to fly about and enough toys to play around with when you are not around.

Combined with enough playtime, your conure would rather cuddle with you and fall asleep on your laps than bite you.

During the breeding season, you should make sure they have their mates around to curb aggression.

Petting your conure on the tail may also make the conure think of you as a mate and hence become aggressive to anyone who comes near you.

They can also experience a breeding hormone increase at this time and become very aggressive.

Protecting their nest

Like all animals, conures will also put up a fit to protect their nest from invaders. So, do not be surprised when your conure becomes all protective and bites you when it is brooding.

Your conure might perceive you as a predator, hence, it will bite your fingers to try to protect its nest from you. The biting should stop once the breeding season is over.

At this stage, the best thing to do is to keep off the nest.

Alternatively, you can just use an incubator to incubate your conures eggs.

Beaking

This is not necessarily a bite, since birds do not have hands they use their beaks to test the strength of the climbing structures, to explore new objects, and so on.

Most new owners will confuse this for biting especially if they have never been bitten by a bird before.

Beaking is normally calm and at times you may not even feel any pain compared to biting.

If you do not like being beaked or being bitten is getting out of hand, the best thing to do is to train your bird not to bite or beak.

You can identify a sign that lets your conure know that whatever they are doing is wrong, use this sign when they beak or bite you. But do not shout at them.

Related Questions

Do conure bites hurt? Conures bite can be quite painful depending on the aggression levels. To some point, a conure bite can even draw blood. So depending on the aggression levels, it may hurt or not hurt at all.

Summary

Most of the time there is always a reason as to why your conure is biting. Identify what is making them bite and work towards finding a solution for that problem. It is best to keep children off a biting conure.