Hi, sounds like you got a little lover there.
Grapes, great, and normal that they love to lick them,
then spear them, suck the juice, then proceed to eat them
inside out.
Try oranges, apples, they love it all. They slurp and slop.
jeanie

Many thanks for your reply. Much appreciated.

Your Bird will let you know if you do something he does not like but that does not neccesarily mean you should not try again. The more you can touch him the easier he will be to handle into adult hood so take advantage of this behavior and work with him so you can pet and touch him everywhere. Conures are silly little birds and I have seen them do all kinds of Crazy things for attention. I personally have five macaws but they are the same way. Each one of them is different and acts differently for attention. One of mine will hand upside down by his toes and stick his head between his legs and whistle at me until I come over. So take advantage of this behavior and work on handling his legs, feet and wings the more you do this the less stressful Nail clipping and wing clipping will be also practice rolling him on his back and pet his belly and play with his feet the more comfortable he is laying on his back the easier he will be to handle at the vet, groomer(nails/wings) etc.

As for Grapes they are fine, I would go with the seedless kind and make sure to wash them before giving them to him, Raisins are also good, apples(no seeds again) melons, most veggies.

Just never feed Avacado, Rhubarb, Chocolate, Onions, Really salty or sweeten foods, caffine and alchol.

There are several good books gears towards specific breeds and their needs, Here is a link to a website called peteducation.com, the link will take you right to the page about feeding parrots.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat=1835&articleid=2844

Thank you for the good advice. Whilst I have only had my Conure for 3 weeks now I am learning. He does like attention but in HIS time and when HE is ready, he is more that happy just to be out of his cage, being near either myself or my partner. Given the choice he will sit with me all of the time, but I dont want to encourage that as I dont want him to be afraid of other people, there is only myself and my boyfriend in the house. One thing I am trying to stop is that he does nip, not in an aggressive way, i think that he just likes to hang on especially when he is being tickled. He LOVES green grapes but cant get him onto veggies yet, I need to find one that he likes to give him variance. Oh and I am TRYING to get him to have a bath, but he just wont get in yet. Tried splashing the water, putting on the floor, in his cage all sorts thats my next challenge.

I really appreciate the link

Thank you

Lyn

Lyn,

I want to commend you, you may have only your conure a short time, but you are already doing what many bird owners never do and that is ask for help. Everyone starts in the same place, with their first bird. Some people accept the challenge, learn and grow with their bird and others just give up.

I think you are going to do just fine with your bird.
The one thing I am going to warn you about is letting you bird do what he wants. As a baby it is much easier to teach your bird you are the one who makes the decisions, not the other way around.
If he knows you will back off and leave him be he will take advantage of that and as he enters adulthood it will only get worse.

If you want to pick him up than you pick him up. Do not let him make the decision. If he nips at you when you try and pick him up you need to show him that is useles and you are still going to pick him up. He will quickly realize that this behavior gets him nowhere and he will step up. This is the most important skill you need to teach your bird.
He needs to step up no matter where he is and he needs to know being aggressive will not get him his way.
So work on that skill, once you do pick him up have him practice by asking him to step from hand to hand, arm to arm. Place your empty arm in front of him and say step up then switch arms and ask him again.

Don't worry about him eating his veggies, he is young and still figuring things out. keep offering them to him, and offer them in different forms, cooked, sliced chopped etc. Sometimes they will eat a particular veggie cooked but not raw or vice versa. Also offer him other fruits, make sure to avoid the seed and pits of the fruit.

As for a bath, Birds cannot not swim so too much water will probably scare him. You can use a water bottle that has a fine mist setting, place him in an area you don't mind getting wet, such as the edge of the bathtub or the bathroom sink and spray the mist over him. Do not aim the bottle directly at him especially the first time you try it. as he gets use to it you can mist his body but always avoid spraying it into his face.

As for the bathtub. When my Macaw was a baby my husband would hold him in the bath and let him splash around. He would sit on the side of the tub and climb back and forth to my husbands arm. He got to the point that he loved the bath so much as soon as he would hear the water running he would climb off his cage run into the bathrooom and climb up the shower curtain to sit on the side of the tub.
Now he loves to be misted especially during the summer when I have him outside.
The key is to introduce things slowly and allow him time to get use to it, if he gets frightened it will be much harder to convince him it is fun,that he will like it.

As far as the nipping, his is young and learning how to use his beak. Birds love to taste everything and they use their beaks for everything, they will try and preen you and show you how much they love you and the only thing they have to do this is their beak. If he is intentionally trying to bite you, you will know. His whole attitude will change. Watch his eyes, face boby language.
He does not know his affections hurt us, because that is how they interact with each other. My one Macaw is really beaky she is constantly preening me. When she starts getting a little to rough for my liking I simply try and redirect her. I will lightly push her beak away or I will hold it and tell her kiss,kiss,kiss and she will focus on that instead and tell me kiss,kiss back and make kissing sounds at me. This distracts her from from thinking I am in desperate need of a good cleaning.

Having treats nearby is also a good way to dirstact him from what he is currently doing. You do not want to discourage him from what is normal behavior for a bird but you also don't want hundreds of tiny pin holes in your arms. When he started getting rough, redirect his attention by offering him a treat, but do not offer him a treat everytime. You want to redirect his attention in various ways so he does not associate this behavior with any one thing.