Ask Lafeber

Clarification

Ok, I apologize for taking up your time again. So No her wings are not clipped the breeder says he never clips. I find it strange that she is hand-fed but does not want to be around my hand. But we took baby steps today and she almost came up to my hand through the bars to pick at my fingers. I would remove the perch above the other one but the perch is in her favorite spot. She kinda is a nuisance screamer in a way but only because I’m not there in my room 24/7 but sometimes even when I am there. She almost took a Nutri berry out of my hand from the bar so baby steps. I so want to take her out but I think I have to overcome my fear of her and getting bitten, I know it sounds stupid why be afraid of a bird that you asked for. I’m not sure why I’m so frightened and nervous. But the breeder is not local he is located in Louisiana but we have his phone number I’m not sure if my dad would be willing to call him though he didn’t want to last time. She is very attached to me whenever I enter my room she flys to the entrance of the cage and wants to be let out I’m thinking its because she wants to be on me I’m not sure. I am committed to understanding her personally. To think I’ve read so much about her species and yet know so little.

Hi Morgan,

I am here to help – you are not wasting my time if you are learning something from us! 🙂

You can learn as much as possible about a species and still learn something different from your own bird. When we give advice, it is general advice although some is specific to your bird when we are given enough information. I feel like that as a novice bird owner, with this being your first bird, you would make more progress with her by having her wing feathers trimmed. This can be done by most avian vets and some bird or pet shops also offer this service. We have been hosting a series of free webinars and last week, Dr. Stephanie Lamb discussed wing trims in her webinar about taking birds outdoors. I will include the link below in case you want to watch it. I’m not suggesting she can go outdoors without being in a cage, because with a light bird like a conure, she can fly outdoors even with clipped wings. But you will have a better understanding of what feathers they clip so you can choose the right place to take Verde.

I got my first bird, a Grey Cheeked parrot, when I was a teenager. She came from a private home. She loved me immediately and so I bought her. After a day or two, she was all settled in and she immediately decided to bite me very hard. I was scared of her after that, but after a few days I decided I had wanted her so bad and I wasn’t going to be scared of her. When I became more confident, she stopped trying to bite me. She could sense I was nervous, so it made her nervous and her reaction was to bite. And she was also being territorial. I was allowing her to come out of the cage on her own and sit on top of it and she wanted to stay there. So we went back to square one, and worked on trust, and she learned she could only come out if she got on my hand.

I hope you can get her wings trimmed because that will settle her down some and help you to work with her. She will eventually molt and grow new feathers and by then, if you have formed a bond with her, she may not need to be clipped again.

Here is the webinar:

Webinar: “Indoors Or Outdoors: What Is Right For Your Parrot?”

Thanks for the update!

Brenda