Nanday Conures are excellent birds however they can come with a few behavior problems. Common problems include biting and screaming however feather plucking can occur as well. Behavior problems generally occur for one of two major reasons.
Either there is something missing from Nanday Conure’s environment or the behavior has been unintentionally encouraged by the owner.
Let’s explain
Unintentionally encouraging unwanted behaviors. This can occur quite by accident. Imagine walking into the room and your Nanday Conure Parrot lets out a scream. Maybe you react by yelling at them or maybe you react by walking over to their cage and letting them out. Which reaction is the correct behavior?
Neither. Both reactions can actually cause the screaming to become a habit. Walking over to the cage and letting the Nanday out tells them that they get what they want when they scream. The reaction essentially trains the Nanday Conure Parrot to scream if they want out of their cage.
Yelling at them gives them attention and too many parrots, some attention is better than no attention at all – even if it is negative attention. Additionally, any dramatic response like yelling at them, throwing water, and so on is a good way to make the Nanday become aggressive. Aggression begets aggression.
The solution is a two-step process. The first step is to change your reactions to the unwanted behavior by not reacting at all. The second step is to train and reward different behaviors. If your Nanday screams when they want out of the cage reward them and let them out when they stop screaming. Establish a routine each day so they know when they can expect to be outside of the cage and when they can expect to return to their cage.
Something is missing from Nanday Conure’s environment.
Biting, screaming, and feather plucking are commonly caused by something missing from the bird’s environment. Here are a few of the possibilities.
Not enough sleep. Believe it or not, Nanday Conure needs a lot of sleep. We’re talking about 10 hours a night. Good quality sleep is important to the health and development of your Conure. If they don’t get the sleep they need, they’ll become grumpy.
Because a Nanday doesn’t have the tools to say “Hey, I’m tired and I want to be left alone today,” they’ll bite or scream instead. Solution…make sure your Nanday Conure gets plenty of quality sleep each night in a quiet, dark location.
Not enough quality nutrients. Ever seen the movie Super Size Me where the guy ate Mcdonald’s for weeks on end? The end result was pretty ugly. He was very sick and very unhappy. That’s what a poor diet and lack of nutrients will do. The same holds true for birds including the Nanday Conure.
An optimal diet will include organic pellets as the base and daily fresh fruits and vegetables. Organic produce is optimal however fruits and veggies that are washed thoroughly and peeled will also be free from pesticides. A healthy diet will help a Nanday feel great each and every day. See Nanday Conure Care for more diet information.
Not enough time outside of the cage. Nanday Conures need plenty of exercise and time outside of their cage. They’re intelligent birds so as long as the owner is home to keep an eye on them, they’ll be safe. This exercise and socialization are important because Nanday wants to feel like part of the family and they can’t really do that from inside their cage. They want to interact with owners and family members. Additionally, they need exercise.
Not enough to do inside the cage. Boredom is a true cause of aggression and feather plucking. Imagine not being able to leave a room all day and not being given anything to do while you’re in that room. A Nanday Conure that has plenty of toys in its cage will be a much happier Conure. Nandays enjoy toys to chew, toys that allow them to climb, toys that present a puzzle, and toys that make noise or are brightly colored.
If biting, screaming, or feather-plucking behaviors do show up in your Nanday Conure one of the best ways to eliminate the behavior, is to spend time training your Nanday each and every day.
Nandays are intelligent birds who generally respond to training quite well. Even so, patience, love, and understanding are required of a Nanday Conure owner. Training not only helps to eliminate behaviors, but regular training will also prevent unwanted behaviors from occurring.
Stop Your Nanday Conures Biting and Earn His Trust
Your Nanday Conure is a wonderful and extremely intelligent bird. They exhibit fantastic behaviors like mimicking sounds and learning words, and they are tremendously capable of learning tricks.
However, what you may have also noticed from your Nanday Conure is that they can be extremely noisy birds with screaming behavior that can send you running from your home.
They can also be prone to biting. Neither behavior is acceptable but both can be modified with Nanday Conure Training to bring back the bird that you know and love.
Nanday Conure Screeching
Nanday Conures screech for many reasons. They may be happy to see you. They may be looking for a mate. They may also be screeching to manipulate you into a behavior. For example, does your Nanday Conure screech when you place him back in his cage?
Does he screech when you walk out of the room or away from his cage? If so, you must ignore the screech. Returning to the cage or back into the room only serves to reinforce his behavior.
Make sure that your Nanday’s screeching behavior isn’t caused by boredom, lack of nutrition, too small of a cage, or any other environmental issue. Remember that your Nanday is an incredibly social and animated parrot, occasional screeching may simply be his way of communicating with you. However, the screeching behavior can be modified with appropriate training.
Nanday Conure Biting
Biting behaviors among Nanday Conures are generally an act of boredom, aggression, or merely an overzealous hello. Nandays are social birds that thrive on interacting with their family. A beaking greeting may be simply that and your Nanday Conure may not know that he’s putting too much pressure on your skin. However, a bite can be just that, a bite, and that behavior must be eliminated before it escalates into a very aggressive bird.
The first step to eliminating biting behavior is to determine why it is happening. Is your conure beaking or is he biting? When does he bite, when you take him out of the cage? Does he bite when you’re playing? These types of bites may be overzealous beaking. Do not react to the bite by yelling, hitting, or jerking your hand away. These actions tend to reinforce the behavior by creating frightened and aggressive birds.