Care Sheet: Green Cheek Conure

August 9, 2017 / feistyfeathers

Personality: Curious, playful, feisty, cuddly

Experience level required: Intermediate

Approximate Lifespan: 30 years

Puberty: One year

Sexing: DNA test

Vocalizations: Shrieks, but volume is low compared to most parrots. Suitable for apartment.

Talking ability: Low

Diet: Standard

Cautions: Can be aggressive toward unfamiliar birds. Will attack birds many times their own size. Prone to become one-person birds. Can be nippy. Not recommended for children.

Minimum recommended cage size: 24″L x 20″W x 24″H. BIGGER IS ALWAYS BETTER. Keep in mind that birds utilize the space at the top of the cage the most. Tall, skinny cages contain mostly dead space. Width and depth are far more important than height.

Introducing New Birds

January 28, 2017January 28, 2017 / feistyfeathers

How does one go about introducing new birds to your flock?

Fresh out of quarantine and on their way to meet the flock.

Step 1: Quarantine

ALWAYS QUARANTINE FIRST!

New birds can potentially bring disease into your flock. Diseases can range from mild an annoying to very expensive and possible deadly. Quarantine is your first line of defense. How does one quarantine? You need to keep the new bird(s) isolated in an area away from your other birds for at LEAST 30 days. Sixty days is better. During this time, new birds should be tested for diseases and observed for signs of illness. I recommend testing because many of the nastiest diseases, like PBFD and Avian Bornavirus, can go for years without any clinical signs. Quarantine birds should be fed last. Generally you also want to wear different shoes while in this area, or go through a foot bath of disinfectant when exiting. Disease testing kits can be ordered here. More detailed quarantine procedures can be found here. Once quarantine is over you can safely move your new birds into the main bird area.

Step 2: Introductions

How you do introductions depends both on your set up and what species you keep. If you are a pet owner, your birds are likely housed in (relatively) small cages where each bird or birds has an established territory. If this is the case, side-by-side introductions are best. The new bird is placed in a separate cage within sight and sound of the current birds. There will likely be some curiosity or even aggression through the bars of the cage. Over time, bickering should diminish. At this point, birds can enjoy SUPERVISED time out together. Accidents can happen in an instant so be on alert, especially if the two birds are not friendly toward one another. Try not to let birds crawl onto each other’s cages, as even a mellow bird can defend its home turf. If you hope to eventually house the birds together, they should be placed in a new, neutral cage at the same time only after they’ve shown an interest in one another for awhile.

If you have large cages (I mean LARGE, like full flights or walk-in aviaries) with many different birds, adding new birds can be done immediately after quarantine, providing you keep species that are NOT super aggressive.

Two new cockatiels were just introduced into this established flight. Cockatiels are generally not aggressive, and aside from some squabbling over preferred perches, there were no fights.

If you’re introducing many new birds at one time, it is usually safe so long as the cage is neutral. A lone bird coming into established territory is at far greater risk.

Side-by-side introduction of a new Indian ringneck.

In the above picture, we have a single new bird being introduced. The cage on the right contains six ringnecks, which came from three different sources. They were all introduced at relatively the same time to this cage, which means there was no fighting. However, this grey male is a late arrival. These birds have already been in this cage for a few months- more than enough time to become territorial. Ringnecks can be very aggressive, so he must be introduced slowly.

Some birds are independently aggressive, and you won’t know who until you put birds together. I recently tried pairing a green cheek hen with a male in a neutral cage. She immediately began to attack him. This was a large cage. I scooped her up and removed her, and tried a different hen. No issues. However, the first hen continued to do aggressive displays towards the introduced male, who was now in a neighboring cage with a friend of hers (the other hen). I had to place barriers at the back to help neutralize the aggression.

New cage with cardboard barriers at the back.

Barriers are definitely something to consider if there is excessive aggression. When a bird feels threatened it will make aggressive displays. This is stressful to the birds, and should be curtailed if possible. When I introduced Lando to my Goffin, Loki, she was very agitated and yelling constantly. I kept cardboard between their two cages for a few days until she settled down. He was an invader of her space and it took time for her to get over that. Introductions are fine, but you don’t want the birds to be overly stressed.

Mitred Conure: Fry

March 15, 2016March 20, 2016 / feistyfeathers / 1 Comment

“Butthead”

I was at the vet getting a button quail treated. Dr. Levoy walked in and told me he had a lady in the lobby looking to get rid of a conure. After my appointment was over I found her in the lobby. She was a younger woman, late twenties or early thirties, and was carrying a newborn baby. She explained that she had a mitred conure she was trying to find a home for. It had been in her care for six years. The fact that she’d just had a baby and her husband hated the bird’s noise had forced her to get rid of it. Right now the bird was staying at her parent’s house. Apparently the bird took many such “vacations” to appease the husband. I gave her my phone number and she said she’d call as soon as the bird was back at her house. After a few weeks and no call, I virtually forgot about the incident.

About six weeks after the chance meeting, I got a message on my answering machine regarding the conure. Was I still interested, and if so would I call back and arrange a time to see it? I called her back and agreed to come view the bird.

The bird’s first owner was a woman who’d caught him outdoors. Apparently he’d been dive-bombing some gardeners. He stayed with her a year and then was given to her friend, the woman I’d met. She in turn had had him for six years. The conure was also open-banded, probably with a quarantine band. Considering the history, it was at least eight years old if not more.

I wasn’t expecting much when I arrived at her home. I kept envisioning a bird in a small, dirty cage, with poor plumage and a fierce bite. Imagine my surprise to find a very healthy-looking bird. It was bright-eyed and alert and had excellent plumage. I scanned the cage. It was much too small, but at least it was clean. On top was a T stand, bathing dish, mirror and a single wooden toy. Inside the cage the conure eyed me warily. The woman let him out. I didn’t approach him but instead asked a ton of questions regarding his background.

His owner actually knew quite a bit more than most do. She knew she had a mitred conure. She’d read up on the proper diet but had been unable to convert him. The bird had become so picky that it would eat nothing but safflower seed, white bread and apples (no skin). She said he liked to hang out on the T stand by the mirror but would also climb down the cage and wander around the floor. Among her reasons for getting rid of him was her fear that he would hurt the new baby. He also wouldn’t be receiving as much attention. And of course there was the husband, who’d nicknamed the conure “Butthead.” After spending a good hour probing with my questions, I decided to take him. The bird came free with cage, T stand, mirror, toy, bowl and seed. Had it not appeared so healthy I would not have taken it.

Fry

On the ride home my new bird was rather nervous, but let one good shriek loose. Damn, he was loud.

I renamed the bird Fry. My influence for the name came from two sources: the movie Pitch Black and TV show Futurama. Both have characters by that name, the latter in which the character is a redhead. Aside from these sources, I’d never even heard of that name. “Fry” just had a certain ring to it that appealed to me.

The first thing I learned about Fry was that he didn’t like hands. Aside from that he was fairly tame. If you offered him a finger he’d scramble to get away; if you offered him your arm he’d hop right on. Despite being the largest bird I’ve ever owned, he’s also a strong flier (or jumper) when clipped. I placed his cage on top of my dresser which, unfortunately, had a built-in mirror. The cage was still too small, but it was all I had at this point.

fry03

Changing Diets

Jay-Jay also shared my room with Fry and helped me break his finicky eating habits. If I can get a bird that ate nothing but apple, white bread and safflower seed for six years to eat whatever I offer, YOU can get your birds on a healthy diet. Fry’s owner had tried to get him on a better diet, but he refused to eat anything but the above listed items. I got him eating anything in two weeks.

Jay-Jay’s cage was across the room from Fry’s. Every day I cooked up a meal for the two of them after I got off work. Both dishes were the same style but varying colors. Jay-Jay always dove right for the food. Fry wasn’t stupid. He knew that whatever Jay-Jay was eating in her bowl was most likely the exact same thing in his bowl. It not only seemed edible, but delicious. Jay-Jay could hardly contain herself when she saw the bowls coming. The second day after offering food in this manner, Fry started picking at whatever was in the dish. I mostly fed Crazy Corn, birdie bread and veggies. Every few days or so I’d offer apples too.

In addition to using Jay-Jay as a model, I also used myself. Some time in the afternoon I’d make myself a meal, usually fried eggs and toast or slices fruit, and bring the birds into the kitchen to share it. Fry was nervous around me and the new room so I started out by placing him on the back of a chair across the table while Jay-Jay and I ate. After a few days Fry would jump onto the table and cautiously sneak some food before scurrying back. The toast tempted him more than anything. Jay-Jay always went for the egg yolk.

Fry cautiously “stealing” some oranges.

A quick aside on sharing foods:
Give birds their own food to eat. Do not allow them to eat anything your mouth has touched. Mammal bacteria can be dangerous for birds and human mouths in particular are bacterial cesspools. Likewise, try not to eat anything they’ve picked at or stepped on. Though it is unlikely you will catch anything, you still don’t know where those birdie feet and mouths have been. How many times have you seen your bird chewing its own dried feces at the bottom of the cage? Always practice proper hygiene with animals.

The Mirror

Fry had a mirror for six years. When I first adopted him I continued to allow him access to it on top of his cage, but draped a towel over my dresser mirror. What more harm could it do?

When he was out of the cage he spent of time just sitting in front of the mirror. He never touched a toy, but took great delight in flying across the room to torment Jay-Jay. He would barge into the cage to eat her seed while she hid inside her Happy Hut.

Fry was downright hostile towards most birds. Jay-Jay seemed to be an exception, maybe because she was larger and a conure as well. Once I had to hospitalize a breeder tiel in the same room. I left for literally a few seconds to fill the water dish when I heard shrieking. I ran back to my room. Fry had flown across the room to the tiel’s cage, pulled its leg through the wire and was in the process of shredding it. The poor bird was already ill and now had to deal with this trauma. I believe it died that night. Embarrassed and ashamed, I brought the poor thing in for a necropsy, making sure the vet knew the leg had been injured post-illness. The results revealed that the cockatiel had been ill due to gout, something I couldn’t have done anything about. I still felt awful about the incident though.

After that I took Fry’s mirror away. He quickly chewed a hole in the towel covering my dresser through the cage bars. A huge hole. Now he didn’t even want to come out of the cage that often, except to harass Jay-Jay. Eventually I re-covered the mirror with a new towel and moved the cage an inch forward, hoping this time it would be out of reach. It was. Fry began to play with his toys. He also started perching on the back of my chair when Jay-Jay and I were at the computer.

fry05

Epilogue

Fry lived with me for several years in an upgraded cage with lots of toys. He eventually died from leukemia.

Feisty Feathers

Educating bird owners since 1997.

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