Any conure keepers?

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Experiment397

Experiment397

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2010
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Probably the Poly section
just wondering are there any conure keepers out there? i have loved conures since i saw my first one, a sun, at my aunts house. than when i saw a green cheek at a beach club in cozumel i knew i was hooked and i had to have one someday. well i may have the room for one within the next year and want to start finding out as much as possible. so does anyone on here own a conure? if so what type? and what size/type of cage. i have been looking at jendays, greencheeks, and suns. i know jendays and suns are closely related but gc are a dif. genus.
i have a few questions to start off, if anyone would like to answer from their experience. which of the 3 is the best talker? how trainable are they? and which screams the least? thnx again, never thought i would ask bird advice on a fish forum...especially since the post that brought me to mfk was a video of an aro eating a chick...
 
I don't own them, but I take care of them at work on a daily basis.

We have Suns, Green Cheeks and Jendays (though, Jendays rarely come in anymore). All three are easily trained with regularly contact and work, generally with a few weeks we have them doing simple tricks and behaving in a much nicer manner than when arrive to us. Out of the three, I've always found the Suns to be the loudest of the conures we have... I've loved every one of them, but they were noisy! They also don't pick up on mimicking as well as the other two. From my experience (others may have their own), you stand the best chance of getting mimicking out of Green Cheek.

As for cages, bigger is better but for single conure... roughly, you're looking at 2x3x3 (within that general range). They're fairly active and inquisitive birds, you'll want to give them some space. At work, ours are in 2x3x5 enclosures and I see them all over those enclosures (our Sun even loves hanging from the top of it, haha).

They're really awesome birds, very loving and intelligent. I hope you get one, they're absolutely lovely animals. ^_^
 
i've had my green cheek for... hmm, about 10 years now! he's my baby& will be with me forever .he is QUIET, because i trained him to be. so yes, very trainable&willing to learn! mine knows a few tricks but nothing fancy- he doesn't like any treats except safflower seeds&colored drink. [lol wtf? loves anything you're drinking] but even so, green cheeks are much quieter than any other conure i've encountered. grendel, my bird, doesn't talk at all but he growls. it's so cute. instead of chirping, he makes this contented purrgrowl while on my shoulder/getting rubs/being talked to. i dislike screaming, so i made sure it was a big no-no for him. this maybe put a dent in his speaking abilities, because he refuses to speak or mimic aside from the 'hi i'm here chirp back at me!' peep or two. he has a macaw-sized cage, and while i know that's over-doing it, i feel better knowing he has a huge cage to play in when i can't play with him. he almost always has an entire room to himself to fly though, and is never put away except at night. he's free to land on anyone he pleases. birds are always happier, like anything would be, when they've got more space. i recommend out of all the conures, the green cheek, but maybe i'm biased ;) parrots in general are really long lived so just keep that in mind if you don't wanna clean up bird poop from your couch for the next 30-70 years XD
 
Here's Kiwi, my Jenday conure. Had her for about 2yrs now I think. Haven't really tried to train her to do any tricks, and my understanding is that conures aren't the best talkers. Squawkers yes, talkers no :) Great bird, tons of personality. And she can be pretty loud at times, I just tune it out now. She is especially loud when we get home, or when people come over. And for some reason she goes nuts if I'm on the phone, starts screaming like crazy :screwy:





 
wow^ thats a sexy bird. i only wanted to try and get it to say yo ho yo ho, me and my best friend have a on going joke about a parrot singing the pirate song...(we're a bit psycho) so either the jenday or green cheek would be good, and both need the same enclosure size. what about feeding? i have heard they need enclosed seed trays so they dont throw seeds everywhere? is this true? thnx again
 
id luv a bird but the cost is far more than keeping my croc. ill stick to the dangerous stuff :D
 
I don't own any of these conures but I have worked with all 3 and I find the suns and jendays are the louder ones while the green cheeks are quieter. I would also agree that the green cheeks would be the best talkers but conures aren't know for being the best talkers. All of them can be trained it just depends how much effort you are willing to put into it on how well they do.
 
ok well it doesnt have to talk, just a piratey looking parrot. i will definately still look into conures even i f i couldnt teach it to talk. it would be a good starter that would lead onto a more advanced talker eventually, maybe a macaw...always wanted to buy a macaw and name him jimmy buffett, then teach him how to say "it's 5'o'clock somewhere" lol. so anyone know anything about feeding? and are there any toys in general that they seem to prefer? thnx
 
Feeding - Stick with foods designed for small parrots and conures. All the ones I work with love the ones with sunflower seeds, spices (the pepper blends) and fruit ones. But definitely use something that says "conure" or "small parrot" on it, and avoid brands like Kaytee... they fill up the foods with inferior quality and excess junk. You can also use fresh veggies and fruits as treats, ours love shredded carrots and grapes.

Toys - Personality will dictate what they do and do not like. But pick sturdier and well assembled toys, they'll easily break smaller or cheap toys with their beaks. Climbing, reflective and chewable stuff they should love.
 
ok. the lrs keeps theirs with theese big spiraled vine looking things, that the birds chew on and they have toys hung from them. they are pretty cool, and it sounds like they are good for conures. i am hoping to get a conure within the next year or so, and it sounds like i am off to a good start with all this great advice
 
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