How old is your conure?

kiwiS · Jul 23, 2013

Hi All!

I was just wondering how old all your conures are?

I've read that they live up to 35/40 years, but in captivity only 10-15!!

I'm curious to see if there are any old conures out there that are still going strong, and if their wonderful owners can share any tips for newbies on how to keep them living long, happy lives. I'm sure healthy food and lots of exercise are the main component but if there are any specific tips and tricks, it'll be great to know!

Thank you!

koopaling · Jul 23, 2013

i know someone whos sun conure lived to 17 i believe!

Bobioden · Jul 23, 2013

Maxx is just 2 1/2, so he has many years to live.

Agapornis · Jul 23, 2013

I heard they live 20-30 years, and I hope that's true!

thermodynamic · Jul 23, 2013

Rusty and Scooter = 7 years
Roseanne = 4 years
Tybbi = (approximately) 6 or 7 years (the vet guesstimated 5 or 6 years, when I rescued him last year and brought him in for a checkup.)

bob1 · Jul 23, 2013

My Chico is only 5 months and I'm hoping he will live a minimum of 25 years.

ShellyTurtle · Jul 23, 2013

Our Conure is 9 weeks. Just a peanut.

Peanutsmum · Jul 23, 2013

ShellyTurtle said:
Our Conure is 9 weeks. Just a peanut.

Just a Peanut lol!

Peanut is 9 months old

patch · Jul 23, 2013

You mind sharing where you found that info about living in captivity? Because everything I read says expect anywhere from 20-30 years with regular vet visits.

Auggie's Dad · Jul 23, 2013

The way these numbers are calculated are often problematic.

As a bird researcher (songbirds, not parrots), people often ask about lifespans of sparrows - but the lifespan of birds is so different from humans or even most mammals that it's hard to make meaningful comparisons.

If anyone likes numbers, we humans tend to follow a normal distribution in our lifespan (ok not quite, but close enough). This means there is a roughly bell curve distrubution of ages to which people live. The mathmatical average is the same as the most common. I don't know human life spans, but lets say it's 80. The average life span is 80, and most people live to be about 80.

But now lets look at sparrows. They don't have a bell curve distrubution - they have an exponential decay. Of 1000 hatched only a very small percentage of those may survive to be a year old, then a fair portion of those that remain will live to be two, and some percent of those will live to be 3, etc. The "average" lifespan is thus greatly influenced by the massive number of individuals that don't even survive their first year. So the "average" may be 6 to 7 months perhaps. But it is not terribly uncommon for a house sparrow to live 8-9 years. The oldest on record was 13 years old. So how do I answer when someone asks how long does a house sparrow live? The answer: it depends. They don't die of "old age" as we do. They die from accidents, predators, etc.

Much of this also applies to parrots. Senesence (old age) isn't as big of an influence on parrot life spans as it is for humans (and most mammals). So a well cared for parrot who doesn't get any diseases or other health problems can live a very long time. Unfortunately there are *a lot* of ill-educated parrot owners who's parrots die very young from cooking fumes, accidental escapes, infections from interacting with another pet, etc.

So how long CAN a conure live, and how long DOES a conure live are entirely different questions.

EDIT: a big part of this is many of the things we are used to dealing with do follow normal (aka bell curve) distributions. With normal distributions, the mean, median, and mode of the numbers will be very similar. Each of these (mean meadian and mode) could colloqiually be thought of as an "average" or "estimate", for normal distributions you can use them interchangeably and get roughly the same answers. For exponential decay, however, the mean median and mode can be drastically different. Or in less numerical terms: no matter what method of estimating a human lifespan we use, we'll get similar numbers; but for each method of estimating avian lifespans, we can get drastically different numbers. So when a source says conures can live to be 20-30 years, or 5-7 years, or whatever, it is important to know what those numbers actually represent.

bree · Jul 24, 2013

My little green monster apollo is 8 on aug 8th of this year

he's a Green Cheek conure

mybabylo · Jul 27, 2013

Mine is 5 mos still a baby

kq_fan · Jul 27, 2013

I was told they live up to 10-30. But if you only feed them seed, then you basically cut their life in half!

ruffledfeathers · Jul 27, 2013

they can definitely live way more than 10 years. my sun died young, tragically, at 11 and a half, but that was from trauma. her necropsy and histopathology reports showed only very mild changes in her kidneys consistent with age. She would have had a lot of life left. I think exams with bloodwork are very very helpful in keeping your bird alive longer. They can reveal problems before they become large problems, which can be adjusted with diet/lifestyle.
I think a lot of things probably vary from individual bird to bird, just like in people, but I think they can live pretty long lives if well cared for, as a general rule.

TexDot33 · Jul 27, 2013

Auggie's Dad said:
The way these numbers are calculated are often problematic.

As a bird researcher (songbirds, not parrots), people often ask about lifespans of sparrows - but the lifespan of birds is so different from humans or even most mammals that it's hard to make meaningful comparisons.

If anyone likes numbers, we humans tend to follow a normal distribution in our lifespan (ok not quite, but close enough). This means there is a roughly bell curve distrubution of ages to which people live. The mathmatical average is the same as the most common. I don't know human life spans, but lets say it's 80. The average life span is 80, and most people live to be about 80.

But now lets look at sparrows. They don't have a bell curve distrubution - they have an exponential decay. Of 1000 hatched only a very small percentage of those may survive to be a year old, then a fair portion of those that remain will live to be two, and some percent of those will live to be 3, etc. The "average" lifespan is thus greatly influenced by the massive number of individuals that don't even survive their first year. So the "average" may be 6 to 7 months perhaps. But it is not terribly uncommon for a house sparrow to live 8-9 years. The oldest on record was 13 years old. So how do I answer when someone asks how long does a house sparrow live? The answer: it depends. They don't die of "old age" as we do. They die from accidents, predators, etc.

Much of this also applies to parrots. Senesence (old age) isn't as big of an influence on parrot life spans as it is for humans (and most mammals). So a well cared for parrot who doesn't get any diseases or other health problems can live a very long time. Unfortunately there are *a lot* of ill-educated parrot owners who's parrots die very young from cooking fumes, accidental escapes, infections from interacting with another pet, etc.

So how long CAN a conure live, and how long DOES a conure live are entirely different questions.

EDIT: a big part of this is many of the things we are used to dealing with do follow normal (aka bell curve) distributions. With normal distributions, the mean, median, and mode of the numbers will be very similar. Each of these (mean meadian and mode) could colloqiually be thought of as an "average" or "estimate", for normal distributions you can use them interchangeably and get roughly the same answers. For exponential decay, however, the mean median and mode can be drastically different. Or in less numerical terms: no matter what method of estimating a human lifespan we use, we'll get similar numbers; but for each method of estimating avian lifespans, we can get drastically different numbers. So when a source says conures can live to be 20-30 years, or 5-7 years, or whatever, it is important to know what those numbers actually represent.

He does tend to get terribly long winded sometimes doesn't he?

:52::54: But he does make a valid point, and an exceptional one at that! Do you know how old Auggie is?

If you think of your parrot as a life-long companion why would you worry about how long they will live? Just enjoy them everyday! I have a sun who is 7 and a GCC who is 6, and I think they are still young at heart!

ChuytheEkkie · Jul 27, 2013

We have a 26 year old foul-mouthed Cherry Head conure!

She's a sailor! (but in our defense we are the second owners.)

My beloved Green Cheek only lasted 13 years... We lost him last year and I'm still heart broken about in.

MonicaMc · Aug 8, 2013

Pritti, a cherry head on this forum is 31 years old!

My cherry head was assumed to be around 17-19 years old when he died, but I really think he was probably in his 20's or older.... I really have no clue.

My mitred conure is 19 years old, and I know of a mitred conure that is estimated to be 40 years old!!!!!

My little red throat is just a baby at 3 years old!

diadins · Aug 8, 2013

My baby is 7 1/2 weeks old, hasn't even come home yet! I had a sun conure many years ago that lived to be 8.

BoomBoom · Aug 8, 2013

My sun is only 1 year and six months. There are some long lived conures out there, and in this very forum. Pritti is a cherry headed conure who is about 30 years old and then some. Almost as old as me!

Pineapple · Aug 8, 2013

My Pineapple just turned a year old in July.

:orange:

How old is your conure?

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He's laughing with me now!

new green cheek owner!

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