Petland Sun Conures I need help

Sun Conures at Petstore

Hello! I am new and I hope it is ok for me to be posting this on here!

So I have just started working at the Petland near my college. We got 2 Sun Conures about 2-3 weeks ago and I’ve been slowly falling in love with them! But I know they’re not getting what they need where they are right now. So because i cannot bring them into my dorm I want to do what I can with what I’ve got. They’re currently staying with 4 cockteils and everyone seems to be ok (each of them stay to their selves).

Right now we’re giving them milt seeds with sun flower seeds and something else (maybe cocktail food??) and I plan on giving them some water melon or something possibly tomorrow (since I’m going in to give them my schedule). What is a good fruit for them and what is a good pellet brand for them too? Because they’re with the Cockteil’s I have to be careful because I don’t know if they can have something that others can’t. Also is the one with full green feathers less than 6 months?

As for their temperament, the spotted one is more willing to step up for everyone BUT doesn’t want to be touched what so ever, the completely green winged one does not want anyone touching or asking her to step up but will gladly accept treats. I shamefully admit that somethings I’ll ‘corner’ her and pick her up and she does panic but once I have her on my hand or shoulder she’ll nibble on my ear or hair or shirt and doesn’t seem to mind staying with me. But I know she’s most likely very scared. She also doesn’t like it if someone takes her friend away so she’ll start screaming.

I guess what I’m asking is that in a petland setting how can I get them so they aren’t too afraid of everyone and thing? I would of course love it if they only wanted to see me so that I would be the only one getting them when I can (but that wouldn’t be possible until next year and that’s way to far away for them to be living at a petstore!)

They are both very cute. I know personally my conure Bowser loves oranges, apples and cantaloupe. My cousins have a cockatiel and he doesn't like any fresh fruit so I can't tell you if there is a fruit they can't eat but I don't think so. As far as seeds go I get a blend from a bird shop in my area but it has peanuts, sunflower seeds, regular small birdseed, some dried fruit, and these small white seeds. I also mix it with a store bought bird seed that has some green red and yellow pellet type things. I can't remember off the top of my head but it had a picture of a conure on it and Bowser seems to like it, especially some square yellow things which he always dips in water before eating (im assuming to soften them a bit). A year is quite a long time for the poor babies to be in a pet store, I really don't know how to help there. I wish all three of you the best of luck. They really are adorable.

When I worked at Petsmart there was once a terrified Green cheek conure, it took me several months to win over it's trust. I'm happy to say he was eventually purchased by a kind older women who listened to my recommendation of taking him to the vet within the first week of buying him.
I was respectful to him, and worked a lot to show him that I he would only be touched on his terms. I would place my hand near him the enclosure(it was a very large enclosure I almost stand in), if he showed any fear I would back off a little to wear he was convertible for a few seconds then tell him what a good boy he was before leaving him alone. He came to learn that I wouldn't invade his space, and this allowed him to trust me. Over time I could hold my hand closer and closer, and within the first couple weeks I was able to scratch his head. it took much longer until he trusted me enough to step up.

Please try not to corner him to catch him, instead see if you can teach him to step up onto a perch if he's fearful of hands while in his cage.
Also, the green backed bird is a Jenday conure, not a sun conure like the other bird.

Welcome to the forum! Copper already posted the differences between the Sun and Jenday Conure so I don't need to go into that. But the fruit part, they're able to eat lots of fruits and veggies such as banana, apples, pears, strawberries, kiwi, water melon, cantaloupe, broccoli, celery, carrots, romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, etc etc. If you give them pellets, it won't hurt the other birds to eat their pellets. BUT is your store willing to let you feed them all that stuff? That is something you need to ask first since you only work there.

BabyBowser said:

They are both very cute. I know personally my conure Bowser loves oranges, apples and cantaloupe. My cousins have a cockatiel and he doesn't like any fresh fruit so I can't tell you if there is a fruit they can't eat but I don't think so. As far as seeds go I get a blend from a bird shop in my area but it has peanuts, sunflower seeds, regular small birdseed, some dried fruit, and these small white seeds. I also mix it with a store bought bird seed that has some green red and yellow pellet type things. I can't remember off the top of my head but it had a picture of a conure on it and Bowser seems to like it, especially some square yellow things which he always dips in water before eating (im assuming to soften them a bit). A year is quite a long time for the poor babies to be in a pet store, I really don't know how to help there. I wish all three of you the best of luck. They really are adorable.

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Ok I will see about what they're interested in, the cockatiels are not interested in being messed with period. Also we do not have pelleted food for them what so ever and they just get milt, safflower seeds, sunflower seeds, and that square yellow thing you described.

And I've been thinking if maybe right around Christmas or after I could possibly make the choice of buying them or not and I could make down payments on them until the summer and take them home then. But that's in a dream world and I'll need to be making great grades to convince my parents

One other thought--you may want to check on the lighting situation in the store. I know there were some suns at my local store (who i ended up calling the company about--it's in another thread) but they were leaving lights on in the cage 24/7. Very stressful for the birds to have no darkness hours in which to sleep. So if your store has something similar, i would suggest they provide the bird with his sleeping hours of darkness.

Copperarabian said:

When I worked at Petsmart there was once a terrified Green cheek conure, it took me several months to win over it's trust. I'm happy to say he was eventually purchased by a kind older women who listened to my recommendation of taking him to the vet within the first week of buying him.
I was respectful to him, and worked a lot to show him that I he would only be touched on his terms. I would place my hand near him the enclosure(it was a very large enclosure I almost stand in), if he showed any fear I would back off a little to wear he was convertible for a few seconds then tell him what a good boy he was before leaving him alone. He came to learn that I wouldn't invade his space, and this allowed him to trust me. Over time I could hold my hand closer and closer, and within the first couple weeks I was able to scratch his head. it took much longer until he trusted me enough to step up.

Please try not to corner him to catch him, instead see if you can teach him to step up onto a perch if he's fearful of hands while in his cage.
Also, the green backed bird is a Jenday conure, not a sun conure like the other bird.

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Ok I’m glad that someone was able to socialize a bird at a pet store! Did you work everyday or did you work here and there during the week? As of right now I’m only working the weekends but hopefully I’ll be working once or twice over the week.
I know better than to corner any animal because I know that it’s not good for anyone but I did it because every time I would walk around with the one who would step him he/she would start calling out. Interesting enough the other one will step up but she won’t let me touch her at all and the Jandaya Conure will let me feed him treats but absolutely no touching. So i am going to do what you suggested and also ask if we can put up a sign warning people they will bite and need to be handled carefully.

And right now they’re in a glass box and to get to them you have to reach into it from above so there isn’t a way to approach them at their level unfortunately so it might be even scarier for them for something like a hand to come from above :/ but I will try treats and other fruits and veggies to get them both to earn my trust. Hopefully this will work out and maybe eventually I could adopt them (of course that’ll be most likely a few months from now if that’s possible).

Thank you so much for your help

MikeyTN said:

Welcome to the forum! Copper already posted the differences between the Sun and Jenday Conure so I don't need to go into that. But the fruit part, they're able to eat lots of fruits and veggies such as banana, apples, pears, strawberries, kiwi, water melon, cantaloupe, broccoli, celery, carrots, romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, etc etc. If you give them pellets, it won't hurt the other birds to eat their pellets. BUT is your store willing to let you feed them all that stuff? That is something you need to ask first since you only work there.

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They don’t have any pellets at the store so I’ll have to go out and look for some, and I’ll have to make sure that’s ok for me to do that too. I’ve mentioned bringing in things for our Umbrella Cockatoo but because her crop was busted (from them feeding her too much hot food) they told me that I would need to talk with the kennel manager.

But when I go today I’ll bring a banana and make sure it’s ok for me to feed some to them

There should be signs stating that birds will bite, every shop I've ever been have that sign posted. Your living in a dorm room right? They're not good apartment or dorm room birds. They can be very very loud!!!

ruffledfeathers said:

One other thought--you may want to check on the lighting situation in the store. I know there were some suns at my local store (who i ended up calling the company about--it's in another thread) but they were leaving lights on in the cage 24/7. Very stressful for the birds to have no darkness hours in which to sleep. So if your store has something similar, i would suggest they provide the bird with his sleeping hours of darkness.

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I was concerned about that already because for the safety of the store they do keep some lights on, so no one is without lights which stinks because fish need the dark in order to sleep. i’ll notice that the birds will sleep off and on through out my shift and so will the ferrets and hamsters and of course people will wake them up and mess with them and sometimes you can’t help but wake them up. But they’re in a glass container so it’ll be hard to put anything on top of them but I can see about getting them a hut or something like that so that they can go under and sleep. If I bring my camera today I’ll take pictures of their enclosure.

I thought about suggesting one of the cages we have to put them in but then that means that we’d have to buy things to put in it. So I thought maybe just maybe if I did well in school and my parents were ok with it I could possibly buy them (or have them on layaway or something) and keep them at the store until I go home for the summer. But I doubt that’ll follow through unfortunately. But they are both nippy and the Jandaya one does NOT want anyone touching him so I’m afraid the sun conure will leave before he does and he seems attached to her at least he likes the company.

ohmyhi said:

They don’t have any pellets at the store so I’ll have to go out and look for some, and I’ll have to make sure that’s ok for me to do that too. I’ve mentioned bringing in things for our Umbrella Cockatoo but because her crop was busted (from them feeding her too much hot food) they told me that I would need to talk with the kennel manager.

But when I go today I’ll bring a banana and make sure it’s ok for me to feed some to them

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Is the Umbrella a baby? Must be someone very inexperienced caring for the birds....

MikeyTN said:

There should be signs stating that birds will bite, every shop I've ever been have that sign posted. Your living in a dorm room right? They're not good apartment or dorm room birds. They can be very very loud!!!

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Yeah we really need to get some up because people will pick up the sun conure and then try to pet her and she’s like ‘NO!’ so they they’re like ‘Ouch mean bird!’ -_- some people!

And I cannot have any pets without gills in my dorm so I was hoping to bring them home and I know how loud they can get (trust me ours defiantly don’t mind yelling lol) but thing is they seem to do well together so I thought if I make good enough grades my parents may let me adopt them (which would be amazing) and then by the summer I could bring them home!

MikeyTN said:

ohmyhi said:

They don’t have any pellets at the store so I’ll have to go out and look for some, and I’ll have to make sure that’s ok for me to do that too. I’ve mentioned bringing in things for our Umbrella Cockatoo but because her crop was busted (from them feeding her too much hot food) they told me that I would need to talk with the kennel manager.

But when I go today I’ll bring a banana and make sure it’s ok for me to feed some to them

Click to expand...

Is the Umbrella a baby? Must be someone very inexperienced caring for the birds....

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Joey is 9 months now and they’ve cared for birds before but something with the thing they heated her formula in wasn’t telling them it was too hot or something I don’t know :/ but she is now going to forever live in the store AND they hardly have anything for her so I am slowly getting her stuff and now I wanna do that for the Conures too (only they’re in a box rather than a cage)

So i’m going to say they know basics but don’t go over board if you know what i mean

Hi there, I got into birds the same way you're starting off. Realizing the the retail world doesn't exactly meet the needs of the more intelligent animals like birds. I started off with fresh food daily from my own home. I did a lot of internet reading/watching about birds, diet, handling etc. Now, nearly 2 years later, I'm the "crazy bird lady" at my store. I'm in charge of socializing them, training any new employees about how to handle them, vetting them if needed etc. I did bring home frick in January of this year. Long story short, sweet Frick had had enough of everyone else. I was who he/she chose. everyone else was a pincushion.

Keep up the good work. Don't push your birds, bribe them with food and yes, you can socialize a bird in a pet store. It's not that easy but it can be done.

fricksmom said:

Hi there, I got into birds the same way you're starting off. Realizing the the retail world doesn't exactly meet the needs of the more intelligent animals like birds. I started off with fresh food daily from my own home. I did a lot of internet reading/watching about birds, diet, handling etc. Now, nearly 2 years later, I'm the "crazy bird lady" at my store. I'm in charge of socializing them, training any new employees about how to handle them, vetting them if needed etc. I did bring home frick in January of this year. Long story short, sweet Frick had had enough of everyone else. I was who he/she chose. everyone else was a pincushion.

Keep up the good work. Don't push your birds, bribe them with food and yes, you can socialize a bird in a pet store. It's not that easy but it can be done.

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I’m glad i’m not the only one but unfortunately I just started and to be honest with you this weekend my boss told me to leave them alone because my ‘messing with them’ and along with everyone else was causing them to pull their feathers out due to stress. Their feathers are not effected nor did I see a single one on the floor. I doubt she’s worried they’ll bond (not sure if she knows too much about them) but I think she more overly wanted me to leave them alone so other people would get the chance to see them. Also they don’t want to put out a single sign about ‘Be care they’re scared’ or ‘Be careful they bite’ so people go to pet them and they of course get scared and bite.

And the worse part is when I went to see them the one who is more friendly kept wanting me to pick her up and they would start screaming when I’d leave them (I didn’t want to get in trouble for hanging around them).

EVEN though I’m a junior ANIMAL SCIENCE MAJOR they treat me like I have no clue about animals and even if I was right now trying to be avian certified they wouldn’t believe me because I’m new to petland…my male boss has more faith in me but he wasn’t there at all this weekend but might be there this week. I won’t be working this weekend because I’ve got a triathlon and so I may stop by during the week to see if they really are picking feathers because the Cockatiels tail feathers and other parts aren’t look so good (I haven’t messed with them much) but the conures look healthy. I did notice they started grooming each other but it didn’t seem obsessive…but they also have no mental stimulation except for the one toy I bought them. They also scream a lot so no one really likes them so I’m worried that they won’t be finding a home and that I wouldn’t be allowed to socialize and interact with them.

Any suggestions? I also brought a banana and apple and they seemed to enjoy them, more the apple than the banana. Also the lights are never turned off and they never get a sheet or anything put over them. So maybe if I can prove that I know what I’m talking about maybe they’ll start listening…but that’s doubtful

ohmyhi, Where in GA is this petland located ? I am in GA and I would like to stop in and visit these birds and their situation. Maybe I could also speak to and educate the boss a bit. You can PM me with the location if you feel that is safer, as posting the location openly could get you in trouble at work if they found out.

Boysmom said:

ohmyhi, Where in GA is this petland located ? I am in GA and I would like to stop in and visit these birds and their situation. Maybe I could also speak to and educate the boss a bit. You can PM me with the location if you feel that is safer, as posting the location openly could get you in trouble at work if they found out.

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I can't PM you right now since I've only posted 8 post were I need 20. But here's my YouTube account ohmyhi - YouTube and I just posted some videos

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjL1YGCEZew&list=UU23DtMlgl7CCHQmNUaQUOBg]Being adorable - YouTube[/ame]

Ok so a quick update, I was let go because I wasn’t bringing in enough commission (I didn’t realize how much they wanted money to be coming in). The Sun Conure has been sold but the Jenday Conure is still there (and still marked as a Sun Conure. I was planning on going in sometime next week maybe and making a comment if he’s still there).

Ok one thing too is that Joey, the Umbrella Cockatoo, had absolutely NO toys last time I was there (a week ago) and no one wants to get her any because they scare he too much (introducing new things to any bird is scary!) So there’s no much I can do because although birds are my fascination they won’t listen to me because they don’t think I know anything. I know for Joey’s mental health she needs stimulation and attention but lately all she’s been doing it hitting her head against her cage and biting and getting mad at everyone who goes by. Any suggestions?

This thread makes me so sad! You're doing your best but I really don't think these types of stores care about the animals they sell at all. I wish somehow people would stop buying animals from pet stores unless they're independents and use reliable breeders (or even better, check for birds that need rehoming at a local bird rescue).