taming conure

Hello, been reading alot on this site and we have decided to buy a gcc as our third bird. First two birds were parakeets, once they mated and had eggs they hated us lol so we gave them to a local breeder. We have now decided to get a gcc as our new family member. Well today the breeder contacted me and gave me a awesome deal for a pineapple gcc. Only downfall she lost her mate due to extreme heat and air conditioning failure supposly. She is 3 years old and not hand tamed. Breeder said I can get her for 70 dollars if I want to try to tame her down. Well this is our first conure and would just like some personal experiences or advice. I am not sure if its possible or worth trying, I would love a pineapple but for 150 I can get a gcc baby hand feed and tamed. What would you guys suggest? Will it take years? I would like my children to at least get to hold the bird=) Thanks

I had a 1 year old aviary Jenday Conure once and I tamed her in a month, but she was a sweet natured bird. It can take years and years to tame a 3 year old breeding Green Cheek, and even if you do tame it, I don't think any kids would be able to hold it. Depends in the bird utself. Is recommend just getting a hand raised one later on. Then if you want a project you can take on the taming. The 3 year old pineapple would most likely be a big biter. Their bites can HURT!

Sorry for the short message, I'm on my phone ^^

Hey there!

Welcome to the forum

In reading your post, it sounds to me as if you don't have a whole lot of experience in training/taming birds. They are UNIQUE and GCC's ESPECIALLY can be mega challenging to tame.

HOWEVER...that being said, other GCC's can or will tame down in no time at all and be your best cuddle bug bird ever.

How can you tell which one will be the cuddle bug? What's the guarantee?? Well...no way to tell...no guarantee's.

I can tell you from our experience with our Franklin...who is now 2 1/2 years old...that if he hadn't been tame when we purchased him...we would have been more than likely...miserable and highly frustrated with sore hands from being bitten so much!

His bite packs a punch, he can be extremely aggressive and for no apparent reason other than he is just an extremely independent boy who likes to call the shots! LOLOL

He's highly....and do mean HIGHLY active...I describe him as being ADHD with a splash of Bi-polar...and I don't mean ANY disrespect toward anyone. But that's our Franklin in a nutshell.

Even though he was hand tame and had an excellent foundation on him when we got him...our first year was still challenging at times, having to be consistent, set the rules...so to speak...and stand by them.

I can't imagine trying to tame him down at his age now, had he not ever been handled.

You mentioned having children who would like to at least hold the bird....then it's my opinion that it's really in your best interest to pay the extra money and get a hand tamed baby....with a good solid hand tamed foundation.

I don't think you'll regret it...for a family bird.

I think the untamed 3 year old would be a great project for someone...for sure...but I wouldn't advise for a family project.

Then again...going back to no guarantees...she might be the PERFECT bird for you.

Good Luck in what ever you decide.

On a side note: Conures have seemed to explode in popularity in the last few years...and they are definitely FUN birds. But read in the posts on this forum...almost every other post is about Biting issues...severe biting issues...aggressiveness...

Good Luck with what ever you decide to do. And DO keep us posted!

Toni

I had an 8 month old aviary raised GCC first and it took months to be able to handle him. He eventually bonded with me and even though he was in a busy household with other people he knew as long as he had known me no one else could ever handle him.

He would sit on other peoples hands and step up for them at times but at any moment he could just give them a killer bite. It's amazing how strong their beaks are! One time he hopped off my shoulder onto my step dad and to quick for anyone to stop pierced his ear for him.

I ended up having to give him away due to circumstances but thanks to that experience the second bird I purchased I made sure it was hand raised.

I bought my second bird and took it home and literally was able to play with him immediately as he was used to people handling him. He nips a little sometimes but has never broken my skin and as he is so young I think it's more of him just testing out his beak as opposed to aggression or anything. Anyone I have had over to my place has also been able to handle him with no problems so far.

So in short, I would pay extra for the handrasied bird. I paid $100 extra for my second bird and don't regret it for a second.

Oh wow, thank you guys for the quick replys. I think I will actually wait for a hand raised baby=). But will go to meet this breeder bird with my family and just see how bad or good she is. Also can only imagine after just loosing her mate she might be very upset and moody. Dont want to be bite daily lol. Very helpful posts. Thank you.

I'm actually working with a 3 year old conure now! When I got her 3 months ago (well, practically 4 now), I couldn't handle her! I could give her scritches, but with a good possibility of getting bit! And when she bit, she bit to draw blood! Offer my hand or arm to step up? She'd bite them, too!

Now? She eagerly climbs onto my hands or arms to get to my shoulder! I can pet her without worrying about losing some flesh! Let alone blood! Ya, sure, she still nips and bites but it's more a warning than "I plan to cause you a lot of pain!!!".


It's easy to get her away from her cage and it's easy to get her back up on it. However, I still can't get her to step up from inside the cage (from the door or outside/top of the cage is no problem!) and she wont step up onto my hand or arm from my shoulder. (but it's not difficult to remove her from my shoulder, either)


Slowly, she's gaining confidence. She came to me clipped but started molting a couple weeks after she got here, so she's learning how to fly again. She has enough flights in to gain height and some steering but more flights will definitely help! Still insecure, but not like she was at first.


She's my third conure. At 3 years old, she's also the youngest conure I've ever dealt with! My first conure was 9-11+ years old (maybe even older than I was!) and although he was never truly tame, we had a special understanding of each other. I miss that guy! My second conure was 12 years old when I got him and that was 7 years ago!!! He's tame, loud, goofy, hilarious, funny, noisy, nippy, opinionated, cuddly, etc! Always has been! He didn't require any work at all.





I would definitely recommend on waiting and getting a young, newly weaned chick, but I've never had the pleasure of bringing home such a young conure! Not that I regret getting my conures, but there's just something about having young, innocent babies that haven't been tainted by the world and are just a ball of fluff and feathers that is just too cute!!!!!!!

Nakiska said:

Hey there!

On a side note: Conures have seemed to explode in popularity in the last few years...and they are definitely FUN birds. But read in the posts on this forum...almost every other post is about Biting issues...severe biting issues...aggressiveness...

Good Luck with what ever you decide to do. And DO keep us posted!

Toni

Click to expand...

Conures are basically Macaws in a more manageable size...

I trick trained the biters. Trick training instills discipline and helps with pair bonding.

Teach Your Parrot Series 1 Fantastic Performing Parrots - Bird Video - Bird Book and Dvd - Bird