Choosing a parrot: conures

I visited some conures today at petco. 2 sun conures & a Quaker. The Quaker wasn't very friendly, but his screech was adorable. The sun conures liked to give kisses.

I've sent out a few emails on Craigslist. So far I've mostly found sun conures & parakeets. However there was one that stood out..

Golden capped conure. A GCC & a cockatiel. Not sure if they're bonded but I think they share the same cage. I'm going to meet them, but they sound very interesting. Personally I'm smitten with the bird at petco.. But still.. These guys sound nice.

How are cockatiels as pets?

And how are GCC? Loud? Google search found 2 sites (copying each other word for word) saying they're loud, & one saying they're quiet. Opinions? How big are they? He looks huge compared to the tiel.

Also, do bonded pairs of sun conures make good pets? There's 2 that are being sold on CL, a male & female, pretty sure they're bonded & also pretty sure they're litter mates... Ugh. Why can't people just get one or better, not get litter mates? If you screw up & breed 2 genetically diverse birds it ain't that bad.

Nonetheless, I've become smitten with conures. I used to see them as loud & bitey... Now.. I'm not so sure.

If I could find an IRN (of another color) I so would. I enjoy being able to cuddle & pet my birds, but my god, Kiwi was the best bird ever. He's made me love & want to breed IRNs (someday!)

I have 4 gccs and i do not think they are loud.
And that is saying something seeing as my last one was dubbed as a screamer by his last owner.
I honesty haven´t heard him scream for long.
They have their moments but that ends within minutes
Sun conures are louder then gccs.
But it all comes down to what a person think is loud.

hacatta said:

I have 4 gccs and i do not think they are loud.
And that is saying something seeing as my last one was dubbed as a screamer by his last owner.
I honesty haven´t heard him scream for long.
They have their moments but that ends within minutes
Sun conures are louder then gccs.
But it all comes down to what a person think is loud.

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I think you two are talking about two different birds. The OP is talking about golden capped conures and you're taking about green cheeks.

thekarens said:

I think you two are talking about two different birds. The OP is talking about golden capped conures and you're taking about green cheeks.

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OP is also asking about tiels, GCC and gold capped conure.

OP - I would not want the three bird in 1 cage... they may be bonded to each other and not want to come out and spend time with you. Is the person willing to sell just 1 bird.... personally if you like the one at the pet store, go with that one! good luck

NandayMom said:

thekarens said:

I think you two are talking about two different birds. The OP is talking about golden capped conures and you're taking about green cheeks.

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OP is also asking about tiels, GCC and gold capped conure.

OP - I would not want the three bird in 1 cage... they may be bonded to each other and not want to come out and spend time with you. Is the person willing to sell just 1 bird.... personally if you like the one at the pet store, go with that one! good luck

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Oh my apologies.

I said golden capped conure so that I could say GCC w/o confusion.

It's a golden capped conure (GCC) & a cockatiel, not a golden capped conure, a green cheeked conure AND a cockatiel.

My apologies to the confusion. And yes, I meant golden capped conure when I said GCC. However if I find a green cheek conure ill def look into them

No, they're firm at selling them together, which is fine. We have extra cages. I simply cannot find anything on golden cap conures it seems. And I've never had a cockatiel so I don't really know their personality



EDIT: Nanday Mom, you own a golden capped conure? Your profile says its a sun conure, but it looks like a golden cap.

We've met pairs of suns that are still really awesome, sweet fun birds. All depends on how they have been socialized.

Opinion on cockatiels... depends on who you ask!! Some people have wonderful very interactive tiels, my impression not so much... We have four tiels in our home (my daughter's) and I'm take it or leave it with them. Two are nice girls that my daughter actually had to hand raise from about 10 days old because the father plucked them. I'm not a tiel fan, others will have drastically different opinions. They are some very pretty birds tho, so they have that going for them!!

I am a huge sun fan. We have a young sun in our home and outside of my bare eyed too, he is my favorite baby. Not all suns are loud all the time, they do not all scream and such. I joke that Loki garbles and grumbles more then anything! He is funny when its bed time, he walks to the end of the sofa and yells and bobs his head toward the hallway to go back to his cage. But he does not scream for attention because my daughter taught him from the beginning that screaming does not get you attention.

I do not have experience with the golden crown conure... do with green cheeks, but not the golden!

You can't go wrong getting a sun, they are really awesome, fun, silly and loveable little birds. If you teach them from the start that screaming gets nothing, they are not noisey birds at all... joke in the house is that my little budgie is the loudest most obnoxious bird we have!

Good luck!!!

EDIT: Nanday Mom, you own a golden capped conure? Your profile says its a sun conure, but it looks like a golden cap.

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The gold cap, the jenday and the sun are all very similar. They look very alike when young and have not gotten their adult colors. Even some adults will look like alike when they aren't the same. I think there was a thread awhile ago about differences and the research that they are all subspecies instead of 3 distinct species.

I have a Nanday and Sun Conure. the picture in my siggy is a baby sun, he will turn yellow as he gets older.

Chain pet stores, the ones that drove out the smaller competition that did a better job in this area, have birds that may or may not be properly human-tame. With the fids I've bought from the big chains, 2 were angels... the others had varying degrees of psychological issues.

But if the bird is smitten with you at the store, it is going to adapt and be better long-term. (Rusty chose me...)

I have 3 GCCs and a BCC (Blue Crown Conure). The 3GCCs often shriek at top volume in the morning. Tybbi can get louder than them, yet has yet to do so (e.g. if in pain).

GCCs (pyhurra) are quieter than other conures, especially arantingas (Suns, Jendays, etc), but of the arantingas, the blue crown is easily the quietest... well, vocal but not shrieking like Suns... my GCCs tend to get louder more often and they don't have as big vocabularies...

Rusty and Scooter are bonded - been together since chicks at the pet store. They were separated for a while and bonded to me, but when I re-introduced them in the same cage, they re-bonded. They tolerate me and will do tricks I taught, and still purr, but they don't allopreen me as much as they used to.

Conures can be bitey, but I've seen them mellow with age. Tybbi (the blue crown) always bites with discriminated strength. The others just chomp right down.

I wish more breeders and stores would treat birds right, then they would be more likely to be sold and well-kept for humans. Rehoming is not a good thing, but Roseanne and Tybbi both needed time to adjust...