Willis is Home!

Hi all, I recently posted in the new Member forum about our new bird Willis. He is a 5 month old Jenday conure. We finally picked him up yesterday after our vacation. He is home and adjusting extremely well to his new environment. Eating and drinking really well. He loves his new cage and play stand. He's a little hesitant to play with new toys but is starting to investigate them. So far he has been relatively quiet mainly I think because of all the attention from myself, wife and daughter. I don't think he got this type of attention at Petco. Anyways he is very sweet and acts like he's a dog. I guess whoever hatched him actually took time to tame him and was really nice to him. It's the only explanation I can come up with as to why he loves all people so much. So far so good.

I am attaching some photo's of our new little buddy.

You are soooooo lucky! Congratulations!

Aww..that's so great! I'm sure you will all be very happy!

He's a cutie! Jenday's are beautiful.

Thanks all. One thing I've noticed is that he seems to be quite the seed junky. LOVES sunflower, pumpkin seeds, etc. I've read that dried fruit from the proper sources is the way to go to incorporate more fruit into the diet. Anyone have any good tips? I am feeding him Kaytee Fiesta for Conures but he seems to be picking the seeds out mainly. I gave him some apple and strawberry and he shook his head after tasting it like they were the worst thing ever...

Just keep trying with the fruits and veggies. It's pretty common for birds to be hesitant to try new things.

Enjoy your bird honeymoon! And be prepared. Jendays are just loud by nature. Eventually this guy will be too. It would be weird if he wasn't

Phlox said:

Enjoy your bird honeymoon! And be prepared. Jendays are just loud by nature. Eventually this guy will be too. It would be weird if he wasn't

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I don't doubt you one bit...

Congratulations! What a beauty! Those pics are great
You may have already researched this but may I recommend that you incorporate some pellets into the diet if you haven't already?
Read about the pros and cons of too much seed in your birds diet. Too much is fattening and can cause a multitude of future problems for your beautiful bird.
Fresh greens, (the darker the better, romaine lettuce, broccoli, spinach, fresh sprouts, just to name a few) and Fresh fruits, papaya, mango, apple, cherries, peaches, plums, grapes...
Don't give up on the fresh stuff, keep some available every day and he will eventually nibble some.
Fresh is best, but second is dried fruits and veges.
be sure to check the list of foods NOT TO GIVE which include avocado, coffee, alcohol...
Thanks for the wonderful pictures, I am so happy for you all!

He is a beauty! I love his play stand! Enjoy the quiet while you can, I have a Dusky Conure and he can peel the paint off the wall when he wants to lol

How cute! He's gonna be a (adorable) bundle of feathery trouble (in the cutest way possible) He has that look of a genuinely happy and curious little guy. Just keep trying him on new fruits and veg, and try serving them in different ways (big chunks, finely chopped, grated, dried ext...). He's sure to find some he likes Some very "common" favorites are apple, banana, peppers and sweet potato. You're lucky to bring home a friendly sweetie right off the bat. If you'd like him to stay that way, be sure to incorporate some "independent play" time each day along with spending time interacting. Parrots are flock animals by nature, and they must be taught to play alone and entertain themselves. After all, you aren't going to be able to spend 24/7 with him, so get him into a healthy habit of self-rewarding play and foraging from day one

Looks like he has a nice cage setup, but just a little suggestion- if you want to keep your very nice walls looking that way, I would suggest hanging some heavy vinyl or even linoleum behind his cage. Parrots are VERY messy Best of luck with Willie.

Willis is just beautiful! Love the photos. Have fun with your little sweetheart.

Willis update!

Willie has been doing awesome, very very loving bird. So far he only squawks when we come home from work or see's us after we come in. When he is quiet after coming in I walk over to his cage, if he squawks I turn around and walk away. My idea to try to get him to realize that doing that is not the best way to keep us around. As soon as he is quiet I visit him and open his cage. He then steps right up and crawls up our arms (wife, daughter, myself, doesnt matter who). Then spends a couple hours on our shoulders or on the couch with us. Trying to get him to go "potty" before we pull him out.

In the morning when we uncover his cage, he acts a little sleepy and is only mildly vocal (chirps, not his loud sqwaks) but he gets about 30-45 mins total playtime before either of us leave for work, then in the evening 2-3 hours of playtime between all of us. On the weekends he gets play almost all day and by 8pm he wants back in his cage to sleep.

So all in all I think he is adjusting well. I have seen him take one bath in his water dish. I tried taking him to the sink but it scared the crap out of him. I will work on that I suppose. Changing/cleaning cage grates and bottoms every day, doesn't take too long. Hope I am on the right path....

Sounds as if you are doing wonderfully!!!! As far as the bath thing goes... I did the exact same thing as you and tried JellyBean over at the sink - freaked him out! So I got two water bowls for his cage - one that I put a small about of water that he drinks in and a larger one that he takes his bath. i leave the bath one out until I have fed him in the morning so that he gets used to drinking out of the smaller one. Seems to have worked!

Ducati also has a birdie bath that he gets when he's eaten and settled down a little bit. We got that after several attempts to try the shower (he likes to stay on your head, which makes it difficult to wash your hair). We had bought a shower perch for him, but realized it wouldn't work because our shower is stone tile. We might attempt to gorilla tape it in there and see if it will stay. Until then Ducati loves his little bath. His cage is next to the couch and when he really gets into bathing you feel like you're sitting in the splash zone at Sea World! Hasn't quite mastered getting his back feathers but he's close.

Maybe Willis would use a bird bath since he tries to use his water bowl? That's what lead me to get one for Ducati.

Sounds like he's really taken with you and your family! So happy you guys are enjoying him and he's enjoying your company.

Crash_Davis said:

Thanks all. One thing I've noticed is that he seems to be quite the seed junky. LOVES sunflower, pumpkin seeds, etc. I've read that dried fruit from the proper sources is the way to go to incorporate more fruit into the diet. Anyone have any good tips? I am feeding him Kaytee Fiesta for Conures but he seems to be picking the seeds out mainly. I gave him some apple and strawberry and he shook his head after tasting it like they were the worst thing ever...

Click to expand...

Mine adores sunflower seeds, too. I used them to help potty train him, which has worked well. Now I just give him one every now and then, so he appreciates them even more.

Hi all!

Just wanted to give a quick update on Willis. He has been a great addition to our home the last 5 months. He has acclimated to all of us including my 5 year old daughter who is very good with animals. He rides around on her shoulder no problem and she knows how to properly handle him.

We also have two Yorkies who at first they thought we had brought home dinner... but that ended when Willis showed that he was posessive of his humans and nipped the TAR out of both of them. Needless to say they are both terrified of him now, they are really sweet dogs and they seem to have accepted him as one of the family. He also doesn't try to attack them anymore when they come close.

We definitely make sure we are around when they are near each other but one day we left the cage door open by total accident and when we got home from work he was walking around WITH THE DOGS! I was shocked he wasn't dead. That was a miracle or just that our dogs are big huge cowards.

Other than that, he has been a relatively quiet Conure. Only is loud when we get home in the evenings or if he wants attention. He likes his time with his toys and in his cage too. A really good bird so far.

We had him sexed and he is a boy but we pretty much already knew given his personality. He likes to rough house but never bites hard enough to break the skin. He was handled well by his breeder I think.

He is saying two words (sometimes). He says Hello and Kiss-Kiss already.

We also think he is actually a Sun or Sunday conure and not a Jenday. He is getting a lot of yellow on his back and wings. I will try to post a photo soon.

He looks like my Sun Conure when he was younger before his colors came out. I only wish mine was as friendly as Willis.

What a beautiful little bird.

Here is the promised pic, he is now about 10 mo's old. Definitely looking like he will be a Sun. Not sure how breeders can mix them up but I guess it is possible!

So he is a Sun right guys?