Do conure sounds change as they mature?

Hello all!

I'm a new conure owner here.

I bought a beautiful hand raised turquoise pineapple conure. I think she's female but she has not been DNA sexed. She is 8 weeks old.

She makes quiet croaking sounds, almost exactly like a frog!, she never makes any other sounds. It seems to be only when she wants attention, food etc.

I was wondering if their vocabulary grows as they get older? I see videos of GC conure on Instagram and they always make lots of different chirping sounds. My girl seems really quiet in comparison.

Thank you!

Yoda only made funny little goblin sounds when he was a baby. His noises became more whistly, more high-pitched, louder, and more distinct as he got older. He still sometimes makes little mumbly goblin noises when he is sleepy, but not very often. Instead, he has a few sounds that he likes to say most often.

He says "Hi Yoda" most often, he says a noise that sounds an awful lot like "Kon'nichiwa" a lot, even though we've never tried teaching him Japanese. I have no idea what he is trying to say with that.

He also makes other sounds consistently that I think are his attempts to say other phrases like "Gesundheit" when someone sneezes, or "Fire in the hole" (his pooping command), or "I love you". But nobody would ever guess that's what he is saying, except that he says them in context. His version of I Love You sounds more like "Chewy Chew!"

Woohoo! Welcome to the 2019 baby member!

Congrats on your new baby Green Cheek!

8 weeks-old is extremely young for a Green Cheek (I'm hoping that he's fully-weaned off of the hand-feeding formula and you are not still hand-feeding him). So you're going to see many, many changes in your bird as times goes on. Green Cheeks hit puberty at around 1 year-old, give or take a couple of months, and that's also about the time they go through their first molt, which is the largest molt they will ever go through, and his feather colors/markings will change once he finishes that first molt...They all experience color changes after that first molt, some more than others; a Pineapple-Turquoise will most-likely go through some pretty dramatic color changes, as do the Yellow-Sided Green Cheeks. And yes, just like their feather colors/marking change as they mature, so do their vocals...

At only 8 weeks-old, your bird hasn't had much time at all to learn any sounds/words, as they learn sounds and speech by mimicking what they hear. So your little guy hasn't had much time at all to do this. You'll notice him picking-up sounds and possibly words too, as well as different chirps/whistles, etc. as time goes on...Green Cheeks are not at all known for being good talkers, but there are some (usually the males) who learn to say quite a lot of words and phrases, and some who are able to speak very clearly (usually Green Cheeks have a very low, gravely voice). So your guy has only just begun to do anything and everything in life, and you shouldn't base anything on what he looks like/sounds like right now. However, this is the absolute BEST TIME to start training him/teaching him anything that you want him to learn/do, such as "Recall-Training" him to fly to you on-command...And if you want to ever have him wear a harness/leash so you can take him out and about with you, you need to buy the harness and start his training ASAP!!! It often takes parrots months and months to literally years to accept just wearing a harness without constantly chewing on it/picking at it, and the younger they are when you start training them to wear the harness, the more successful they are, and the easier it is to get them to accept putting it on and wearing it. We all pretty much use and highly-recommend the Aviator Harness, it's the easiest to get them to accept putting it on/wearing it, and most importantly it's absolutely the safest and most secure parrot harness available. And whenever you buy an Aviator Harness it comes with an awesome instructional DVD that explains the gradual process of acclimating your bird to the Aviator Harness, and then goes over each, individual step of putting it on them so they don't fight you or chew it apart. So if you were planning to "some day" buy a harness/leash for your bird so you can take him out with you, today is the day. At 8 weeks-old it should be a pretty easy process of getting him to accept the harness and wear it if you start now. And for a Green Cheek Conure, you want a size "Extra-Small" Aviator Harness. You can order them several places, the cheapest being Amazon.com and eBay, with many colors to choose from. They all come with the Aviator Harness in the color of your choice, a black leash, and the instructional DVD (which is also available for free on YouTube I believe)...Just make sure you get a size "extra-small" for your Green Cheek.

I've had my Yellow-Sided Green Cheek, a DNA-tested male name Bowie, for about 2 and a half years now, I brought him home when he was 13 weeks-old. And Bowie talks extremely well, he can say about 15 different words/phrases and his voice is very clear...I never expected him to talk at all because they are just not known for being good talkers at all, nor did I purposely "train" him to talk...In fact I didn't do anything at all, he just started talking one day when he was about 6-8 months old, and kept talking from that point forward. So you won't know if your little guy is going to be able to speak words/phrases until he's closer to a year old, but you will start hearing him make all kinds of new noises/sounds gradually as time goes on.

Oh, yes they do !

My GCC made the same "frog chirps"... to the extent that the people at the petstore named her Kermit, and I thought it was too cute a name to change. But after about 6 months, their little parrot vocabulary expands a lot. She might start talking or mimicking things around the house. And, sadly, some sounds just get lost to time. Kermit doesn't really make frog chirps anymore, but she clucks, she makes microwave beeps, she immitates footsteps, food chewing, and the slider door. She also can say a handful of phrases like "step up", "hi kermie", "baby?", "kisses!!!! *smooch sound*, or "Peeeeeeeeeee kabo". And she'll occasionally add new things to her repertoire.

So take lots of video of the cute frog chirp, because chances are it won't last long </3 !

Our Sun Conure only made one stock little growling sound when we got him at about 3 months. Once he grew into adulthood he had several other sounds in his repertoire so I reckon you'll find your green cheek will also diversify its sounds as he gets older and more acquainted with his surroundings.

Congratulations!!! Welcome!!!!

Pepita said:

... She makes quiet croaking sounds, almost exactly like a frog!, she never makes any other sounds.

Click to expand...

How funny.
My GC also makes a frog's "Ribbet" sound.
Even children in public have pointed it out to their parents.

He also quacks like a duck.

Yes. Even tho my 4 Conures don't talk they all make totally different noises than when they were babies.