Hey everyone!

So I've been on this forum for about two weeks and I'm finally getting around to this! I recently moved to Florida from Washington State and its amazing here. I have a Nanday conure named Rio and I love him to pieces. I've had parakeets since I was five years old and after they passed away I decided to take the jump to conures. I knew I wanted to rescue a bird instead of getting one from a breeder because there are just to many that need good homes. I found Rio on Craigslist(his name was Conure West) but he never really acknowledged that name so I figured he wouldn't mind a new one. The craigslist ad said rehoming fee of $200 which includes the bird, cage, food, bedding, toys, and perches. I thought I was getting a good deal until I got there. The woman that had him should be banned from ever having another pet anyways. The conditions I found my sweet bird in was terrible. He was outside in a nasty flimsy ferret cage with bars that were way to wide. He had cedar shavings on the bottom of the cage with a fire ant hill living with him. And if you have ever been bitten by fire ants you know how horrible and dangerous that is for a bird let alone a human. I don't think the cage had been cleaned in weeks. It's smelled of old rotting bird poop. The perches he had in his cage were either all chewed up or covered in bird poop. The toys had bugs and fire ants all over them. The extra bedding she wanted to give me had even more fire ant hills inside of it. I ended up telling her to keep the cage and everything in it. I didn't even mention the bedding because there was no way I was taking that to begin with. I got Rio in the carrier and just handed her the two hundred because at that point I just wanted to get out of there. By the looks of her I'm sure it went straight to her drug habit. She came running out with a garbage bag full of bird food that she assured me was inside and perfectly fine. So I just threw it in the trunk. I drove straight home and got the bird inside and put him in an empty room(still in the process of moving so hadn't unpacked things for that room). Then I went out to the car to throw the bird food away and to my surprise when I opened the trunk little black bugs(I think they were seed Beatles or something) crawling all other the bag and trunk. I threw the bag away and cleaned the trunk as best as I could. I ended up buying everything brand new. Now I have a happy talkative bird. I'm still trying to expand his diet but he's getting better everyday. He won't let me hold him yet but he's always walking up to me. I have no idea how old he is. The lady said 18 months but I'm not sure about that. She lied about plenty of other things. I don't know how she treated him. He does talk but all he says is shut up. I'm working on pretty bird and I love you because it breaks my heart when he says the words he does know. He's in the living room now so he's always in the middle of things. His favorite thing to do is scare the crap out of my mini schnauzer. He thinks it's hilarious. I'm still learning new things everyday about him and I'm just glad that I can give him a good forever home for the rest of his life.

Oh I'm so glad you did this! I got 4 of my 5 birds off CL, and they are all great! There is an adorable nanday in pet store near us, and if I manage to talk them down to $300, I'll probably get him (if they won't sell him in a meanwhile). They want $400, but they don't know his age and sex, and he is VERY nippy.
How loud is your boy? It's my only concern… We have one story house and all 5 birds are in the living room as well as my grand piano, and they sometimes really won't let me practice in the evening, so I have to cover them earlier and practice while they sleep. But they are considered "quiet" birds. So I dunno what I do if he would start screaming when I practice. And my hubby practices too, and we often play together. So I'm still contemplating.

Welcome to the Forum! I bet your little Nanday thinks he's in heaven! Do you have any pictures of Rio?

Veimar- My little Rio can be rather loud. When I uncover him first thing in the morning he yells a lot but I think he's just excited to see me and wants to say good morning. I let him out as soon as he can be quiet for ten minutes straight and then he's completely quiet. He doesn't yell the whole time I have him out. He mumbles a bit and does some quiet chirps but no shrieking. He does some contact calls when I leave the room but he's good once I call back. At night right before bedtime (8pm) he yells to let me know "hey I'm pretty sure it's bedtime" and once he's covered he is silent. I think a lot of the talk about them being so loud is their little unique sound. It's at a whole new pitch I've never heard from another bird. I live in Florida and there is a large Nanday population where I live and I can hear them screaming every morning so their call really carries. But if he gets the proper attention and is let out frequently he's is silent. I LOVE music so I listen to it all the time and Rio will bop his head and sway but it doesn't bring on a screaming fit. Then again he is always out when I play music so I'm not sure if that would be different caged while it's playing.
Nandays are amazing and I highly recommend them if you can deal with the pitch of their shriek. In the end when I rescued Rio I ended up spending close to a grand and I have no regrets he really is a joy and if you decide to get that Nanday I hope all goes well. I also don't mind you PMing me with any other questions you have! I know there's not as much information about Nandays as most other conures so I'd be happy to answer.

Amanda- At the moment I'm on my tablet and don't have pictures on here from him but as soon as I get on my computer I'll be sure to post them!!!! My profile picture is of Rio the day I got him.

Hey Jessie, welcome to you and Rio. Thank you for helping a bird in need. Rio sounds like a wonderful little guy! Looking forward to photos and updates.

Here's a pic of Rio!! I'll post more when he lets me get some more pictures!

Welcome and congrats on finding Rio. I'm glad he found some new digs to enjoy, looks like he's settling in well. I got my Buddy on 3/22/14 and he's made great progress. People will say be patient and they are so right. Keep doing what you are doing, he sounds very happy and I think he'll just keep getting better and more trusting. We love pictures too. ��

Welcome! Sounds like Rio is doing great! We have a Sun who is considered a loud bird but he acts about the same. He really only screams when he hears our roommate's dog start up, in the morning (to say good morning and because he's excited to get more food), when I come home from work (only me, he doesn't do it to my husband) he's a big momma's boy, and when he wants something and you're taking too long to figure out what it is. He'll call for me if I'm in another room and call his name back to him, then he just flies to me when he gets tired of calling lol. We found him on CL to and had about the same deal just a better experience. I hate to think how your poor Rio was treated before you rescued him.

Hi Jessie and welcome! Thank goodness you got Rio out of that terrible situation he was living in! Fire ants, wow.
He is such a beautiful little guy, and I bet he is thriving with the love and attention he is getting now
Glad you joined us!

Hi Jessie. I also found this forum today and SO glad I did . I pick my Macaw ( I have to find a name for him ) Friday. Anyway I read you post and line you mine will say shut up but also drop the F bomb. I am not sure why people think this is so funny. Or maybe they lean it because they are told that so much . That is really sad.

Thank you to everyone with such a warm welcome! I joined the right forum because you are all great!
Taw5106- I know it's gonna take some time for him to trust me and I don't mind waiting because I know once he does it will be great.
Ducatimom- When Rio is "loud" I just imagine him telling me nice things lol. It's his way of communicating with me. The way I see it if you've got a talkative human child your not gonna tell them to shut up and don't speak so I would never do it to my talkative bird your Sun sounds very cute!
So now I have a question for you guys. I know not all birds are going to be the same, especially what Rio has been through but how long did it take for your birds to start warming up enough that they let your hands get near them. If Rio is on the TV I can put my fingers a few inches from him and he will come over and put a finger in his mouth(he doesn't ever bite down, at least he hasn't so far). But as soon as I bring my hand towards him he's flying away.

Christinenc2000- I don't really think it's funny when people purposely teach their birds bad words like that but most of the time they can also pick it up from tv/music. And that's were they are like kids in a way. But what was sad about Rio was that you could tell he learned those words from being yelled at. I read somewhere that birds tend to pick up words that are used harshly towards then instead of words said lovingly. I'm glad you joined and welcome! I'll be looking forward to pictures I hope of your Macaw!!! What type of Macaw is it?

He is a blue and gold. Thank you !

I was lucky with Buddy, he's a red loved Amazon and his owner passed away last October. He stayed with her husband until he passed this past March. We picked him up, scared to touch him, he wasn't mean we were just nervous. We went to Sonic to get drinks, Buddy in his cage in the backseat. I heard him moving turn to look at him and he had his head pressed Against the cage bars like "pet me" and I did. The first week he said hello repeatedly, the third day he wanted on my shoulder. At four months I got him to take a shower, we called him pig pen for a long time and recently he's started saying new things, wow, what's up and kissing noises. At two months we started taking him places with us, he loves being outside and visiting. He loves people but from a distance. I joke at people when "they cross the line" but he's happy, loves to talk and whistle, and take food from people.

My big winner and motivator with Buddy is food, he's a green pig. Find Rio's favorite food, Buddy's is popcorn. I pop his in a brown paper bag, in the microwave, no oil, just kernels and the bag. That is how I get him to do things. He's so comfortable with me now I can't eat with him near me. He was on my shoulder, I took a bite out of my taco and he ran down my shoulder to my taco and started eating it with me. We flock together, you eat, I eat so I use that too. That's how I got him in the shower, we both got in the shower. When we eat, he has to eat so I put food in his bowl for dinner like red pepper, corn, okra, fresh foods. We are all eating as a flock so he's happy. Food and flock activities are winners. Try eating in front of him, something he can eat like berries, nuts, etc. if I eat it, Buddy wants it and will try it.

Taw5106- wow what a great relationship! You really hit the jackpot with Buddy. I know it won't go that fast but I'm hoping to have that same relationship with Rio! Thanks for sharing!

Here are some pictures of Rio!

Ducati is definitely a little character. Usually when he's loud it's because he's excited to see me. We try and tell him Shhh and whisper to him when he gets really loud, but he hasn't picked up on that yet lol.

We were really lucky with him in that he already knew step up. He just needed a little time to warm up and for us to not be intimidated by that beak. He would fly to us and hang out no problem. I want to say it took him a couple weeks to be completely ok with our hands. I have heard that every bird is different though and some may take a couple months to warm up. Just come to him on his terms and try to force it.

Rio finally knows step up but he always thinks I'm going to put him in his cage so he flies right off my hand again. And when he does get on my hand he likes to chew on my fingers and nails. It doesn't really hurt and he never draws blood but when I try to discourage him from doing it he throws a tantrum and starts biting down hard. He's such a little butthead but I love him . I'm really glad he's at least starting to warm up to me!

Jessie, I just read your post. Thank you so much for rescuing Rio. It breaks our heart when we read about how poorly people treat birds. AND welcome to Florida What part of FL are you in? We can recommend Vets and some great bird stores/places to get food, supplies, toys ect.,
Eddie, Zaila and Lil' Chodi