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Orin2017

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May 5, 2019
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I made a couple posts before this but should have introduced myself first. Sorry. I’m a new parent to a pet bird, a female (tested) cinnamon green cheek Conure. My first bird as a pet.

Each month, I worked away from home for two weeks at a time and then had two weeks off work. My wife has a care-giver personality; while I was away working, she felt depressed, with nobody to take care of at home. She knew I wanted a bird as a pet but the pet bird benefited her more than myself. When we went to the pet store looking for a cockatiel, we could not find any at the time. What I did see, in a plexiglass cage, was a 3 month old cinnamon green cheek conure, which bobbed her head up and down non-stop upon seeing me. As I walked around the outside of this cage, the conure followed me, bobbing her head. I confess: we are examples of those conure owners who bought a bird without knowing entirely what we were getting ourselves into. We did not know how much interaction this bird required. On the other hand, when we bought this bird and read The Conure Handbook, we were pleased to learn that this pet was not like a fish in bowl, requiring nothing but food and poop-cleaning services. We wanted interaction!

What made me want to have a bird for a pet? I had a friend a long time ago who was an animal lover more so than most people and amongst all creatures birds were his favorite. He rescued many injured birds from the wild, and had the pleasure of having a wide variety of birds as pets, including a hummingbird and a red-tailed hawk. Of them all, including cockatiels and cockatoos, he was especially fond of conures. I thought he said Condors and figured he was just pulling my leg (this followed a conversation in which he said he would love to have an Ostrich as a pet). He said conures were particularly affectionate and made wonderful companions. Not a condor: a conure. This conversation, from 20 years ago, I remembered when I noticed that the sign on the cage in front of me reading “green cheek conure” in the pet store. I asked the pet store worker if I could check out the conure and the bird walked right up my arm, onto my shoulder, and proceeded to clean the inside of my ears out for me, as if to thank me in advance for buying her, our conure, Orrin.

We have no regrets. But we have a lot to learn! And we’re glad we can learn from the experience right here on this forum.






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Ellie777Australia

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I made a couple posts before this but should have introduced myself first. Sorry. I’m a new parent to a pet bird, a female (tested) cinnamon green cheek Conure. My first bird as a pet.
Welcome Orin2017. It's ok not to post here however, if you post in the Condor (oops 'Conure':D) section only some of us miss your arrival.


I asked the pet store worker if I could check out the conure and the bird walked right up my arm, onto my shoulder, and proceeded to clean the inside of my ears out for me, as if to thank me in advance for buying her, our conure, Orrin.
How beautiful! It sounds as if you were chosen by Orrin, and that makes a perfect match.:)


But we have a lot to learn! And we’re glad we can learn from the experience right here on this forum.

We are always learning something new about our birds. Each and every one of them is quite unique. You have certainly joined a new family who will enjoy learning with you.
 

LaManuka

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Welcome aboard, lucky you for being chosen by Orrin, we are pleased to meet you!
 

Scott

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Welcome to you and Orrin! Being chosen by a parrot is key to establishing a lifelong relationship. Conures are extremely popular for good reason, as you've learned!
 

Casper223

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Hello and welcome to The Parrot Forum to you and Orin.....certainly reads like Orin has chosen you for his owner, which is fantastic. On this forum as I'm sure you've already seen there are a lot of conure owners, and conures do make fantastic pets, or maybe I'm just partial to all birds, I've loved them from a very young age. Have you attempted any training with Orin yet? and we do love pictures here... so if you get a chance, posting a picture would be awesome.
 
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Orin2017

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Thanks for the warm welcome. Yes, I have attempted some training. Orrin came from the pet store already knowing how to “step up.” So I can’t take credit for that. I built Orrin a trick-stand, and initially Orrin learned several tricks, like doing flips/pull-up’s on a 3/8 inch dowel rod, and other tricks. Then I realized that trick stand was the perfect place for Orrin to poop, so...I hung little ropes for Orrin so she could easily climb up the rope to get to her four perches. Sometimes, if she can make it up the ropes, she will poop from the perches and I’ll reward her with safflower seeds. I read bad things about molds on sun flower seeds so I switched to safflower seeds.

In the future, I will build taller perches and teach her to fly to the perches. She is fully flighted and she will fly, but only to “join” us if we disappear from her eye sight for a second, for instance if she is on our bed in our bedroom and one of us goes to the bathroom for a second. All it takes is breaking eye sight and she freaks. I watched you tube videos on how to teach birds to fly from point A to point B. It’s on my agenda to do this.

As far as biting goes, I caged her for five minutes or ten minutes for biting. She doesn’t do it often. It seems like when she does do it she’s excited because either my wife or I are eating food, or we are about to hand her reward seeds, and Orrin wants some. Man oh man we were afraid of rasberries! We had to spell the R word around her because that is all it took: just saying the name, or just hearing the crinkle of the package containing the R word.

We are slacking on the training. If I had to identify two areas of improvement, it would be pooping where we want her to poop and flying where and when we want her to fly.

Here are some pictures! Thanks!

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Casper223

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Umbrella Cockatoo "Zoey"
Orrin is absolutely precious.... I love orrins trick stand, so full of adventure, my favorite picture is of orrin laying in the palm of your hand, such an unnatural thing for a bird to do. One can definitely see Orin has met the soul person in life. Thank You very much for these pictures, and now you can add them to your album and even use them in the upcoming photo of the month, or even take more.....absolutely awesome.....Thank You!!! Beautiful and precious.
 
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Orin2017

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Orrin is absolutely precious.... I love orrins trick stand, so full of adventure, my favorite picture is of orrin laying in the palm of your hand, such an unnatural thing for a bird to do. One can definitely see Orin has met the soul person in life. Thank You very much for these pictures, and now you can add them to your album and even use them in the upcoming photo of the month, or even take more.....absolutely awesome.....Thank You!!! Beautiful and precious.


So, the trick stand picture is old. I actually did a snapshot of that from a video in order to get a picture of that stand. The trick stand is the small little thing that Orrin is doing a pull up on. Now that stand has another perch or two and each perch has ropes hanging from it so she can climb up. That was relatively simple to make.

In contrast, the large stand is almost 6 feet tall. That isn’t for tricks. It’s for keeping Orrin preoccupied while we do things like cook, etc. The base of that stand is a 1.5 diameter, 1.25 inch thick circle shape of wood, with rollers screwed into the bottom. From the center, I screwed in a thick wooden dowel vertically, but only after drilling many holes into the dowel to effectuate a “spiral stair case” sort of thing. Into those holes, I pounded in 3/8 inch wooden dowel rods and glued them in place. Those dowels are the stairs in the spiral stair case. Orrin can start from the bottom and climb the stairs to get to the top. She likes doing that. I added a lot of rope onto it too so she can hang from the rope upside down and play. On this stand, I hung several cat toys, you know, the little plastic balls with bells on the inside. Orrin absolutely loves playing with those balls. She’ll grab the balls with her beak and shake them, thus sounding the bells within the balls, and she’ll chirp away as she plays. That is her favorite toy. In fact, if I myself shake that toy and make that sound, Orrin will do her Chief Crazy Feather war dance back and forth, with her tail feathers fanned out, and her head bobbing. Back and forth she goes. Hi-Yi-Yi-Yi-Hi-Yi-Yi-Yi...

She’s quirky! We love her quirks.


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Ellie777Australia

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Orin2017 said:
... In fact, if I myself shake that toy and make that sound, Orrin will do her Chief Crazy Feather war dance back and forth, with her tail feathers fanned out, and her head bobbing. Back and forth she goes. Hi-Yi-Yi-Yi-Hi-Yi-Yi-Yi...


The pics are just too cute...I love her...


And...I just gotta see a video of the Chief Crazy Feather war dance, please???:D
 

GaleriaGila

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You are a very lucky rooster to have two such fine hens in your house! Thank you so much for sharing your story. Those photos are fabulous.

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Squeekmouse

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May 31, 2017
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Welcome welcome!!

Oh wow, your story is SO similar to my own. I work from home, I was lonely and longing for a companion pet. We planned on a cockateil but I was chosen by a sweet little green cheek conure.

I'm delighted to hear your story and see those precious pictures. I can't tell who looks happier and who is the luckier one, Orrin or you and your wife. :) Congratulations to you all! :D
 
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Orin2017

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[/quote]And...I just gotta see a video of the Chief Crazy Feather war dance, please???:D[/QUOTE]


Can we post video clips here? Or is that something we would have to do with an external link to someplace else like youtube? In any case, I have no videos of her doing her quirky dances, only of her doing tricks. Whenever we try to record her, she doesn’t do it.


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Scott

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RIP Gandalf and Big Bird, you are missed.
And...I just gotta see a video of the Chief Crazy Feather war dance, please???:D[/QUOTE]


Can we post video clips here? Or is that something we would have to do with an external link to someplace else like youtube? In any case, I have no videos of her doing her quirky dances, only of her doing tricks. Whenever we try to record her, she doesn’t do it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

Best way to post video to the forum is via YouTube or other host platform.
 

CallumConure

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Apr 10, 2019
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(nonparrot friends include rats, a dog, and a few reptiles :))
Welcome to the forum! What an adorable GCC you have! Gotta say, seeing pictures of Orin all puffed up, eyes closed, and laying next to you, definitely reminded me of Callum's younger, cuddlier days.

Absolutely precious bird you have! She definitely chose her person.
 
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Orin2017

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Thanks. When my life returns to normal, I’ll have to do that. My wife flew from Alaska to visit her daughter and grandson in Iowa, and shortly after arriving she asked to go to the hospital. From there, she was transferred to a cardiac hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she just had open heart surgery. I had to leave Orrin with my father in law in Alaska in order to fly from Alaska to Nebraska. I’m staying in a hotel at night and spending the days in the hospital.

It’s a small world. I read in other threads about members being in Iowa and the suburbs of Illinois (Arlington Heights). My paternal grand parents lived in a house in Arlington Heights and owned/operated a paint store there. My father and his siblings grew up there. I have cousins who live there and other relatives who live in the surrounding areas. For a short while, I went to high school in those burbs.

I read other threads about birds passing away and I can only imagine the pain of these people feel. Despite the sad news, it is helpful to know how these accidents happen in order for others to avoid accidents.

The safety advisor for the company I used to work for took a special class on how to deal with birds who may have been exposed to hydrocarbon contamination. Among many other things, he was taught how to euthanize ducks or geese and it consisted of slightly compressing the birds under their wings, which prevents the lungs from working. Thinking of that, it would be very easy to accidentally take away the life of a bird in our beds. I would feel so awful.

Orrin is highly at risk for accidents like that because of her need to be in close proximity to us at all times, including and especially in our bed. We cage her at night of course but once or twice both my wife and I have shut our eyes during the day and snoozed, with Orrin snuggled up to us. It could have happened to us. Knowing the experiences shared by others here, we are going to make improvements in mitigating risks.




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munami

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Apr 13, 2019
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Welcome to the forum! I'm a little late to the intial welcome wagon but at least you've posted the most adorable pictures! I'm glad you're seeking out information although it looks like you've taken great lengths to take care of little Orrin. I wish you guys much luck on this journey and I can't wait to see any videos and more pictures! What a precious baby.
 
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Orin2017

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Thanks for the warm welcome from everyone. It’s appreciated. You all will have to pardon me if I read more than I post, since I am a beginner.


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Terry57

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A late welcome to you and Precious Orrin!
Those pictures are wonderful, please keep 'em coming.

How is your wife doing now? I hope she is doing better, and am sending healing wishes her way.
 
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Orin2017

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The docs already did a valve repair on her heart but she is still experiencing A-fib. So tomorrow, she gets a pace-maker.

If that wasn’t enough, her father-in-law, who has been bird-sitting Orrin for us, told us he and his wife are taking a road trip to visit his wife’s son and will be gone for a few weeks. They arranged for someone else to watch Orrin. This makes me WILD! See, he is an old man, over 80, had a back surgery, is bed bound mostly, and Orrin is right at home with him, snuggled up to his beard all day. But the other person? That family has little kids. They don’t know anything about birds. I feel like I have to choose between my wife and my bird.


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