Need help selecting a bird as pet.

I would definitely go for the cockatiel. They are a lot quieter and can be more cuddly, perfect for first time bird owners. But, like all birds they do have their loud moments. Just make sure the cockatiel gets anywhere from 1/2" to 5/8" bar spacing and AT LEAST a cage size of 24" L 18" W 24" H. I found a very large, sturdy, and cheap cage off of amazon, and the bar spacing works for budgies up to senegals. Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BLQDBD...olid=1U2UV8MALVIQY&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Super_Noel said:

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I bought him Turquoise Green Cheek Conure... He was £185.... And there was also Blue Pineapple, Blue Cinnamon and those were bit cheaper but I liked this Turquoise one more...

But I realised after getting home there was a leg band (red) on the bird 1 leg.... is that a issue? I am thinking of calling the breeder tomorrow to ask what to do about it? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I am new... Only had budgies before...

Click to expand...

Sweet! Before deciding on the removal of the Leg band, make sure that it is legal to have an unbanded bird where you live!

Flboy said:

Super_Noel said:

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I bought him Turquoise Green Cheek Conure... He was £185.... And there was also Blue Pineapple, Blue Cinnamon and those were bit cheaper but I liked this Turquoise one more...

But I realised after getting home there was a leg band (red) on the bird 1 leg.... is that a issue? I am thinking of calling the breeder tomorrow to ask what to do about it? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I am new... Only had budgies before...

Click to expand...

Sweet! Before deciding on the removal of the Leg band, make sure that it is legal to have an unbanded bird where you live!

Click to expand...

I am actually thinking whether to remove or keep the leg band? Is it good to have them on? Does it hurt the bird? ummm

Why would you take off the leg band? It is a form of identification for the parrot.

She looks so cute! I see you have some dowel perches, please remove them and get natural wood perches. Dowel perches are legit the worst perches you can buy.

Have fun with your new buddy and please do research, research, and research.

brighterdaysaviary said:

Why would you take off the leg band? It is a form of identification for the parrot.

She looks so cute! I see you have some dowel perches, please remove them and get natural wood perches. Dowel perches are legit the worst perches you can buy.

Have fun with your new buddy and please do research, research, and research.

Click to expand...

Firstly, I agree with you and I wont take the leg band off as it is good for identification and it doesn't irritate the conure...

secondly, I will change the perches on Monday i am going to the pet shop for more toys anyways..

Thanks

I have 2 questions:

How does my cage look? and all:
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Does the skin above beak ( mostly right side) gone or is that normal? Should I see vet or is that normal because I never had a conure before and I just noticed this now.... Conure is 8 weeks old is it normal to look like this:
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Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

Is this a big issue? please help or its normal?

Should I post this on health forum too?

Super_Noel said:

I have 2 questions:

How does my cage look? and all:
Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

Does the skin above beak ( mostly right side) gone or is that normal? Should I see vet or is that normal because I never had a conure before and I just noticed this now.... Conure is 8 weeks old is it normal to look like this:
Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

Is this a big issue? please help or its normal?

Should I post this on health forum too?

Click to expand...

anyone?

Congrats on the new addition! What a cutie. I love the Turquoise GC's.

Your cage looks on the smaller side, some more toys and another perch or two may help. What are you planning to feed as a diet?

Leave the leg band on -- it's a permanent way to identify where they came from and can help you should you ever lose them. Note the letters and numbers on the band to keep for future reference.

As for the skin above beak issue, it looks normal to me but you should schedule a wellness check with your vet anyway just to make sure your new conure is in tip top shape and doesn't have any issues.

itzjbean said:

Congrats on the new addition! What a cutie. I love the Turquoise GC's.

Your cage looks on the smaller side, some more toys and another perch or two may help. What are you planning to feed as a diet?

Leave the leg band on -- it's a permanent way to identify where they came from and can help you should you ever lose them. Note the letters and numbers on the band to keep for future reference.

As for the skin above beak issue, it looks normal to me but you should schedule a wellness check with your vet anyway just to make sure your new conure is in tip top shape and doesn't have any issues.

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Thanks very much for the help..... I will go to vet next week but the above beak skin issue looks fine right.... Thanks ... Otherwise I was gonna call the breeder and ask
.

He looks fine, his cere also looks fine...

You should always take your new baby to a Certified Avian Vet for a Wellness-Exam anyway, within a week or two of bringing him home. This is also the time to actually FIND a Certified Avian Vet that is local to you...I highly suggest that you not use an "Exotics" Vet, as they are NOT bird specialists at all...Even if you have to drive a couple of hours one-way to the closest Certified Avian Vet, it's completely and totally worth it, it can be the difference between a sick bird surviving and recovering, and a sick bird dying...If you need help finding the closest Certified Avian Vets to you, we can help you with that as well...

But his cere looks completely normal...

Guys bad news! I went back to the breeder to show her the problem and she said she will take this one and have a check up and will give me another conure, he wasnt bonded with us because we only had him for 3 days so it was fine..... but a bit sad...

Also while we was changing the cage it bite my brother super hard and blood came out... So i told this to breeder too and she said its better then if you are worried of getting bitten to get a cockatiel or budgie.... Is this true?

She said conure bites lots compared to cockatiel and budgie also conure bite hurts way more as its bigger beak... So i don't what to do ? she said she can give me a conure or cockatiel and budgie... and the one I had she will want it back...?

Woah, slow down - don't rush. I understand getting a new family member is exciting, but take time to think things through.

What have you read about conures, cockatiels, and budgies? Have you visited the stickies in those different subforums? Talk to us about why you think one is a better fit for you than the other. Talk to us about your concerns and your hopes.

We can't make decisions for you, but we can share knowledge and experience.

I say this largely because, as a person who read through all the stickies in this entire forum (yes, I'm a bit obsessive about being prepared with all the horror stories and worst-case scenarios, even though they're not species I'm planning on adopting), I would be hesitant about adopting a conure - I was quite surprised you went with a conure, but assumed you had done your research.

Take time to read more and decide if your lifestyle matches which species. Like I said:
- Talk to us about why you think one is a better fit for you than the other.
- Talk to us about your concerns and your hopes.

charmedbyekkie said:

Woah, slow down - don't rush. I understand getting a new family member is exciting, but take time to think things through.

What have you read about conures, cockatiels, and budgies? Have you visited the stickies in those different subforums? Talk to us about why you think one is a better fit for you than the other. Talk to us about your concerns and your hopes.

We can't make decisions for you, but we can share knowledge and experience.

I say this largely because, as a person who read through all the stickies in this entire forum (yes, I'm a bit obsessive about being prepared with all the horror stories and worst-case scenarios, even though they're not species I'm planning on adopting), I would be hesitant about adopting a conure - I was quite surprised you went with a conure, but assumed you had done your research.

Take time to read more and decide if your lifestyle matches which species. Like I said:
- Talk to us about why you think one is a better fit for you than the other.
- Talk to us about your concerns and your hopes.

Click to expand...

Yes I feel like I rushed a bit getting a conure... But luckily my breeder is a good person... She also gave me advice about it and after seeing how hard conures bite and seeing blood...I am really not good with pain.. I am going to do some research and go for cockatiel or budgie. Also I think conure is for someone who is more experienced with birds..

budgies and cockatiels can both draw blood when they want to. When it comes to any bird it's a case of when one tears into you. The pain you felt from the conure bite isn't actually hard but because it was sudden and shocked you your brain overloads it as we're programmed to not want to get bitten.

Depending on what you want out of a bird will change your decision greatly. If you want a chill out companion who just sort of relaxes and is a bit mellow then yeah a Cockatiel is good but if you want a playful squeaky cuddle-bug then a Green cheek is your go to. Just remember yes you will get bitten, sure it will hurt BUT he's not going to really damage you anymore than a small cut, think of those little tiny cuts you never notice until you see the blood.

Don't let a little grumpy bite from that first guy turn you off conures. they are pretty easy to look after, they just need a bit of structure

Obviously I'm partial towards GCCs, especially the Turquoise ones, since I own one, but for a squeamish person I'd definitely recommend the cockatiel.
Even a super tame bird like my Nico will bite sometimes (we can't always do exactly what they want!), and conures bite pretty hard compared to the cockatiel. Nico's taken bits of skin off of people's hands and there has been a little bit of bleeding. His nails are also sharper than the tiel my friend owns, and if left untrimmed can poke holes in the skin, kinda like if you stab yourself with a needle (ouch).
Cockatiels are also probably a bit more quiet than a conure, although GCCs are one of the quietest types of conures. Conures also have a habit of screaming early in the morning and when the sun sets, or just whenever they feel like it, like most birds. From my experience, cockatiels sing and whistle more than conures. Conures can learn to speak (for tiels it's more rare), but mainly your conure will just make screeches and short chirps.
That said, tiels and GCCs are both great small to medium sized companion birds. My sweetheart Nico makes me smile and laugh every day with his antics (he's attempting to chew on the edge of my computer monitor at the moment) and I'm very glad I got him.
I'd suggest you do a bit more research on the differences between the bird species (budgies are great too! They're one of the most popular birds for a reason) and how they would fit into your life. I myself waited and researched for almost four years before getting Nico and I don't regret a minute of the time I waited.

Even with a cockatiel you need a bigger cage.

I have big birds - macaws, greys, and ekkies - so I know they can bite. I'm around smaller birds every weekend - playing with the babies at a bird store. I'd rather get a cockatiel out of a cage than a conure any day. But that is just me.

Are you able to spend some time with them before making a decision? Can you let the bird pick you?

LordTriggs said:

budgies and cockatiels can both draw blood when they want to.

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Female budgies can give a very painful bite , but i have not experienced them drawing blood. Cockatiels- have had only 1 cockatiel for 2 years and no blood so far but won't pass any judgements because of the low sample size

Okay, so what bird do you have right now? Do you have any bird right now in your home? You lost me after you gave the first one up for some reason, I couldn't understand what you meant when you said that you "took the first bird back to the breeder to show her the problem and she gave you another Conure"...I don't know what the problem with the first Conure was, he looked perfectly fine, his cere was fine...So now the second Conure bit your brother, and now you've given that one back too? Is that right? Or do you still have it? If you're not planning on keeping it then I'd give it back immediately, it's not fair to the bird or the breeder...

I think you need to stop at the moment and not bring back ANY BIRD from the breeder when you return this second Conure...I think you rushed into this decision, as we told you in the beginning of your post. And I think you know why we told you this now...It doesn't seem that you're quite ready for any bird at all yet...The cage that you have is way, way, way too small for either a Cockatiel or a Conure, and that will need to be remedied before you bring any other bird home...

Besides the cage issue, please do not think that bringing a Cockatiel or a Budgie home is going to solve your problems, as it just seems that you are not prepared for having a pet bird right now, neither emotionally or in routine/schedule...2 hours a day out-of-cage-time is not long enough for ANY species of bird, you must have at least 4-5 hours each day for the bird to be out of it's cage, regardless of species, otherwise you're going to end-up with a hand-raised bird that becomes nippy, as well as a bored bird that either screams all day long, or starts plucking itself, or both...

And believe me, as a long-time Budgie (English and American) and Cockatiel breeder and owner, they can both bite every bit as hard as a Green Cheek, even a small Budgie can break the skin if they want to, and a Cockatiel is no different in this respect than the Green Cheek...you're going to get bitten, that's just a part of owning a bird. It doesn't mean that anything is wrong with the bird, nor does it mean that the bird is "mean" or "not tame", it means that it's trying to tell you that something you are doing is something that it doesn't like. There's a learning-curve here, and you aren't going to find any bird that doesn't let you know when you're doing something it doesn't like.

It's never the bird's fault, it's always the human's fault...This is something that you need to remember...

You need to decide what exactly it is that you're looking for in a pet bird BEFORE you bring another one home...A Cockatiel has a completely different personality than a Green Cheek Conure does, they tend to be a bit more independent than Conures are, they aren't as cuddly or clingy, they will hang-out with you, but in-general a Conure is more of a person's "baby" than a Cockatiel is...HOWEVER, each bird is an individual, just like people are, so you cannot expect that you're going to get a certain type of personality, no matter what species you bring home...You must be ready for anything, you must be prepared, and you must have enough time for any bird you get...

I agree 100% with Ellen. Well spoken.

brighterdaysaviary said:

I agree 100% with Ellen. Well spoken.

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I meet your 100% and raise you 200%
I must say, my JoJo draws blood once a month, but it is absolutely my fault!
Normally, he bites, I say, ‘ why did you bite me that way?’
In big Conure eyes, he replies, ‘ I am so sorry, which way should I have bitten you?’