Age???

[hiriki]

Hello!

This is just kind of a curious post about my precious Jenday. Pictured below!

I rescued her 3 yrs ago now from a local shelter. You might have noticed she's got funky lil feet, she came to me like that disabled and unable to perch. Anyway--point of the story, I have NO clue how old she is!!

I thought I'd ask to see if anyone has any tips, although I have asked my vet and they said it's nearly impossible to guess the age of a bird without a band or hatch records.

When I adopted her, she had her little sign up on her cage that said "Birdie - 39 years old." But... the 9 was clearly written later with a different color pen. As if they thought she was 3 and then for whatever reason changed their minds... lol. To their credit, they did seem convinced at the time of adopting her that she really was 39, because they even adopted her out to me at a heavily discounted price... not only because she's disabled, but also because they didn't expect her to live even one year...

Now, my experience discussing conure lifespans leads me to believe they're usually getting old at around 25, but every once in a while they do get to the ripe old age of 40. Kind of like how cats usually live to 15-20 but have been known to live to 30 on rare occasions. But that being said, she'd be 42 now if they were correct and that's just crazy, lol!

So does anyone have any input? I'll admit it gives me a little anxiety being as in the dark as I am. I don't know if I should expect her to pass this year, or if I should be organizing my life plans around keeping her for another 10-15 years, you know?

 

[YUMgrinder]

Unfortunately your vet was correct, it is impossible to tell age without knowing the hatch date after they mature. I highly doubt she was 39 when you adopted her. I would expect at that age there would be health issues and you didn't specify any. It would be very rare to see a sun conure over 30 and especially rare to see one over 40 but since we don't know her hatch date it's all up to speculation. She's beautiful even with her unorthodox dino feet.

 

[hiriki]

She's honestly the picture of health aside from the physical deformity. She eats well, drinks well, and is very active & loud. Right after adopting her I did a wellness check as well which found nothing out of the ordinary. Since then there's been nothing out of the ordinary to lead me to bring her in again but now that I'm talking vet it does occur to me that she's quite behind for her yearly, lol... But yeah... as far as records go, the rescue I got her from didn't receive papers of any kind when she was relinquished and she isn't banded, so her age is a big ol question mark.

Thanks for confirming what the vet said, anyway!!

 

[MonicaMc]

I heard someone lost their cherry head at the age of 49... pretty rare to see them 40+.


My first conure was estimated to be 9 and he died 8 years later. I suspect he was older than the information I was given. He had multiple health issues, although except for a wreak grip and cataracts, nothing "definitive". (couldn't fly, either) As in, although his blood work wasn't normal or 'healthy', there also wasn't anything to indicate that there was anything seriously wrong. Sure, some things were elevated or low, but didn't indicate there were in fact any issues. You could still tell that something just wasn't 'right'. Granted, I don't know how much that could have been due to a ferret attack that resulted in him being left at the vets office to be put down, then ended up with one of the vet tech friends before he came to me.




YUMgrinder - jenday!

 

[Darkly_Innocent]

She's beautiful! I love her colors!

 

[hiriki]

Wow! It's nice to hear it's possible even for them to live that long. I won't bank on it but I hope my girl has a wonderful long life like that, lol.

I don't really blame the rescue for having the wrong info, I think she's been relinquished several times to different rescues in her lifetime so she's pretty far removed from whatever hatch records she might have once had. I wish it was easier to tell x___x.

 

[clark_conure]

Maybe it's just me, and I've never had a jenday, but I look at a lot of bird pics and he looks more like a 6yo than 39 or 42. Something in the eyes, and the coloring. The ring around his eyes is still so bright. usually when you see older birds there are less feathers around the eyes towards the beak etc. and the skin is a bit darker. I wouldn't worry, I think they were off base.

My guess is he was put up for adoption because of his feet and he's still quite young. I may be wrong but , that's my gut instinct of the picture.

 

[LordTriggs]

I would agree that at a cursory glance he looks on the younger end of the scale. I'd roughly say around 6 -8 years old. Maybe slightly closer to 8 on that scale

39 is definitely not right! He'd be deserving of some records if so. Most likely the previous owner was the breeder who couldn't sell him and couldn't breed him so dumped him at the rescue as many people do. Probably said he was a dearly beloved pet who he had for years, the usual sob story so he doesn't get judged