sabrecat666
New member
- Jul 20, 2011
- 37
- 0
- Parrots
- Guido - Jenday Conure, Nunzio - GCC and Kiwi - IRN
Hello all!
I am the proud parent, and hopefully friend, of Guido a Jenday Conure, the conure in my profile picture no less
I have some questions about taming / training my potential friend. First a little background about Guido. I apologize if this is way to much information, but I am not sure what is relevant and what may not be.
I purchased him from a local petshop that was bought out by a competitor. Guido was part of that purchase. As a result I dont know exactly how old he is, although the petshop and I believe him to be less than a year old and likely only 6-9 months old. He still has some green mottling in the yellow on his head and from what I have read that would indicate a juvenile jenday. The original owners claimed that he was hand fed as a chick. I am not so sure about that myself. I have had Guido now for about 2 months. I think that Guido is a male, however since Jendays are indeterminate without surgery(?) or dna testing that is only conjecture on my part.
Guido is in a cage 24 x 20 x 30. His cage is located in our family room right next to my computer desk where I spend a great deal of my time. He seems very happy in his cage. I have several perches in the cage at varying heights. He is able to get anywhere in his cage that he wants to. I have 2 rope and wood toys, a large toy designed specifically for ripping up ( I have heard that Jendays need toys to destroy ), a Pinecone that he loves to chew on, and a wicker bottle that I have put seeds into for him to destroy as well. He is fed Kaytee Exact feed ( I think.... Cant remember exactly at work... ), and I supplement that with some raw sunflower seeds, peanuts, and some Avi Cake for treats. He also gets fruit a couple of times a week. His favorite at the moment seems to be apples.
When I first brought Guido home he wouldnt let us get near him at all. He acted absolutely terrified of us. After a few days he settled down some and after about 2 weeks I was able to hand feed him his treats without him being hesitant, or scared. He still moves away from my hand if I move it toward him without a treat in it.
Lately he has been acting less and less fearfull in general and of me in specific. Ive managed to train him at least a little. He know that when he rings a specific bell that he will get a treat. That bell rings a lot now. Around 2 weeks ago we let him climb out of his cage and play on top of it. This has now become a nightly ritual. His flight feathers have grown in some now and he is able to fly a lot better. Watching my daughters 'tiels fly around also may have contributed to his sudden flight proficiency. As a side note he seems to get along fairly well with the 'tiels but I am always careful to keep an eye on them when they interact with each other. Guido has never screamed for hours on end and when he starts to get loud just looking away from him and ignoring him gets him to quiet down. When ever he does this I am sure to reward him to try and reinforce that behavior. Things had gone on like this for the last month. It seemed I had stalled out making any more progress gaining his trust.
It seems like I may have made a breakthrough last night however. Guido was out of his cage and was constantly coming to the edge closes to me and staring at me with is head cocked, or while bobbing his head up and down. It looked to me like he was trying to make up his mind about me. Once he got tired of that he flew off the top of his cage to a chair back about 15 feet away. That was fine, I was just keeping an eye on him to make sure he didnt get into any trouble. When he was ready to go back to his cage, I had rung his treat bell and put a bit of Birdie Crack.... Errr Avi Cake in there for him. He flew toward the cage, but didnt quite have enouhg lift to get all the way there, so he instead landed on my shoulder. This surprised the heck out of me and I was shouting at the wife "Look at this!!! I guess he doesnt hate me after all!!" She of course was telling me to shut up so I dont scare Guido. He wasnt scared though. He just calmly walked around my neck to my other shoulder then hopped/glided down to the entrance of his cage.
The question I have for all you Conure experts out there is this. Am I doing the right things with my friend? Do I need to be doing more to encourage more personal interaction with him? If so what would that be? I am a real babe in the woods here. When my daughter got her birds they were already incredibly tame. I realize now that I have to be very patient with getting Guido to that same level of trust. Thats ok. Im willing to put in the effort because he's worth it.
Any help anyone can provide is immensely appreciated!
I am the proud parent, and hopefully friend, of Guido a Jenday Conure, the conure in my profile picture no less
I have some questions about taming / training my potential friend. First a little background about Guido. I apologize if this is way to much information, but I am not sure what is relevant and what may not be.
I purchased him from a local petshop that was bought out by a competitor. Guido was part of that purchase. As a result I dont know exactly how old he is, although the petshop and I believe him to be less than a year old and likely only 6-9 months old. He still has some green mottling in the yellow on his head and from what I have read that would indicate a juvenile jenday. The original owners claimed that he was hand fed as a chick. I am not so sure about that myself. I have had Guido now for about 2 months. I think that Guido is a male, however since Jendays are indeterminate without surgery(?) or dna testing that is only conjecture on my part.
Guido is in a cage 24 x 20 x 30. His cage is located in our family room right next to my computer desk where I spend a great deal of my time. He seems very happy in his cage. I have several perches in the cage at varying heights. He is able to get anywhere in his cage that he wants to. I have 2 rope and wood toys, a large toy designed specifically for ripping up ( I have heard that Jendays need toys to destroy ), a Pinecone that he loves to chew on, and a wicker bottle that I have put seeds into for him to destroy as well. He is fed Kaytee Exact feed ( I think.... Cant remember exactly at work... ), and I supplement that with some raw sunflower seeds, peanuts, and some Avi Cake for treats. He also gets fruit a couple of times a week. His favorite at the moment seems to be apples.
When I first brought Guido home he wouldnt let us get near him at all. He acted absolutely terrified of us. After a few days he settled down some and after about 2 weeks I was able to hand feed him his treats without him being hesitant, or scared. He still moves away from my hand if I move it toward him without a treat in it.
Lately he has been acting less and less fearfull in general and of me in specific. Ive managed to train him at least a little. He know that when he rings a specific bell that he will get a treat. That bell rings a lot now
. Around 2 weeks ago we let him climb out of his cage and play on top of it. This has now become a nightly ritual. His flight feathers have grown in some now and he is able to fly a lot better. Watching my daughters 'tiels fly around also may have contributed to his sudden flight proficiency. As a side note he seems to get along fairly well with the 'tiels but I am always careful to keep an eye on them when they interact with each other. Guido has never screamed for hours on end and when he starts to get loud just looking away from him and ignoring him gets him to quiet down. When ever he does this I am sure to reward him to try and reinforce that behavior. Things had gone on like this for the last month. It seemed I had stalled out making any more progress gaining his trust. It seems like I may have made a breakthrough last night however. Guido was out of his cage and was constantly coming to the edge closes to me and staring at me with is head cocked, or while bobbing his head up and down. It looked to me like he was trying to make up his mind about me. Once he got tired of that he flew off the top of his cage to a chair back about 15 feet away. That was fine, I was just keeping an eye on him to make sure he didnt get into any trouble. When he was ready to go back to his cage, I had rung his treat bell and put a bit of Birdie Crack.... Errr Avi Cake in there for him. He flew toward the cage, but didnt quite have enouhg lift to get all the way there, so he instead landed on my shoulder. This surprised the heck out of me and I was shouting at the wife "Look at this!!! I guess he doesnt hate me after all!!" She of course was telling me to shut up so I dont scare Guido. He wasnt scared though. He just calmly walked around my neck to my other shoulder then hopped/glided down to the entrance of his cage.
The question I have for all you Conure experts out there is this. Am I doing the right things with my friend? Do I need to be doing more to encourage more personal interaction with him? If so what would that be? I am a real babe in the woods here. When my daughter got her birds they were already incredibly tame. I realize now that I have to be very patient with getting Guido to that same level of trust. Thats ok. Im willing to put in the effort because he's worth it.
Any help anyone can provide is immensely appreciated!
