New around these parts, with a few questions!

[sunswimmer]

Hello everyone.
Stopping by to introduce myself to the community in addition to asking a few questions I have!

First of all, I am going to be a first time bird owner.
I lost my dog/best friend almost a year ago, in addition to recently having moved out for the first time.
Not ready yet to commit myself to another furry friend again (nor can I really, apt) - I often find myself seeking that companionship that I really missed. After a fair amount of research between a budgie, cockatiel and conure, I decided on the latter! I am excited. I am looking for a bird that can make for a cuddly/friendly companion with the right care.

Anyways enough about me. I always find it helpful to ask folks in the community about their thoughts so here we go:

1. I do work 8 hours a day, and when I'm gone there wouldn't be a whole lot happening. Will this be problematic? I've heard of people turning on their radios or TVs, which I could do.
I do have the ability to come home from work at lunch, but it would be just a quick hello for a few. However, when I do get home from work, I usually don't fall asleep for some time. We'd be able to get plenty of socializing in during the evenings I'm sure.

2. What are some personality differences do you think between the males and females? Or differences between the two that a first time owner should know about?
I don't really have a preference, just looking for a friend!

3. Also, does the same go for color variation? I've read the GCC is the quitest/tame of the lot. While I wouldn't mind paying a tiny bit extra for an an attractive color variation, my biggest concern is still sociability and demeanor.

4. I saved the biggest question for last!
I admittedly don't know where to get my conure. The way I see it is I have three options.
a) Petco. Eh. I am not entirely sold on this. I have never been a huge fan of purchasing say more than fish at a chain pet place like this, but it is also much more accessible than the other options. Now I'm not saying that there would be anything wrong with their birds, but I am 100% positive there are conures out there that get raised better. Just worried that I may miss a diamond in the rough there though ; )
b) Online ordering. Also eh. My biggest concern here is just a long crate ride if it is longdistance, you also probably pay a little bit more for a reputable breeder but that's alright.
I found two places online that are actually very close to me. What do you think?
https://www.facebook.com/WestCoastBirds
TheaParrot_Place (looked nice)
c) Your wonderful opinion! Am I looking in all the wrong places?

Bonus question! Buying from a breeder.. store.. got me thinking. How important is it to get you conure at a young age? And what age is that? Imprinting and all, right? I know the bond between animals can grow very strong, so I'd want to foster this in the most ideal atmosphere.

Thank you!!

 

[Kae]

Congratz on your to-be family member! I would suggest getting a GCC from a reputable breeder locally if possible or the pet store (eh). Shipping birds can be a traumatic experience for the parrot and may make it harder for them to adjust. The correct age to adopt would be when they are young and fully weaned, this is the best time to bond with them and teach them. Not being at home a lot could be a problem depending on your new bird's personality. Some birds are natural loners where some need an active social life. If you were to get, say, a cockatoo, they would be way too social for you to be away all day. In my experience, conures can get along pretty well by themselves but you would need to put in a lot of time when you ARE home. I hope this helps.

 

[Lavalleer]

If you're looking for a feathered friend you won't go wrong with a gcc. I love mine. As far as being gone during the day I leave the radio on for mine and then he's out all afternoon once I'm home. I would recommend getting one from a breeder or rescue. My local petco has a beautiful gcc for three times what I payed for mine. Since there is yes way to tell the sexes apart short of having a dna test done I really can't say what if any difference in the sexes. Whatever color you choose you will love their personalities.

 

[jiannotto9492]

1) Playing your radio or your tv will give the bird something to listen to and won't be so lonely. Odds are they'll still look for stuff to do so make sure you have plenty of toys including foraging toys.

2) Telling the sex of a bird involves a DNA test. Personally I don't think the sex of a bird matters all that much if you can form the bond.

3) Conures tend to be friendly. Jenday and sun conures can be loud but they are cuddlers. Conures do require a lot of attention and are harder to take care of than budgies and cockatiels.

3) Find a breeder or a bird store that is reputable in your area and hand raise their birds.


But yeah, if you're a first time bird owner make sure you are able to do daily cleanings of the bottom of the cage and weekly cleanings of the entire cage. The cage along with any toys that goes into the cage should be washed with vinegar. As for dietary you really should look at what you can and can't feed birds. A mostly pellet based diet is best with some fruits and veggies (look up bird chop). Some seeds are OK but are too fatty for birds that are held in captivity and can cause health problems. Zupreem is a great pellet to look into buying and nutriberries are great to have too. If you feel like you might be too busy for a conure start off with a cockatiel. Cockatiels are great loner birds and easy for beginners. If you feel like you can make a 20+ year commitment go get a conure.

 

[riddick07]

1. I do work 8 hours a day, and when I'm gone there wouldn't be a whole lot happening. Will this be problematic? I've heard of people turning on their radios or TVs, which I could do.
I do have the ability to come home from work at lunch, but it would be just a quick hello for a few. However, when I do get home from work, I usually don't fall asleep for some time. We'd be able to get plenty of socializing in during the evenings I'm sure.


Shouldn't be a problem if you teach the bird to self entertain. You can leave something on for some noise. I never worry about that since I have so many and I'm pretty sure they spend half the time telling each other to shut up



2. What are some personality differences do you think between the males and females? Or differences between the two that a first time owner should know about?
I don't really have a preference, just looking for a friend!

No definites between the two just depends on the bird really. My female gcc is a huge bully and my male gcc is a flighty nervous bully. My sun is sweet as can be but I've socialized her nonstop with a lot of people unlike my gccs.



3. Also, does the same go for color variation? I've read the GCC is the quitest/tame of the lot. While I wouldn't mind paying a tiny bit extra for an an attractive color variation, my biggest concern is still sociability and demeanor.

There has been some debate for the gcc. Some people have found the turquoise to be a little more flighty and nervous with some food issues. I only learned this when I did research into some of the issues my own turquoise gcc was having...so its not commonly thought of or proven but enough stories to make it mentionable.


4. I saved the biggest question for last!
I admittedly don't know where to get my conure. The way I see it is I have three options.

Personally I would go with a rescue bird. If you are located near NJ the shelter I volunteer at has a couple gccs right now (we also have some other types of conures besides gccs). Babies are great but in my opinion you never know what you are getting since they haven't developed their full personalities. My favorites out of all my birds are my rescues (my amazon and cockatoo) then my conures then the cockatiel girls I personally hatched and handraised. Babies are not a guarantee on having a great bond.

 

[witchbaby]

There are no significant differences between male/female green cheek conures and the different mutations. It's all depends on the individual bird.

You can search for breeders on birdbreeders dot com, but you should definitely check out a rescue first if there is one in your area.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

 

[Kyoto]

I am also a big GCC fan! And although they LOVE attention, my baby does fine when I'm out. What I do for her is I hide treats (almonds) in little paper balls around her cage and in her toys, and it keeps her mind sharp and beak busy. I also leave the radio on for her and the window open so that she can listen to the outside world as well.

I have had cockatiels, and I actually found my cockatiel male a lot less independent than Kyo my GCC. He would scream for me all day long while I was out, and my neighbours were getting frustrated. Kyo is a lot quieter and although she does make noise it is not as loud as my tiel was.

Kyo is also wonderful because she is REALLY cuddly. She loves to be scratched and loves to be with me.

One downside to conures is they are notorious nippers. If you search through my posts here, you'll see I had a month of struggling with Kyo being really bitty towards me and aggressive towards my husband. The behaviour seemed to stem out of NOWHERE, as before that she was a perfect little baby.

The good news is, she is now bite pressure trained and although she is still very beaky, she rarely hurts me anymore and is a lot better behaved. So basically, they nip but you can train them to be nice about it.

I hope this helps! I wouldn't trade my baby for anything :3

 

[sunswimmer]

UPDATE!!

I found a local breeder only an hour from me who has great reviews online too.
I am arranging to meet with a 4mo pineapple green cheek this weekend!
If everything goes smoothly, I may have a new friend in a few days ..

So with that being said, I am trying to prep.
What should I be readying myself with? I am probably going to look at cages tonight, toys too and food/treats. Anything else?

 

[Ryno]

This is the cage I have for my bird. It's nice a roomy for my conure while not taking up a huge area in my house
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=271385550848&globalID=EBAY-US
I'd suggest a play area for some fun exercises, look up ideas for homemade perches on YouTube! I built one for Keelin from a dogwood tree, it was fun, looks pretty good and cost me next to nothing.

 

[Kyoto]

This is my main cage for Kyo when she is in while I'm working. It has tons of room for lots of toys and is relatively easy to clean.

A E Flight Cage and Stand Perfect for Cockatiels Parakeets All Small Birds | eBay

I've also ordered her a slightly smaller cage for our downstairs for when we are home and want to be in the cooler lower level of the house (where there are cats, so this one is purposely harder for our 25 pound cat to knock over). I don't trust having her downstairs around the cats so I'm hoping this will be a good option for her to spend more time with us down here.

Bird Cages Scroll Opening TOP 22x17 | eBay

Try to find a table top perch and a play stand. Best to make both, but in a pinch they can be ordered from reputable places like mysafebirdstore.com (they often have good sales!).

As for toys, my conure loves soft woods and natural materials that she can shred apart, as well as bird safe bells and things that make noise. Her favourite toys above all are clean and empty ketchup cups (I buy them in bulk from wholesale where I know they are packaged and not handled by other people) because she can carry them around and fly with them (super funny to watch her hide them around the bird room when she's out).

I feed her roudybush pellets with a few zupreem naturals mixed in for variety, as well as fresh vegetables daily. We are working on more fruits and lentils but she is not a fan so far. I'm also thinking about trying her on golden feast as I know a lot of members here like it.

Good luck!!! Like I said before, GCC's are just wonderful

 

[sunswimmer]

Update!

She is here!
We had a great time today. She got acquainted with her cage for a bit, but mostly she spent time outside exploring all of the new stuff around... or, mainly on my shoulder
If she wasn't trimming my hair she was trying to stop my from sending my friends cute pictures of her by landing on my phone! Her beak tapped the 'X' on a picture message, I'll be damned if I thought the screen was going to register the tap! Got a good laugh out of that.
She loves attention, if I'm typing or texting .. forget about it! Rub me!

She is such a sweetheart, I couldn't be happier!
We are still working on stepping up in general. She is pretty good about it! A lot of the time you can already tell if she wants up or wants to go somewhere else, though.
happy happy happy!

 

[sunswimmer]

not a great pic, lighting in my room wasnt being nice

right now
(after pic) i have her perched on my hand and one of her legs is up. does this mean she is sleepy?

 

[itchyfeet]

Yeah, sleepy/relaxed
Good work, she looks like a gem!