New sun conure

[jourdy]

Got him/her 2 days ago. Born July 5, 2011. He is exactly 6 weeks old now.
I have experience with tiels, budgies, finches, and african lovebirds before, but I am new to sun conures. Maybe people would like to share firsthand advice?

Does anyone know of any useful links or books for further reading?

Very friendly with humans. He/she is cautious of our dogs though. He doesnt seem to mind them but one time he nipped my dog's nose haha.

I have handfed tiels and lovebirds before, at intervals of 3 hours, even in the early morning. The breeder i got him from told me the sun conure needs to be fed only 3x a day and no need in the early morning (12mn - 6am). Is this true?

Thank you.


Some pictures:

 

[cupcake]

I don't have any experience I'm sorry but those photos are lovely!
She is going to be very pretty when she grows up. :)

 

[Remy]

Awwww, all those little baby feathers are sooooooo cute!

 

[jourdy]

Thanks for the compliments!

He/She is unnamed yet so I will be calling him/her a unisex name - Cali (short for Caliente).

Cali is being fed 5x a day with about 6-12CC of formula per feeding. Is this enough?

Also, Cali seems to be very used to handling. I can scratch his chin/head/rump/whatever and seems to enjoy it. Even if I stretch his/her wings and rub beneath it, Cali seems to be enjoying. I wonder if that's normal... I once had a female Tiel who was very very close to me. Yet she didn't like being handled on the wings and rump.

I plan on updating this thread until Cali is weaned.

Here are Cali's parents:

More pics:

 

[melinda]

The sun conures a such clowns. They are a lot louder than tiels. The first year i had mine he almost never was quiet. Now he calls in the mornings and at night and if i have been gone to welcome me back. He loves to hang on my finger while i swing him and he will say "weee weee" it is so cutie. They do go through a nippy phase just keep small toys and such on hand to keep him from mouthing your hand. I have never hand fed so i am sure you will get more info on that soon.

 

[Mayden]

Cali is such a cutie, congratulations! I got Merlin when he was about 10 weeks, so unfortunately I can't help with the 'weening' stage. If the crops full and he's not crying, he doesn't need feeding! Haha

 

[Rio Mom]

Cali is absolutely adorable!

 

[Scotty T]

Wow!!! what a beautiful baby. Very similar to my baby.



Her 4 month birthday was yesterday. Heres a pic.



And here she is flying

 

[jourdy]

Thanks for the info, guys.

Scotty and Melinda, those are awesome! Your sun conure have a lot of yellow in him/her even as a baby. Hope mine becomes yellow soon!

Anyway, I am feeding them 12-15CC per feeding as of the moment, at 8am, 1pm, 6pm, and 11pm. Am I feeding sufficiently or too much? Wish I could find a guideline online, but it seems like I'm terrible at finding info I need. LOL.

 

[melinda]

I am sorry but i don't know much on hand feeding i have always left that to people that do it for a living. Can you find some breeders in your area to call and ask? Many breeders will be happy to answer a couple of questons for you.

 

[jourdy]

Quick update:

Chelsea is about 7 weeks at the moment and is always practicing flying by flapping her wings. She just took her first mini flight a few hours ago. She's also starting to wean. I just placed some water and fruitblend with a bit of canary seed in his cage. Is this the proper way?

I noticed that my pet loves to lie on her back. She won't budge even if you position her upside down. Even if you touch. She sleeps with me lying down as well. LOL.

She's starting to chirp loudly, especially when her chin is being rubbed!

Bought a cage for her; she sleeps cuddled with the bear

Thanks!

 

[birdybabies]

Did you change her name? Absolutely adore the 3rd pic down, where she is asleep on the bed - sooooooooooo cute. Congrats on a beautiful baby

 

[Riio]

such cute lil babies!!

 

[jourdy]

birdybabies: Her name has been changed 2 times. We now call her Kiki because she seems to scream "Kiki" all the time. Also, she responds more to that name for some reason.

It's a bit surprising how fast they grow. It has only been 2 weeks since I got him, but the change in appearance has been significant. We filled her cage with chewstuff and perches of different diameters in hopes of trimming his nails. One problem we have is that his claws are very sharp! I tried trimming just a little bit (maybe 1-1.5mm) and was surprised to see blood! Are the quick of Sun Conures' nails much longer than Tiels? I was a bit upset I hurt the bird (I used to trim my previos birds' nails without any problem) but Kiki didn't seem to mind much.

I am really amazed at how much personality Conures have! This is my first conure and he is such a character. He can sleep with us for hours lying on his back; greets us with "KIKI" calls when he hears our voices coming home; and is very cuddly to boot. I did not know birds could compete with dogs in terms of cuddliness and affectionate. Mind blown.

By the way, I am currently training him UP and DOWN commands but he doesn't do it at will. I still have to push my finger up his belly. (Although he gets no reward from me yet, as he is not yet weaned and I can't give him treats). Is training generally for weaned birds? The thought just recently struck me that he should be capable of eating the rewards I give LOL.

When he gets a bit older, I plan on training him for free flight. He has learned how to fly, although he gets tired very fast.

After reading more info from books( I have a book titled "Why Does My Parrot Do That?) and the internet, I learned that they will change personalities once they reach adulthood? To conure keepers, can anyone attest to that?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

Easiest pet to take pictures of ever!

Here is his cage, he gets indirect sunlight and gets a good view of the pool and a busy commercial road:

 

[jourdy]

I also got another Sun Conure (the GF keeps one while I will keep the new one). He is 3 weeks old, and I handfeed him Zupreem Embrace 4x a day.

Here's a picture of him/her:

One thing I noticed right away is that this guy is so much noisier than Kiki, especially after feeding. I am not sure if age has something to do with it (Kiki was 6 weeks old when I got him), is this age a good indicator of how his noise level will be when he/she gets older?


Here's the 2 of them. At first I thought Kiki was going to crush the little bird's head with his beak.. only to find out he's helping us clean the little bird of the dried up Zupreem!

This is the mother of the new bird I got:

Apparently, she has plucked her feathers to make nesting materials. The other birds of the breeder are very well taken care of. First thing I noticed is that the coloration of the mom is a bit different from the dad. Also different compared to Kiki's parents. The mom seems to be a bit more on the yellowish side with little green that's not as outlined on the wings as the other sun conures.

I also bought a cage for when he/she grows up. It's similar to Kiki's cage. I've bought everything in advance, LOL. Even adult food.

Lastly, I took a video of the handfeeding. Comments and criticisms would be most welcome!

[ame=http://youtu.be/x1Y_tAXQgOo]Handfeeding sun conure[/ame]


Thanks in advance!

 

[Customcasket]

They're so cute as babies. I didn't get mine until he was almost a year old. He's very lovey and I adore him. He's very loud. Actually, he's EXTREMELY loud. He has his moments when he's quiet but if he wants out or wants my attention he will scream. I've managed to teach him a few words even after being told he won't talk at all. I love his raspy little voice when he talks. Seeing pictures of your little sun made me wish I had Carlisle as a little guy.

 

[birdybabies]

Congrats on the second baby. That photo of big bro Kiki cleaning baby is sooo cute. I wont ask name of new baby cos it will change LOL. Sorry, dont know anything about toenail clipping, leave it to the experienced people. My cinn gcc is still quite young (approx 7mths) so hasnt changed due to hormones YET!

 

[kerry]

I am curious why you didn't follow the breeders instructions on the amount of handfeedings per day with Kiki? In my experience the smaller parrots, conures, ring necks, lovebirds, senegals, etc. are much louder & the screams are much shriller & more irritating/ear piercing than the larger parrots. I have been around the small birds in stores & at the local parrot rescues that I have worked with here. Your pics are cute. I found no handfeeding video to view 'tho.

 

[jourdy]

Hmm.. how shall I put it..
I live in the Philippines, and animal care here is not as it is in the first world countries. The breeder of Kiki just told me, "feed when the crop is empty." No schedule or anything. LOL. Until now I have not found a vet that does DNA sexing.. so I will not find out anytime soon for certain what genders my conures are.

I had to research on my own, and fortunately I have experience in handfeeding tiels and lovebirds years ago so handfeeding isn't too hard for me.

As for the video, it is attached in my previous post. But here's a link for it:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Y_tAXQgOo&feature=related"]Handfeeding a 24 day old Sun Conure chick - YouTube[/ame]