We are considering adopting a quaker/conure bonded pair from our local bird rescue, and I wanted to ask a few questions about the conure specifically here. I will post the same general explanation and a bunch of questions about the quaker over in that forum here in a bit. And many of these are things I’ll also be asking the rescue in the coming weeks, but I’d like to hear from different sources.
A little background since I’ve only been posting in the new members forum up until now, we are looking for our “first” bird. I have a little experience in bird keeping from my childhood/high school since I had cockatiels and did after school work for a local lady who had several aviaries of Amazons, Macaws, and Cockatoos. One of my children (10yo) has been asking whether we could have a bird for a couple years, but I wanted to be confident in my youngest child’s (7yo) ability to understand and obey instructions about proper interactions with so delicate a pet. Since I’ve missed having birds around I’m game for all the mess and noise. We’ve spent the last year or so on education and began visit rescues around us several months ago mostly to start getting the kids hands on experience with birds. We found an incredible rescue/bird store a couple hours away that really seems to do everything right by their birds, and they have bent over backward to help my efforts in teaching the kids how to handle any bird, not just the species we’ve been looking at.
When we visited this week, we met these two birds and are very interested though we haven’t put an official hold on them. They are new to the rescue, and I’d like the staff to complete their evaluation. We’ve visited a couple times with them, and they both seem like the friendliest and chill members of their respective species that we’ve met. Since quakers and conures are tied as the bird we’re most interested in, it seems like it might be a real piece of luck for us. We are expecting my 10 yo daughter and I to be the primary caretakers and entertainers, and they will be sleeping in her room, but I want family birds who will handle her leaving for college in time.
So, my questions for you – as a rescue we can’t know a ton about their background. But the previous owner has given the rescue permission to contact them with any questions a new owner might have. So first, what should I try to learn about their history? They seem to have been extremely well socialized, and we know they’ve been together, sharing a cage, since they were chicks. They came to the rescue eating a great diet of high grade pellets and chop. Unsure what size cage they’ve been in since that didn’t come with them. They are both 6 years old, and we’ve been told the quaker is male and the conure is female, but again, I don’t know if that’s been default assumptions or if they’ve been DNA tested.
The conure is definitely the more assertive bird. They were out together having play time when we first saw them, and we didn’t know they were “together” so I tried to pick up the quaker first and got a pretty decent bite for it from the conure. I proceeded to pick up the quaker anyway, and when I tried to interact with the conure after that, she was quite nippy, though not with real intent. An hour later, once we knew they were bonded, I tried again, making a point of picking up the conure first. She didn’t hesitate to step up, zero biting, and after I’d played with her a bit, she was fine with me putting her down and asking the quaker to step up. Once she’d “inspected” us all that way, she didn’t care about different people carrying them around separately. She was extremely cuddly, snuggling up to necks, preening hair, and frequently offering her head for scritches. When we tried taking the quaker to another room, she immediately flock called for him, but once he answered, she settled back in for more pets.
When we went back the next day with the whole family to meet them, I again took the conure out the cage first and let her met everyone, and she never bit (plenty of beaking and nibbling through – normal conure stuff) and never seemed to care about who had the quaker. However, since we were putting them back in their cage this time, she made it really, really clear she wasn’t going back until the quaker was in first.
So first, at 6 years old, how much should I expect the behaviors to change? Is there a point where the conure might become a danger to the quaker and need a separate cage? Her former owners noted that she was bird aggressive with all other birds beside the quaker.
And secondly, how would we handle the bonded birds going forward if we got them? Should we always get the conure’s “permission” to handle the quaker or is that reinforcing a habit we’ll regret in the long term?
Also, as we visit with them at the rescue, what sort of behaviors should a look for to decide if they are happily bonded or if the conure is more of bully toward the quaker? She really has an amazing personality, but she is also very clearly the boss, and I’d like to know roughly where that stops being protective and starts being smothering.
And just any conure specific recommendations are always very welcome! Like I said, I was mostly around the bigger birds and cockatiels, so I’m less familiar with the medium birds. Toys ideas, preferred treats, that sort of thing are new to me for this species. We are probably getting an A&E flight cage from the rescue for them, but I also want to get some good ceiling boings and perches as well as a couple of play stands.
A little background since I’ve only been posting in the new members forum up until now, we are looking for our “first” bird. I have a little experience in bird keeping from my childhood/high school since I had cockatiels and did after school work for a local lady who had several aviaries of Amazons, Macaws, and Cockatoos. One of my children (10yo) has been asking whether we could have a bird for a couple years, but I wanted to be confident in my youngest child’s (7yo) ability to understand and obey instructions about proper interactions with so delicate a pet. Since I’ve missed having birds around I’m game for all the mess and noise. We’ve spent the last year or so on education and began visit rescues around us several months ago mostly to start getting the kids hands on experience with birds. We found an incredible rescue/bird store a couple hours away that really seems to do everything right by their birds, and they have bent over backward to help my efforts in teaching the kids how to handle any bird, not just the species we’ve been looking at.
When we visited this week, we met these two birds and are very interested though we haven’t put an official hold on them. They are new to the rescue, and I’d like the staff to complete their evaluation. We’ve visited a couple times with them, and they both seem like the friendliest and chill members of their respective species that we’ve met. Since quakers and conures are tied as the bird we’re most interested in, it seems like it might be a real piece of luck for us. We are expecting my 10 yo daughter and I to be the primary caretakers and entertainers, and they will be sleeping in her room, but I want family birds who will handle her leaving for college in time.
So, my questions for you – as a rescue we can’t know a ton about their background. But the previous owner has given the rescue permission to contact them with any questions a new owner might have. So first, what should I try to learn about their history? They seem to have been extremely well socialized, and we know they’ve been together, sharing a cage, since they were chicks. They came to the rescue eating a great diet of high grade pellets and chop. Unsure what size cage they’ve been in since that didn’t come with them. They are both 6 years old, and we’ve been told the quaker is male and the conure is female, but again, I don’t know if that’s been default assumptions or if they’ve been DNA tested.
The conure is definitely the more assertive bird. They were out together having play time when we first saw them, and we didn’t know they were “together” so I tried to pick up the quaker first and got a pretty decent bite for it from the conure. I proceeded to pick up the quaker anyway, and when I tried to interact with the conure after that, she was quite nippy, though not with real intent. An hour later, once we knew they were bonded, I tried again, making a point of picking up the conure first. She didn’t hesitate to step up, zero biting, and after I’d played with her a bit, she was fine with me putting her down and asking the quaker to step up. Once she’d “inspected” us all that way, she didn’t care about different people carrying them around separately. She was extremely cuddly, snuggling up to necks, preening hair, and frequently offering her head for scritches. When we tried taking the quaker to another room, she immediately flock called for him, but once he answered, she settled back in for more pets.
When we went back the next day with the whole family to meet them, I again took the conure out the cage first and let her met everyone, and she never bit (plenty of beaking and nibbling through – normal conure stuff) and never seemed to care about who had the quaker. However, since we were putting them back in their cage this time, she made it really, really clear she wasn’t going back until the quaker was in first.
So first, at 6 years old, how much should I expect the behaviors to change? Is there a point where the conure might become a danger to the quaker and need a separate cage? Her former owners noted that she was bird aggressive with all other birds beside the quaker.
And secondly, how would we handle the bonded birds going forward if we got them? Should we always get the conure’s “permission” to handle the quaker or is that reinforcing a habit we’ll regret in the long term?
Also, as we visit with them at the rescue, what sort of behaviors should a look for to decide if they are happily bonded or if the conure is more of bully toward the quaker? She really has an amazing personality, but she is also very clearly the boss, and I’d like to know roughly where that stops being protective and starts being smothering.
And just any conure specific recommendations are always very welcome! Like I said, I was mostly around the bigger birds and cockatiels, so I’m less familiar with the medium birds. Toys ideas, preferred treats, that sort of thing are new to me for this species. We are probably getting an A&E flight cage from the rescue for them, but I also want to get some good ceiling boings and perches as well as a couple of play stands.
