Considering Maroon bellied conure as first bird

[Alan]

Hi, my name is Alan and I'm new to the forum. Please let me know if I posted this in the wrong section.
I'm considering getting a maroon bellied conure from a local breeder as my first pet bird. I've done a bit of research and still in the process of considering whether I should get one or not.
The reason i'm considering a maroon bellied is, from what I've read, it is the quietest of conures. Not that I'm easily bothered by noises, but I live in an apartment so It seems like the appropriate choice. a few things that concerns me is that I live on my own and am away from home from 7am to 6pm, 5 or 6 days a week. Is it going to be a problem for a conure to be left alone that long? I will spend time with him/her after work though. would getting a pair solve that problem?
I also want to be able to take him/her out when I go out after he/she is tamed. I would use a harness and I won't clip the wings. Has anyone done that before? Is a maroon bellied conure going to be big enough to fit a harness, and tamed enough to stand on my shoulder while going out?
Sorry for the lengthy post, and thanks in advance in any input.

 

[JadeC]

Well, I don't know about the noise, but any bird can be trained to sit in your shoulder while out with a harness. You can let him fly with the harness once he's used to it. I'm usually gone M-F from 6am-4pm and my bird does ok. I take him out after work a lot of the time so he gets out of my apartment. He goes out in his travel cage right now while I'm harness training him. There is a lot of training involved if you want a well-behaved parrot. Especially if you get a baby. An adult bird would be more established than a baby, but might have a few bad habits to work out. I feel like either a baby or an adoption would be the same amount of work if you want your buddy to hang out on your shoulder and harness training. Birds aren't like dogs where you can just put a harness on them. They have a very slow process with the harness. Anyway, I hope this answers some of your questions!! Haha Sorry for the lengthy post.

 

[JadeC]

Oh, and welcome to the forum!!

Also, I forgot to mention, if you get a pair and keep them together it might take away from its bond with you. It might not. It's a chance. Also, twice the bird, twice the noise/mess/training. I only have one bird and he does just fine alone. I leave the radio on for him while I'm gone. Haha

 

[weco]

I think you would be happy with an MBC.....I lost one just before Christmas, that had been with me since it was 3 months old, 28 years ago.....

All of my birds are flighted and all go here, there & yon with me.....I have never used a harness or tether on any of my birds, but if you get a just weaned bird, you may have an easier time getting your bird used to and acclimated to a harness.....maybe others who use harnesses with their conures will pop in & relate their experience getting their conure harnessed.....

While MBCs are relatively quiet, I might read up on clicker training and touch training and begin its and your training.....there are a number of good reading sites online, as well as several decent training videos on youtube.....

Good luck & welcome to the forums.....

 

[kellie]

As far as the work thing, you should be fine. Over these summer months my Sun was alone 6-7 hours a day and was only allowed out of his cage for a few hours a day and then I would smother him with love on weekends! He is just fine

Also just be careful with the harness. When I was younger I brought my fully flighted cocatiel outside with a harness on and it wasn't quite tight enough. He flew away and I never saw him again. So you should probably work on training your bird extensively before just slapping a harness on and going out on the town (not saying that's what you were going to do, but that's what I did and it cost me my best friend!)

 

[Alan]

Thank you all for your input.
I'd prefer to have just one too, but I didn't know that it could potentially take away its bond from me. I think I have enough patience to deal with the training. I will make sure I practice having him/her standing on my shoulder before venturing out.
Weco and Kellie I'm sorry for your lost.

 

[kellie]

Building off of what weco said, I wouldn't get two.. especially for a first time bird owner. They're a handful on their own! I took care of my cocatiel on my own when I was in seventh grade and, now that I'm considerably older, I thought a conure would be a walk in the park, after all, I'm so "experienced" but man was a wrong! One by itself is plenty of work! It's like having a baby. I can imagine two would be like having twin infants and that sounds tough!

 

[ali.khan]

why my bird is scared of my hands

i have 4 month old indian ringneck female parrot?
and my bird is scared of my hands
can anyone help me plzzzzz

 

[kellie]

Re: why my bird is scared of my hands

i have 4 month old indian ringneck female parrot?
and my bird is scared of my hands
can anyone help me plzzzzz

ali.khan, my bird was terrified of my hands at first too. It happens. try hand feeding treats a lot. Eventually I got sick of my bird being scared of my fingers and just kind of force-petted his head and he was like hey that kind of felt good. after that he eventually started to let me pet him more and more. Also, if you are wearing nailpolish-- remove it, wash you hands thoroughly and try again. For some reason my sun hates when I have nail polish on. I can't say my force-pet method was necessarily conventional, but it did work for me.

You can also try touch training. There are many videos online explaining how to do it, but basically take a perch (a dowel or whatever kind of stick you have works fine) and hold it in front of your bird. Your goal is to get it to step onto the perch. So if it pecks it, reward it. then don't reward till it puts its foot on it. Then wait till it puts both feet on it. Then slowly, each time you offer the perch, move your hand closer so eventually the bird has to be perched right next to your hand. I did this with lukah. it was successful up until the point where I put my finger over the perch and tried to get him to step up.

Mostly, take it slow. Your bird may have had bad experiences with hands before and not know that they can be useful and gentle. A bad vet experience, owners who grabbed the bird a lot, etc can leave a lasting bad impression.

One other thing- your bird might like you but hate your hand. Lukah would gladly give me kisses or come up right next to my face, but as soon as my hand came up he was attacking it. If your bird likes your face but not your hand, try showing it that your face likes your hand. I would kiss lukah and then kiss my hand. I think it made him trust my hand at least slightly more.

Hopefully some of this helps. Really, patience patience patience. I got lukah at 4 months and he had had 4 different owners and lived in two different states during that time. For the first month he would barely come near me and seemed to hate me. For the second month he would come near my face but not my hand and it was just last month that he allowed me to pet him. Since then, he's been more open to things, but he still is wary of stepping up and isn't snuggly yet.

Just show your bird how much you love it and don't try to force it into things too fast.

 

[Alan]

I just got a reply from the breeder, and it won't be available until next spring, but possibly at fall. That'd give me plenty of time to decide and prepare. Right now, the only thing that's holding me back is the noise. I'm worried that I may get complaints from the neighbours.
Another question I want to add is, are there any reasons why I wouldn't want to use a flight cage for a conure? I ask this because flight cage are considerably cheaper than other cages of the same size.
Thanks

 

[kellie]

I live in an apartment and my sun is super loud and my neighbors have never heard him before at all... And you can hear cabinets, vaccuums and music through the walls. I think that high pitched noises don't carry as well through walls or something.

 

[Alan]

Thank you! That's is reassuring.

 

[JadeC]

I think flight cages aren't that good an idea because they have thinner bars and are more vertical than horizontal. I don't know, I could be wrong though. I found a really big cage on eBay for only $200. It's about the size for an Amazon or African Grey. I'd check there for a cage.

 

[weco]

Another question I want to add is, are there any reasons why I wouldn't want to use a flight cage for a conure? I ask this because flight cage are considerably cheaper than other cages of the same size.
Thanks

As long as your bird gets out-of-cage-time and exercise, you should not have any problems using a flight cage as a regular cage.....in all actuality, there are probably more conure sized companion birds living in flight or similar cages than not.....

 

[Alan]

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Alan]

Weco, may I ask how you train your birds to go out with you without a harness?