hello all

[cupzealous]

Hey I just joined. I'm CupZealous.
I've been keeping birds for almost 8 years. I have 2 cockatiels, a bonded pair of pearly conures, and a quaker.

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to the forums, @cupzealous, it's great to have you and your beautiful flock aboard! Don't forget to please tell us their names, will you

 

[cupzealous]

Welcome to the forums, @cupzealous, it's great to have you and your beautiful flock aboard! Don't forget to please tell us their names, will you

Oh yes. The pearly conures are Frankie and Keri. The pied cockatiel is Taco, and the pastel face is Bob. And the Quaker is CoCo.

 

[LaManuka]

They look like a pretty happy flock! I hope they all get on with each other well, my four have their days sometimes, goodness knows Have you noticed our December Photo of the Month contest? My varied lorikeet, Lovejoy, is throwing a virtual pool party for Christmas, and it'd be very nice to see something suitably festive from you there!

December 2025 Photo Of The Month Contest!!

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Hellllooooooooooo there! Welcome to the forum! Your flock looks amazing - I love conures and cockatiels .

 

[cupzealous]

They look like a pretty happy flock! I hope they all get on with each other well, my four have their days sometimes, goodness knows Have you noticed our December Photo of the Month contest? My varied lorikeet, Lovejoy, is throwing a virtual pool party for Christmas, and it'd be very nice to see something suitably festive from you there!

December 2025 Photo Of The Month Contest!!

Oh, no they don't get along. The cockatiels love each other but they are bonded to me. The quaker CoCo grew up with the cockatiels but then one day he became aggressive and bit Taco's foot and she lost half of it. The conures are a bonded pair but they are always biting each other, they killed my other conure, broke his leg and he died in surgery.

I'll see about the December photo contest

 

[cupzealous]

Hellllooooooooooo there! Welcome to the forum! Your flock looks amazing - I love conures and cockatiels .

I love conures but these ones are mean. They bite me savagely every day. My green cheek was really sweet, but he had an accident.

 

[LaManuka]

Oh, no they don't get along. The cockatiels love each other but they are bonded to me. The quaker CoCo grew up with the cockatiels but then one day he became aggressive and bit Taco's foot and she lost half of it. The conures are a bonded pair but they are always biting each other, they killed my other conure, broke his leg and he died in surgery.

I'll see about the December photo contest

Oh I'm so sorry to hear about your poor conure! Mine quarrel and argue but get on well enough most of the time, thank goodness. I've had a little one die in surgery too, it's heartbreaking!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

It's so hard when our birds either don't get along or get along too well and won't stop breeding. Keeping them away from each other can be a lot of work. You must have a lot of patience!
You have a very nice looking bunch of birds!

 

[cupzealous]

It's so hard when our birds either don't get along or get along too well and won't stop breeding. Keeping them away from each other can be a lot of work. You must have a lot of patience!
You have a very nice looking bunch of birds!

my conures are always hormonal and mating, and they are an endangered species, but they are siblings that are already inbred, but they don't incubate their eggs so it's not a problem. I usually shake the eggs violently just incase because inbred babies = bad

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I know. I gave sibling budgies that bred and some of their babies have slightly deformed feet, one or both. The babies with the funky feet aren't handicapped by their deformities but it shows what can happen if sibling are allowed to breed.

 

[cupzealous]

I know. I gave sibling budgies that bred and some of their babies have slightly deformed feet, one or both. The babies with the funky feet aren't handicapped by their deformities but it shows what can happen if sibling are allowed to breed.

My conures have abnormal beak growth, which costs a lot of money to deal with. every 8 weeks 2 avian vet appointments for beak and nails. The lower beak grows out forwards a bit instead of curving straight up to meet the upper beak, so it breaks away if it is allowed to grow much, and that puts them at risk of permanent damage that could affect the way it grows back if I don't keep it trimmed. Also the 2 birds I got from the pet store, have deformed feet and one has a hormone imbalance. I only have one bird that was bred well out of 5, and every other bird wants to attack her(maybe because she's my favorite and they know) so she's missing a foot now.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Sounds like you've got a gang of misfits (meant lovingly)! Does the cost of the hormone treatment keep you from trying it? The Deslorelin implant isn't as expensive as the lupron injection and lasts 6 months in a small conure. My vet will charge $250 for the Deslorelin and I'm going to try it so Joey can live like a normal female budgie not a sex maniac.

 

[cupzealous]

My conures have abnormal beak growth, which costs a lot of money to deal with. every 8 weeks 2 avian vet appointments for beak and nails. The lower beak grows out forwards a bit instead of curving straight up to meet the upper beak, so it breaks away if it is allowed to grow much, and that puts them at risk of permanent damage that could affect the way it grows back if I don't keep it trimmed. Also the 2 birds I got from the pet store, have deformed feet and one has a hormone imbalance. I only have one bird that was bred well out of 5, and every other bird wants to attack her(maybe because she's my favorite and they know) so she's missing a foot now.

She would be dead without lupron. She lays an egg every week endlessly without lupron, and becomes calcium depleted really fast. She used to start laying 4-12 weeks after lupron, then she would be laying soft shelled eggs and having signs of malnutrition so every couple months was a emergency visit. Now we do lupron injection every 4 weeks before she lays at all. The implant is cheaper - but it takes an unpredictable amount of time to reach full efficacy and wears off at an unpredictable time. We were doing lupron every 5 weeks, but a few months ago she became egg bound 2 days after the lupron because she started making an egg before the injection. So now it's every 4 weeks. Fortunately my vet allows me to do the injection with a vet tech so it's about $90 less than if I needed to see an avian vet every time.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

That's great. Chronic egg laying is so unhealthy for parrots and egg binding can be rapidly fatal. I lost a female budgie to egg binding several years ago at midnight on a weekend with no vet care available and it's a horrible way for a bird to die.