New to board... New bird in family need advice!

[chihuahuamom]

I am so happy I found this forum and hope that someone will be able to offer some advice. As a child we had love birds, tiels, and a conure. She was a green cheek. Anyways, I am now married with children and wanted to find a conure for our family. I posted an add online and was contacted tonite by a family stating that they had rescued a conure but had no idea how to care for a bird and if I wanted it they were willing to meet me. So we did. I am unsure of what kind of conure this is or if it could possibly be an African Senegal? We call our new family member he but I am not sure of sex.

He does have plucking issues and I will be calling around my area tomorrow to located a vet that is able to examine birds as our vet does not. I am thinking his plucking may have to do with his past situations though. It doesn't sound like he had the best of care.

He is hand tame and willingly did step up to me when we got home and also said hello numerous times. We are very happy to have gotten him and hope that we can do everything possible to make sure he is comfortable in his new home and learn to trust us.


Here are pictures......

 

[chihuahuamom]

 

[god61021]

looks like a conure from the back and a senegal from the front, could be mixed?

 

[chihuahuamom]

I wish I knew his background! I thought the way she had explained him to me on the phone that he was a green cheek, but when I saw him in person I was a bit confused as to what he was.

 

[cdog]

Welcome to the forum, he is definitely a Senegal.
He should be in a cage no smaller then 32"x21" and should be on pellets with fresh food offered daily. Of cource if he isn't on pellets now you don't need to worry about putting him on them until he is used to you and your family.
You need to take him to a board certified avian vet to rule out illness as a cause for plucking and to just get a health checkup.

 

[cdog]

Conures have long tails, he is not a conure.

 

[chihuahuamom]

You are a life saver!!! Thank you so much!! Right now he is on a parrot mix... that is what they gave us for him. Thank you for letting me know what kind of diet he will need I will be sure to pick up food asap tomorrow as I also have to get him a cage!!! They brought him to me in a medium size plastic dog kennel and said that is what he has been kept in

Beings he is not a conure.... and I have never owned a senegal.....

is there much differences that I should know as far as his care goes? Any advice any senegal owners could offer me would be so very much appreciated!!

 

[god61021]

ah yes i missed the tail. senegals are normally alot quieter then conures. alot of senegals have some fear issues and can be kind of panicky when they see something new like say a birthday balloon, flower arangement on the table, people with hats etc. so watch for that.

They are deffinately much better birds then any old conure! (had a little fun and got some green cheek owners riled up earlier.lol just wanted to keep that going)

 

[chihuahuamom]

Thank you for that information!!! For all that he has had to deal with... I was pretty amazed that he wanted to step up to me! I think he was just happy to get out of that dang dog kennel! I am going first thing tomorrow to purchase a nice cage for him. I found some really nice stand up cages with play areas on top that would be nice!

 

[cdog]

Just remember no smaller than 32"W x 23"D.

And conures are the best! Lol

 

[god61021]

Ive owned a redbelly before (close relative to a senegal) and he would run along the back of the couch and do somersaults then lay there with this gleam in his eye until some foolish person (or cat) reached for his belly.............thats when the crying would start. lol he was only having fun and not being aggressive but he would get your finger pretty good. then run and somersault again waiting for you to fall for it again. sometimes I would "fall for it" just to make his day. course' I was still drinking back then and "stick your finger in the parrots mouth" sounds like a much better idea with a little liquid courage. lol

 

[wenz2712]

Welcome to the Forum