Thinking of buying a conure, any advice?

[FJamie]

Thinking of buying a conure, not sure which one tho , ive done some research and i think ive settled on the green cheek conure as i believe these are the quietest, my friend has one which isnt too loud at all but i know each bird has his/her own personality which defines this lol
but what threw me today was, i met a woman with a jenday and said he was really quite which i thought they were nearly as bad as the sun conure?? just presumption and bit of research, never actually been in a room with one to hear it!
i can get a gorgeous jenday next week if i like or i can wait a few months for a gcc to come along since its only coming back into their breeding season here so ill have to wait, but dnt want rush into getting the jenday either! their noise levels wouldn bother me at all, its just the fact its coming into my parents house so i have to think of them aswell..
should i wait?

Any advice or tips much appreciated

 

[roxynoodle]

Green checks, Maroon bellies and others from the Pyhurra (spelling?) are known to be quieter. My Nanday can be quite loud, but she doesn't do it that often. Her biggest thing is to give an alarm screech if someone enters my property, and especially if they come into the house. That's when she's loudest. This of course gives everyone the impression that she does this all day, but she doesn't! She lets out other loud chirps or screeches here and there, but it's often to communicate with me. For instance I can ask her, "Do you want your birdie light on (or off)?" and she will answer with a screech, just like a one second screech though. She is a very good communicator. When it's time for her veggies, she will screech as well. And sometimes when she's playing she will get angry with a toy and give it a piece of her mind. She has some other sounds that are fairly loud, but that I actually find pleasant.

So with a Jenday or Sun I would expect similar. They make noise here and there, but it's not usually non stop. However, if anyone in your family is particularly sensitive to noise, they would not like one of these conures. My ex husband didn't even like little budgie sounds.

 

[Pedro]

Even GCC have the potentional to be noisy. I breed both Sun's & GCC'S, my birds are reasonably quiet for the most part. However breeding season can be very roudy.

I feel that the reason sun's are labled as loud & noisy is because they have learned by being loud their owner gives into their needs. Instead of inforcing better behavior. A well trained parrot is less likely to make a lot of noise. Just my opinion.

 

[Neravas]

i have had a sun conure and a blue crown conure, and both have been very sweet and loveable. I am not as big of a fan of green cheek conures only because they are so small and light and i always feel like im going to hurt them.

 

[Spiritbird]

Same here for my Cricket a GCC.. One thing I did not count on is having to use so many band-aides. He is not loud at all.

 

[amysaviary]

I breed Sun's and GC. I would take a Sun any day!!! Can they be loud yes but like others said not all the time. The Sun, Jenday and Nanday are very close in noise level so if I say Sun I mean all of them. If you give a Sun what they need they have no reason to be loud. Food, water, toys and time and love from you they are happy and quiet for the most part. The GC can be loud too and are much more nippy then the others. Just my option.

 

[cockatielfan17]

yes exactly all birds can be noisy if they dont have what they need and plus its in there personalities whether they scream or not but by far i would recommend a sun conure cause thats what im planning on getting lol

 

[Amber]

Jenday owner here. I love him to bits, he is energetic and such a good companion!

On the noise, with constant reinforcement for quiet chirping and ignoring loud screams (within reason, if your bird is calling because he is frightened, respond! Flock calls/contact calls when I am in another room and "Hello" and "goodbye" calls when I enter/leave are also ok, as they are natural vocalisations and it would be cruel to try to eradicate them!) I have found the vocalisations to be more then ok.

I think the issue is that people accidentally encourage it without even realising, and it doesn't help that the the jenday/sun/gold cap and other ara species have calls designed to be heard quite a distance away through forest. They are not only loud, but high pitched. It's not the volume so much, more the ear splitting pitch that does it. Their are way louder birds out there, but they tend to have lower pitched calls that make it more bearable (to me anyway!)

You can train them quite easily to use their softer chirps and calls to get your attention. Ignore screaming for attention, leave the room, and only respond when they calm down and are quiet. They soon learn that loud calls will drive you away, the opposite of what they want! You still need to expect that they will use loud calls sometimes, like when distressed, or when you are in another part of the house to establish contact with you (so called contact or flock calls, where the bird is looking for a response to know you are around) and when you come home and they are excited to see you! All these are natural calls and are to be expected. What's not natural is conures screaming all day for attention!

I find the loud vocalisations don't annoy me at all. It would be a different story if I had to hear them 24/7 though!

 

[Nakiska]

Just thought I'd point out a couple things for you to chew on.

I have 4 cockatiels, and a yellow sided green cheek conure and they are totally different birds in a lot of ways.

First off, one thing I've noticed...conures are NOT chirpers or whistlers at least, mine is not at all, he has a very gravelly deep voice sounds like he should be on an old western movie...hahaha! Anyway he either talks, squawks, grumbles or whispers and as far as being quiet...don't hold store on that...he's a very good boy, but he can be very loud. Especially when I laugh out loud about something, well...he immediately starts this most loud annoying squawk laugh you've ever heard.

Of course, he's mimicking my laugh and that's probably the loudest he gets.

My cockatiels can be equally noisy too, but in a different way, they are singers, chirpers, whistlers and my males are both extremely good talkers. Their voice is higher pitched.

Activity level.

Conures are busy! Our conure is on the go all the time. My experience with a conure is, they like mental stimulation almost non-stop. He's always cimbing all over us, tunneling under the blankets, carrying his ball around and constantly explores with his beak. Not biting, but always "tasting" it seems, sometimes it can be annoying because if he finds the tiniest little bump on...say...your arm, he'll become fixated with picking at it, and no matter what you try to do, he'll keep going back to that spot and pick, pick, pick. We always seem to have to be redirecting his attention.

Our cockatiels, on the other hand, are extremely content to sit on our shoulders and watch what we're doing, maybe preen our hair a little bit, preen themselves, take a nap, give us "kisses" and our males talk and whistle, our females are generally just quiet with some chirps every now and then. They sometimes move from one shoulder to the other, but we are definitely not the full body climbing toy our conure thinks we are.

So I guess my question to you is, what are YOU looking for in a bird?

Toni

 

[roxynoodle]

I have to completely agree about conures always being busy. More so for my Nanday though than it was for my Blue Crown. The Nanday goes from one activity to another constantly. And when she's out of her cage, it's the same. Running all over me, beaking fabric and my freckles.

My 2 bigger birds are nowhere near as active as she is.

 

[FJamie]

Thanks everybody very much for your replies. they've been a great help! Ive settled my decision on a gcc and should hopefully have him/her by the end of feb or mid march as i know a breeder who has 2 pairs sitting on clutches

Nakiska - The way you describe a conure is definitely and hopefully the personality i get with my gcc because a few friends of mine have gcc's and they are exactly how you describe, i feel in love with them, the birds spend more time on my shoulders and in my hands when im there rather than my friends haha, i just cant seem to pull myself away from them! the also have tiels which are brilliant but defo a gcc for me

Ive no problems with noise levels myself as i said, jus have to be respectful of my parents house as they do not share the same enthusiasm for birds as i do so fair is fair i think

Also does it matter much if i get a male or female? is there any difference's at all i should be aware of??
Thanks again everybody.
great help

 

[Spiritbird]

You are so right Rox conures are little run around birds. Wish we had that much energy.

 

[Nakiska]

Thanks everybody very much for your replies. they've been a great help! Ive settled my decision on a gcc and should hopefully have him/her by the end of feb or mid march as i know a breeder who has 2 pairs sitting on clutches

Nakiska - The way you describe a conure is definitely and hopefully the personality i get with my gcc because a few friends of mine have gcc's and they are exactly how you describe, i feel in love with them, the birds spend more time on my shoulders and in my hands when im there rather than my friends haha, i just cant seem to pull myself away from them! the also have tiels which are brilliant but defo a gcc for me

Ive no problems with noise levels myself as i said, jus have to be respectful of my parents house as they do not share the same enthusiasm for birds as i do so fair is fair i think

Also does it matter much if i get a male or female? is there any difference's at all i should be aware of??
Thanks again everybody.
great help

Awww...yea, GCC's are GREAT birds but after owning one, I realize NOW that maybe they really are NOT the bird for everyone. Especially because of their seemingly unstoppable activity level, their huge amount of curiosity that can sometimes get them into trouble

I absolutely love our Franklin, and I am sooo glad he picked us.

For you, I mostly wanted to point out that if you are looking for a nice calm, quiet bird - happy to sit on your arm or shoulder while you read a book or watch a movie, then perhaps a conure isn't for you.

Our Franklin can wear me out with all his antics! If we touch it, he has to know what it is, if we are eating it, he has to have some too and he's NOT always happy with what we offer him, he'd rather pick HIS bite directly from our plate, and if we'd let him, he'd walk all over our dinner to find the perfect bite.

Because of their intense activity level though, they seem to learn tricks rather quickly. For Franklin, I have just been verbally rewarding him when he does something I want him to associate with a word or cue so I can have him do it when asked....Franklin can "shake hands" and "wave" and we are learning retrieve...I can tell him..."get your ball-e" and he'll climb off me and go get it and bring it to me more often then not now.

He is really trying to learn to talk, he says "Hello, Good Boy, Him a good boy (which right now sounds like "heia ooh Oie!", Chicken Little (one of our cockatiels name) and Pretty pretty pretty bird (which he always whispers...it's soo cute!) OH, and if he hears me bust out in laughter, he laughs 100 times louder than I, he LOVES to laugh with me.

He LOVES to go bye bye with me, he's been to all the stores in our little town - boy his he a ham!

I guess mostly, having him is almost like having a toddler in the house all the time. Our Franklin is so smart and so active and so willing to learn, when he's out, it's not like I can just relax with him, I always have to be paying attention to what he's doing and have lots of things to redirect his attention with. The more we do with him, the happier he is. He loves "airplane" rides in our hand, being flipped upside down, laying on his back and the funniest thing ever is when my spouse plays "pogo stick" with him...he holds him in one hand and Franklin will start bobbing his head to let him know he wants to play...and hubby will bounce his hand and say "boing boing boing" Franklin thinks that's the BEST game!

Franklin was hatched March 15th and we purchased him the end of May so he's 9 1/2 months old and we've had him about 7 months.

Oh and as far as a male or female...I couldn't tell you, ours is definitely male and I don't know if they tend to be more or less active then females. My experience has been that male birds tend to be more inclined to talk and mimic speech, however, please note, that conures are not known so much for their speaking skills, some never learn to say anything.

Well I guess I can quit bragging and keep us posted on your journey to conure ownership.

Toni

 

[roxynoodle]

Nakiska made a lot of good points.

And yes, I have had a Nanday in the middle of my plate with little dirty birdy feet in my veggies. I think she would get right in the middle of a plate of spaghetti as well.

Everything they see, they want to investigate. In the bird world they are the kids with ADHD.

Not true of my Blue Crown, but of conures in general, I'd say.

My big birds seem happy with 3-5 toys. My conure has 10!

 

[Neravas]

conures are the sweetest little birds, mine loves to cuddle 24/7 and she talks to me all the time. the only time she ever gets loud is in the morning when she hears me getting ready.