We believe Precious is a BOY!!

[Chelle]

I never knew getting these babies was going to lead to so much LEARNING!!! lol I have always been one to want to know everything possible. I have been Researching every day since I came home with Prissy a month ago. And I am sitting here wondering... what happens to all the birds that people buy when they don't care to do the research???

 

[faeryphoebe1]

Those fiery shouldered conures sure are beautiful. Your GCC is beautiful, too. We have a cinnamon GCC named Trixie. We refer to Trixie as a she but we really don't know. Trixie is about 2 yrs old. No eggs so far, so maybe Trixie's a boy? Doesn't really matter to us but kinda wish my daughter had picked a uni-sex name, lol.

 

[MikeyTN]

Chelle,

Those who don't research, when problem arises they don't know what to do and scramble at the last minute. It's a NEVER ending cycle learning new stuffs as time change, things change, etc etc. I always learn something new everyday in here! There's soooooo much information out there, it's a lot to take in. Even though I've been doing this for over 16 years, bred in the past and minimal now days, had all kinds of birds. There's more for me to learn all the time. None of us knows everything but we gain more knowledge through one another, that's how this forum works, as a community!

 

[Chelle]

I love this forum! I learn things that I never would have thought about had I not seen someone else post a question.

It is unbelievable how little the people at the pet store know. When I got Prissy a month ago I didn't know what questions to ask. When we got Smokey Yesterday I asked what food they were feeding him and the answer I got was "Conure Food". What kind of an answer is that??? So I just put him right on the Harrison's High Potency that I am feeding Prissy. I am not sure if it is the food change or the fact that he ate watermelon for the first time today but his stools were water tinged red tonight. I am hoping he will be ok it really makes me mad that they couldn't walk up to the shelf and say "this is what he is eating"!!!

 

[MonicaMc]

Fiery shoulders and green cheeks are two separate species! (as has already been explained)


You know how cheetahs and jaguars are similar looking cats? They both have spotted fur. They are both big cats. One likes to sleep around in trees and the other runs as fast as a car can go under normal speeding limits. They are not the same species even though they are similar in appearance. (they aren't even within the same genera, but that's besides the point! )


Here's a photo of a blue throated conure and a green cheek conure. They belong to the same genera (Pyrrhura) but they are separate species. You can see some similarities between the two, but one's larger and has more colors than the other one.
Itchy and Scratchy | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Or there's also a crimson bellied conure. Closer to the same size as a green cheek, but their colors can be drastically more different!
Conures Preening | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Crimson-bellied Parakeets | Flickr - Photo Sharing!



Smokey isn't a green cheek conure because he's a fiery shouldered conure! They belong to the same family, but are actually separate species!



I can't say that I've seen a fiery shouldered conure hybrid but I have seen a lot of green cheek conure hybrids! It doesn't mean that they don't or can't occur, it's just probably not that common... especially since there are no mutations within fiery shouldered conures, so there's less of an inclination to hybridize them with other species.

 

[MikeyTN]

I've been to a few shops where the people inside were very knowledgable!!!! But most of the stores such as PetSmart, forget it, ALL they care about is are you able to promote and sell things. Trust me, I asked about working in there, I told them I have the knowledge, BUT you know what they said, they don't care, they want to know if you can promote and sell! That's why I don't buy a lot of things in there, at least the Petco not far from me, at least they know about their birds somewhat and the manager there was trying to get me to work there based on my knowledge starting me out at $13/hr. But I kindly declined cause I make more doing what I'm doing....lol

 

[MonicaMc]

I once had an interview with Petsmart... the "animal expert" is whatever employee they have working that section that day! Their employees are trained to be experts in all animals that they sell, and you have to tell the customers what they tell you to tell them! As you can imagine, if you know squat about animals, it's a freakin great job!!!!! If you know something about them, it can kind of suck.... worse yet if they are buying unweaned chicks and teaching some employees to hand feed but not all of them, which may lead to a day that no hand feeder is scheduled to work and you have chicks going hungry with no one else to feed them!


Ya.... I like to go to those big chain stores just to "eye shop" but rarely buy anything from them! And definitely not animals! (anymore...)



Blood in droppings should actually not be red unless the blood came directly near the cloaca or vent. Therefore, if you are seeing red, it's probably not blood!

 

[Chelle]

Thanks everyone for all of the info!!! Feel free to give me info anytime!!! I love learning and want my babies to have the best possible life!!!

 

[faeryphoebe1]

Gotta say it again, Fiery Shoulders are exquisite!

Whenever my parrots eat raspberries their poop looks reddish-pink. When they have eaten blueberries, their stools are more watery and blue, lol.