Long & Overdue Intro - Jayde; Red Throated Conure

I haven’t formally introduced Jayde but I have mentioned her here and there on the forum. I guess it’s about time I do!!!!


Jayde is a young red throated conure. I think she’ll be 4 years old in January? For the first 2, going on 3 years of her life, she lived with a family. Now, I don’t know much about this family at all, just that she eventually made her way back to her breeder, where-in a person on another forum took Jayde in. She lived with her foster mom for about 6 months before I adopted her. In her foster home, Jayde was a very shy, insecure and afraid bird that could not be handled. She loved scritches, kisses and being talked to, but otherwise would not step up on a human being. Her original name was Petey, which her foster mother didn’t like and so changed it to Kiwi. I already had a Kiwi, and she died last year, so the name just wouldn’t do. I decided to name her Jayde, not for her colors, but because the name kind of grew on me. The name “Jayde” came to me from another species of conure, the jenday! And thanks to autocorrect, the word “jenday” comes out as “Jayden”. Not liking the two syllable name, I shortened it to Jayde!

I knew before I got her that she would need work to become the pet that we all know she can be! It didn’t bother me that she couldn’t be held, that she bit, that she demanded attention but was afraid of it at the same time. A challenge she would be, and one I didn’t mind taking!


So first sort of business…. Getting Jayde to me. At the time, Jayde was in Ohio and I live in Nevada. Driving there and back was out of the question. I wanted to avoid flying there to pick her up so I’d have more money to spend on supplies and food for Jayde. I was interested in doing a “birdy train”, however there were not enough volunteers for the trip, so again, out of the question. Temporarily looked into private animal transport companies, but decided against it. Her foster mom and I both wanted to avoid the plane trip if possible, but in the end we chose to go that route. After we finally decided on that and which airline could ship her, we had to decide on a day to ship her. It has to be below 85° at all airports at the time of her arrival at said airport for the airport to ship her on to the next place. Being practically the beginning of summer in May, it was hard choosing a date since most of the temperatures were high!


I made an order of supplies for when Jayde arrived, and her foster mom finally decided on a date to ship Jayde before the package for Jayde was to arrive. Jayde was taken to the airport and the airport said she couldn’t be shipped without a health certificate. (apparently, an Ohio rule – other birds were shipped in other states without the health certificate) Ok, fine, whatever. Jayde’s foster mom was able to get a health cert for her and chose another date to ship her, and this time went with a separate airline. We figured that Jayde would fly from Dayton, OH to Chicago, IL and then to Reno, NV, based on the flight information provided online. Jayde was taken to the airport early in the morning and made it on the plane without any issues. Being that it was during the week, I had to take a little amount of time off away from work to go and pick her up. I was at the airport at the scheduled time she was supposed to arrive. I was sitting at the baggage claim area waiting for the airport employees to bring her in. From the time it took to take her to the airport to the time I was to pick her up, the total trip was supposed to be around 12 hours.


Jayde never came. The airport employees had no idea what was going on. Both her foster mom and I were eagerly waiting for her to arrive, and she wasn’t there. We had heard *nothing* about any delays or issues in shipping her… and then 30 minutes or so after she was supposed to arrive, her foster mom got a call that Jayde was stuck in Dallas, TX. Her flight from Dayton was delayed, which caused her to miss her connecting flight in Dallas (we weren’t made aware that she would be going through Dallas!), and because Texas heats up fairly quickly, they wouldn’t ship her on any flights for the rest of the day. That day was supposed to be the last day for a week that it would be under 85° on my end…. I was freaking out! I called the airline, and they said that they wouldn’t ship her if her destination was above 85°. I’m definitely freaking out here because I’m now thinking that she’ll be stuck in Dallas for days and I don’t know anyone *IN* Dallas who could go and pick her up at the airport and care for her until she could be shipped!


Thankfully, the Dallas airport confirmed that they would be shipping her out next day, regardless of the temperature on my end! And sure enough, the next day, at the planned arrival time, I waited at the airport. It felt like it took forever, but finally heard her voice outside on the tarmac as they were wheeling her in! She was screaming her head off! And when she made it into the building, her screams were reverberating around the walls! While trying to leave said airport, I got a few funny questions, such as “That a dog?” and “Is that a monkey?”. Some people at least new she was a bird, and one even knew she was a conure!

So Jayde is finally home. I had her cage kind of set up and prepared for her. She was definitely happy to be out of her carrier, but not happy about being in a new and scary place!





She was rather terrified of me, but at the same time enjoyed me talking to her, giving her kisses and scritches! The only downside is that she bit! And she bit hard! I don’t like getting bitten, and I don’t understand the concept of allowing a parrot with an extremely effective can opener as a mouth to chomp on my flesh and to just “ignore” it until she stops. That’s abuse! I wanted Jayde to learn that she didn’t have to bite in order to communicate with me, so first order of business was interacting with Jayde without getting bit! Since Jayde was terrified of stepping up on hands, arms and dowels, this meant that I couldn’t remove her from her cage. That was ok though! I just moved the cage around the house with me so she could be “with” me without having to physically be on me. She could learn to get comfortable in her new environment without having to be forced from the safety of her cage. This seemed to work alright by her!






Did this for a few weeks, and one day I was sitting on the floor next to her cage when she decided to venture down and examine me. Being unsure about things, she would climb up and down the sides of the cage, but curious as she is, she kept climbing back down to me. I talked to her but otherwise “ignored” her and just allowed her to do her own thing.











Next thing I know, I’ve got a bird on my shoulder! How scary!

I figured out that I could remove her from her cage if I offered her my shoulder. She was hesitant at first, but willing. Sometimes I’d have to “butter” her up by talking to her before she’d climb aboard. Shortly after, I placed a perch on the outside of the cage with allowed her a place to sit and “come down” to my level. This made it easier for her to climb up to my shoulder. Getting her off was rather simple – lean towards her cage and she’d climb back on it.


While I had her away from the cage, she would occasionally start making her “I’m scared” noise, and I’d take her back to her cage where she would feel comforted. Sometimes, she was happy being back on her cage and hanging out there, other times it was enough to feel it under her feet and she was ready to climb back up!


Over time, these interactions away from her cage increased. She became comfortable sitting on the back of a chair for short periods of time if I was also sitting on it. She was even ok with being around my head if I was lying down on the couch.







The first time I took Jayde to a local bird club meeting, I thought another member “K” was going to birdnap Jayde! K really took to Jayde, even though Jayde gave her a good bite on K’s nose the first time they met! K was able to win Jayde over and she quickly climbed aboard on K’s shoulder! Another member also interacted with Jayde and was able to get Jayde to climb up on her shoulder as well, but for a very short time. When both left, Jayde followed K as far as she could go from her carrier top! K made quite the impression on Jayde! A man also tried interacting with Jayde, and he received a bite to the face! Seems Jayde doesn’t like men, or maybe it’s the voice she doesn’t like? He also didn’t babytalk her and butter her up. Jayde is *very* people orientated, but seems to prefer women.



Shortly after having Jayde for a little over three months, she got to a point that she would tentatively step up on my arms. It was clear she didn’t like the idea, but at least she wasn’t biting! And it was a step up to having her just climb aboard any part of my upper body! Sometimes, she would stretch as far as she could make her body go, trying to reach for my sleeves and save herself from touching my arms! If I would have covered my arms, she would have done the same thing! If I cover either, I get a nasty bite! I think it helped that I gave her scritches and while doing so would slowly raise my other arm and hands to her body, but not force her to do anything, not even to step up. If she went to bite, I’d remove both hands/arms and try again with scratching and moving my other arm back up to her. A few weeks later, she was climbing onto me as if it was no big deal!


We haven’t accomplished a step up from inside her cage or from my shoulder, but she’s still a work in progress! I’ve now had her for slightly over 4 months now and a new behavior of hers is that when I’m dishing out food in the morning, if I have food in my hands while she’s on my shoulder, she’ll literally make a mad dash down the front of me to get to the food! She acts as if I’m starving her! Once I replenish her food dishes, she quite happily goes back inside her cage to munch away!



I never thought that I would get a red throat, but I am enjoying the experience of having her here!

Hello, Jayde!!! She is very cute!

Very nice! Thanks for sharing Jayde's story. Sounds like great progress for 4 short months!

And that audio clip at the end with the giggling and laughter just cracked me up!

What a great story! Jayde is beautiful. Sounds like she has come a long way. Thanks for sharing

That you for sharing this story! And congrats on your new fid. It looks like she has the perfect home with you!!!!

Yaaay! Thanks for sharing Jayde is so beautiful!

Jayde is a beautiful baby!!! Thanks for sharing the story!!!

I really look forward to each day with her! Always interested in seeing which feathers she has molted, and what new behaviors she may have in stock for me! New quirks, likes, dislikes... it's great learning about her! And really being able to see her come out of her shell!


I recently got to "meet" a green conure. She appeared similar to Jayde colorwise and noisewise... but slightly larger and definitely more green! She isn't near as shy as Jayde is and loves to play with toys!





A lot of people say that mitreds and cherry heads are very similar, but to me, they are completely different! So I just found it interesting that Jayde and this green conure had similarities beyond color.

She is Beautiful!!!

She reminds me so much of Casper!! He's a piece of work, I'm sure she will warm up in no time for you Monica!

What a beautiful girl she is and a great story! Thank you for sharing

What a cutie. Just shows it pays to be patient, hang in there and never give up!

Well, Jayde is no longer stepping up from her cage... shortly after I open her door and turn to go open other cage doors, she jumps off her cage and plops right onto my shoulder! Fine by me! Actually, she'll still step up from it, but I much like her using her wings to get around! If I can managed to get her off of me, she'll fly around the house after me! She's also gotten Charlie to fly a little more, too....

The two still don't get along... we're pretty much at an ignoring/tolerating phase as long as Charlie isn't riled up nor are they separated by bars... and as long as the two don't get too close... but Jayde still tries to eat/drink out of whatever dish Charlie is using! They are not buddies, they aren't even friends!



Photos.... mostly old! (ish)

I took a shower and decided to see if Jayde and Charlie would enjoy it, since both love bathing in their water dishes! Well, Charlie has gone before, so I knew what his reaction would be, but I didn't know about Jayde's. I also took some photos for size comparison. (this before they could tolerate each other! imagine that!)







Jayde was perfectly fine sitting on my shoulder.... or hiding behind my hair! Makes no difference!





Charlie is kind of obnoxious... in your face.... gotta see what the heck you are doing! (having a 200+ gram conure as hair extensions isn't exactly a pleasant feeling!)





Jayde back in her at the "foraging bin"....





Which, might I add, placed too closely to food dishes, items will end up in the food cups!

Last month, Jayde and Charlie appeared to be getting on well enough that I was brave enough to attempt using a cage to transport them to the bird club meeting rather than using two carriers! Went well on the way there....









On the way back was a different story, however... After meeting another club member 3 times in the 4 months I had had her, Jayde decided I was chopped liver!!! She decided her new favorite human was a club member! This was made obviously apparent to me when I had Jayde and Charlie with me while speaking to a different club member and Jayde crawled down the back of my shirt, hopped to the table separating me and her "beloved human", climbed the carrier cage top, and when her "new human" refused to pick her up, Jayde took it upon herself to fly to her!

Jayde was *PISSED* when I separated her from her human and told me all about it! And took it out on Charlie on the way home and me at home! No, she was not happy! And this club member would be *more* than happy to take Jayde home if her flock wasn't already full! lol



This month Jayde didn't interact with the other club member since she brought one of her own birds... so I didn't have to pry Jayde off of anyone!


Charlie is pretty content to sit on me. Doesn't care for strangers and does what he can to avoid them if they try to interact with him. If standing, he's fine being on my shoulder. If sitting, he prefers being in my lap or on my arms. He's not really a shoulder bird.

Jayde is quite clearly a shoulder bird! And she's social! She loves attention from other people! Although, so far, she seems to prefer women. If another woman (and, I think in particular, women with wrinkles) talks to her, she soaks up the attention! And I mean, soaks it up! And once she's been buttered up, she will climb onto the other person's shoulder (even from my own) and preen them, talk to them and accept scritches from them! I love how social she is! Even if it means she'll hate me when I take her home! LOL







Charlie really didn't have issues when I got him, but he's quite the brat! I knew Jayde had issues before I got her, and I expected it to take a while before I could really interact with her, but I didn't expect her to be so sweet and social! I love how her personality is so different to Charlie's! And often the easiest way to get her off of me is with food... she's got a love of food! More so than Charlie!

You should sooo nominate her for Pet of the Day sometime!

I just might!


I still haven't been able to convince non-bird people that she's not a terrible bird! (i.e. friends and families - especially those who have already been bitten by her... oops! lol)


She's still a work in progress, but I am quite pleased with how far she has already come, even if I still haven't taught her to step up from my shoulder or from inside her cage.