Advice on leaving my green cheek at home alone.

[1sttimeconureowner]

Hi all,

I've had my green cheek conure for around a month now. She is 4 months old and seems to have settled in well at home. So here is my question. Around three nights a week I go and stay with my elderly father to cool him dinner and keep him company. I have been leaving my green cheek at home and having my house mates put her to bed, feed her etc. I would prefer to bring her with me. Her cage is quite large and not practical for this purpose and I have a smaller cage which can be transported easily. Would it be more beneficial for her to be left at home in her cage where everything is familiar (but she is essentially by herself except for brief periods where my housemates check on her) or to take her with me in the smaller cage for the night? I'm concerned it might stress her out to be moved and be in an unfamiliar cage but when I leave her at home alone I am just as stressed that she is lonely and bored.
Any advice or suggestions?

 

[nicolee003]

I would bring her with you just to test it out and see if it works or not. My first conure used to love going everywhere with me. We would spend whole days at my boyfriends dads house and he loved it. The conure I currently have didnt enjoy it so much. We tried bringing him there once last month (when he was 4 months old), and he just seemed very uncomfortable and quacked the whole time.

 

[1sttimeconureowner]

Well she is here with me now and she doesn't seem happy at all. I put her to bed because she was falling asleep in my shirt and she's been screeching for the last 20 minutes makes me sad when she's unhappy.

 

[faeryphoebe1]

Try it out a few times. The first time my GCC went with me to visit my mother, she was not happy but was rather frightened. After about 3 visits, she became familiar with the place, relaxed and was herself again.

 

[Mudkips]

You need to weigh up the consequences of keeping her at home without you vs staying with you but in a strange place.
If you stay at your father's place for longer then a full day and night then it would be worth taking her with you. If you only stay for a few hours then it would be worth leaving her in her cage at home. Sure, she would stress out by herself - but not as much as she would if she followed you around all day!
Of course, not every bird is the same, but this is just a guideline if you want to play it safe.

 

[ACEPHONECHIC]

I think you need to weigh up all the options. It would not be fair on the bird for it to be alone for so many evenings each week. But you do need to make sure you are not stressing the bird too much. I sadly had a Cinnemon greencheek conure literally die in my hands last year after it suffered stress after a very small scrap with another bird. Have you considered getting another bird for company. They would not have to be in the same cage but no bird should be lonely for hours on end as they are such intelligent creatures who love company. Perhaps your Dad could visit you sometimes rather than the other way all the time.
Lastly if she does not seem to mind too much she may like the visits in the end. Things like strange objects and tv too loud simple things can sometimes cause the nervousness.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Yeah, you may want to give it a few tries, to see if the bird gets used to the new routine. I went through this with Georgie. She was left alone overnight a lot more times in her life than i EVER wanted!! I had people come and visit her and play with her, but she got angry when i left her and normally screeched at me the next day. I finally did buy her a travel cage and took her and even though she seemed a little 'weird' about it at first, she grew to enjoy it and look forward to it.
Gilbert is taking his first overnight trip with me in a couple weeks!! I am hoping it goes well. I want to start him young on it because I think it is almost always better for them to learn to adapt to a change in environment rather than just be alone.