Baby Blue Crowned-Conure might be adopted Saturday. Questions.

[WannaBeAParrot]

So excited. A local Wildlife Rescue has a very young conure that needs to be adopted. It's been nearly 2 months since my beloved Pritti passed over. I still miss him everyday. A Blue-Crowned conure might be coming home with me in two days. not sure yet, but I think he is about 4 or 5 months old.

Of course I'll be reading up a bunch over the next two days and so on, but are there any pointers you have? I've cared for adult cherry-head conure, sun conures, quakers only (ages 3 and up).

Some questions:

I have a nice flight cage. But am wondering if it is too big for now? I also have a nice smaller cages. Which is best for now? Interior dimensions:
32" wide x 21" deep x 35" high.
30" wide x 18"high x 18" deep.
18"wide x 14" deep x 26" high.

Should he have separate sleeping and awake cages?

Is it okay to leave his cage door open all the time, except when sleeping and/or when unsupervised? (Pritti's door was rarely locked.)

Thanks.

 

[weco]

Really, the only thing I might offer would be to wait & let your "possible" new friend get settled in & go through its testing phase before allowing too many freedoms that might be hard to take back...also...BCC beaks are larger than what you're used to.....

Good luck with the adoption and with your new feathered friend.....

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Thanks Weco. Great advice.
The beak.... really? It always seemed to me that the CHerry-heads and Blue-Crowns have, on average, about the same stature and same size beaks.

So now I need to work on a name, but I can't do that until we meet. Maybe he'll let me know what he wants to be named, lol.

 

[RavensGryf]

The red masked (cherry head) are bigger than BCC, so I think she'll be used to it

I personally wouldn't do a flight cage for anything bigger than a cockatiel (small beak). They're really made for small 'flying' birds. I'd go with a parrot cage with heavier gauge bars.

I've never had a conure, but I've heard that BCC make exceptional pets. I love the orange eyes and pink beak! Best wishes!

Edit: I just saw you said BCC are the same size . I've always thought red masked, and mitred were larger, no?

 

[Kiwibird]

How wonderful to find such a young bird needing a good home (how did that happen that a 4 or 5 mo old found him/herself homeless?!).

I'm unsure on cage size, but in regards to leaving the door open and sleep cages or not, I think that's how you raise this baby and it's personality as an individual! Within a year, I'm sure you'll be able to tell this birds personality and allow you to learn how to work with him/her Maybe it can sleep through a hurricane during a laser light show and not need a nighttime cover! Perhaps it will be a mischievous little bird who needs to be put up sometimes. OR maybe it needs to have a night cage and can be as free as a domestic bird could! You'll just have to wait and see (thats part of the fun!) I think you're going to have so much fun watching this little bird grow and blossom!

 

[Jessie]

I have my Nanday in a flight cage and he loves it. It's roomy and has plenty of room for toys ect. I haven't had a problem with the bar sizes being to thin but I could just be lucky. And the flight cage was the biggest cage that I could afford.
The dimensions are 32" wide x 21" deep x 35" high. So it's probably close or exactly like the one you have already.

 

[Birdman666]

Blue crowns are generally a little more easy going than your cherry head... they're one of the mellowest and smartest of the bunch.

If you can train a cherry head, you can train a blue crown.

 

[JamesC]

Blue crowns are a lot of fun. It is one reason that I sometimes call them "Blue Clowns".

My BCC Tootsie was never caged for most of the time that I have had her and for as long as I knew her when she lived with my brother. Except at night when she went inside and the door was closed. Very well behaved when I wasn't home and stayed on or in her cage and never went anywhere else. Since I have Rosco I have started to put her inside because she will go where he is and I'm afraid that he might bite her toes through the bars because he can be a real brat towards her sometimes.

I mistakenly left Rosco out of his cage when I left for the day one time. Total brain short, just walked out without closing his door after I had put the other two away. He had obviously been exploring while I was gone. Found a number of things that had been chewed on and a nice, big "plop" on my couch. My senegal Sidney and him both had chips on their beaks so I'm certain that they had a bit of a go at each other through the bars.

As for personality, Tootsie is a noise maker. I don't think she can shut up for more than 10 seconds at a time without enough pressure building up to make her explode. Not always loud, but pretty much constant. She is VERY food motivated and knows that I'm making something as soon as she sees or even hears certain things in the kitchen. I have to open the container of raw almonds out of her sight and very slowly cause if she hears that noise it is on. She was a major snuggler before I adopted Rosco but not quite as much now that she has him to snuggle and preen with.

As stated above, Rosco is a bit of a brat. Very active and wants to investigate everything. He does not like hands but will spend a lot of time near me by perching on the laptop monitor or sitting on the armrest of my couch watching me. I call him my "Sidney" alarm sometimes. He watches everything going on around here and if Sidney is being bad, Rosco sounds the alarm. He knows what Sid is not supposed to be doing and takes it as his responsibility to let me know about it. Most of the time he is quieter than Tootsie is and I think that once she is gone he will get even quieter. A lot of his noise is just joining in with Tootsie if she is sounding off.

As for cage sizes, Tootsie is in a 20w x 20d x 24h which I have all perches at a level since she is getting old and is a bit arthritic in the feet. Rosco has a much bigger cage at 31w x 23d x 43h. I got that cage with the thought that if they got along great maybe I would be able to keep Tootsie and Rosco in the same cage but he can beat up on her occasionally so I ruled that out almost immediately. He never used the lower perches and they just kept getting soiled so I took them out. So the lower part of the cage is not used. If I ever adopt a bigger bird I will see if I can migrate Rosco into a cage similar in size to what Sidney has at 27w x 24d x 34h and home the bigger bird in the larger cage. Sidney uses all of his cage so it will most likely be a suitable size for Rosco.

 

[RavensGryf]

I have my Nanday in a flight cage and he loves it. It's roomy and has plenty of room for toys ect. I haven't had a problem with the bar sizes being to thin but I could just be lucky. And the flight cage was the biggest cage that I could afford.
The dimensions are 32" wide x 21" deep x 35" high. So it's probably close or exactly like the one you have already.

I think the flight cages are popular because of the attractive price. A parrot cage of similar dimensions would be a lot more expensive. If you're not having problems, I guess it's fine . I know they're called flight cages though because they're really designed for finches and Budgies to "fly" in

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Hi. I adopted "baby blue" today. We r getting along great. I will write more about it, and ask some more questions when I am on a computer later and not on my iPhone. I'm off to get some food for him now. He is 4 1/2 months old. I'll tell you later how he came to be in need of adoption. He seems so happy and healthy. He has been on kaytee pellets multi color conure size. I'm going now to get him some of that. However I would rather him start getting used to eating something else like Harrison, or supreme natural. Any thoughts or recommendations? I can't believe how many questions I have with this baby, after being a parront for so decades but never with the baby

 

[thekarens]

Congrats! That's awesome! Be sure to include pics. I REALLY wanted mine to eat TOPS and I've tried them all and everyone eats something different. The linnies like Roudybush crumbles. The mac likes Caitec oven bites. The sennies eat Golden Obles under duress, so the one that you can get them to eat is best IMO.

 

[KimKim]

Congrats! I can't wait to see some pics and hear his story

 

[JamesC]

Congratulations on bring home the baby! I'm sure that you will fall for this little one in a big way. They really are great birds.

 

[BoomBoom]

Congratulations, KC! I'm glad I saw your thread and able to wish your new buddy a warm welcome. I hope you have many, many great years together. Pritti would love that. What is his name?

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Worked on setting up his/her new digs today. Here's a pic from yesterday on top of the temp cage. Will get more pics and post them in a few days when s/he's settled. Don't know if boy or girl. Will call our a-vet today about DNA. I think it'll have to wait because I don't want to have to give him another two car rides and stress of a-visit to get DNA by blood of plucking a feather. Ouch.

 

[RavensGryf]

Wow he is really beautiful! A lot of blue color for a juvenile Such a cutie too. Can't wait to hear DNA results when that time comes, and a name!

 

[thekarens]

S/he's adorable!

 

[Kiwibird]

What a beautiful birdie! So glad you found each other!

 

[Pinkbirdy]

Wow Beautiful [Ive always admired them]. Im excited for you

 

[BoomBoom]

He is cute! The colors are amazing.