Found a sun conure!

[Aleksandar]

Hello everyone, my name is Aleksandar, I'm from Serbia. I've registered on the forum to ask you guys for an advice. Half hour ago my neighbor called me and told me she has a parrot on her terrace. I came there and brought a cage with me. I found a sun conure, freezing in the cold, with all of it's head feathers missing, and some fingers missing. She must have been outside for a while. I caught her and put her in the cage, fed her some apples (she has great appetite) and now she's standing in the cage. I have an English budgie, and I put the conure in another room, since I'm afraid she's maybe sick. She can climb the cage, hang upside down, doesn't have trouble moving. Rest of her feathers look very healthy. What advice do you have for me to help her go back to her full health and happiness, because I want to keep her and provide a good life for her. Thanks in advance.

 

[MikeyTN]

Welcome to the forum Aleksandar!!!

It's wonderful your able to rescue her from the cold and hunger!!! Do you have a avian vet in your area? That would be the first place I go. Do you have any seeds to give her for the time being as we can get into better food for her down the road. Feeding fresh fruits and veggies is essential to their health. Are you able to get ahold of parrot pellets if you need to?

 

[Aleksandar]

Some pictures

 

[MikeyTN]

Poor baby.....She is plucked pretty good....

 

[Aleksandar]

We bought her a big seed mix, sunflower, pumpkin etc. and she's eating like crazy. I think she's completely healthy. Her skin is fine, she moves like a champ, and she has HUGE appetite. I am hesitant to take her to a avian vet, since there's only one good one in Serbia, and she kinda likes to do invasive methods, and hurt my bird once (long story).

 

[MikeyTN]

There maybe underlying issues that you can not foresee nor see it on just looking at her. Thus the reason why it's essential to have her checked out by a avian vet, especially she's been outside. She could easily contract diseases and parasites that can be transferred to you and your budgie. Please be aware psittacosis is a deadly virus that can kill a person. So that's something for you to think about.

 

[Aleksandar]

It seems a sun conure can't have that disease, according to wikipedia. Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor, early in the morning, I will probably take her to the vet in two days. I'll call the vet tomorrow morning to ask her for advice, and tell her about the situation.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Welcome to the forums, Aleksandar!

Poor baby looks to be in rather rough shape. Are you planning on keeping him, or will you try and find the owner?

 

[MikeyTN]

Unfortunately they are susceptible to psittacosis as with any birds including poultry.

 

[Terry57]

Poor baby does look rough, I'm so glad he is being taken care of now. I do hope you will try to find the owner, someone may be broken hearted because their baby flew off, and looking everywhere for him.

 

[ZephyrFly]

Keep an ear out in your area too. That might be a someone's pet that escaped.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't help, just be aware someone might be looking for their bird.

 

[Aleksandar]

Honestly, I'm afraid someone threw it out, maybe she lost her head feathers and they thought she was sick. I plan on keeping her, I have an English budgie, maybe they can be friends when she gets well. Of course if I see a missing bird poster or hear that someone lost her, I will return her. She ate a lot, apple and seeds, now she's taking a nap, she must be very tired. I will take her to a vet, so she runs tests to determine if she's sick or something. I'm just afraid she doesn't stress her too much. I love animals, and I will provide the best possible care for her. I'm a bit hesitant to bring her to the vet since my Rosella died in her hand, and she hurt the leg of my budgie when she was removing the ring from his claw (unsuccessfully), so a lot of stressful memories come to me when I go there. But I think it's better for me and the bird if I determine that it's healthy or not.

 

[MikeyTN]

Just in case if someone is looking for her you should try at least if you could. But making sure she is healthy is a top priority. I would be scared at that vet clinic too if those experiences happened to me. So that's totally understandable. Good luck and let us know the result.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

This is a tough one for me since the bird is obviously in poor shape. But how that came to be is the question. Did it escape and is malnourished from lack of food in the wild, did it lose its feathers from being trapped or attacked etc.

I think it's great that you are looking out for the bird, but I'd still try to find out if someone lost their bird. If they did in fact just let it loose for whatever moronic reason, then I doubt they are looking for it. But who knows where it was originally from.

When I was a kid, my first parakeet (budgie) "Sandy" got loose and flew away. I waited by the door staring out at the open cage I left with food and water for him everyday hoping he'd come home.

Luckily, a nice old couple found him. He flew into their yard and the husband was able to pick Sandy right up. He and his wife knew that bird was loved and likely missed.

 

[Peppo]

What a lucky bird that you were there at the right time to help. He must have been so afraid. So happy he is now warm and fed. Does he seem tame at all? That would be a good indicator if he was a loved pet.

 

[Aleksandar]

He seems semi-tame, but he's still a bit stressed out, so I can't conclude. He has great appetite. He moves very good, holds apple and sunflower seeds in his claw, he's very mobile, and his feathers are beautiful. His droppings seem pretty normal to me. My neighbor has a huge cage with a lot of different birds, I'll ask him tomorrow if it might escaped from him, since the neighbor I found the bird at is directly across the street from him.

 

[Aleksandar]

She's growing new feathers, they are all white and fluffy She ate a lot of apples, carrot, seeds, peanuts, and seems a lot happier. She screams sometimes, and it's very loud, didn't know sun conures were that loud I've checked the posts around my block and there's no missing poster or anything.

 

[rosembers]

Bless your heart for rescuing that poor bird! Sounds like she's making a wonderful recovery.

Thought I'd post this extra info as a 'Good to Know' bit that relates to lost birds:
I've spent some time with a local parrot expert who rescues birds and also raises some hand-fed babies. She mentioned that it's good to train our birds to be able to fly in "unusual" positions. Examples: flying around a stairwell corner (which took our GCC almost 2 years to learn slowly, but she does it like a champ now!), and also flying in a sharp angle down-ward. She has helped with many rescues of birds trapped in a tree. She explained that it's not that the bird doesn't want to come down, but usually it's more that the bird isn't used to viewing the world at such a high, sharp angle down-ward when looking toward you. And they often don't really know how to fly down at that angle. We have practiced with our birds to fly in sharp angles like that (stairs work really well to train this gradually). Anyway, just thought I'd share this. I'm sure we are all super careful with our birds, and unfortunately accidents can happen, so I thought this was an interesting training opportunity to share. Our birds have done really well with it.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

@aleksander Yep, suns are LOUD! Very loud. But that doesn't mean it has to transition to noisiness. There are a lot of 'quiet' suns, including Skittles. But he used to be a persistent screamer when I first got him, those first two years. Once I learned to read him and understand WHY he was screeching, it became much less frequent.

Given that no one is searching for a lost bird and you're at least making an effort - I'm willing to guess the bird was just 'thrown away' and that makes me sick. It also hits a nerve for me, because when I was younger and much less responsible I made that same mistake of setting birds loose. Partly because I thought they'd be happier out on their own (they're not since domestic birds can't fend for themselves in the wild) or I did it out of frustration only to deeply regret it later.

If that's the case with this sunny, that person will have to live with that decision and I bet someday will regret it deeply.

 

[Peppo]

Did you ever check with that neighbor who has all the birds to see if it was his?