Is a Green Cheek’s bite worse than a Sun’s

[FieryPhoenix]

I am o. Conure groups on Facebook and all the GCC people talk about how they are such nippy birds.

they all say Suns are angels. Now I love my Sunny it she has given me bad bites where she ripped skin and drew a lot of blood. She has bitten my the point where she would not let go. Most if these bite bites either related to hormones or molting She has not bitten like that in years but she has. It was very painful.

For those who lived with both and have been bitten by both, is a GCC worse? I am genuinejy curious. I always liked them whenever I would see them and pick them up.

 

[hiriki]

Suns and green cheeks are not actually as closely related as pet store terminology would have you believe--despite both being "conures," they are in two different families. I bring this up as context, because they actually have different beak shapes... similar, but if you pull up two pics side by side, you can see that suns have longer beaks, green cheeks have rounder ones. Aratinga parrots, like suns, have beaks made to eat a lot of fruit in the wild, whereas pyrrhura parrots, like green cheeks, eat more seeds/nuts. That means that a sun conure's beak is going to be focused more on tearing fleshy fruits, whereas a green cheek uses their beak more to break seed shells. So on paper, I think a sun's bite would hurt more, all things being equal.

All of that is really dressing on the real point I want to get across though which is that it really depends on the bird. My jenday (closely related to suns) can easily make people bleed, and she has done it before, but never to me... so like, honestly, I can't even answer this from experience lol. Even when I have scooped my jenday up against her will in the middle of a delirious panic attack to rush her to the emergency vet for usually completely mundane reasons, she never more then slightly nips me and she's never made me bleed... if my mom even looks at her funny though she attempts murder lol... Meanwhile, my GCC has bit me, but it really doesn't hurt at all, except the one time he went for my face. I don't know if he's ever bit me like he meant it though.

And even ignoring species beak shape, two birds of the exact same species can have vastly different bites. I've had 4 cockatiels, and I laughed at most of their bites, but ONE of those little bastards had the nastiest bite of any bird I've ever had! He made me bleed every time just because he never pulled any punches, and I'm pretty sure he spent all of his time in his cage sharpening that weapon to a razor point on purpose lmao.

Anyway. In summary, I think it's hard to say which bird's bite would be worse, but I do think that GCCs are a nippy species so you're more likely to be bit more often--even if those bites are play bites or otherwise not particularly painful.

 

[clark_conure]

Got both.
Depends on if they are mad or playing.

Green cheek beak is sharper so a play nip is like puppy teeth. A little more owie.

Sun conure if mad... can draw blood no problem and if it actually got really mad, no idea how hard it could dig in. But I wrestle and play with my two boys so sometimes they get playfully aggressive with me. We love eachother but sometimes they decide "I parrot gotta win".

The GCC is sharp but not the bite pressure strength. The Sun is like 30-40 grams bigger and has a lot more strength.

Edit: if playing though just messing around the Sun conure is gentle as all get out, I let it preen my eyelashes and ear lobes and all vulnerable targets, while the GCC might be gentle but just has a sharper beak and it might be preening my ear but nip, ouch, not meaning to hurt me.

They are the same age and bought them together as a "brothered" pair. They were weened together.

 

[FieryPhoenix]

This is all interesting. Yes I know they don’t belong to the same genius.

Yeah I was thinking bite pressure. My Sun can bite me extremely hard and not let go. Thank goodness she has y don’t this in years but she has dint it and it hurt lol. .

 

[clark_conure]

I also have a quaker.......I see you have one. I'd take a quaker bite over a conure any day.

 

[FieryPhoenix]

I also have a quaker.......I see you have one. I'd take a quaker bite over a conure any day.

How did you know o had a Quaker. Yes I had her from when she wax 11 weeks old until she passed at 19 years old. Yeah her bites were nothing compared to what my Sun can do.

 

[clark_conure]

Lucky guess

 

[FieryPhoenix]

Lucky guess

View attachment 59551

LOL!