Need advice

[bobbiex]

hello everyone! I’m new here. My name is Bobbie and I own two conures. One sun and a green cheek. I need some desperate help/ advice or tips. Now I’m gonna sound like a noob but I just adopted a green cheek this past Sunday. Her name is Jasmine and she’s approximately a year old or less. I was told nothing about her or her back story besides “she got along with the other conure and was never hand tamed” .. She already looks like she was roughed up a little bit with a longer wing then the other it looked like a bad wing cutting to me. And her tail feather are all messed up too. She’s a real sweetheart and doesn’t bite. She let me hold her when she accidentally escaped (I was trying to feed her her breakfast and she got so scared she flew out). I never had to do this before so I think this is why I’m stuck. I haven’t tried to touch her at all since Sunday. Besides talking to her, giving her treats in her bowl and etc. I even moved her cage closer to me so she can hear my voice and see I’m not a bad person. Her cage is in my bedroom that I’m constantly in so she’s always seeing me. Even if I go near the cage she will fly crazy around the cage and wants nothing to do with me. I have a 2 year old sun and I lucked out with him because he was hand raised very well. I was told to put my conure near her not with her to maybe lighten her up. Didn’t work.. I need some tips and tricks and helpful advice to help me to have her know I’m a good person. Sorry if this is all over the place I’m just upset and trying to give my best for her.
Thank you for your help.

 

[LordTriggs]

it sounds like you're doing everything right so far, being you don't know her previous life I think it's safe to say she was abused in some manner, keep doing as you are offering treats, talking to her, letting her warm up to you. It will take a while but fingers crossed she'll work out not all us homo-sapiens are bad!

 

[Jen5200]

Congrats on your new conure! It sounds like you’ve only had her for a pretty short period of time, so you’re making progress. If she isn’t hand tame, it’s just going to take some time for you to bond with her. This thread has some tips that might be useful. http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html
Just be patient, birds move at their own pace and it’s often MUCH slower than most people like . It will be worth the time in the long run. You’re on the right track though - getting her used to being around you, offering treats, etc. Trying to ensure that your interactions with her are positive is definitely moving on the right track.

 

[Laurasea]

Hi and welcome Bobbie and flock! Everything is ok, you've only had the GCC a few days, just keep things slow and calm. Did you get from s pet store or a person,? It's a good idea to get the new one to a certified avain specialist, especially since you want to protect you Sun Conure from any possibility of disease. You should be quarantine the new one for 3o days or longer ask the vet at the visit. Feathers can be banged up from being in a small cage, or the GCC could be an over preener on the way to becoming a feather picker if the past home was bad and the bird was neglected. My GCC will do anything for those little white safflower seeds, you could try starting to offer those by hand, or if not ready to take by hand have a tiny treat dish on both sides of the cage, and get her useded to walking towards you and that dish as you place the treat in every time you pass the cage. Or she might do better working with her out if the cage, leave the door open and let her climb up to the top you can have a treat dish there waiting for her. We have threads on bonding if you look through the forum. Also I hope you start offered fresh veggies especially hot red chilli peppers packed with good stuff. You can say hello Jasmine and give the treat try using the same phrase every time. I spent time reading out loud next to my parents raised GCC that I got from a petstore we're they hadn't handled her. I sat next to the cage with the door open after an hour she fluttered to me. But even if your Jasmine has had bad experience you will get there just takes time. When I had my rescue I just had to keep negotiating , but I made her move toward me for the treat, she didn't have to take it from me and she didn't have to reach the treat dish but she had to at least step towards it and me. The first couple of treats I just put in the bowl but after that she had to move towards me. I wasn't going to reward her for moving away. I hope that helps. Welcome to the forum and stick around lots of GCC owners and Sun's too.

 

[EllenD]

Hi Bobbie...I'm glad that you took this poor little Green Cheek in, because it sounds like she hasn't had the best life up to this point unfortunately. If she was not hand-raised by her breeder but rather parent-raised by the mother and father birds, then you actually have to "hand-tame" her yourself...It's not a matter of her "realizing that you're a good person", it's simply that she was raised/fed by her bird-parents completely as a baby, and was not exposed to any people during that time period. So when a bird is parent-raised instead of hand-raised by a person, then they are naturally afraid of all people, because they don't know what they are or if they are going to hurt them, etc. And it also sounds like her first owner didn't make any effort to try to hand-tame her or even give her time out of her cage at all, so that's what you're going to need to do...

Now you've only had her in your home for less than a week, so right now everything is totally new to her, you, your home, everything. So it's going to take a lot of time for her to simply feel comfortable in your home and your presence. I would not let her out with your Sun Conure at all, as they may hurt each other badly. Right now you need to simply work on you bonding with her and you earning her trust, so that you can hand-tame her. Even if she was a hand-raised, tame bird just like your Sun Conure is, that still doesn't mean that she would ever get along with your Sun Conure. You never have any way of knowing whether any two birds are going to like each other, get along, bond with each other, or whether they are going to simply hate each other and be violent and aggressive towards one another. So you always have to be prepared to keep any new bird you bring home completely separated from any birds you already have. The other issue you may find that you have is that your Sun Conure, since he/she was in your home first and is already bonded with you, may have jealousy towards the new bird coming into your home and interacting with you, and he/she may become very protective and defensive over you.

So as far as "introducing" your Sun Conure to your new Green Cheek, the best thing you can do is to put both their cages in the same room so that they can see each other and talk to each other, and let them get to know each other that way for a good, long while. However, any time you bring home a new bird and you already have a bird,
you should ALWAYS quarantine the new bird in an entirely different room from the healthy bird you already have, for a minimum of 30-days! They should not be in the same room with one another for at least 30-days, especially with a bird such as your new Green Cheek, where there is evidence of feather issues and bad care in their prior home, as there are many Avian Viral Diseases that can cause feathers such as you describe, and there are also a lot of very common infections, both Bacterial and Fungal,
that birds can contract through bad care, such as not having their cages cleaned at least once a week, their food and water changed daily, etc. The first 30-days that you have a new bird you need to watch them to make sure they are eating and drinking normally, they aren't sleeping all the time, etc. All birds possess an innate, natural survival-instinct that allows them to hide any and all outward signs and symptoms of illness and pain. It keeps them from appearing sickly and weak to predators. So by the time birds are actually showing signs/symptoms of illness, they have usually been sick for weeks to months. This is why you have to do a minimum of a 30-day quarantine with any new bird you bring home, because even though they might not be acting sick that doesn't mean anything at all since they hide all outward signs of illness for as long as they can...So you should still remove the new bird and put her cage in an entirely different room from your Sun Conure for the next 30-days, even though they've already been exposed to each other, you may still be able to prevent any infections, diseases, or parasites that this new bird may have from being contracted by your Sun Conure.

Also, how large is the cage that the Green Cheek is in? The reason I ask is because a lot of the time when their tail-feathers are all broken and roughed-up, along with their wing-feathers, it's because the cage that they're in is far too small for them and their tails and wings are constantly rubbing up against the cage bars. Green Cheeks need very large cages, just as large as your Sun conure needs, because they are so active and playful. They love to climb, jump, swing, etc., and if their cage is too small then this can cause both physical and psychological health issues.