New conure owner - seeking advice

[Willeh]

Hey everyone. We got our first Conure a few days ago and while he is playful and friendly in his new home i have some concerns i need advice on for his ongoing care. There is nothing wrong with him but quite a few questions i have that hours online just cant seem to answer.

His name is Pippin (we just assume he is a boy) and he is supposedly 20 weeks old. I will attach a photo.

First of all we dont know his type. We were told he was a blue (i can only find a blue crowned listed anywhere) but he looks far more like a green cheek based on beak and colouration around his neck and ears. We didnt pay what we paid for his breed more his nature but now as i read more i see there is distinct life expectancies and sizes/weights between the two.

I know the shop was just interested in selling him but id like to know for the purpose of what to expect as we were told he would be a great talker and live for 30 years but wouldnt get much bigger which seems contradictory.

I am also wanting to track his weight to know he is eating enough. I work but ive still made the time to monitor and promote his eating morning and night. I have changed him to a diet of a bird pellet from a local producer and he also gets some seed as a side to ensure he eats enough as well as starting to experiment with some fruits and veg to see what he likes. My concern here is knowing if he is eating enough.

The pellets seem too dry for him to commit to so ive been wetting a small quantity and he will eat that more easily. Id say i see him eat about a tablespoon of these pellets and almost all seed i give him (in moderation of course). He currently weighs 68grams. Is this the right path or should he eat far more at his age?

Ultimately whatever type he is we have a new family member now and we plan to give him a good fulfilling life but based on type we can expect big differences in size when grown and this is something i want to know.

Sorry for the long first post just thought id get my questions out there. Look forward to learning from you all.

 

[Flboy]

Welcome to you and Pippin! Real sweetie!
Some conures talk up a storm, some don't. My JoJo is a mumbler, but immatates so many off the wall sounds!
Most conures like to dunk their food, so it's a good idea to have a water bowl next to the pellets. Avoid going the water bottle route!
Is it possible he is a hybrid blue/ GCC?
The pellets, you say locally produced. Are they specifically blended for parrots?
Welcome!

 

[Loko]

Looks like you have a turquoise mutation green check conure. Not sure why they told you he was a "blue"(if not referring to blue GCC like mentioned below!) its hard to believe a pet should would be that dumb. If he is indeed a turq. GCC, then they are right that he wont get any bigger. Thats the normal size for GCCs, and life expectancy is 25-30 years with proper care. They are not known to talk but its possible, just not as common as with say an Amazon. If he does learn a few words they have a funny little voice. As far as eating is concerned, what some people do is offer a "breakfast" and "dinner" with semi soaked or "softened" pellets and leave dry pellets out as well. He is fully weaned though, right? Use seeds in moderation or for treats. He looks beautiful, welcome and good luck with him!

Im also interested in the pellets youre referring to ^^ .

 

[ZephyrFly]

Just wanna add, green cheek conures have quite a few different colour mutations. As Loko said he is a turquoise (which I've seen people refer to as blue). A gorgeous colour but is still a green cheek.

 

[Dinosrawr]

Welcome to the forums and congratulations on your new addition! To answer your questions:

1.) His type, or mutation more accurately in this scenario, is of a turquoise green cheeked conure. Turquoise is the mutation, green cheeked conure is the species. Parrots don't have breeds per se, just species and colour mutations.

2.) Small-sized parrots are generally fully grown by the age of 3 months. Your dear Pippin is around the perfect weight size for his species. A genetically and environmentally healthy GCC can certainly live up to 30 years, though your average age expectancy is around the 15 year mark due to poor genetics or a poor lifestyle (improper exercise, diet, stimulation, etc.). As for talking capabilities, some GCC's (green cheeked conures) talk wonderfully. Others are more simplistic such as mine and mumble only a few select words, but whistle and chirp beautifully. It's very individual.

3.) A great way to know if he's eating enough is just to keep weighing him. If he's eating too much, he's going to start hitting around the 75g mark and upwards (based on his current size), and this can be felt along his keel bone (the equivalent of our sternum). Generally an avian vet will feel along there to let you know where they lay along a scale of ideal/non-ideal weights. If it's too little, he'll start going down to 65g and lower and his keel will be very easily visible. A couple of grams is a big deal for a small bird, and they should have a normal range they fall within. For Avery, it's 72-74g because she's a bit on the squishy side due to hormonal behaviour.

Parrots do not have salivary glands, so they need water easily available to soften the pellets considering how dry they are. They will do this themselves, and it's often better to let them do it so that the entire bowl of pellets won't spoil. Water is far more easily replaced and far less expensive to replace than bowls of pellets.

4.) Once again, his size is his size. GCC's are small parrots. He's fully grown now and should stay around his current weight and height.

Hope this helps!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Lots of good advice so far, and more to come, as needed, I'm sure.

Patagonian Conures are the largest conure and also have the distinction of coming from a very arid place, so he's not the most conurely conure, but...
He talks and sings and is utterly mischievous, a real character. He's also fully flighted, fearless, and an unholy terror.

In any event, welcome. I'm glad you found us!

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

I just want to touch on a few of your questions.

1) The talking- while most every parrot has the 'potential' to talk, some are more likely than others and I find that with parrots a lot of it depends on the bird. I've never wanted a talking parrot- I live alone and don't want Skittles repeating my secrets to people when I'm on the phone or have company. lol. I can't tell you how many horror stories I've read of marriages breaking up or people losing their jobs cause their parrot blew the whistle on their naughtiness. lol.

I just tell people not to 'expect' their bird to talk and to not have that be the reason for getting one.

As for the pellets, Skittles is on pellets and I find that after he scoops up a mouthful of them he goes and gets a drink of water. So I think wetting the pellets a bit is a good idea. You may want to keep track of how much pellets vs seeds you are feeding him and how much of each he is eating if your intention is to completely convert him to pellets (which is a good thing to do, and just have seeds as a treat). Provided the pellets are of good quality (Harrisons or Zupreem etc).

As for weighing, I'd find out what the healthy weight range is for your species and monitor that. Most places measure birds in grams so you'd probably want to get a gram scale.

Lastly, and most importantly, Pippin is adorable!!!!!

 

[Willeh]

Thanks to everyone for the responses. Feel much more confident in knowing what type he is and that we are on the right track with him.

Been a while since I have used a forum, so I wont be much good with quoting but I will try and respond to peoples individual questions/comments.

Flboy: Thanks for your comment, he actually ate his entire bowl of pellets today while I was at work, and left only the crumbs in his bowl. He had quite a bit of them as well, probably 2-3 tablespoons dry, as well as a tablespoon wet this morning for breakfast, and a small handful of seeds.

The pellets I use that are produced locally are marked as for small to medium parrots. It does say native, and it is the same food I have been using for my other bird (a cockatiel). The guy who runs the business assures me I can use the same pellets, which left me feeling confident as telling me I needed to use a different type would have got him a sale If anyone wants to check this on me, I am happy to take a photo of the packet for the pellets as it lists all ingredients. Ultimately this will only be his staple diet, as we will always offer fresh veg and some other treat foods to mix it up.

Loko: I was told he was fully weaned. He was living on a perch near the counter at the pet shop eating seed mix from a bowl whenever he wanted. He is 20 weeks old so I assumed he was but the pet shop had only had him less than a week by the time we bought him so wouldn't know for sure?

Dinosrawr: Thank you so much. Your info on the weights etc is exactly what I wanted to find. I could find some avg weights listed online, but for GCC they were implying 90gms and up which seemed like he would need to grow a bit. I am quite happy if he stays the same size, I don't mind him being smaller and manageable Sounds like if he sits at his 68gms, or even gets to 70 he is fine?

Skittys_Daddy: thanks for your comment. It isn't as such an expectation that he will talk. To be honest we just love his nature so if he chooses to talk then excellent, but if not I will still enjoy his company all the same. It is more the pet shops attempts to offer up all of these "cool facts" about what he will do, in order to sell him to us, and claiming they owned one themselves whereas now I am starting to think theirs is probably non existent. I am lucky that I already say everything to my wife, so there is nothing he can repeat if he does talk that would get me in any more trouble than I am usually in

It is actually funny how we ended up with him. My 30th is a couple of weeks away, and my wife has been trying to find me a present with no help from me. We only went to the pet shop to get my cockatiel a new feeding container as he seems to drop half of his pellets on the floor (like walking on lego). While we were paying for the container Pippin was sitting on a little post near the counter and just jumped up on us both, nuzzling and cuddling. Pretty well sold himself . I generally avoid buying animals from the local pet shop as they offer no health guarantees or any after sale support but we got pippin purely on his attitude and friendliness.

We have only had him a few days and he sleeps in my hand, cuddles and plays. He is the tamest bird I have ever owned and I haven't even had to put much work in yet, so I would like to commit to teaching him things and seeing how far he can grow.

Thanks again for all the responses, really good to hear from so many owners/parents and I look forward to more advice and stories as I stick around

 

[Skittles2016]

Welcome to the forums and congratulations on your new addition! To answer your questions:

1.) His type, or mutation more accurately in this scenario, is of a turquoise green cheeked conure. Turquoise is the mutation, green cheeked conure is the species. Parrots don't have breeds per se, just species and colour mutations.

2.) Small-sized parrots are generally fully grown by the age of 3 months. Your dear Pippin is around the perfect weight size for his species. A genetically and environmentally healthy GCC can certainly live up to 30 years, though your average age expectancy is around the 15 year mark due to poor genetics or a poor lifestyle (improper exercise, diet, stimulation, etc.). As for talking capabilities, some GCC's (green cheeked conures) talk wonderfully. Others are more simplistic such as mine and mumble only a few select words, but whistle and chirp beautifully. It's very individual.

3.) A great way to know if he's eating enough is just to keep weighing him. If he's eating too much, he's going to start hitting around the 75g mark and upwards (based on his current size), and this can be felt along his keel bone (the equivalent of our sternum). Generally an avian vet will feel along there to let you know where they lay along a scale of ideal/non-ideal weights. If it's too little, he'll start going down to 65g and lower and his keel will be very easily visible. A couple of grams is a big deal for a small bird, and they should have a normal range they fall within. For Avery, it's 72-74g because she's a bit on the squishy side due to hormonal behaviour.

Parrots do not have salivary glands, so they need water easily available to soften the pellets considering how dry they are. They will do this themselves, and it's often better to let them do it so that the entire bowl of pellets won't spoil. Water is far more easily replaced and far less expensive to replace than bowls of pellets.

4.) Once again, his size is his size. GCC's are small parrots. He's fully grown now and should stay around his current weight and height.

Hope this helps!

Hello sorry to butt in, I was just asking for your input! and I'm also not bashing anything you say, because this is a great answer!
However, my skittles (gcc) is 6 months and she weighs 65g and she looks small but I can't feel her keel bone there's a good layer of fat over it and she's got a lovely rounded tummy I do this when she's had a bath so I can easily feel instead of having to make my way through layers and layers of feathers that is usually her stable weight throughout the day, so all I'm asking is, is she just a little bird in the way of her build because she's definitely healthy and like I said her tum is nice and full

 

[Dinosrawr]

@Skittles2016 - some green cheeked conures are definitely smaller than others! Like I mentioned, it's best to go to an avian vet and have them tell you where your conure sits. There are some GCC's that sit comfortably at 65g, some that are a mighty 75g. But whether or not they're overweight depends on their size and how much fat is covering their keel bone. You should be able to feel to keel bone and it should essentially feel like how a curly bracket looks: } - the keel should be easily identifiable with flight muscle attached firmly on either side. If it feels like a normal bracket with no indentation: ) - then you have a bird verging on becoming overweight.

 

[Skittles2016]

@Skittles2016 - some green cheeked conures are definitely smaller than others! Like I mentioned, it's best to go to an avian vet and have them tell you where your conure sits. There are some GCC's that sit comfortably at 65g, some that are a mighty 75g. But whether or not they're overweight depends on their size and how much fat is covering their keel bone. You should be able to feel to keel bone and it should essentially feel like how a curly bracket looks: } - the keel should be easily identifiable with flight muscle attached firmly on either side. If it feels like a normal bracket with no indentation: ) - then you have a bird verging on becoming overweight.

Sorry I meant I can feel it but there's a good layer of flesh covering it! Then yes, that sounds about right she's got some great muscle attached either side of her, and I should think so with the amount of flying she gets done during the day! Great advice once again, thank you

 

[Terry57]

Pippin is adorable! Best 30th birthday present ever (Happy Early Birthday!)
Bet that is the first present a present picked you
Glad you joined us!

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

@Willeh That's such a great attitude to have!

I find the mystery exciting. Whenever I have gotten a new fid, aside from proper training- for the usual (stepping up etc) I like seeing their personality develop. They really are unique creatures and no two are the same. I just like encouraging their individuality. It makes the bonding experience so much more special. I've had to make adjustments to my own life to accommodate Skittles (whether they be things I need to do for him, or things I need to make sure he doesn't do) it's been a rewarding experience though- even the 'hellish years', which are now past tense, I can look back and smile now.