Questions about Green Cheek Conure(Pineapple)

[Michaela495]

Hi!

My Fiancee and I just got our first GCC. We bought him from a breeder, and couldn't be happier with him! He's a Pineapple mutation and we've only had him about 2 weeks now, and i've started to notice that he has some strange quirks.
First off, no matter what we do, he will NOT stay in his cage. He'll scream, chew the bars and squeeze through them to get to us(we are buying a new cage with different bar spacing). Once he's out he will sit on our shoulders or sleep on a blanket without making any noise. If we leave the room, he leaves with us. He'll follow us wherever we go. We don't have a problem with it, infact our 4 parakeets are out most of the day as well sitting on their play gym or playing with toys. The only problem is that he gets out during the night when we are asleep and sits outside our bedroom door, or on top of our parakeets cage. Is this a normal behavior for a conure? He's just a baby, only a couple of months old. He was also handfed. The breeder said he was a very social bird to begin with.

Second, when he's on my shoulder, he will bury himself in my long hair and sleep. When we asked the breeder he said he wasn't sure, because he was a male with short hair, so this behavior wasn't really a problem. Is he trying to nest? we noticed he loves soft items such as fluffy blankets, and soft shirts. He'll lay down in them all and sleep or just wrap himself in them. Is that normal for a conure?

We've only had parakeets before, so we're not exactly sure about what our little conures doing. Just trying to find out what he's doing so we can understand him more.

Thanks for any help!

 

[CheekyMama]

Hi! Grats on the GCC! I have the normal coloring. My bird is not as attention-seeking as yours seems to be, though he does have his days (today was one of them). But he definitely burrows in my hair after he's been on my shoulder for a little bit. I think it's warmer there because of all the blood flow through your neck. It gives me goosebumps sometimes, especially if he starts preening the hair on the nape of my neck! I don't know about the other soft things, though.

 

[Mudkips]

Yes it sounds normal for a conure. They love to bond with one person and stay as close to them as they can at all times.
You have to be careful not to let him get close to you while you sleep, one of the most common conure deaths happen when sleeping owners squash a snuggling bird.

As for following you around, it shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as you don't allow it all the time, and you have to be able to place him down whenever you need to and not have him freak out . If you can't do this at any given stage, he will become way too attached/dependent and it becomes a negative thing - its a fine line to tread.

A good idea would be to make or buy a playstand and place it near a window with a decent view. Parrots like to sit at windows and watch the world go by, so that's a good thing to take advantage of. You can also start training him to do tricks, such as touch training, which involves the parrot touching the end of a pencil or chopstick with their beak. That way you can hold a pencil over his playstand/cage in such a way that he needs to get off you, and when he steps onto his cage and touches the pencil with his beak, you reward him with a tasty treat. He should then sit in place and nibble, all the while looking out the window and pondering life!

As for the nesting question, it depends on how old he is and whether he really is a boy or a girl. Have you had him DNA tested?

Congrats on your new baby!

 

[JasmineGCC]

Congratulations on your new baby! Jasmine my GCC loves snuggling in my hair too - I think it's a texture thing - she will hair 'surf' and swiiiing around. She preens my hair too. When she's had a bath she will snuggle in my hair to dry off. So completely normal behaviour for your bird.

Jasmine has a playstand that has lots of yummy treats so when I put her on it (and reward with a pine nut) she now stays for a while. But it's taken a few months to do that. Her cage is absolutely full of toys and forage things so when I go out she has lots of things to keep her busy. Her favourite toy is hanging plastic chains both small and large size and her bell. She also has apple tree branches which she chews.

Hope this helps

 

[Grenage]

That all sounds completely normal; you're right to get a new cage that can't be escaped from. I've never encountered a creature in the world that wants to be around people as much an a hand-reared Conure.