Sun Conure help!!!!! PLEASE!

[KarenLopez1521]

Okay well I've been looking for some help for quite some time now for my Sun conures. I currently have 8. It all started with my pair which I didn't know at first until the female laid 3 eggs. So in December of 2011. They turned 1 year old 2 months ago. Okay so now in the beginning of January 2013, she laid 3 more eggs, and now 2 have hatched so far. Anywho, I'm wanting to know if it is safe to have all of those birds in one house. It's just a big box on top of a cage they don't use and the female conure, Benji, is in a smaller box inside. I've noticed that 2 of her older kids that are females have tried to get inside the box and try to sit on the eggs and mess with them I guess. is this normal or what? Please reply ASAP! Thanks!!! P.S. I uploaded a kinda oldish picture of the 5 of them.

 

[weco]

If you know the sex of the older chicks, they need to be separated...males with males & hens with hens.....you will have a lot of screaming because you are splitting them up, but you don't want siblings producing siblings, and now you have more hatching out.....

These birds need to be in cages, because if the are still in boxes when they mature, they eill be eating holes in the boxes, if not before.....

 

[94lt1]

Wow... holy cow...beautiful birds..so.....how many sets of ear plugs do you use per day? LOL.. jk.. one sun, and a scarlet, and a yellow napped amazon, and 2 keets are loud enough...but all of those suns???....

 

[sonja]

I second the suggestion to separate the genders. You do not want to breed a bunch of inbred birds.

 

[KarenLopez1521]

Yeah we're not sure what genders they are but we're assuming 2 of the older ones are females since they walk more wobbly I guess kinda of like a penguin because since their pelvic bones are more separated but that's just a guess. So they cannot inbreed or else the offspring will not come out right?

 

[KarenLopez1521]

Oh and well about the box part, yeah they pretty much tear up the boxes all the time haha and what do you suggest to do if they don't want to change their places? We've tried separating the older chicks from the parents with a box on top of that one but they didn't like staying in their all night as if they got scared or something.

 

[KarenLopez1521]

haha and yeah It's pretty insane trust me! But my mom mainly handles most of it, she's really patient but we're all used to it. we are going to try to sell the newcome babies but we can't seem to find the perfect home for them for people who are used to taking care of these human like creatures who are almost like taking care of kids lol.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

You should get them sexed, you can do this in the mail from animal genetics and it's inexpensive, although with 6 unknown birds it should cost around $120. Only bad thing is you either need to pluck a few feathers or cut their nail to the quick to make it bleed so they have your birds DNA. You can also have it done at the vet, but it's more expensive. My vet charged $70 to test a bird for it's gender.

Flight cages are great, you could place two in one cage if they get along and aren't the same gender.

 

[KarenLopez1521]

Well actually there's only 3 we don't know the gender to, but technically now 6 since there's newborns now. Do you know the answer to the 2nd part of my question about the older chicks wanting to get in their mother's nest, sitting on the eggs and pretty much trying to be mother themselves by cleaning the baby chicks?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Well actually there's only 3 we don't know the gender to, but technically now 6 since there's newborns now. Do you know the answer to the 2nd part of my question about the older chicks wanting to get in their mother's nest, sitting on the eggs and pretty much trying to be mother themselves by cleaning the baby chicks?

Unfortunately I don't know, they may just be copying the their parents. Personally I wouldn't let the younger birds into the nest area. Parrots are known for accidentally killing their babies by being to rough or wanting to "play" with them. I would leave it to the parents who already successfully raised young than inexperienced babies.

*edit*
Do you know what your cages bar spacing is? It looks really big, maybe even as big as Rosie's 1" bar spacing. If the bar spacing is to big birds can get their head stuck and it can cost them there life. Some birds go years in a cage until they finally get stuck. Here's a little article about bar spacing.

 

[KarenLopez1521]

Yeah I believe that as well but they're so stubborn and won't move, it's mainly only one that does it and she just sits beside her mom on top of the babies like she does but we're trying to figure this all out since we never really knew about all of this. We honestly didn't know what we were getting into since we bought them we didn't know they were a couple.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

You should try trick training with the younger birds, it may distract them. You'll want to bring them into a different room and use a clicker since the cage is a distraction(you would want to do this with most birds), it's also fantastic mental stimulation.

 

[KarenLopez1521]

btw my cage spacing is pretty big, they can slip in and out whenever they please. And well do you know where i can find more info on this?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Here's a few links on bar spacing

Pet Birds - Cage Sizes and Bar Spacing

A Cockatiel Dies Because Of Improper Cage Bar Spacing

Bar Spacing for a Sun Conure? - Yahoo! Answers

 

[Pugtato]

Have you thought about buying a few more cages? There are always cheap cages on Craigslist that you can pick up and just scrub out (make sure to sterilize them with some sort of chemical before use) I use Clorox Cleanup, and then take the water hose to it for a few minutes and let it dry outside in the sun for a few hours.

In this situation I believe that your best plan of action may just being contacting a local avian rescue, letting them know that you are in way over your head. If they don't have room to take some of your birds they might just be willing to work with you and help you with your situation. And as sad as it sounds after this clutch, assuming that you know the genders of all of the birds 100%, I would separate the breeding pair and place the hen with her female offspring and the male with the other males.

 

[bkparrot]

You have lot of good advice here. Best to separate the males and females otherwise you are going to have more babies. Good luck and hope you find homes for your babies.

 

[SusanSingleton]

I sure would love to have one or two of them.. they are gorgeous.

willing to help out and have cages and lots of outside space, plus I have NO birds currently and would like to have some please. If you ever want to rehome them with me I would love to have one .... or even two. (that way they wouldn't be lonely for the others?)

Thanks!

 

[Hayden1987]

Please do not seperate the breeding pair, this can cause many problems psychologically to the birds especially if they have bonded. Just remove the nest box and dont give them any dark corners etc to try and turn into a nest site... but i do believe you need to DNA sex all the offspring and seperate into groups of males and females to prevent inbreeding. You cant be 100% sure of the sexes by doing it visually. This is coming from someone who has bred sun conures for around 10 years. Goodluck