Sun Conure just joined our family - Please advice

[Vaporchick]

Hi there. We are a family of five, we have a Jack Russell rescue, a rescued Tabby cat and Lisa, our Green Cheek Conure. We recently heard of a Sun Conure in our neighborhood looking for a new home. I called and was told that the Sun Conure was 4 years old, and that she is the second owner. The first owner got sick and couldn't care for her anymore.

The first owner had another large parrot who bit one toe off. She has no nails left on that foot. The lady said she is a nurse and doesn't have much time, the rest of the family doesn't care much for the bird, and that she would nip the company.

I figured the bird is probably going to be a handful, but drove there anyways to get a good picture of her myself. She was kept in the garage, with a portable heater. She was allowed in the house, but I guess only sometimes.

To my surprise, Chica the sun conure was adorable. She flew on my shoulder, and the lady showed me tricks she had taught her. The cage was nice but hardly anything in it, she is on a pellet diet. Long story short, we decided to give her a home. I scheduled an appointment with my vet, she was checked out, healthy and joined our family.


The first day, I initially wanted to keep her in the cage to get used to us, but figured she must be really unhappy in her cage. I wanted to clean it and set it up with new perches and toys so I let her out. She flew on my daughters shoulder, danced, took a bath in the sink and seemed to enjoy her new surroundings. She completely ignored me however. I fed her some treats, and figured she will need more time.


She has a window spot now, her cage has new perches and toys. I didn't let my Green Cheek conure out at first, but I just went with my experience and gut feeling and had them out together. Today her they were both on top of their cages talking. My Green Cheek flew on her cage but I made her go back to her own. Of course I'm right there and both are supervised.


Today was the first day she came on my shoulder, she also took a bath in the sink, sitting in my hands. But after that she went straight back to my daughter. She also went to my son and our other daughter.

She seems to be very happy, although I'm a little heartbroken that she doesn't come to me. I'm trying to get her to step up, but she goes back in the cage, or will try to bite, unless I give her the treat directly.

She tried to preen everyone besides me, including various tries to clean everyone's teeth. I know that she is making really good progress, and she even came to me once on my own, but I guess I'm looking for advice on how to proceed with the training.

I don't want her to only bond with my oldest daughter who she seems to adore. She will be off to college soon. Should I limit treats only to me? I made her come on my shoulder by offering her some of my fruit smoothie, but shortly after she did try to bite my ear.

Her beak is much bigger than my Green Cheek Conures, I do have major respect. I know I will need a lot of patience and time. I think for us being the 3rd owners, she is adjusting very well. I'm still disappointed that she doesn't seem to like me. I'm the only one with short hair, maybe she thinks I'm a man, she doesn't seem to like men very much, I don't know. My Green Cheek Conure adores me.
Sorry for incorrect grammar or spelling, English is my second language.



Any tips are greatly appreciated


Ps: Today is actually day 3 as I wrote this last night. Now it's only me with the birds and she refuses to come out the cage, I'm sitting right next to her. Patience is a virtue

[Vaporchick]

Oh and I wanted to add, she doesn't seem to know fruit or fresh veggies. I blended the fruit and she loves that, tried hard boiled egg but she won't eat it. Should I just blend the veggies as well?

[Pajarita]

I would not feed her hard-boiled eggs, my dear. There isn't a single parrot species that would list eggs as part of its natural diet and they are very high in protein, fat and bad cholesterol. They are simply not healthy for them. Sunnies are VERY good eaters but, like all other parrots, they eat what they were taught to eat when babies so you will have to teach her to eat both veggies and fruits. It's OK to puree them and mix them with soft food in order to get some into them at the beginning but they should always be offered fruits and veggies whole or in a chunk. It's part of their natural behaviors to eat them like that and it's always advisable to stick, as much as possible, to what nature deemed was best for them. What you need to do is offer healthy food early in the morning and high protein (which is what they always prefer) in the evening for dinner. If you take the high protein (seeds, pellets, nuts, avicakes, nutriberries, etc) away when she is asleep, she will be good and hungry in the morning and more open to trying new foods. Eat in front of her and, offer her a piece of what you are eating (what I do is take a bite from one end and offer the other end because one does not want them ingesting any of the bad bacteria that humans have in their mouths). It might take a few tries but she won't be able to help herself and taste some because this action taps into two natural behaviors of parrots: 1) that they learn what to eat eat from watching other parrots eating and 2) that eating with their flock is a social event.

Now, it is way too early to tell about her right now. She is on her honeymoon period and I bet she is also VERY happy to be out of a garage and surrounded by company (thank you for adopting her! Imagine how lonely and sad she must have been left all alone in that garage!) so I am sure she is on a super good behavior right now. This might or might not change but, if it does, don't take it personally or think it's a consequence of anything you did or did not do, it's simply that the honeymoon period will be over.

You sound terribly disappointed that you are not the chosen one and I do understand where you are coming from (I also like to be the 'one and only' for my animals -who wouldn't?) but, unfortunately, when it comes to parrots, they are the ones that choose who to like and there is very little you can do about it. Dogs are easy to win over but parrots have a mind of their own when it comes to their choices... Some people will tell you that you should separate her from your daughter, to limit her human interaction to only you, for you to be the only one who feeds her, gives her treats, etc but, in my personal opinion, trying to make somebody or somebirdy love us using the 'only man or woman on earth' method is really not conducive to a good relationship. I certainly would not like it if the only reason somebody or somebirdy is with me is because they have no choice! And, the thing with parrots is that they feel love deeply and, as nature made them mostly monogamous, they tend to bond to one person so the greatest majority of them (and I am actually been generous in not saying all of them), are one-person birds. It's parrots nature to be like that and it's no reflection on you or any of us in any way. But this doesn't mean that you cannot have a good relationship with her or that they are not eminently pragmatic animals which can, eventually, learn to love 'the one they are with'! I have two birds, Isis Redbelly and Pookey Timneh, that prefer my husband over me. And my husband is NOT and never will be a parrot person so he doesn't even spend any time with them to speak of even when he is home -which is not all the time! I actually have to shame him into spending 5 measly minutes with them and the only thing he does is sit down somewhere with them on his shoulder so, personally, I don't think that keeping a bird away from the chosen one actually has any real merit when it comes to making them love somebody else. But, even though they do prefer my husband and would not come to me when they are with him, I have a very good relationship with them. It did take a long time with Pookey, I won't deny it, but Isis has been here only since July 2014 and, even though at the beginning she ignored me completely, she now steps up for me, rides my shoulder, asks me for head scritches, follows my around the house flying, takes treats from me, etc. So, just be patient and loving and she will, eventually, love you and show it. Parrots are highly intelligent animals which think things through and reach conclusions on their own so, even though they might prefer somebody else, they will always respond to love in kind.

[Vaporchick]

Thank you so much for your reply! It's interesting that you call it the honeymoon period, do you think she will act up as soon as she gets more comfortable? I usually don't feed hard boiled eggs on a regular basis, but I had made some for us and my Green Cheek loves them.

My green cheek loves fruits and veggies raw, even though she mostly shreds the greens. I will try eating it in front of her and share some. As it looks like today, she is thrilled to see my daughter. She doesn't care much for me. She will talk and do all kind of stuff, and enjoyed some sun on our porch. I wouldn't mind my daughter being the favorite person, but have concerns that they bond too strongly because our daughter will be off to college soon. Right now she is home all day.

I did tell my daughter to only let me give her treats for now. I never used a clicker, so I might give this a try. Other than that, I think she made major progress, hopefully the Honeymoon period will last a bit longer