Jenday Conure - What am I getting into?

[cbetancourt91]

Hello all!

My husband and I recently took in my Mustache Parakeet in for his wing and nail trim and fell in love with a Jenday Conure. We walked around the store contemplating about getting him. Initially, he/she was pretty calm, attached to my husband quickly, wasn't aggressive, let us pet him/her, and is beautiful. That day we decided to do layaway with the shop. This week I will be bringing him/her home. But before I do, I will be taking him/her to the vet to ensure he/she is in good health. Don't want to rick anything with my Mustache.

I want to know from personal experiences what it is like to own a Jenday. We love our bird and my husband loved that this one attached to him quickly. What's it like? What are some pros and cons? How can I best care for this bird, etc.

My Mustache is pretty quiet, keeps to himself. He used to be a loud squawker, but ever since I got him a huge cage and put him in the living room, I haven't heard him squawk in months. He just talks, makes noises, imitates me, and plays with his toys. He loves being inside of his cage. I leave the door open and play with him in the cage because for some reason he feels really comfortable in there. How vastly different is the Jenday? Can these birds potentially be cage mates?

Thanks for any and all advice!

[Wolf]

Well as you have already noticed these two species of parrots are similar in size with your Moustached or red breasted parakeet being slightly heavier than the Jenday conure. But this is where the similarity ends. They are very likely to never be cage mates and the Jenday is a much more aggressive bird normally.
This is about as far as I should go with this as I have neither of these species of parrots.

[patti]

i have a jenday --- but only for less than a year so i am not an expert. but she is quite literally the cutest thing in the world and i love her to death. things i have noticed so far are that she is a velcro bird... wants to be on me every single moment of the day. every single moment. always. always. always. since i have owned her, i can count on one hand the number of occasions that she preferred to be somewhere other than my shoulder, arm, head, etc. how do you cook, go to the bathroom, talk on the phone, with a velcro bird? something to think about. we can sucessfully play side by side, though, but that is not her preference.

she is real energetic and goes through toys quickly. loves birdie wrestling - basically chasing me or waiting for me to chase her, and then chewing on my fingers like a cat plays with a ball. or just chewing on them while perched on me. her tendency is to gradually bite too hard. not aggression - its play and she is having a ham of a time and gets carried away. so i have had to train her to be a "nice bird" and remind her a lot by turning my back to her when she is too rough. its easy to do, but i do have to do it consistently. she always has something in her mouth. always always always.

whatever you have in your home that is the most dangerous, that is the first thing that the bird will try to put in its mouth. i never leave her out unsupervised.

jendays are loud. you can feel yourself going deaf if they scream while on your shoulder. i have soundproofing in a corner (like you would use with your garage band) that takes out the high pitches so that I can leave her there if she goes into a screaming fit. you have to have the ability to ignore their screams lest they learn to control you with them, which can be really hard when they are in the same room as you. lily rarely screams, though.

[liz]

i have a jenday --- but only for less than a year so i am not an expert. but she is quite literally the cutest thing in the world and i love her to death. things i have noticed so far are that she is a velcro bird... wants to be on me every single moment of the day. every single moment. always. always. always. since i have owned her, i can count on one hand the number of occasions that she preferred to be somewhere other than my shoulder, arm, head, etc. how do you cook, go to the bathroom, talk on the phone, with a velcro bird? something to think about. we can sucessfully play side by side, though, but that is not her preference.

she is real energetic and goes through toys quickly. loves birdie wrestling - basically chasing me or waiting for me to chase her, and then chewing on my fingers like a cat plays with a ball. or just chewing on them while perched on me. her tendency is to gradually bite too hard. not aggression - its play and she is having a ham of a time and gets carried away. so i have had to train her to be a "nice bird" and remind her a lot by turning my back to her when she is too rough. its easy to do, but i do have to do it consistently. she always has something in her mouth. always always always.

whatever you have in your home that is the most dangerous, that is the first thing that the bird will try to put in its mouth. i never leave her out unsupervised.

jendays are loud. you can feel yourself going deaf if they scream while on your shoulder. i have soundproofing in a corner (like you would use with your garage band) that takes out the high pitches so that I can leave her there if she goes into a screaming fit. you have to have the ability to ignore their screams lest they learn to control you with them, which can be really hard when they are in the same room as you. lily rarely screams, though.

That sounds like Myrtle. She is like a two year old little girl always hanging on me and wanting attention. At least in the bathroom I have taught her to fly to the shower curtain rod.

[Pajarita]

I have a male jenday and he is the sweetest thing, he perches on my shoulder to kiss me all the time and never even nips but he seems to be the exception to the rule. He was given up at 9 months of age because he was 'incorrigible' (he screamed all the time, bit and chewed holes in clothes constantly -it took me a couple of years to break him out of this habit) Everybody says they are loud, which is true - but the problem most people have is not so much the loudness but how often they do it because a couple of screams in the morning and another couple in the evening is nothing but when you have a bird screeching (and yes, their vocalizations are quite shrill) almost constantly, that's another story. Mine lives in a birdroom cage-free and has, since he has become a sexually mature adult, a girlfriend. He is fed a low protein, fresh food diet (high protein makes them hormonal and this makes them scream) and kept at a strict solar schedule (so he never becomes overly hormonal). So, in my personal opinion and experience (I've also had another jenday as well as a couple of sun conures), it all depends on how you keep them. But he will be vastly different from your psittacula.