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need advice green cheek conure blue fronted amazon

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need advice green cheek conure blue fronted amazon

Postby Sol85 » Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:56 am

Hi, im new here in this forum. I need advice. When I was 4 my dad adopted a macaw that talked so much and sang, dance and all but it was only his, nobody including me could go near him, but since then it always caught my attention. I love parrots and always thought of having them. I had 2 lovebirds sadly they past away 2 years ago. Right now I have 2 cockatiels they are 1 year old, they are very sweet and cuddly when they want, also they can scream really loud when they want attention or when they hear someone coming over or passing by the door (they are like guard dogs lol). The afternoons i let them many hours out of the cage and entertain them alot although they just like to stay on my shoulder and watch tv. My husband and I would love to have a blue fronted amazon and we did alot of research I know its a very big step because its a bigger parrot and requires more attention and all. I have been thinking maybe its best to get it further on and first get a green cheek conure as they say its a big parrot in a small body and from what i heard its ideal to start with before getting a large parrot. I know that green cheek conures and blue fronted amazon dont get along with cockatiels normally but i will arrange their time out of the cage and training and all. But i would like to know if its the right decision to get first the green cheek conure first and get a little more experience or directly get a blue fronted amazon?
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Sol85
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 2
Location: Spain
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: 2 cockatiels
Flight: Yes

Re: need advice green cheek conure blue fronted amazon

Postby Pajarita » Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:58 am

Welcome to the forum and thank you for doing research before you make a decision. Now, if what you want is a bird that will not require A LOT of attention, a Green Cheek conure is NOT the bird for you. You would do much better with an amazon. GCCs are birds that need hours and hours and hours of one-on-one. They might be the same size as a cockatiel but tiels are aviary (they can learn to trust and even love their humans but they do not bond deeply with them) while GCCs are not only companion but one of the companion species that requires the most attention from its owners -so much so that I always compare them to cockatoos, that's how needy they are!

Amazons, on the other hand are one of the most independent species -which, when you talk about parrots is relative because it's not as if they don't require any attention, they just need less. They are called 'perch potatoes' because they choose to stay on a stand or on top of their cage going in and out all day long. It's not that they don't fly, they do but they usually either stay put or walk and climb instead of flying.

There are two things that you need to follow with them: a strict solar schedule and a fresh food, low protein, low fat, high moisture, high fiber diet. In reality, these are things that you need to do with any bird in order to keep it healthy and happy but, when it comes to amazons, especially if they are males, if you don't, in time the bird will become aggressive. Maybe not to one of you (because the bird might mate-bond with one of you) but to everybody else. And believe me when I tell you that you do not want an aggressive bluefront! They are one of the 'hot three' species of zons and, in my personal experience, the only ones that scream when they do.

So, what I recommend is for you to evaluate your lifestyle and see if you will be willing and able to follow a strict solar schedule (most likely, you are not doing this because your tiels scream and they only do that when they are overly-hormonal, otherwise, you hardly hear a peep out of them) and, if you are, adopt a nice adult female. Babies sound wonderful but the truth of the matter is that a baby is hard to raise right -for one thing, you need to be home all day long for months until the baby is old enough and, for another, they are a lottery because a bad breeder can mess up a bird for life (there are studies that prove this). I know that everybody wants to buy from a good breeder but, in truth, there is no such thing, there are just less bad or more bad because anybody who sells animals does not regard them the way an owner does. To us, they are part of our family (very close to a son or a daughter) but, to them, they are merchandise. If they did not regard them that way, they would not sell them to anybody who has the money.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: need advice green cheek conure blue fronted amazon

Postby Sol85 » Thu Feb 03, 2022 4:13 pm

Thanks for your advice :D
About my tiels, I do put the cage outside during the day so that they get some solar time and later on the late afternoon I bring them inside to have together time. I even give them their daily fruits and veg and all. I am willing to make big changes and all even if its strict thats why I am trying to decide either gcc or zon. If I have to be all day with the gcc i will, even if it is the zon, there will be no problem with that since I work at home. I did read about that it is better to get a female zon than a male because of their hornonal agresiveness. I would really like to make the right decision and be prepared :D
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Sol85
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 2
Location: Spain
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: 2 cockatiels
Flight: Yes

Re: need advice green cheek conure blue fronted amazon

Postby Pajarita » Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:36 pm

I might be wrong but it seems to me that you are not quite clear on what a solar light schedule means. It is not putting them outside to get the benefit of direct sunlight (which is GREAT!) or putting them near a window. They do need to be near a window because they need to be exposed to the different light spectrum that only happens during twilight - which means 1.5 to 2 hours of dawn and dusk exposure without any artificial light on at the time and no lights whatsoever when it's dark outside. What it means is that they need to follow a schedule that follows the sun in terms of seasons (with their shorter or longer days). They should be exposed to dawn from the time that the sky first shows the merest amount of light (this time of the year, in the USA Northeast -where I live- it means opening their cages at 7 am latest) but not turning on any artificial lights until the sun is already up and streaming rays into the room (in USA NE, this means no artificial lights until 8:30 am or so). They should also be exposed to dusk so the lights need to be turned off when the sun is halfway down in the horizon (USA NE about 3:30 - 4 pm), then, about one hour later or so, you feed them dinner (I feed mine around 5 pm - please note that parrots cannot be free-fed protein food like seeds, nuts, pellets, avicakes, nutriberries, etc which should be strictly for dinner and in a measured portion) and no lights whatsoever until the follow morning when the sun rays are coming into the room. Think of the birds out in the trees... or chickens... following strictly the sun and the different lengths in daylight as the seasons change (research avian photoperiodism, avian endocrine system and avian reproductive system).

If you can spend all day long, every single day for the next 30 years (and this means no vacation, sick days, weekend trips, etc unless one of you or somebody very well known to the birds stays with them while you are not available) then a GCC will be fine but this will mean walking around with a little bird on you (not necessarily on your shoulder, mine likes to ride on my chest, hanging from my neckline) from sunup to sundown :D If you like more independence, get a female BFA but take into consideration that this is a 50 year commitment. She will not be clingy (I have three female zons, one of them a 39 year old Blue Front, and two males) - requiring a bit of shoulder time as long as she is near you (they like to preen your hair). Just keep in mind that both zons and conures require fresh food diets (high moisture, high fiber, very low protein and fat) or they get fatty liver.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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