Third Bird - Update.

[Giantmoa]

What size pellets do you feed your GCCs or similarly sized birds?

I'm feeding my gcc the natural zupreme pellets that are sized for cockatiels and similiar sized birds since that was what she was used to eating when I got her and I saw no real reason to change it

What toys do your GCCs love?

my gcc isn't much of a player but she loves to beat up bells and plastic toys (her favorite is an empty pill bottle with beads in it hung on a string). She likes to chew on leather, soft woods and other easily torn apart items. She'll demolish those woven twig huts meant for rodents as well as untreated wicker baskets pretty quickly. Lately I've hid her diet all around her cage and she'll tear up egg cartons and such to get to her pellets which helps keep her busy

What treats do your GCCs love?

basically rainbow loves food. As in anything from fruit and seeds to vegitables and sometimes even pellets are her treats. plain popcorn, almond slivers , seed mix, banana, apple, corn, peas, healthy table foods, and berries are just some of her favorites.


good luck, green cheek conures are awesome birds! Mine uses her beak all of the time but rarely breaks the skin, if ever. Rainbow is extremely cuddly and will lean her entire body into the palm of my hand while I rub her cheek with my thumb. She's defensive of who ever she's on but is always curious about new people and isn't what you'd call a one person bird. She has a high pitched screech which my dad finds unbearable and I don't mind at all. She doesn't vocalize for long periods eachday, either. she's a demanding little bird with attitude but totally worth it. Plus who can resist a gcc face?

[drif]

I adopted my gcc about two years ago and will address your questions below.

For a rescue bird, what problems am I likely to run into? I'm not expecting him to be a perfect companion parrot immediately. I'm expecting the occasional nip and wariness about his new surroundings.

Even after two years Phoenix is nippy and when I say 'nippy' I think cute little bites, which is not right... the last time someone other than me tried to pick him up they went home with about a dozen little bleeding wounds on the hands. I still get bit when I'm doing something in his cage that does not involve him like when it's time to clean the grate. He turns into a little shark and rapid-fire bites the brush and sometimes my hand gets in the way. This is only cage territorality because if I remove him and take him out of sight of his cage he is ususally calm enough to go to someone else.

As far as food goes, I plan on using Roudybush pellets. Their website suggests that the mini pellet size or the crumble size would be okay for a conure. Both are okay for parakeets as well, which is great since they can all share food. What size pellets do you feed your GCCs or similarly sized birds?

Pellets are fine. I feed mine pellets in one bowl. Dried fruits and seeds in another. Fresh foods in a third. I read someone saying that they like to dip their food and I have never seen him eat anything dry except almonds. A funny thing is that each time I fill the pellet bowl he picks one color (changes each time) and drops a few of that color in his water so that he has rotating colored water. He also only eats one color until it's gone...this led me to freaking out when he was on a 'red' cycle because his droppings looked like they had blood in them.

What toys do your GCCs love? My parakeets don't really play with their toys. They'll play with a bell every now and again and gnaw on their wood blocks, but they don't really play with hoops or balls or foot toys or anything else. I'd love to have a bird that liked to play with their toys.

Bells, bells, and more bells. He likes to play what looks like hockey with the plastic cat toy balls with bells in them. When he get's excited he goes from toy to toy in his cage and gets all the bells ringing. Shredables are also top of the list along with anything he can hang upside down and spin on.

What treats do your GCCs love? Again, my parakeets aren't huge fans of treats. Yogurt covered papaya? Nope. Honey covered seed sticks? Yeah, right. They'll eat millet if I put it in their cage, but that's about it.

Spray Millet, Almonds, black and red raspberries, and sunflower seeds.

Any other first time GCC tips would be great. I'm confident that this little guy and I would be a great match. And I will continue reading and bookmarking websites and books well after I get him.

When mine first started talking he would only whisper while sitting on my shoulder.