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New Green Cheek, HELP

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New Green Cheek, HELP

Postby green_cheek_owner » Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:01 am

Okay, so I just need some actual person advice vs looking at the same topics on the same youtube channels.
I recently (less than a week) got a 4 month old (that's what the store said) green cheek conure. I don't know sex, I don't have confirmation of that hatching date.

I bring them home with the hopes of cohabitating, in that I open their cage in the morning and they come out. I have a few perches around the room that they alternate between, and at night he puts himself to bed and I close and cover the cage whenever I go to sleep.

He learned really quickly to step up on a wood perch I have, he does not like my fingers. Unfortunately they clipped his wings early on, I plan on letting them grow out, so when he tries to go between perches and misses, I go and would let him step up on the stick and I would put him where he wanted to "get off the trolley" so to speak. I have been able to pet their head a few times when they're in the mood.

However, after 4 days or so of this working great. He all of the sudden seems territorial over the cage, and at the same time will motion as if he wants my attention. [i.e he will bob his head and come to the side where I am closest to, and then the second i get too close he puffs all his feathers up (I'm assuming in discomfort)]. (he hardly ever makes audible noises unless he sees a random bird fly by the window). He also started biting, pretty hard. Nearly drawing blood multiple times and will not release when he does. Now, even when I try to offer him the perch to step on he immediately will step up and then lung for my fingers holding it.

I felt like it was going great, and now it seems we are worse off. Did I push them too fast too quickly? I don't mind giving them space, I am just worried it will lead to them being bored and the escalation of more problems.

Any advice would be great.
green_cheek_owner
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Green Cheek Conure
Flight: No

Re: New Green Cheek, HELP

Postby Pajarita » Wed Sep 08, 2021 10:15 am

Hi, and welcome to the forum! First of all, I am confused, did you buy one or two GCCs? Because that makes a difference in the advice but, from I will comment on the behaviors you described. For one thing, if the bird is 4 months old, you need to feed it juvenile food and not just adult (the coming close to your side of the cage and bobbing its head means the little baby is hungry for soft food). I don't know what you are feeding it because you did not say but most people that buy babies see them as big as an adult bird and assume that feeding it adult food is the way to go - but it is not. So, if you are free-feeding seeds or pellets, the very first thing you need to do is to change its diet. Soft food is just that: food that is soft, easily digestible and it's served warm to make it more like what their parents feed them. Gloop, polenta, cous cous, Irish oatmeal (aka as steel cut oats), pastina, etc cooked and mixed with veggies or pureed veggies (as in the baby jars) are all examples of soft food. You do NOT want to force a baby bird to eat adult food because, although it will survive and grow, it will also grow with eating disorders. The law says that you cannot separate a kitten or a puppy from the mother before they are 6 weeks old but they don't say anything about baby birds and, unfortunately for them, breeders take them away from their parents way before they should.

The other thing that I can comment on is that you pushed the bird too soon. There should not be any real physical interaction with a new bird for a few days when it first come to the house (except for handfeeding it, of course). So, do not ask the bird to step up and do not touch its body anywhere. Parrot are not like puppies that like all humans that are kind to them, they are more like people and need to take their time to get to know you, trust you and then, love you. Right now, you need to concentrate in giving it the right kind of food, keep it at the right light schedule because he should not be put to bed when you do unless you go to sleep as soon as it's night outside which, this time of the year, happens at 8 pm. Birds are all photoperiodic which means that they need to follow a solar schedule so their endocrine system (the one that has to do with glands and hormones) is healthy and stays in tune with the seasons so the artificial lights need to be turned off when the sun is halfway down to horizon (this time of the year, at about 5 pm), feed them dinner about an hour after that and, once night falls and they are asleep, cover their cage. If the cage is in an human area, make sure you are using a black-out material and that no light whatsoever filters into the cage. In the morning, the cage should be uncovered as soon as there is the merest amount of light in the sky (this time of the year, 6 am) and they should get their breakfast 1 hour after that which, for GCCs, should be a VERY low protein staple accompanied by a green, a veggie and a fruit and the fruit portion should be big because GCCs are mainly fruit eaters in the wild and they just love - love - love fruit. They also love veggies like fresh corn on the cob, red/yellow/orange pepper, grape tomatoes, sweet potatoes and all squashes (cooked, of course).

Once he (or they) is eating a good diet and kept at the right light schedule and used to you, its new home and the daily routine (which should be consistent every day regardless of whether it's a weekday or weekend), he will start to feel more comfortable and needy of affection (right now, he is just scared and confused) and you can start interacting with him.
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: New Green Cheek, HELP

Postby green_cheek_owner » Wed Sep 08, 2021 4:30 pm

Clarification, it is one green cheek. I just use they because I don't know the sex and didn't want to mislead if their was behavioral differences at this age.

And I continued the diet of pellets that the pet store had them on. I assumed their diet was correct (will know not to trust from now on), and yes end of may hatch date. I also add in greens, certain fruit, etc to a "chop". I will try to make it more fine with liquid to resemble their natural diet for their age. I did notice the few times that I scratched their head on the side of their face they would look like they were mimicking regurgitation (not actually do it). At first I thought maybe it was hormonal and they lied about the age, but after reading what you said I think they were trying to tell me they wanted soft food like you said.

And thanks, I also had a feeling of moving too quickly. I just feel bad for leaving them unentertained. I will be hands off and continue what I've been doing. I do have them on a sleep schedule that resembles what you described. So I uncover the cage around 7:00 am and feed them breakfast. Around 4:30 He waits on top of his cage for dinner so I feed him then. By 7:30pm he usually goes back in and gets in his sleep corner. I cover after that and dim the lights in my apartment. (It's a studio so I can't just turn everything off. But it's a black out cover so i don't think he is bothered.

Thanks again for your advice!
green_cheek_owner
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Green Cheek Conure
Flight: No

Re: New Green Cheek, HELP

Postby Pajarita » Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:01 pm

Yes, the poor baby was hungry for soft food. It's unfortunate that birds grow physically so fast that people think they are already big enough to eat adult food - and, of course, the pet industry makes things worse by exploiting this and telling the prospective owners that all they have to do is put a bowl with seeds in it and a piece of a fruit and call it a good diet! This is the way you would feed a natural seed eater -like a canary or a finch- but not a parrot. Parrots eat plant material and although this does include seeds, they are what we call 'green seeds' (a few seeds inside the fruit).

Now, I do not like chop and I'll tell you why. Nowadays people use terms that originally meant different things indistinctly but there is a difference between them. Chop is made out of fresh produce, chopped up finely and mixed together. Mash is like chop but finer -like if you had put it in a food processor. Both chop and mash are used as replacement for raw produce (which all birds need!) Gloop is made out of cooked whole grains, pulses and frozen (not fresh) veggies that come whole (corn, hominy and peas), diced (carrots and butternut squash), chunky (cooked sweet potatoess) and chopped (broccoli) and does not replace raw produce (which is given on the side). I don't like chop or mash because it's made out of fresh produce (which is the lowest in nutrition, the highest being frozen produce) and done so finely that the bird cannot pick one thing on its own. I like to give my birds things they can pick and choose and more natural looking - like a quarter of an apple they can pick with their own feet to eat - a VERY natural behavior. The other thing is that they get the same chop or mash every single day (BORING!). My birds get a different fruit, veggie and green every day of the week and even more seldom (like greens that are a bit high on oxalic acid which they get every ten days or two weeks) and their gloop has a different flavor each day (I alternate one day spicy and one day 'fruity'). Parrots eat a HUGE variety of plants in the wild so it seems to me that giving them the same wet slop every day is not what they would prefer,

As to pellets... well, you are going to find that a lot of people would argue with this but after doing research for 27 years on parrots natural diets, I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt that pellets are not and never will be the best dietary option for them - I can elaborate and share with you what I have learned in detail, if you wish but, even if there was nothing else wrong with them (and there is!), just the fact that they are so very dry, it's good enough reason not to feed them to them.
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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