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My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

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My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby Yuki_Ijirashii » Mon Jan 30, 2017 1:45 am

Hi, I need a bit of help.. ^^ I have a rock conure that will be 2 years old in March (or May? I'm really bad with birthdays.). She's really sweet, and I love her a lot.
But I feel like she's just not very playful, and I don't know if it's just her personality.
I taught her to step up, she loves being on my shoulder, lets my give her treats, and pet her, but when I let her out she usually just sits there? Like she doesn't try to explore or anything.
She doesn't play with her toys in her cage either (and she has a variety of different toys). I'm not sure if there's something wrong or if she's just like that.
I also let her out everyday unless I'm busy and can't keep an eye on her. Unfortunately, I can't have her cage in the living room because if she decided to be loud my dad would get really mad so I keep her in my room where I am most of the time. I also started bringing her into the living room when I can since we have two dogs.
She's usually really quiet as well, but she has her days when she's loud and she seems to cry/scream when I leave her alone. She also bites/nips (not enough to break the skin but hurts a little) anyone besides me.
Any ideas? :gcc:
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Re: My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby ParrotsForLife » Mon Jan 30, 2017 7:09 am

I never ever heard of a Rock conure, Where are they from? Do you have a pic
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Re: My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby ParrotsForLife » Mon Jan 30, 2017 7:10 am

Oh its just another name for Black capped conure lol
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Re: My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby Wolf » Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:06 am

birds do not really have toys in their natural habitat, what we consider to be them playing is their practicing their survival skills ranging from foraging all the way to how to defend themselves. So if you want your bird to play with all of the neat toys that you get for it then you must take it upon yourself to teach this behavior to the bird. You can best do this by playing with the toy in front of the bird until it begins to play with the toy itself. I would suggest that once the bird starts to interact with the toy that you be careful to keep your fingers and hands back from the action or you may get caught in the excitement and receive a hard bite.
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Re: My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby Yuki_Ijirashii » Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:12 am

Wolf wrote:birds do not really have toys in their natural habitat, what we consider to be them playing is their practicing their survival skills ranging from foraging all the way to how to defend themselves. So if you want your bird to play with all of the neat toys that you get for it then you must take it upon yourself to teach this behavior to the bird. You can best do this by playing with the toy in front of the bird until it begins to play with the toy itself. I would suggest that once the bird starts to interact with the toy that you be careful to keep your fingers and hands back from the action or you may get caught in the excitement and receive a hard bite.


She does know how, like she's spinned his toy that makes noise, tears up paper toy, used a foraging toy, etc. but she just rarely does it... I don't think I said that in the post.
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Re: My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby Loriusgarrulus » Tue Jan 31, 2017 4:18 am

Are the toys she has quite small and easy for her to move.

If she doesn't like plastic toys try her with wooden ones that are safe soft wood that she can chew up.
Often easy to destroy toys are popular.
Small cardboard boxes that she can chew up are often popular.
An unbleached toilet roll hung up in her cage that she can rip the tissue up I have found are fun for mine. Just needs the mess clearing away once destroyed.
The inner cardboard tube from kitchen towel, chopped into small lenghs and threaded through holes punched in the sides onto a parrot fruit kebab holder are fun too. These are the sort with a hanger at the top and a screw nut on the bottom.
Like this.http://www.northernparrots.com/kabob-pa ... rod344850/
You can get all metal ones for big chewers.
Don't use toilet roll cardboard as they can be contaminated with bacteria.
You can also use rectangles of cardboard without printing on and thread it in loops on a kebab holder too.
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Re: My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby Pajarita » Tue Jan 31, 2017 11:19 am

Welcome to the forum, Yuki and Black-cap! I would not worry about yours not playing. As far as I can tell, pyrrhuras don't play with toys. All they want to do is be on their human all day long (usually on their shoulder and so close to the neck that they are actually leaning against it).
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Re: My Rock Conure Isn't Very Playful?

Postby ParrotsForLife » Tue Jan 31, 2017 11:31 am

Pajarita wrote:Welcome to the forum, Yuki and Black-cap! I would not worry about yours not playing. As far as I can tell, pyrrhuras don't play with toys. All they want to do is be on their human all day long (usually on their shoulder and so close to the neck that they are actually leaning against it).

Yes definitely my Aunts Fiery shouldered conures love to be near you all the time especially when your eating lol and always looking for head scratches.
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