Hello from Northern California!

[KimberlyAnn]

Hello all

I just wanted to introduce myself and my family. I'm Kim and my husband is Erik. I have two step kids...a late teen daughter and a preteen son. I'm a preschool teacher by day and a photographer whenever the mood strikes and on weekends. My husband is a talented tow truck driver...remember to pull away to another lane when you see him or other emergency vehicles on the side of the road! Please please please and Thank-you!

For three years, my husband and I had talked about getting a Conure. We researched all the different kinds and how to care for them, but waited until life calmed down for us (We are just nearing our one year wedding anniversary next week! April 22nd) and we had more time. We had really admired Sun Conures, but I was really worried about the noise level. Little screams are fine! But too loud...ouch! So we decided on a Green Cheek and I'm so glad we did. What an amazing personality packed into a small package! How intelligent this little bird is! (DNA test will come back in a week and then we will name the bird)

We were blessed with a well behaved GCC so training has been very easy! It's potty trained, knows up and down, come here, gentle, plus things like bathtime, goodnight etc. I started the clicker training with a stick and that's going well! We use sugar snap peas for the treats so I let it get one bite per stick peck! It's been talking as well...learned six different phrases in a week's time. We are still working on what greens and fruits it likes besides sugar snap peas, but it really likes Roudybush pellets so I'm glad that was easy! Now we are just bracing for the worst in a few months when puberty hits. Hopefully with the training we are doing...it will be easy too! And the noise? It has screamed LOUD to get us to come back when we've walked out of the room. (We just answer back "Hello" and this seems to stop the calling) And it's like really? Is that the best you got?

Other then our baby birdie, we have a three year old Snow Corn Snake named Lumi. He's the sweetest snake, very non aggressive and my nightime pal after the bird has gone to bed (a ritual we had nightly before the bird) and it's wind down time for me and wake up time for Lumi.

Speaking of bedtime, how do you get the rest of the family to not complain about the bird going to bed? I'm starting to think I need to hand out treats to everyone at bird bedtime so they can stay busy while I sneak out of the room with the bird. lol Kinda like I do with the bird when I go to work. "Here's a treat! Bye bye!"

I think the thing I learned the most from having this bird in my home the last two weeks is not to underestimate intelligence in general. I'm a preschool teacher and very big on being the "care taker" so I stuggle with this. I want to teach something, but sometimes I end up helping too much! Lol No learning in that! I constantly put myself in check on this! But this bird has just reminded me again that you really do have to teach...then sit back and watch and see what happens. Good things come!

[marie83]

Welcome to the forums. Your GCC is gorgeous and very very talented, green cheeks aren't known to be good talkers so 6 phrases in a week is amazing, how old is s/he?.

[KimberlyAnn]

5 months old in a week. But most of the talking happens when the bird goes to bed and does not want to (and once when it was woken up in the middle of the night by my husband's coughing fit) or just playing by itself. It says: Good bird, pretty bird, hello, goodnight, thank-you, and the kissy sound lol

I was VERY surprised too! Its very hard to understand for sure so we really listen a few times before we cross it off the list of things the bird really did say. Goodnight, thank-you and the kissy noise are the only things the bird says in context though. Just not very often. The kissy noise is the only phrase it does on command.

But what it understands...wow! If I say bedtime and it's not tired...run away! Or if it's tired...slow step up. If I say bathtime, it runs around in circles and bobs its head so fast that sometimes it loses its balance! Lol Bathtime is THE MOST EXCITING THING IN THE WORLD!

[KimberlyAnn]

Cuddling or playing on our back? Too cute!

[marie83]

gorgeous pictures, we had a thread going a bit back for "drowned rats" may need to revive it lol.
Ollie is 3 now, he says hello clearly, does kissy noises and mutters other stuff which we think is talking but we cannot make out what he is saying.

[KimberlyAnn]

I would love to see that thread! Lol I will do a search! I'm trying to get good pictures with my cell phone, but a lot of times this happens lol...



Is Ollie a Green Cheek as well? How did the puberty stage go? Was it as awful as everyone says? Lol

[marie83]

Umm Ollie was a bloody nightmare.

I hate to say it but at one point I did regret taking him on he got so aggressive, I was covered in bites and bled frequently but we rode it out.
The good news is it does pass provided you dont accidently re-inforce it, there are/were other members on here with green cheeks that didn't have a problem though.
Nowadays I rarely ever get a bite and if I do I can guarentee it is my fault.
I think the reason Ollie was really bad is because my boyfriend couldn't/wouldn't ignore the bites, to this day he still gets bitten most days.


viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8723 drowned rat thread

[KimberlyAnn]

That's what I'm scared of. Other people in the house that will reinforce bad behavior on accedent like coming into the room when the bird is screaming instead of ignoring or my step son not ignoring the bites because he's only 10. It's natural to take your hand away.

Maybe only the adults will handle the bird around that time if there is a major issue. I will have to do more reading.

But that thread is Hallarious! I'm still going through the pictures lol

[marie83]

Right well dont be disheartened if you cant get everyone to listen and ignore the bites. My boyfriends the biggest wimp I know lol but even with just me doing things the right way we got there in the end. My bf is actually slowly learning that there is a reason I don't get bitten and he does and is getting bitten less than he used to but trouble is he was reinforcing the bites for so long that its taking a while to change things.
I do think if you start off on the right foot you will have much less of a problem so prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I'm sure you will be fine if you do.

[Andromeda]

What a pretty bird you have! I have a GCC, too. They are such funny birds.

If I say bathtime, it runs around in circles and bobs its head so fast that sometimes it loses its balance! Lol Bathtime is THE MOST EXCITING THING IN THE WORLD!

Yes, this seems to be the highlight of a green cheek's life. They all seem to be super excited by water and most of them do a dance when they hear running water. Check out The GCC Appreciation thread.

It's pretty unusual that yours is picking up so many words so quickly. Mine says maybe 10 words and phrases; he already knew "take a bath" and "hi, baby" when I adopted him but has learned everything else since then.

They are pretty bad for a while during puberty but you can work through it. Mine was 2 1/2 when we adopted him so he was right in the middle of it! He wasn't too bad with me but he was very aggressive with my husband and bit him constantly. With training and proper handling we worked through it and now he doesn't bite anymore and he is very sweet---except to visitors! We have to keep him in his case because he is very aggressive with visitors. Definitely try to socialize your bird while he or she is still young because it's hard when they're older.