Questions about GCCs

[suzgrrl]

Hello all, I'm new to this forum! I have owned other birds and a parrot before, a cockatoo. However, it's been several years and this is my first green cheek conure. I think he's a boy (haven't had it sexed yet, but I heard that grey feet are often found on males (he has grey feet), and yellowish-pink feet are often found on females! Don't know if true, but he does seem like a boy. So I named him Paco. At any rate, I've had Paco not quite a week now. He is settling in nicely, but I am concerned about the fact that my BF and I are quite busy people so we don't have a lot of time to spend with him. I figured if he is just around us on his play gym, etc., he'd be fine but he is really wanting to be more or less glued to me most of the time, lol! I do make him get up on his play gym sometimes for a while, and if he's naughty (flying off, nipping, etc.) he has a time out in the cage. But the fact is, we both work long hours, and when home we're pretty busy doing stuff to take care of the house, communications, errands, etc. I am hoping to get him comfortable and well-trained enough to take along on my errands sometimes. Anyway, he's still pretty young (about 6 months), and still getting to know us so I figure that's why he's kinda clingy. However, I wonder if I shouldn't maybe get him another GC as a companion. I know he won't bond quite as much to us then, but a friend of mine who has owned a maroon belly and a nanday said that they got along really well and also loved their people. So maybe this is a good idea? I don't want him to be lonely! Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[marie83]

Welcome.

Green cheeks are velcro birds and need to be taught to be more independant although why you chose to get a bird when your so busy is beyond me really. I think harness training will be a good idea so you can take him out to spend extra time with him, Michael has plenty of articles you can read to help you with training him on his trained parrot blog. Yes I think your bird needs a companion if your out long hours on a regular basis but then thats going to use up more of the time that you say you dont have. I know this is going to sound negative but I think you need to figure out how your going to make more time for your bird and how to keep him occupied when your out.

Obviously I don't know your full situation and I'm just basing my answer on the info you have given.

[hooligan]

Per usual, I agree with marie!

I just wanted to post about the black vs pink feet thing. The color of their beaks and feet are actually connected to the same genes that determine the colors in their feathers. The presence or absence of certain genes will make their beaks and feet black or pink (not always at the same time), and also are what produces different color mutations (Cinnamon, Pineapple, Turquoise, Mint, etc).

Some color mutations are sex linked (so sometimes you can determine what gender your bird is based on what color mutations their parents had), but male GCCs can have pink feet and females can have black feet. Some people believe they can tell a GCC's gender by how far apart their hip bones are (since females presumably would need more room between them), but really the only way to tell for certain is to have your bird DNA tested.