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Sun conure breeding season?

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Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Charlie *^* » Thu Jan 04, 2018 5:15 am

My Sun conure (Charlie) has been misbehaving lately, he has been attempting to bite my brothers (and me on occasions :cry: ) and has been screaming alot. My mother has told me that its mating season but I've read about it and they only mate in spring but its now summer and he should stop his mating stuff he is 5 years of age and had has bad experiences he was in the wild for 3 days and his past owners were extreme alcoholics and fed him alcohol (glad he flew away from them! ) and his older owners had to move out and couldn't keep him anymore! Anyway he has been very territorial. I also changed his diet recently so that might me a factor

:sun: :sun:
Zeph and Charlie :sun:
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Charlie *^*
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Pajarita » Thu Jan 04, 2018 11:17 am

Welcome to the forum! I assume from your posting that you are in the Southern Hemisphere and that's why it's summer now for you when it's winter for us :D Now, the breeding season does start in the spring but it continues during summer until the days reach a very high number of hours when they first decrease and then stop producing sexual hormones and go into molt so your mother is right that this is his breeding season. But, having said that, I have to tell you that in my personal experience, males only get aggressive during breeding season if they have a mate, nest, eggs or babies to protect and then it's only if you get too close to the nest or the mate, otherwise, they are OK so there might be something else going on there... Why don't you tell us a bit about his diet, light schedule and quality and daily routines and how long you've had him? That information will help us determine what, exactly is the problem here.
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: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Charlie *^* » Thu Jan 04, 2018 5:01 pm

You were correct I am in the southern hemisphere but I have changed his diet from a parrot mix to a more expensive conure mix and am giving him more fruit and vegges. I was also thinking of seeing how he would react to another male sun conure but my mother also said that they can change gender and that they might also fight (because he is an only bird) but I did some research and I couldn't see any thing about them changing gender but there was a constant warning about bringing another conure into the house :shock:! But thanks for telling me that breeding season continues through summer! It might also be the sleep.
Zeph and Charlie :sun:
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Charlie *^*
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Pajarita » Fri Jan 05, 2018 11:31 am

No, they don't change gender. There are animals that do but they are fish, frogs, slugs, etc not birds. What birds have been known to do, although it is VERY rare, is to reproduce without a mate [it's called parthenogenesis - look it up, it's super interesting!].

Now, you mention sleep and yes, you are right -well, up to a point because it's not sleep by itself, it's the exposure to light. Birds need to follow a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk - this means that the bird wakes up with the light of dawn [no artificial lights on] and goes to sleep with the light of dusk [again, no artificial lights should be on during this period or it doesn't work]. Turning on a light before the sun is high in the sky or keeping it on after the sun is halfway down to the horizon in the evening screws up their endocrine system and they end up producing sexual hormones all year round which is VERY bad for them [look up avian photoperiodism and you'll see].

Now, as to the conure mix, if this means seeds, nuts, pellets, etc. I hope that you are not filling up a bowl in the morning and leaving it there all day long because he will end up eating way too much protein this way [conures don't find high protein food all the time in the wild]. I've had sun conures, jendays and sundays as well as nandays, quakers, GCCs, etc and fed them all the same thing: gloop and raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and a measured portion of a low protein seed mix [budgie during the cold months and cockatiel during the warm] for dinner.
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: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Charlie *^* » Fri Jan 05, 2018 7:16 pm

I did not know that! :o I will have to change my feeding patterns for him! Thanks, I don't think I could find that on a web site, buggie mix? I didn't even think that was good for them to eat I will take your advice for it! Thanks!
Zeph and Charlie :sun:
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Charlie *^*
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Charlie *^* » Fri Jan 05, 2018 7:24 pm

So birds are close to ants on a biological level both get influenced by artificial light (for ants heat) and both can produce perfect clones (crazy black ants as an example)! I am also keen on ants and birds, so hearing that everything can be connected only proves that life is very simple if you look at the patterns!
Zeph and Charlie :sun:
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Charlie *^*
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Pajarita » Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:34 am

Well, I would not say that birds and ants [I've also always being fascinated by ants!] are close in terms of taxonomy [the way that we classify animals]. They are both animals but even the phylum [the very first division under the Animal Kingdom] they belong to is different and it has to do with their bone structure as they are 'invertebrates' [meaning without a spine -because they have their skeleton on the outside of their bodies] while birds [aves] are vertebrates. But all living organisms depend on light one way or the other, and all animals [humans included] react to the difference in the lighthours and the quality of light they are exposed to. We all need it for life and good health, only some more than others with birds being the most light and vision dependent of all the vertebrates.

The mix I was referring to is a budgie or budgerigar seed mix but you are in summer so give him a good quality cockatiel mix [meaning the kind with a few grey striped sunflowers, not the kind with the smaller, black sunflowers -those are called 'high oil' and are not good for parrots].
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: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Charlie *^* » Sat Jan 06, 2018 3:12 pm

Well I was trying to mean is that ants and birds have a similar thought pattern but anyway I will start to feed my bird propperly
Zeph and Charlie :sun:
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Charlie *^*
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Charlie *^* » Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:31 pm

Is "pectin, citric acid and ascorbic acid " okay for a sun conure to eat?
Zeph and Charlie :sun:
User avatar
Charlie *^*
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Sun conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Sun conure breeding season?

Postby Pajarita » Tue Jan 09, 2018 11:12 am

Well, they are not bad. Pectin is a stabilizer and a thickening agent derived from fruits like apples, oranges, etc. Citric acid is found in citrus fruits like lemons and oranges and normally used as a flavoring agent or a natural preservative. Ascorbic acid is, basically, vitamin C - birds don't need much of it because most of them can produce it on their own.

I assume this is something you found on a food label, right? I am a maniac when it comes to what my birds eat or don't eat and I don't use any commercially prepared food for my birds but, if I did, and it had these, I would not worry too much over it.
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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