Bringing home a new baby GCC..advice needed

[michellet]

After what seemed like forever, and endless visits to the breeder to visit my baby, I finally brought her home yesterday. She's a cinnamon green cheek conure...and absolutely gorgeous. She has been hand reared, and is very tame, although a little shy....but i put this down to the new and strange environment/people and the fact that she came from a rearing cage filled with other babies, GCC, teils, and a lovely little NZ parrot that i cant remember the name of, and now she's all on her own in a new big cage. She can hear our budgies, and seems desperate to find them...but i'm keeping them apart for now. She's cracking seed and eatiing (i cant help but watch her continuously!), is very quiet, and doesnt move around the cage much at all.....just quietly sits in one spot.

Now my question...

How much should i handle her to begin with? I dont want to over do it...but i also dont want to "leave her alone" to settle in and make her feel abandoned...

Any advice or tips would be greatly apreciated

thanks, Michelle

(i tried to add a photo but it was too big... now to work out how to reduce its size...i'll add one as soon as i get my technologically-dyslexic brain aroung it! hehehehe! )

[entrancedbymyGCC]

There seem to be two opinions on that, from what I've read anyway. Some say don't handle the bird at all, just sit nearby and talk. Others say to handle the bird as close to "normally" as you can, within the bird's comfort zone -- but not TOO much as you don't want them to feel abandoned when the newness wears off and life has to regain a normal balance. With both of ours, we took more the latter approach. Scooter, our , settled in quite quickly and has never looked back. He was interested in interacting from the very beginning and never seemed unduly stressed that I can recall. Scotty, our , was also OK at the beginning, although he spent a lot of time contact calling the first several days -- he came from a busy bird store and I think he really missed the commotion and big flock. But even though he was eating normally and interacting with us at the beginning, he's still slowly "coming out of his shell" and it has been a couple of months. Just in the last week or so he's started playing more actively and being sillier. I should add that both birds were older than babies when we got them, and both came from shop environments. Neither was leaving the breeder's environment for the first time, FWIW.

[michellet]

thank you for your fast reply Entranced

I think I'll be going with your second option, as you did with your GCC....I dont think I could not touch her and just leave her in her cage for a few days....and seeing as she's already been well handled by the breeder and his daughters whilst being handreared, i dont want to undo all the hard work they've done by not handling her. I'll just take my cues from her.

Baby (as we're calling her at the moment as we still havent settled on a name) seems much happier today... she's eating and making cute little squeek noises..not quite squawks yet....and when i came home from a short 3 hour shift this afternoon and called out "hiiiii birdies" as i came in the door, she clambered clumsily up the inside of the cage squeeking back her own hello....SOOOO CUTE! It made my day She did the same thing when we got back from the school pick-up run too... so she seems happy to see us all and wants to interact....YAY!

Thanks again for your quick reply... i'm sure i'll have plenty more questions and pleas for advice...i'm just so desperate to do this right and have a happy little bird that wants to be a part of our family

Michelle

p.s. i'm still trying to work out how to resize my pics...i'll post some as soon as i get it sorted

[michellet]

I think i might have worked it out,,,the pic resizing thing

[Jenny]

aww, her feet are so tiny!

[entrancedbymyGCC]

What a cutie!

Don't call her Baby for too long unless you are willing to have that be her name... we didn't mean to name Scooter Scooter... but he started saying "Pretty Scoo-scoo" and it was done!

[Kathleen]

The bird will start to feel comfortable exploring its cage within a day or two. Once it starts eating and drinking in there, it should be fine to take it out and interact with it. It's a new bird, so it's exciting to take it out but make sure that you interact with the bird now as much as you will in the future.

[michellet]

That sounds like great advice Kathleen... thank you

[iknowwhatiknow]

I handled Rory from day one, but it was about a week before he was pleased to see me. I was worried for a while that I had the one bird in the world that hated head scratches, but he came around.

She's very cute.

[michellet]

I've been handling her regularly since we got her on thursday...but also giving her plenty of cage-time to settle in. She's much less interested in the budgies now....but very interested in the non-feathered family members! She's sooo sweet and happy and just wants out of that damn cage all the time!! lol but i'm being very strict with myself and making myself leave her alone. Her cage is in our living area...a meter or 2 behind the lounge chair i usually sit on, so she can see whats going on in the main part of the house, including the kitchen, and she alternates between being more than happy to climb around or snuggle in her bird tent, and gently calling out and climbing up and down the side of the cage closest to whoever is around. Sometimes she gets a bit frantic, and being only 13weeks old and still a bit clumsy (i assume this is normal??), she falls to the bottom of the cage. I've been getting a bit concerned as she uses her wings for balance and i'm worried she'll hurt herself as she falls. But thats probably just the "paranoid new mum" in me

I was also concerned that she wasnt eating enough....so yesterday i bought some "Passwell parrot crumbles", moistened them with a little water to make a crumbly "mash", offerd it to her from a teaspoon (i know i'm spoiling her...but how can i not??!) and she LOVED it!! I've now put some of the dry crumbles in with her seed (2 bowls, 1 near the top of the cage, 1 closer to the bottom) and also sprinkled them on the floor of the cage with some seed....I'll continue to give her a small amout (about a teaspoon) of moistened food morning and evening..and hopefully she'll make the transition to seed and dry pellets when she's ready. I also have fresh spinach, brocolli and corn on offer, as well as cooked sweet potato...i might try adding some of the vegies to her "mash" too.

She seems content and keen to interact, and likes to snuggle up under my chin or sit on my shoulder, so that makes me feel reassured that I must be doing things right

Oh, and she still doesnt have a name I'm so hopeless!!