Hi everyone!

I have a 2 yo green cheek who has been doing this behavior for several months, and I’m starting to wonder whether it’s normal.

He moves his beak as if he’s chewing on something, even though there’s nothing there. He also does some beak grinding in between these chewing movements. I’ve noticed it for months, but I never really thought much of it until recently.
I’ve attached a video so you can see exactly what I mean.

Has anyone else noticed their conure doing something similar? Could this just be normal beak behavior, or is it something I should be concerned about?

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced this with their bird.

Thanks!🙏🙏

So my Ziggy is about maybe 5 or 6 months old and I've believe she is going through her first molt. I've been noticing that some of her feathers have started to grow a dark green/ brown outline, is this normal? I've also seen that it can happen from handling, which i do alot since she seems to like being held.

Original post (NSFW, injured bird)

Our miracle baby has come home from the vet after 4 nights, ultimately only requiring medication, monitoring, and diagnostic X-rays.

His beak and the surrounding area have drastically improved, and his beak is expected to heal without much of a visual or functional difference.

Feeling very blessed with the outcome. I’ve been a parrot owner for 11 years, and never thought this would happen to me. No one is immune to accidents, but we can all exercise prevention efforts.

Please use my baby and my flock as a learning experience for preventable accidents. Double-checking doorways, making sure no one is flying to follow you out a door, avoiding prey/predator animal combinations, periodically check toys for safety, not falling asleep with your baby, avoiding chemical irritants, and every other cause of common accidents that we see frequently as conure owners.

It’s not worth losing them

I recently got a really nice office chair that reclines and is ready comfortable. It has a back that is a bit higher than my old chair and she seems spooked by it.

She will stay on me when I sit on the chair, but she confines herself to hanging on the front of my shirt, my lap, or my desk.

If the chair back moves in a way she doesn't expect, she sometimes flys away, but she will land back on my outstretched finger over anywhere else even if I'm still sitting in the chair.

If I am reclined in the chair and my hands are behind my head, she will approach much closer then she is otherwise willing to get to the chair back.

Is this just a matter of waiting for her to get used to it? Is there anything I could be doing to make her more comfortable around the chair?

Hello! Ive had Xochii here (photo for bird tax) for about 4 months now. Shes 3, as the original owner moved and I took her in. Ive done a lot of research into these silly birds but have a few questions.

Xochii is scared of fruit. Like she walks away from it, won't eat it, throws it away. We've tried freeze dried as well but she also ignores that. Fruit is essential to their diet so does anybody have any tricks to get them to eat fruit?

I'm not sure whether or not to cut her nails (or how). They prick me even if she just stands on my hands and will leave small scars (does anyone else's birds try to eat their scabs?). She has wooden perches along with a calcium perch to wear them down.

If anyone has some advice on either of these it'd be greatly appreciated!!

I got so lucky with Dipper! He wanted to be held the day he came home (side eyes my tiel who took a month 🤣) and he barely nips/screams. He’s so sweet and snuggly 🥹 I just love him so much! He’s started flipping over and wanting to be held like a widdle babby 🥰😍

Sweetie's been sick and staying in a heated enclosure while she recovers, so we haven't been letting her out much lately.

Peaches, our lovebird, has always been her little shadow. And apparently that hasn't changed 😂

Out of all seven birds, Peaches spends the most time hanging around Sweetie's enclosure when she's out playing. Sometimes she'll just sit there preening her own feathers.

I know I'm probably putting human feelings into it, but I can't help thinking she misses her buddy a little. ❤️

Sweetie's doing much better now and finally got to come out of her heated enclosure today!

I was so worried because he was losing all his tail feathers that I took him to the vet to see if he was self harming or had some deficiency that was leading for the lost of his tail feathers. Apparently it was all trauma due to him not landing correctly when flying, he's such a bad flyer.

It’s not thirst, he is constantly doing it since a week.

Otherwise, he seems normal. He is active, plays well, eats normally, and his droppings look normal. The room temperature is around 30°C, as usual.
I’m concerned because avian veterinary care in my area is limited. The vets I’ve consulted tend to prescribe antibiotics and multivitamins, so I’m trying to understand whether anyone else has experienced similar behaviour with their conure and what the underlying cause turned out to be.

Update: Took Kiwi to the vet. The doc examined his tongue and thankfully found no injury or visible infection. He thinks it could possibly be due to the dry weather here. Kiwi has been prescribed a multivitamin syrup and an antibiotic syrup. For now, I’ve been advised to run a humidifier on a low setting for a few days and keep fans and AC off in their room. He’s been doing fine since the evening, so keeping an eye on him. Thanks everyone for the concern ❤️

When it comes to getting a friend for your conure, how did yall do that? The conure I got was getting picked on by his siblings and I am unsure if he’s going to go Rambo on a newcomer? Or if there is a best practice for intros?

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The fruit flies are driving me insane and I feel so bad that theyre flying around my bird. Does anyone know of a safe/nontoxic fly trap? I have the zevo plugins but they just aren't working, they want my birds food :/ I have a small cup of apple cider vinegar in the bird room but that doesnt seem to be working much either

My pineapple GCC sleeps on top of her boyfriend, a HMC, apparently.

hello everyone this my bird peaches, shes only 4 months now and i was just wondering do they every grow out of being super nippy she can be very sweet but she does bite alot i am aware it is just her species however sometimes she bites hard is there anyway i can get her too bite less hard ? All she really does is bite lol when i have her out she just crawls all over me and bites my shirt , my moles , sometimes my piercings , my skin she doesn’t really do much outside of bitting everything and i was wondering is it cause shes still very young ? ik they are known for bitting but shes never not bitting something and i want too teach her tricks and everything but shes only ever focused on bitting things lol and i was wondering if it’s just because shes still so young ?

She is 10 months old and she keeps biting bare hands and feet. Sometimes even when wearing socks she will bite toes. She is taken out of her cage regularly to play and be on my shoulder and the couch, and she’s given a lot of attention but she keeps randomly attacking and I don’t know why. Sometimes she’s gentle but most times she bites really hard. Right now every time she bites I say No and I put her back in her cage, but it doesn’t seem to be fixing the issue. How do I train her to stop biting?

Hi guys,

I'm going to do my best to spit out as much context as I can.

We purchased a new conure from a pet store 3 nights ago. They have a good appetite, show interest in toys, and are very trusting and cuddly towards myself and my partner. They seem completely normal during later hours, but sleep excessively during the day.

They are very affectionate and cuddly -- According to the pet store employees they have always followed people around and requested pets from anyone who walked past. They had them for roughly 3 weeks before we purchased them.

Night 1:

They have a good appetite and have accepted seeds, pellets, and greens. The first night we had them they were pretty much glued to their food bowl. They climbed around their cage and presented like a normal bird.

Day 2:

We woke up to them huddled in a corner and were pretty much unresponsive to anything. We had to gently remove their feet from the cage and pick them up just to ensure they were still with us.

We brought them to a vet for an examination. They slept in the carrier and were very sleepy all throughout their examination. The vet examined them and told us they had no outward signs of illness/respiratory distress. Unfortunately this vet wasn't well equipped enough to run any stool samples/blood/ect and we have to wait until Monday for that. The only thing they noted was he was a little underweight and acted oddly. They didn't really care that the doctor and nurses were handling them and had their eyes closed the majority of the time.

We brought him home and within a few hours he gradually worked his way up to being a bird again. He had good energy levels, played with his food, ate, hung upside down in his cage, and ran around like a silly little conure should. They acted normal for what I'd expect from a bird.

Last night when I put them to bed I put up a web cam to monitor & they were very active when I checked up on them. They climbed on the front of their cage in the dark, ate a little, and eventually settled down in the bottom of their cage where they seemed to keep peeking up/down outside the front (cage is covered on back/sides/with the front partially open anxiously. I had to sleep so I couldn't watch them any more -- but they seemed to be having trouble settling down for sleep.

Day 3 (Today):

I left for work at 10AM and it's 4PM now. He's still sleeping tucked in a corner of his cage with his head back. He's acting similar to the past two days where he doesn't seem to 'wake up' and be a bird until later in the day. My partner put their hand around him and tried to gently pick him up but they insisted on sleeping/purposefully held onto their cage tighter whilst keeping their eyes closed.

I'm honestly a little confused. They go from extremely tired to the point where they won't even open their eyes when someone opens their cage/physically touches them -- to being a normal interested little conure that jumps around their cage eats/plays/and has plenty of energy to be a silly little dinosaur.

Any thoughts? I have an appointment tomorrow with a really great avian vet -- but the petstore(pet supplies plus) is refusing to help with any of the costs and it's quickly getting expensive to track down what might just be stress from adjusting to their new home.

Extra info:

We have 3 cockatiels and none of them are acting abnormally. They were housed in the same room (plenty of distance) for the first night, but were separated completely when we suspected potential illness.

The living room is relatively quiet aside from a heater that can be a little noisy and the occasional persons car being a bit too loud.

No signs of respiratory distress. The only thing the vet noted was a slight paleness.

We set the temperature of the living room to 74 and checked for drafts.

One weird behavior we observed was they hold onto objects tightly when they're sleepy. If they crawl in your hand they will cling to it unless you softly pry their grip off.

When they're 'up' and not sleeping they will seek us out/our attention/climb against their cage/basically beg us to hold them. They unexpectedly did a big jump from their cage to the floor, and waddled towards us when we were switching out their food. They really seem to want physical contact/attention a lot.

I know sleeping at the bottom of their cage is indicative of illness, but they seem to have no trouble going between perches/climbing around/ect. Could they just be really scared on their own and struggle to get proper rest when they aren't close to someone? Can anxiety/stress be causing them to sleep poorly and only 'wake up' when they've caught up on their sleep during the day?

Also forgot to mention he's around 6 months old.

The store we purchased from had them on a seed diet. When we first got him he ate like crazy. Maybe he wasn't eating well and the change in diet/living situation is affecting him? Is it at all reasonable in any case for a conure to sleep from 11am - 8PM if they were somehow terrified of the dark?

I know the answer to all of this is 'vet, vet, vet!' but unfortunately our regular vet is closed on the weekends and the alternative we visited wasn't properly equipped to diagnose. They seem stable enough to wait until tomorrow to see a wonderful avian specialist.

I'm really upset with the pet store we purchased from and the vet we were recommended. I know you always need to stay prepared for unforeseen bills and vet costs, but multiple vet visits and costs for the bird itself are quickly adding up into a huge expense when I've only had them for a few days. I don't think the pet store will help them if they are in need of a proper vet either. I feel like if I return them they will just put them down. I don't want to do that, but I also don't think it's a fair burden on myself if their health was neglected by a pet store.

EDIT: Forgot to mention they’re a green cheek.

They woke up around 6PM today. They’ve eaten, drank, and even took a small bath in their water bowl lol. They have a little bit of attitude today and explored around a bit which I will take as a good sign. I also inspected their abdomen and don’t believe I see any evidence of them being egg bound. Their poops have been solid with only a few exceptions that could probably be explained by the stress of a new home.

EDIT 2: Tonight they seem comfortably perched with one leg up and their head tucked back. One thing I’ve noticed is that they seem to excessively wag their tail side to side and open their tail feathers? (Horizontally). Could this indicate some sort of vent irritation or parasites maybe? They will wag their tail 3-4 times a minute at times & they have woken themselves up a few times to continue the cycle. I wonder if something is stuck in their vent? I definitely don’t think there’s an egg, their abdomen doesn’t seem to be large enough for that. They’re doing this A LOT though. Enough to stop them from dozing off. I also turned the heat up to 80 for them (as high as my heat will go)

This MIGHT be a bit harsh but I will try to keep my language decent. English isn’t my first language so things will probably sound worse than I intended to. If this is too much please remove it! :)

First and foremost

In my humble European opinion birds, rabbits or ANY herd/flock animals should not be kept alone (if not for medical (behavioral)) reasons.

Now I know Conures are more the American bird than they are European and I see loads of solo birds on this subreddit.

I’d like to understand why.

Assuming everyone is acting in their pets best interest-

which they should always do. You got this pet it’s your responsibility to make its life as good as possible -

why do you keep animals that life in flocks up to thousands in the wild alone?

They need same species company to feel safe, seen and loved.

All arguments I’ve seen are either

1. They’ll fight
2. they wont be as tame
3. they’ll breed

Conures are feisty little fellas I am aware but birds that are well socialized and have been for ever are pretty easy to introduce. The „they’ll fight“ argument is therefore self created as there are good chances to get a bonded pair if the birds are socialized.

Using „tame“ as a reason is also insane for me because if you are okay with your 100g bird seeing ONLY you as a mate and being scared it bonds to a same species individual is a whole other issue.

I could ramble for hours how it’s insane to me that people justify keeping a flock animal alone because it won’t be as tame with other birds or how a natural behavior like mating can be so scary.

Conures, Cockatiels and Budgies might seem fine to be alone but that’s mostly because of their short lifespan compared to the bigger parrots.

They naturally pass before most behavioral issues start showing. This does include speaking parrots. Talking is (in 9/10 cases) just a desperate attempt to socialize.

I have worked on understanding parrots for years. I had to keep birds alone due to medical reasons and I rescued birds off of streets, breeding mills and so on. I have seen almost ever illness I could think of.

In most of Europe it’s illegal to keep a flock/herd animal alone and you will be fined/ put in jail.

Why is it the norm in America?

I do not intend to attack anyone personally. I know cultures are different everywhere and what’s normal for you just isn’t for me, which is okay.

I’d just like to understand and maybe explain our views to each other.

Pic for bird tax

He eats drinks and plays normal but after doing all that he just start zooming across the room freaking and screaming for no reason and it’s really loud

My conures absolutely adore this perch. My mom brought back an art piece from Brazil made of wood of a parrot perched in the center of these twigs from a real tree I turned it into a swinging perch for my parrots and I would absolutely love more of whatever this actually is (no clue where to find it). My babies would spend all day swinging on it if I let them 🥺