Looking in a few months. (:

[Mockinbirdiva]

I have one conure that is hands off.. and that's because I don't like getting bitten. He was given to me in 2009 by a lady that was going through a rough spot in life and didn't have the time for him. I did know where he came from before she bought him and I know he wasn't given any training but he did bond to her. I'm telling you about him because he is a meanie and a biter but I take great joy in taking him out - he'll step up on a perch- and I put him on a play stand to have time out of his cage. I talk to him, he is flighted, he enjoys goodies and freedom, loves attention despite not wanting to be touched… all fine by me, I still enjoy him and he has a good life here. I had promised to take care of him and I intend to do so until I am not capable.

 

[Revika]

@Mockin- Very good point. Haha, my quaker liked to lick me too. It wasn't sloppy like a dog lick, but I could definitely tell there was saliva. Yes, exactly! That's why I wanted to go ahead (starting maybe next weekend or in May) to visit the places and see if not only the birds (if we meet one we click with) but also the breeders show good techniques...

@Maxs- I have looked at them, but they seem a lot more expensive than GCCs. :/ If I end up finding a Pionus that loves us, I probably wouldn't mind digging into my savings further though.

 

[Revika]

So if Beakers (which I was mistaken, they're not necessarily breeders, they buy babies and raise them) accepts, I should be visiting this Saturday. They have a male and female turquoise yellow-sided GCCs. I have the absolute necessaries in my Amazon cart already (cage, play gym, stand, and about 7 toys) but won't be ordering any of that to setup until we meet a bird that we fall in love with.

I'm pretty excited, the turquoise GCC is an absolutely stunning color.

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

Sounds like a good plan to have things ready in advance. What type cage are you purchasing? I put a link to someone also buying a green cheek for a flight cage so show them what I have for my conures and the price was actually pretty good. I would certainly ask the owners of Beakers if they have a health guarantee. They may require you to take the baby to a vet for a health check within 48 hours to uphold the guarantee. It's really hard to not fall in love with them! Here's the link:
HQ Flight Bird Cage - Presented by BirdsComfort.com

 

[Revika]

I did take a look at that link and tried to estimate the total (with s+h) of what would be cheaper to order from in bulk at one place. It seems my Amazon cart would save me at least an extra $80 that I can put towards toys. I also saw a brief discussion on the Flight Cage vs This Cage which made me lean more towards the one on Amazon. Thoughts?

(Also thank you so much for helping me especially in this thread! )

 

[JosienBB]

I did take a look at that link and tried to estimate the total (with s+h) of what would be cheaper to order from in bulk at one place. It seems my Amazon cart would save me at least an extra $80 that I can put towards toys. I also saw a brief discussion on the Flight Cage vs This Cage which made me lean more towards the one on Amazon. Thoughts?

(Also thank you so much for helping me especially in this thread! )

In all honesty, I don't feel that the playtop cage you linked to (24"x22") would be big enough for long-term. Ophelia, my painted conure, is in a cage that size temporarily, and she is really way too active so I'll need to upgrade soon. Here is the same flight cage on Amazon: Amazon.com: HQ Flight Cage, Multi Purpose Aviary with Cart Stand, Black, 1 Per Box: Pet Supplies

If you want a cage with feeder doors (probably a good idea, since conures are known to be food aggressive), there's this one, although more expensive: Amazon.com: A&E Cage Co. Elegant Style Flight Bird Cage 3221 Sandstone: Pet Supplies

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

It would be "ok". ( 24x22 isn't that big even for a small bird) I think it's hard to visualize the size of a cage when looking at them online. You can always cut out a piece of cardboard or paper and place it on the floor to give you an idea of how much space it will take up. If you have more room, then of course a larger cage is better. I like more space across the length for more perches of different sizes, there's more room for food cups, ease of perch placement. Does Beakers sell cages as well? Maybe they have one you can look at to get an idea of size. If they have a baby you fall in love with you might ask to put a deposit on it to hold it until you get your set up ready.

You're welcome!

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

@JosienBB
I love your hawk head!!!

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

In all honesty, I don't feel that the playtop cage you linked to (24"x22") would be big enough for long-term. Ophelia, my painted conure, is in a cage that size temporarily, and she is really way too active so I'll need to upgrade soon. Here is the same flight cage on Amazon: Amazon.com: HQ Flight Cage, Multi Purpose Aviary with Cart Stand, Black, 1 Per Box: Pet Supplies

If you want a cage with feeder doors (probably a good idea, since conures are known to be food aggressive), there's this one, although more expensive: Amazon.com: A&E Cage Co. Elegant Style Flight Bird Cage 3221 Sandstone: Pet Supplies

Josienbb is right.. if a bigger cage is but another 50-70 more you and the bird would be happier and you won't be spending more for a bigger cage down the road. Having an empty cage is dangerous….. just ask all the members here that filled those empty cages with another bird!

 

[chainsawbuddy]

Hi Revika! Just throwing my limited input here: my GCC baby is surprisingly quiet compared to, say, my budgies. He only 'screams' infrequently, and usually when the budgies are being too noisy for him. That may just be him, of course, and every bird is different, but he's a pretty quiet little guy. He vocalizes rather softly, even when miffed, although when he does he sounds like a cross between a drunk seagull and a pig.

 

[Revika]

Oh wonderful! Actually yes, one of my worries was about getting my hand all up in the cage space to change and clean the dishes. Maybe if I kept the food and water dish on the inside top door?

And I believe Beakers has a deal with Avianoutfitters (25% when buying a bird and cage from Beakers) but all the cages there seem ridiculously overpriced for what I could get at Amazon for the HQ Flight cage...

 

[JosienBB]

@JosienBB
I love your hawk head!!!

Thank you, Target is a sweetheart... sometimes

 

[Revika]

Managed to snag this off a sweet lady who owned an Umbrella Cockatoo and another medium-large parrot. She said it's only been used a few times. I saw it the other day and compared it to the stand I WAS going to get (obviously not even close in comparison to this thing!)

Made of madrone wood. Only issue I can see is that two of the branches may be uncomfortably thick for my future!conure to stay on but there are five other areas which it should find much more comfortable. I'm thinking I will wipe it down with hydrogen peroxide and a clean rag.

 

[SureAsNone]

Just to throw it out there: I know GCCs are considered "quiet" birds, but I know that River at least is still incredibly noisy when she wants to be. Although when she screams she is much quieter than my sun, my sun makes less noise in general. Soleil gets loud (typical Aratinga) when she wants something but is silent the rest of the time, whereas River chirps and chatters most of the day but is relatively quiet about it unless something sets her off.

In terms of nippiness, River has always been more beaky than nippy.

Good luck meeting the babies! There is nothing quite like a baby GCC to melt your heart

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

Crimson bellies are noisier than GCC…. and they are touted as quiet conures. Just not so!

 

[Revika]

I've had a quaker and from the numerous GCC vids, I can definitely say my quaker was much louder lol. But it'll depend on which one we pick tomorrow. I don't personally mind the chirps and such, we'll just have to be very upfront with our neighbors when we move (and when we have a better idea of how our own GCC's noise will be like on a general basis).

Thank you! I'm very excited. If they're anything like a lot of the GCCs I hear about around here, I'm probably going to cry from all the cute.

 

[Willow12]

My yellow sided GCC Archie he is quite more then my other 3 birds lol yes GCC can be nippy but they are a lot of fun too have!

 

[ilikebirds]

Yeah someone on another board suggested them to me and I looked them up and saw that they were an Aratinga and was like NOPE. Haha.

I've owned a quaker so I'm personally used to quite a high decibel level of squawk from the smaller parrots.

In terms of getting an adult bird vs breeder/young bird, it's also about whether or not they were hand raised like we know the breeder one will be. Also the fact that we know the breeder bird's history - for the bought adult (like say, from a pet store though I would loathe to get one from there unless under amazing circumstances) or from a craigslist ad, we have no idea if the bird was mistreated or what kind of situations happened to it in that home. When I got my quaker from a family, they didn't know the gender was female and said that she "had never laid eggs" and lo and behold it was because they had been feeding her nothing but seeds her whole life. Personally I'm very wary of getting a bird anywhere except from a breeder now (and this includes all animals I've previously owned, like my ferrets). If I were to get an adult (via adoption), I'd be nervous about training them out of bad behaviors they may have picked up in previous homes and whatnot.

---

@Mocking- Thank you for your input. There are quite a few Pyrrhura species I can consider!

even the most mistreated birds can make the most amazing friend
our ruby, an aratinga, was quite mistreated and neglected. she is the smartest, most snuggliest bird ever.
she has an inner dragon, and it is very fierce, but this is to be expected from time to time.

 

[Revika]

Sorry for the TERRIBLE pic. I zoomed in so as not to freak the GCCs out and still keep a distance.

I went and visited the GCCs that they had. One was a yellow sided male. More advanced than the other two since he had more 1v1 time with the lady and her husband for training, but he was very nippy without too much pressure, very testing everything, especially our hands. The other two were turquoise yellow sided male and female. The female was very laidback, calm and accepted pets very quickly. The male was shy and timid, but after talking to him for a little while, he became a bit more comfortable and seemed to really enjoy the scratches I was giving him. He was beaky, but only two times and applied a very firm pressure but not enough to leave bruises. I think that was mainly because he wasn't by all the activity. The lady was letting me get acquainted and was giving the rest of the birds in the room some treats at the time.

I decided to buy him vs the female and YSGCC. His right foot was pinched by one of the bigger birds a while back, so it looks a bit odd but he is able to make full use of it. I'll be home by him quite often so I'm fairly confident I'll be able to bring him out of his shell a bit. I should be picking him up next Saturday.

EDIT;
They were quite a bit older than I had expected also, which was why I thought I would be bringing one home in a couple months. But they were hatched in mid-October, so my Nokcha is a 6-month old!

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

Congratulations! You will enjoy him a lot! Once they learn they can trust you and allow you to give them scratches on the head and cheeks they get sucked in to the attention. When he goes through his first molt try to avoid helping those pin feathers out of their casings as the new feathers are tender at the base and you don't want to make him feel the scratches will hurt. They'll be quick to let you know!