Newbi help required

[Wayne Morris]

hello all

I have just purchased and in hand raising ( and before you all jump on me or the breeder who sold them to me. I have had many buggies in the past in a aviary situation as a young boy but left every thing up to natural section) ( also the breed spent a few hrs with me going over how to feed and other issues and I feed a couple of his clutches while there and we also talk over Facebook and message. He also offered at the time that if I ever can’t keep the birds no matter what age he would bye the birds back, or if I was having trouble he would take them back to get them up to straight )

Anyway I have two beautiful green Conures 1 female pineapple and 1 yellow side which maybe be male. But brother and sister. not interested in breeding not for money anyway.

But what I want help with was how to home the birds

So looking for some

Original my idea of buying two birds was that they could keep each other company while I’m at work.


So was thinking that they would hang out and keep each other company till my daughter gets home from school to but then back in there cage for the night.


But now maybe if I want to train them it it better to keep them separate till we get them trained to a good level of target stick training or can this be achieved with them living together


So my question is should I keep them in separate cages, separate rooms and only train one at a time or can the cages be in the same room


If yes to all the above can they hang out in a neutral room while there is no one in the house so they are not board


Or can I just take them to a separate room to train


The welfare of my babies as you can see is very important to me

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Toua]

They can be in the same cage but keep training separate

 

[Wayne Morris]

They can be in the same cage but keep training separate

So they live together and just go to a separate area to be trained separately.

 

[Jas]

I too have a sibling pair who share a double flight cage and I train them both at the the same time, no problems.

 

[Wayne Morris]

Oh this is great news

 

[Toua]

How cute! And yes, I would train them separately but that is MY personal opinion

 

[TikiMyn]

My lovies share the room(no cage) and I train them together too. The only problem I have is there is a bit of rivalery sometimes during training. If that happens you could teach them to station(stay on a certain perch when asked). I use two training perches now, and when I work with one of them the other stations

 

[Jas]

My lovies share the room(no cage) and I train them together too. The only problem I have is there is a bit of rivalery sometimes during training. If that happens you could teach them to station(stay on a certain perch when asked). I use two training perches now, and when I work with one of them the other stations

I do that too

 

[Monica]

I agree with keeping them together and training them together. Sometimes, when one bird has a difficulty time grasping something, you can train the other bird to do the behavior, and the first one, watching the second, learns to do the behavior simply by watching. Monkey see, monkey do.

 

[Wayne Morris]

Thanks guys I’m over the moon that I can both train them and keep them together. As the latter is very important to me as the las t thing I want is a depressed bird on my hands.

And I sure they will keep each other happy while I’m out.

Although when I got home today from Just going out to get the shopping was amazing( first time birds have been alone since I got them last week)
What a surprise as I have been trying to encourage them out with food. But they were so happy I was back that they just ran out of the cage.

 

[Wayne Morris]

So next question these birds are 5/6 week mark and are about to fledge. How much weight will they loose. And what is an exceptable range. As I can’t find anything on the net.

Yesterday they started to eat pellets food banana and fresh corn. So I cut there food back to 3 times a day

They have been putting on roughly 2gms a day since I got them. Except Zac on the first night lost a few gms ( I guess due to stress of being moved )

Thanks

 

[TikiMyn]

@melissasparrots knows I think

 

[melissasparrots]

I don't breed conures so I can't tell you how much they loose from experience. All the species I've raised will lose anywhere from 10%-25% of their body weight. The text book answer that is often quoted on pet forums is 10% but I find that often a low number. Sometimes fat babies loose more than skinny babies. Sometimes a certain baby will become so obsessed with flying that it won't want to eat much and even when offering multiple small feedings, will still refuse most of what is offered, drop weight like crazy and then wake up one morning desperate for food and beg for hand-feeding like crazy for a few days and finally level off. Weaning can be a scary time for the inexperienced because a baby that is starting to get sick can do some of the same stuff as a normal but stubborn healthy baby.

 

[melissasparrots]

Also, just as an aside, if there is any question that you might have a male and female, personally, I'd keep them in separate cages unless you are VERY sure of your ability to throw away any eggs that might be laid later. A lot of people can't make themselves throw away eggs that might be fertile. Either the temptation to raise just one clutch is high or the ethical dilemma of throwing away fertile eggs gets to them. Brothers and sisters should never, ever be allowed to succeed in making babies. Not even just once ever. I'd get the questionable baby sexed. If you have two sisters, or two brothers and they get along then I see no problem with keeping them together. If, they are different sexes and you simply must give them a cage mate, and especially if you have even the slightest temptation to breed someday in the future, I'd get them unrelated mates as cage mates. That way you won't be a party to dumping inbred babies into the pet trade that might have a lower life span and possibly break someone's heart some day down the road when their pet dies from poor breeding.