Separation anxiety + not touching toys

[Grim]

Hi all,
I recently adopted a green cheek conure a few weeks back who I love and adore. She's very sweet and spunky and is settling in nicely. Loves scratches. My biggest issue with her right now is that she screams when I leave the room or don't give her enough attention frequently. I've tried offering her things to chew and play with, but none of the toys seem to catch her interest. She seems more scared of them than anything. I've offered her a tray of shredded paper and food and she doesn't really forage around in it too much. Is there anything I can do? I want her to be comfortable and calm when I'm away, and I definitely don't want to go insane lol. I don't know if I trust her with other birds, as she does NOT like my budgies!

 

[patchyjoon]

Couple questions, is she clipped? Does she have favorite treats? How old is she? Has she had other owners?

When I first got Patchy (Dusky Conure) he also didn't play with toys and wasn't really independent, like at all. The store also clipped him.

In regard to the independence/separation anxiety, this is normal. Birds are not meant to be alone; they are flock animals. Perhaps when you have to leave her, leave her caged near the budgies so she's not completely alone. For me, Patchy is a lone bird but we are home 24/7 and he's out of his cage for the entire day. What also helped with his general confidence/separation anxiety is being able to fly. Gosh, it took a long time (almost a year) but after he became able to fly, I've never seen a more confident and less anxious bird.

For the toys, the way I got Patchy to enjoy his toys is:

A) provide a gigantic variety (his cages look like a huge smorgasbord of a bunch of different toys and types, they like options. Make it look like a mad scientist factory) and

B) hide treats in all the toys. I'm not sure if you're aware of her favorite snack yet, but Patchy would probably commit heinous crimes for a safflower seed. What I ended up doing is hiding safflower seeds and nutriberries in his toys. Try to buy toys that have holes/pockets for hiding treats. Basically, every time he played with a toy it was positive reinforcement for him. Like yay, if I play with this toy, I get a treat. Now I hide a lot less treats and he still plays with them.

C) Playing with the toys myself. The way I introduce all toys to Patchy is I lay them out on the table and start playing with them myself, it entices him and he starts getting curious what I'm doing and why I'm so interested in the toys. Playing with them is a great way to get them motivated.

Also, I meant to mention, younger babies like softer woods. So, if she's <1 year, maybe opting for more softer woods like balsa could entice her more. As she grows older, she'll naturally want harder woods.

 

[Rebel]

I can only speak for my two conures.
Conures are incredibly needy. They seem to need attention all the time. Theyre very intelligent and social so its understandable.
I havent found a toy yet that will keep their attention for very long but will give you a couple ideas at the end of this post.
I have cameras on my birds when i leave the house. For the most part the conures will settle down and quit screaming when they cant hear you somewhere in the house.
Youre wise not to trust her around other birds. Theyre incredibly fast and can do big damage to other birds especially smaller ones. One of my cockatiels almost lost their toe when they landed on the conures cage. Some people have luck with conures and other birds but i myself dont trust them.
Here are a couple toys that they play with the most.

 

[Rebel]

And as patchyjoon mentioned, block of balsa are good too.

 

[Mizzely]

I would offer "easy" toys - paper, balsa, sola, etc. The easy win can make it feel more fun. And yeah, adding a favorite treat definitely helps! In fact, if you can, try to switch as much of his food to foraging as you can. This will help with boredom, get his brain working, etc. Try to clip toys to the side of the cage or drape them on a perch to help them not swing around as much. Sometimes the movement makes them hesitant to investigate.

A lot of it is going to be trial and error. They are hard wired to not want to be alone. Is she in a room by herself when you leave? Can you turn on music or white noise?