Bought a 5 month old Conure today, what to do?

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Bought a 5 month old Conure today, what to do?

by Amanda H
(New Castle, Delaware)

So I was with my grandmother today at the pet store getting dog food and she went to go see the birds. and there was a Green Cheeked Conure that has been there for a while. Well, long story short, we ended up getting him for my mother.

We bought the cage and everything today, except some toys we're going to get them tomorrow, but how do I introduce Otto ( the Conure) to me and my mom. He wouldn't let me take him from the carrier box so I held it up and let him climb in the cage. The whole ride home I talked to him, and every time I've gone into the room when my Mom isn't there. He's not much of a talker. He's stayed in one part of the corner for the most part, getting on one of his perches every once and a while, right now he is dozing off in his bed. The people at the pet store told us he was shy, but he was really sweet. I just want to know how to go about introducing him and socializing him so he doesn't end up like the older one we have right now

Right now we have a 11-13 year old Green Cheeked Conure and a Cockatiel that we rescued. The Cockatiel, Sun Shine is sociable and will let you hold her, she's just a little skittish. The Conure Stitches is a wonderful mess, he'll whistle, make kiss sounds,talks to News papers, and can say his name, but he if you hold him he goes on a mission to bite, and when I say bite I mean breaking the skin drawing blood and leaving a total of 6 scars on my hand so far. I don't give him a reaction when he does it, so he doesn't think of it as a reward, but I don't want Otto to end up like that.

So if any of this has made any sense any help help or comments would be awesome, I just found this site a few minutes ago so I'm not really sure if its ok to post this here.
Thank you.

Comments for
Bought a 5 month old Conure today, what to do?

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Jul 31, 2011

New conure
by: Tracie

Yes, this is the place to ask questions. :-)

Give the bird a few days to get used to it's new environment. Sit by the cage and talk sweetly to the bird, offer healthy treats through the bars, even just sitting in a chair near the cage reading a book will help the bird get to know you and see you are not there to hurt it.

From there, you let the bird set the rules. As the bird gets comfortable with you putting your hand in the cage etc. you can start holding the bird. Some birds are cage territorial, and you have to let them climb out of the cage and then pick them up. (My conures were that way, they will bite HARD if we stick our hands in the cage.)

We have some training material on our Parrot Training page that will be helpful to you. We have information there on nutrition and please read the Switching Birds to Pellets article too.

Many birds from pet stores are sick, but some pet stores do take their birds to avian vets for examinations. If the pet store you purchased from did not make sure your bird was healthy before selling it to you, then I suggest you Find an Avian Vet for your bird to make sure it is healthy before trying to switch the diet or training it.

Congratulations on your new bird!!

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