Parrot questions (Picture)

[Guinea Goonie]

We have a blue and gold and a Umbrella Cockatoo. We keep them in a room with a view, a heater and a

dehumidifier going at all times.

The heat is especially important and the dehumidifier keep the fungus and such down from thier feed and

surroundings.

We close the door and turn off the lights at 8 pm and they awake to sunlight in the morning.

Parrots are not usually "morning" birds and they really need about 12 hours of sleep every day.

If your parrot is a Zygodactyl (you can google it; this is the correct spelling) which I think your parrot is,

then he/she will need to have the toes cliped or filed down regular.

I can do my U2, but the B and G is a vet only thing. You can clip the wings (The b and g is, but not the U2) to

keep her from flying in the house. Parrots require fresh food and water every day and MOST just LOVE attention.

 

[spectrumranch]

If he is 3 years olds then, I would say a Sunday (Sun conure x Jenday conure cross).

Jendays have solid green shoulders and usually not as much red/orange around the eyes as your bird.

Here is one of our Jendays, sorry I dont have a better photo.

We have raised a lot of Sun Conures, they are more yellow than what your bird is. Baby sun conures first feather out with a lot of green, but normally loose that by the time they are a year old.

Here is a pair of Suns:

 

[BlackBart]

Wow looks like a Sun Conure they are beautiful and expensive, at least they used to be.
I had a Mitred Conure for over 30 years, same size as yours. A true Parrot because the the flesh around the eyes. Never knew if Louie was a male or female but I guessed a male.
Mine liked to be covered at night and when he wanted the cover off he let you know.
Louie talked, not well. His screams would interfere with the phone tranmission and if you happen to be near him when he screamed your ears would ring.
Louie was very loving, smart and loyal. Parrot vitamins are a absolute must they can become deficient in Vitamin D
He would crawl around on the trees ouside if you took him gardening with you. When he went in the car he would recognize the landscape as we got close to home and get excited.
He got along with the dogs and cats but was hard on the houseplants.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:
All Parrots are Zygodactyl. What sets them apart is that they have 4 toes configured in 2 opposing pairs (2 pointing front and 2 pointing back).

Whether to cover the bird at night kind of also depends on the bird. I have a Cockatiel and had a Quaker and both of them wanted a small night light on. Otherwise they would not be quiet at night. However if they got too noisey during the day a dark cover for a few minutes and problem solved.

Also when you buy food for your VERY PRETTY bird put it in the freezer for at least 24 hours. this will help reduce the chance of bugs etc in the feed (and it happens with even the best food). We store our bird food in the freezer and that helps to keep it fresh.

 

[SandyK]

Can you find out what kind of diet the bird has been on? If not, a pelleted diet along with fresh fruits and veggies is best. Sunflower seeds and peanuts are a no no because of the high fat content. I do give my three big parrots, Umbrella, B&G, and Grey, nuts in the shell like almonds, walnuts pecans etc. Now is a great time of year to get them. He wouldn''t probably be able to get the shelled ones open, but shelled are fine to add to their diet. Ours also eat leftovers from the table. My Grey asks for pizza ;-)

If he is used to being covered at night, cover him. Mine aren't covered. My daughter has a Sun and he likes to sleep in one of the sleep buddy beds that hang in the cage. So cute. They love toys and need things to chew on to keep them entertained.

Lots of good bird forums out there for information too.

 

[Melissakins]

Awesome

We have two B&G's, a Quaker and two Parrolet's...

We have a bedroom that we turned into "the bird room" where the two big Macaw's stay, the quaker is in the living room and the 'lets are Hubby's office (he works from home) During the day if the weather is nice, the 'Lets are outside in their cage.

Parrots love interacting with people as they are a flock animal. I offer all of mine pellets, seeds (no sunflowers), a birdie bowl (a layered container with dry pasta, frozen veggies, cut up baked sweet potato, fresh fruit and a cook and serve layer on top) and fresh water daily. The chickens get what is leftover from the birdie bowl on a daily basis and absolutely go nuts over it. What the parrots don't eat from their seed bowl, I recycle outside to the wild birds/squirrels. The big parrots all get in-shell nuts.

Two of the parrots sleep in carriers - a cat carrier for the quaker and a dog carrier for one of the B&G's. Curley one of the B&G's came to us two years ago and sleeps covered up in her cage at night. They all have the same bedtime - between 7 and 7:30 - later on weekends.

There's a couple places that have awesome deals on pelleted diets and seed, if you're interested, I can PM you their info. I've never had a problem buying from them. If it's permissable, I'll post their info here for other parronts......

Cookie and Curley

 

[raroo]

Sigh... I'm green with envy over everyone's beautiful parrots.

 

[Abby's mom]

In my younger years

i remember a family friend that used the pelvic bone as a way to sex his birds... he could feel the abdomen of the bird and tell ... he was a breeder and had a ton of knowledge he has passed now but i am sure someone knows this method

 

[Melissakins]

There's some wives tales on ways to determine the sex of your bird without having to do it through DNA or by surgically sexxing the bird, one is to watch how they sit on the perch, if a parrots has a wide stanced set of their legs, then supposedly it's a hen, some say by the head size, etc.

The only ones we know for sure that are male/female are the parrotlets, The males have more coloring to their feathers - blue in this case around their eyes and on his wings, the female has very little blue. In Budgies, their nares are blue if they're male. In the Eclectus, the males are Green and Females are Red/Scarlett in color.

Macaws/Quakers, etc you can either have a toenail clipped (blood), a blood feather plucked or have a sample of blood drawn or knock 'em out and have them surgically sexed or wait til they're sexually mature. If you have an egg in the bottom of your cage, you know it's a girl

Thus far, none of my birds other than the Finches we used to have have laid eggs, that includes my Parrotlet hen.

I do think that Curley (the one on the right) is female and Cookie - on the left and my quaker are male. That's my opinion

I could be wrong and if I am, that's fine.

Cookie crows if he thinks he's going to get a snack. I taught him that before we even had chickens LOL I always say do you want a rooster snack? He starts crowing...or I'll say where's the rooster??? and he'll crow.

 

[thebritt]

We use very dark colored sheets, doulbled over. Please do your research. That helps reduce or eliminate unwanted bevaviors and diet complications.
Their sense of smell is minimal, just don't feed it the onions! They love bits of fresh fruit - bananas, apples, oranges, etc, and mine loves orange juice. No avocados! Read up and have fun!