2009-02-14 • by Administrator

Conures, commonly known as "parakeets" are active, lively, bold and loosely packed group of small to medium sized parrots. They are usually found in the western hemisphere, particularly in Central and South America. Conures are mostly known for their clown like behavior, playfulness, high-pitched screech, ability to talk a word or two, dancing, etc. Available in the price ranges of $400-$700, conures such as Blue Crown Conures, Nandays and Gold caps tend to be really sweet and amusing birds to pet. Most of the species live in a group of around 20 or more birds and have a potential lifespan of 25 – 35 years in general!

Species of conures include Pantagonian Conure, Yellow Eared Conure, Nanday Conure, Slender-Billed and Austral Conure, Carolina Parakeet, Golden Conure, etc. All of them are lightly built, small sized, have long tails, strong beaks and come with a diverse range of colors such as brilliant yellow, oranges and reds.

Given toys, they would clown around with it, screech in anger, dance, hang upside down and most fascinating of all, they can be trained to speak few words! Due to their playful nature, they can often play dead, lie on their backs and hang from a finger. They can also be made to learn few simple tricks like greeting a person by a one legged wave or bringing a bunch of keys, etc.

Apart from these, the conures have some serious behavioral problems such as biting, screaming, feather plucking and jealousy.  The screaming is more evident in the case of “little-macaws”, whose behavior is quite mischievous at the same time too.

Some species of conures such as the green-cheek and sun conures have also seen to favor one person over another. This is a complaint from most of the people and the only solution to this problem is to socialize with the bird properly, else in the worst case, the bird might even attack others except for its most favored person. Thus, the bird has to be grown up and trained properly and taken around to meet several people. This helps in controlling this problem. These birds are social in nature and therefore think of the person owning them as a family member.

However, along with this nature, arises jealousy. Conures can get extremely jealous over other people or pets. They even tend to get aggressive in few cases. Laying down rules and guidelines while growing them up would solve this problem. The Greater Pantagonian Conure on the other hand, bonds with different people very easily, are easy to train and thus make a great pet!

For their proper growth, a balanced diet along with proper hygiene is required. The personal hygiene includes its morning bath everyday. The diet includes parrot mix, cereals, green foods, fruits, etc. There also exist some potential problems for the conures to be affected by diseases like aspergillos - a respiratory infection, eye infections, cold and sinus infections. They can be potentially dangerous to the birds if not treated by an avian veterinarian doctor.