# Green Cheek Conures.



## Asharee133 (Aug 30, 2009)

Hey, Im getting a little Green Cheek iin about 8 weeks, Anything i need to know about them? Their basic staple is fruit, and a constant supply of water and small bird seed, needs interaction and not get bored, thats basically all i know, oh and cages min of 16'' 16'' 18''


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## Asharee133 (Aug 30, 2009)

and post pics of yours too please


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## anntay (Aug 30, 2009)

lots of toys dont like being in cage all the time love fruit not oranges or things like oranges as they get the runs parrot pellets not seed. love showers baths. mine loved showering with me they will sit on the shower head and dip head down to get wet very smart.
lovely animals


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## DragonOwner (Aug 30, 2009)

Hi ash i own 2 green cheek conures probably going to get a male to pair up with my cinnamon female to breed birds again. I feed my guys small parrot seed,corn,beans,snow peas,broccli,cauliflower,capscium,soup mix that has lentils,barley and peas cook for un hour drain and raise and feed, they also get orange,apple,pear,banana,strawberry and mango. They grow to be about 10 inches total length. Rember to give them toys in there cage which you will find at the pet store, My guys seem to love toys with bells. Also put into the cage a natural tree branch as a perch as it will help keep the nails down. I find birds great to own there so much more interactive and love human attention. My two are quite happy to stay in there cage but also love there out time. My 2 will also eat millet and mealworms, I find green cheek conures are so easy to get to try new things. THere not scared,shy birds and will take on anything bigger then themselfs. There out going and are willing to hang out with you all day, at night time i cover there cage with a blanket or sheet to keep the cold draft away from them. I love my green cheek conures and will not part with them for anything. There clowns and will do anything for your attention, Mojo my normal will lay on her back in my hand she even allows we to grab her beak softly. She gives kisses and even makes kissing noises. They can be jealous birds and fight with one another for attention but since your getting 1 you don't need to worry about that. You will find he will do silly things to get your attention, MoJo always puts this sorten bell on her head then puts her foot on her head as in to scratch her head. Its quite funny. I will take some pictures of my birds cages tommorrow there due for a cleaning anyway. For the bottom of the cage i use newspaper its cheap and easy to change.Changed the newspaper every couple of days but if you want to be real clean changed it everyday. Valcum the floors every couple of days too. I also would not allow your bird to interact with your rats or even walk on your rats cages. Reason why is your rats could end up biting a toe off your bird and if this happens the toe will not grow back. Some pictures of my green cheek conures
MoJo









MaYa


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## Asharee133 (Aug 30, 2009)

haha DO you sucked me in for them  im getting the little one from joy too


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## Asharee133 (Aug 30, 2009)

and i know about the rats too, i had my rat cage accidentally near the budgie cage, the ******* ate halve of its leg and tore it open, it had maggots in its leg already, so we took him to the vets the get euthnaised  R.I.P tom thumb


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## Asharee133 (Aug 30, 2009)

Bump! need more info x] google aint too helpfull anymore


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## DragonOwner (Aug 30, 2009)

What do you wanna know? more specific questions would be helpfull.


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## DragonOwner (Aug 30, 2009)

Ash go into chat room.


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## Asharee133 (Aug 30, 2009)

Oops, musta deleted it, About the pellets, our pet shops dont stock them and mum wont buy offline -.- shes like, a diamond encased nut, bloody hard to crack


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## DragonOwner (Aug 30, 2009)

No need to feed pellets. its fine to feed small parrot seed.


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## Noongato (Aug 30, 2009)

Im waiting for the bird expo to come around again, so i can get my girl a friend. 
At the moment she's living with grass parrots, which i know mixing species isnt recommended but the grassies are totally in love with her and feed and pamper her. She sits back and enjoys the affection.


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## Asharee133 (Aug 30, 2009)

awesome my bf bought a budgie, its a bit demented (it does ***** and hangs upside down) and our budgie hamlet HAS a GF, and the new budgie was in my room, at dawn they wouldn't shut up, we put her in the avairy, hamlet adores her XD


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## PhilK (Aug 30, 2009)

My Archie is on page 1 of this thread.. few photos there. He is awesome.

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/other-animals-5363/do-u-like-birds-117672


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## PhilK (Aug 30, 2009)

DragonOwner said:


> No need to feed pellets. its fine to feed small parrot seed.


Don't listen to that. No bird ANYWHERE should be fed pure seed diets (except seed eating birds of course).

Green cheeks need a balanced and complete parrot diet (pellets are great for this) plus regular fruit and veg. Seeds are OK as a tiny part of the diet, treat or occasional snack but do not feed seeds only.


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## Miss_Juno (Aug 31, 2009)

I've given up on the small seed for our 18 month old girl. She just refuses to eat it. I've started buying the seed mix that doesn't have the millet in it or I end up tipping it out each time. I also buy a trail mix (nuts and dried fruit) and add it to her seed mix. She goes nuts over the stuff.

Make sure there is always fresh fruit and vegies available. I bought a metal kebab stick from the pet store (can't remember what they are called but they sell them for birds and small mammals) and keep that stocked up every day for her. 

They will pretty much eat anything we eat but make sure to never feed them apple seeds or avocado. It's lethal to them.

I tried to find a picture of her but they mustn't be on this computer. Basically have a look at DragonOwner's photos and that's what our girl looks like. Unless they are a variation, they pretty much all look the same!

They're an awesome little bird. Not big talkers but ours has learnt to copy whistles and goes crazy, whistling out to us if we come home and don't go and speak to her right away.


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## miss2 (Aug 31, 2009)

PhilK said:


> Don't listen to that. No bird ANYWHERE should be fed pure seed diets (except seed eating birds of course).
> 
> 
> 
> i think u will find if u read the rest of dragon owners posts they also included a great description of the rest of the diet they require and were not recomending the bird be fed seed only at all.....


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## DragonOwner (Aug 31, 2009)

If seeds are bad then why iare my birds so healthy, I've tryed the pellets and my birds lost weight there feathers went a dull colour. My guys are not feed just seed they get fresh fruit and veggies everyday. I don't think they would find pellets out in the wild, Out in the wild they will be eatting a wild range of seeds,nuts,fruits,plants,insects. Pellets are human made not natural food for them.\, Also when i gave my birds pellets they weren't keen on them kept throwing them on the floor. If you say its because they never had pellets when young they did. I hand reared my MoJo and from 4 weeks i started introducing food to her pellets,seed,fruit and veggies, She always ate the seed and picked at the pellets and loved her fruit and veggies. Ash i would listen to Joy she has breed alot birds and knows what is best, I dare say she will say seed is fine to feed. If anyone comes to see my MoJo they will know how well i care for my birds. My MoJo feathers are like velvet to the touch so her diet is working for her. My MoJo weighs 70grams, there weight ranges from 60 to 90 grams anymore then that there over weight.


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## Asharee133 (Aug 31, 2009)

thanks a heap! we have the fruit kebabs at the pet shop, so ill buy one when the little one gets to come home, got my licence today too!


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## DragonOwner (Aug 31, 2009)

Heres a picture of my cages i have maYa and MoJo in. People amy think there small buts its plenty of room. My birds also spend plenty of time outside there cages in my room.


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## jacorin (Aug 31, 2009)

midnite,
do u mean the Orange bird sale????? if so its not on till nxt yr,im sure u could find sum1 now if u wanted to find a mate eh


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## PhilK (Aug 31, 2009)

DragonOwner said:


> If seeds are bad then why iare my birds so healthy, I've tryed the pellets and my birds lost weight there feathers went a dull colour. My guys are not feed just seed they get fresh fruit and veggies everyday.


Sorry I didn't notice your comment on the fruit and veges. Birds that are fed seeds as a staple part of their diet may look healthy but they are not. They usually die much younger than they should and on post mortem have fatty liver and varying degrees of renal failure. There's no debating it I'm afraid, it's fact.



> I don't think they would find pellets out in the wild, Out in the wild they will be eatting a wild range of seeds,nuts,fruits,plants,insects. Pellets are human made not natural food for them.


You won't find frozen/thawed rodents out in the wild either but you feed your snakes that (assuming you have snakes). You won't find commercially made cat and dog food out in the wild, and I bet you feed your cats and dogs that. You won't find horse pellets out in the wild but horses are regularly fed that... I could go on. Your birds aren't in the wild so don't use the "natural diet" argument. I doubt they eat sunflower or wheat in the wild anyway.. Pellets are made by humans, yes. For birds. This is a good thing not a bad thing - they have a complete and balanced diet in them.



> I hand reared my MoJo and from 4 weeks i started introducing food to her pellets,seed,fruit and veggies, She always ate the seed and picked at the pellets and loved her fruit and veggies.


My Archie was hand reared too but only ever fed seeds alone. When we got him we gave him only pellets and he eventually ate them. We do mix in seeds for a treat with his pelleted diet and he picks them out first, because they're the yummy junk food, but he eats the rest of it too. That or he starves! (But he doesn't)

I'm afraid it's just a fact that seed diets are not good for captive parrots/parakeets (I think the recommendation is no more than 10% for any birds, except seed eaters like budgies and even then it's only 25%). They are high in fat and lacking in many important elements/nutrients, in fact probably every nutrient haha.. The first thing we get told by every avian veterinarian who comes in to lecture us, especially on nutrition, is NOT to seed feed birds. By all means give them some seeds for their enjoyment but they should most definitely not be the _major_ part of their diet, just like Maccas shouldn't be the major part of our diets. Nutrition related problems are the leading cause for birds being brought into vets, and these are almost solely due to seed based diets.. Just saying what I've been taught by professionals in the field, feel free to disregard 

Some references for interest:
Parrot Diet and Nutrition Basics
Are Pellets or Seeds Better for Parrots? | QuakerParrots.com
Parrot Diet
The Importance of Avian Nutrition (lengthy but by an avian vet, and very informative)
Formulated Bird Diet

I could go on but this post is long enough. The Veterinary Information Network is down and I haven't paid my membership to the Aust. Veterinary Assoc. this year, but I'll try and find some of their articles for you too. Maybe I can locate some stuff from the veterinary journal too.

Cheers
Phil


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## Asharee133 (Aug 31, 2009)

We have had our budgies and cocatiels on nothing but seed, they are healthy and about 6 years old


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## PhilK (Aug 31, 2009)

Asharee133 said:


> We have had our budgies and cocatiels on nothing but seed, they are healthy and about 6 years old


These are primarily seed eating birds in the wild and so can handle a seed based diet much better, but as you will see in the links above even they are recommended to have no more than 25% seeds in the diet. Sprouted seeds are a good alternative too!


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## DragonOwner (Aug 31, 2009)

Phil if thats the case i took my MoJO in the vet once just for a genral check up there was another green cheek conure there that was feed primary pellets. There vet in turned ask the vet i was seeing what i feed my girl and i told them. Apartly there bird was lacking nutrience and vitamins, I've kept in contact with this lady since feeding her green cheek conure seed,fresh fruit and veggies it is now completely healthy. The vet even said My moJo is very healthy and correct weight and size for a green cheek. She did tests theres nothing wrong with her liver or organs. I know the breeder ash is getting her green cheek off she has been breeding birds for quite a while and has always feed seed to her birds. All i'm saying is not every bird will accept pellets even if you strave them, birds can be stubborn. Every person who has meet me and my birds even vets say my birds are completely healthy, I've had vets say that pellets are known to have plastic in them. ONe vet was meanting a case he had were a bird came in from eatting pellets with plastic in its stomach she also brought the bag in and they did tests and found half the bag had plastic in the pellets. I'm not even going to bother trying to explain i know my birds are completely healthy and well kept and looked after.


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## imalizard (Aug 31, 2009)

It's really a personal choice if you feed pellets or if you feed seed. There is pros and cons for both. If you get a good quality pellets they can be very good for your birds but if you get bad quality, the pellets can lack nutritional value. Same with the seed.

Both can be bad if they are the only food fed. Even for seed eating budgies an all seed or all pellet diet can be bad. If you regularly include plant matter and a bit of insects you will get very healthy birds.


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## miss2 (Aug 31, 2009)

"You won't find frozen/thawed rodents out in the wild either but you feed your snakes "
lol sorry haha such a true point


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## miss2 (Aug 31, 2009)

You won't find frozen/thawed rodents out in the wild either but you feed your snakes "

lol sorry such a true point, i can just see these little thawed rats sitting nicely on a plate...on a stump lol


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## DragonOwner (Aug 31, 2009)

All i'm saying is seed has been around much much longer then pellets. The pellets i have tyes were vetafarm which is meant to be top quailty the lady that also owned the green cheek that lacked nutrience also used vetafarm plus another brand i forget what it was called. Plus i don't own snakes never will not my type of animal. I believe one person also said that freezing removes some of the nutrience and vitamins in the rodents. I've just had nothing but problems feeding pellets so this is why i'm sticky with seed.


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## PhilK (Sep 1, 2009)

You do what you think is right DragonOwner. If you believe it is still the right thing to do in the face of all that scientific evidence, nothing will sway your choice. As you say, if your birds are healthy and happy that's what matters.

PS all the info I've been talking about is a seed only diet. The birds you see in petshops for example with nothing but a giant bowl of seeds... you feed your birds fruit and veges, so they're not on a seed only diet. The fruit and veges will go some way to help supplement the rubbish nutrition seeds provide.


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## Asharee133 (Sep 1, 2009)

bump come on show some pics , quakers too


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## DragonOwner (Sep 1, 2009)

Aqua my blue quaker


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