New GCC,advise please.

[fluffy_stitch]

hi,i am going to be picking up my new gcc sometime in the next couple of days and am looking for some advise on how to go about taming him/her,are they hard to tame birds like my ringneck jodi was??i have her almost a year and she still isnt very tame,she just tolerates stepping up to go in or out of her cage and will only come to me if i have a treat for her,i am hoping this bird will be one that enjoys being handled and stroked a bit more than jodi,it isnt a hand reared bird,i have also read that they can become nippy at times too,thanks for any advise.

[Anneka]

Please visit Pampered Peeps website. They have some excellent advice there, articles and tips on how to tame/train green cheeks.

[PowerBBS]

Not that I'm trying to disway you from a GCC. But you should be informed that one of the well known traits of a Green Cheek Conure (or any Pyhurra) is that they can become very "nippy". This nippy nature can make it a bit hard to do some training. Of course there is always a possibility that your GCC will be one of the exceptions. However, if you even search this form, you'll find 100's of posts that talk about a GCC gone "wild" and nippy.

Also they're not very well known for their talking ability. Their vocalizations are typically only those of short words and usely only a few. They can learn to mimic other noises quite readily though. (Of course there is no guarantee that any parrot will talk ever... and you're decision to buy shouldn't be dependant on talking of course).

Our Green Cheek lacks any patience for training. We've had him for almost 2 and 1/2 years now and we work with him daily. But so far, he's words are only "baby", "love your" and "what". He makes kissy noises, clicking noises and can actually really be a screamer when ignored. He can easily be heard from any room in our house.

He's potty trained. That is; he flys to either his play gym or his cage to poop and then returns. This took about two weeks of constant training (as they poop roughtly once every 15 minutes).

Besides that... there's not much else we've had success "training". He used to step up, but now he's very nippy towards me and will bite (to the point of bleeding and missing skin) me rather than step up. He'll let the misses do more, but not much. He'll snuggle with you sometimes... but don't touch him... chomp!

Anyhow... the only main thing I wanted to note to you is that it's a well known trait that a GCC can be very "nippy" and that's putting it kindly in my case.

[Xen]

I think getting a hand raised baby you probably have the best chance of getting a baby that likes to cuddle and be scritched, but if you put in the time and patience there's no reason your parent raised baby won't be just as affectionate... it'll just take time.

My sun was parent raised and wasn't that keen on me to start with, but she saw me interacting with my GCC and I sat and spoke to her every single day and gave her the opportunity to come to me if she wanted. She started by flying to my arm or shoulder when I called her from across the room and now she tries to feed me and lets me stroke and scratch her all over. Today she had fun jumping through my hands and then rolling onto her back.... if she done this once, she done it 50 times. She's my best buddy.

You'll get the most lovable little bird depending on how much time and patience you want to put in. Hope it all works out.

[rockybird]

I guess it will depend on how tame the bird already is. I got my gcc as a baby. He went through the nippy stage. I was able to train him out of it, but this is because he only wants to be with me, and I would walk away from him if he nipped. He hasnt bitten or nipped in years now. He is a snuggle bug and loves to snuggle and have his head scratched.

I do think that your best bet might be a baby. You can train a young bird to do a lot. But if this bird is young, or if he/she is already tame, or really takes to you, it may not matter. I have read on this board about people getting gcc's that were untame and that really took to the new owner.

[PowerBBS]

Originally Posted by Xen

... My sun was parent raised and wasn't that keen on me to start with, but she saw me interacting with my GCC and I sat and spoke to her every single day and gave her the opportunity to come to me if she wanted. She started by flying to my arm or shoulder when I called her from across the room and now she tries to feed me and lets me stroke and scratch her all over. Today she had fun jumping through my hands and then rolling onto her back.... if she done this once, she done it 50 times. She's my best buddy ...

Oh don't think I mean all conures, just the pyhurra are known for being very nippy. Our Sun - Autumn - she's my girl. We had hand fed (seringe(sp?)) her for two weeks before finalizing the weaning when we got her. She's my ANGEL. If all birds were like her, we'd have 100's more! She'll cuddle, kiss, play and love you to death! The most social bird in our flock.

I'm glad to hear there's another SUN out there just as loving as our Autumn. I've been told that Sun's are typically more efffectionate than GCC (or other pyhurra's) and my own personal experience supports that.

[Anneka]

Power BBS, excellent post on GCCs.

[Xen]

Power BBS, I do agree on GCC's

Poppy, my GCC was very temperamental and that change did seem to happen overnight. Because of that I'd say fluffy has the best chance with a hand raised baby, being able to set boundaries... which I think is probably what I lacked with Poppy.
She had stepping up figured out and she came to me when called... she just decided it was often more fun to nip than do it.

So we pretty much have the same opinion...

[fluffy_stitch]

i dont really mind if they talk or not,jodi can sort of say hello and she does a funny wolf whistle but i never really tried to train her to talk,i will have to think about the biting but i am pretty patient,i wish i could get a hand raised baby too but the only hand raised birds that are really available here are usually greys or amazons or other very expensive birds,i know of one person who says he can get almost any kind of bird shipped over from england but i dont want to buy a bird that i cant see first,thanks for the advise,Chris.

[Icednova625]

I'd like to add that gc's pack a pretty hard bite for their little stature. First time I got chomped by mine, I was like dam that hurt.

Pretty much, maybe not the case 100% of the time, but if your going after a pyrrhura, your going to have to deal with getting bit on occasion. Even if you do train it, I have a feeling a parent raised would be quite the little nipper.