Lovebird or conure??

[babilonian]

hi everyone,

I was thinking of getting a lovebird, but i know they have biting problems and if you don't work with them all the time, its easy for them to become wild. I was looking at other options and came across marooned bellied canures. I've done little reading about them and I was woundering if anyone is willing to give me some advise.

I've never had birds except for a canary. I was woundering if they are ok for a condo and are easy to train and bitting??i'm really worried about bitting...are they known to have this problem?

Thanks for the help

[Alyx]

Hi Babilonian,
I've never known a conure that didn't go through a nippy stage at some point in their life, but I suspect there may be exceptions. You may be better off going with a slightly older bird that may have already been through it. As for living in a condo, are you worried about the noise or is there some other consideration? Some conures are very loud, but definatley not the loudest. I can here my Green Cheek Conure several houses away in the summer when the windows are open. Most conures take to training very well depending on your goal and how high you set the bar. I've seen videos of conures running agility courses much like you see at a dog show, but I've yet to hear of somebody 100% potty training there bird.
Hope that helps : )

[expressmailtome]

You are right that lovebirds are nippy. This is very true for females. They tend to be very territorial. I have never owned a conure though.

Matt

[Parrotpeople]

Our green cheek never really was too nippy & certainly never bit hard enough to leave any lasting impression. She also talks quite well & is very playful. I don't know much about love birds.

[expressmailtome]

I know lovebirds very well. They can be very sweet, however if they want to I promise you that they can draw blood. Like I said they can be very sweet and loving. It just depends on the situation. The majority of problems with them come from cage aggression with females. I personally love them, they are just very fiesty.

Matt

[babilonian]

my brother had a male lovebird and it never bits, but i know others that had them and they bite realy hard.

[dawnkyung]

My green cheek can definitely give a good hard bite if she's so inclined, and when she was a really young baby (she's still a baby) there were a few nights were I was in tears (more so because I was hurt emotionally and didn't know why she was biting) from a good nip.

With that said, once we got through that, she is much better. I'm sure she'll go through another phase, but the key is to be consistent. Any bird that you get has the potential to give a good bite, although green cheeks kind of have a reputation. In my opinion, it can be trained out with time and consistency and the result is a wonderful companion!

Aki (my green cheek) is also surprisingly quiet. She hardly ever screams - 95% of the time if she's making any noise at all it's little croaks and chirps. My cockatiel is WAY louder and is actually teaching her how to call out (doh!). My tiel is very laid back and not nippy at all, but man he can screech. I guess it's a trade off, lol.

[Flappuccino]

My lovie is female, VERY rarely bites, but is pretty vocal.

My gcc is of unknown gender, rarely bites, and is almost silent. He can say a few phrases, and he mumbles alot, but generally very quiet.

Birds= bites (once in a while). If you're that scared of getting bitten, don't get a bird. It would be sad for you to get one, fall in love with eachother, get bitten, and then never get it out of it's cage or re-home it.

[JNS]

I had a lovie when I was a bit younger and she was definately more vocal than my Sun Conure, and that's saying something. I find that our conure is only vocal a few times a day but our lovebird was constantly chirping away. She was friendly, but nothing compared to our Conure. Granted, she's bitten me a few times but I guess that comes with the territory of owning any bird. One thing I've learned from my wife is that you have to handle several birds before making a decision on one. We want to purchase an African Grey when I get out of the service and today we played with a CAG and a TAG and I was convinced from that experience alone that you have to let a bird choose you, not the other way around.

[tabooh]

To be honest with you both can be nippy in general, as long as you provide enough attention and training you should be fine with either breed of bird.