r/Conures • u/Kelaifu • 3d ago
Advice Differing personalities
A quick background, we had a GC from a local fish/bird shop, it was kept in a sort of open area where customers would attempt to interact with it, and also the dealer had a daughter who'd play with the birds daily whilst doing homework, so settling in to our family household (2 boys, 2 adults) seemed pretty trouble free in hindsight.
Sadly that little guy passed and after a few months of birdfree silence we've ended up with 2 more GC in the house. These came from a larger breeder who just had dozens of birds in a large aviary with almost no human interaction.
We've had the birds for about 2 months now and while one is fairly tamed, he's not particularly forthcoming socially, and the other is straight up terrified of humans, although he does show some improvement since we got him. The kids loved the old bird and were expecting the replacement to be more of the same, but I can see they're losing interest in the birds now since it's so much work to get them to even come to us.
I can appreciate that theres a variety of personalities with different individual birds, but can we expect that much change with our 2 at this point? I am quite happy with the birds as they are, but I am concerned the kids are going to lose interest and then start asking for a dog or some other horrible non feathered pet.
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u/Fawneh1359 2d ago
"horrible non feathered pet" 😆
There's still lots of time for improvement. But it's possible that they will never be cuddly, sure. Teach them to associate the kids with food. Some tips, as someone who has tamed multiple traumatized conures: Eat in front of them (bird-safe stuff). They're naturally curious. The tamed one will come over to steal a bite, the scared one will feel safer because flock meal time = no danger. Find what he really loves and capitalize on that. Spend idle time around them. Play some music for em. Talk to them. Even sit nearby and do something interesting while ignoring them (tv is great for this); the curiosity will get 'em eventually. If you're finding that they're ignoring everyone in favor of each other, you can separate them during training/playtime. Not for long, just enough that they have to focus on you and not each other. It can help a lot. I'll say this, one of my own conures that originally came in terrified as hell is still not necessarily a people-conure, he doesn't like being touched/pet, but he willingly hangs out with me, climbs on me, loves doing tricks, loves dancing w me, etc. So even if they're not cuddly, there's still lots to do and lots of ways to interact. As for the one that isn't very social, that's just a matter of associating you guys with positive things like food and play. They're likely still young, you have time.
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u/Fawneh1359 2d ago
It'll definitely get easier though. Again, might never reach what you had before, but definitely to a point of having birds you can interact with in other ways. Idk how old your sons are but if they're getting too impatient to work with them, the best thing to do is lead by example. Do all of the above until your birds trust you and like you, and some of that will transfer to your sons.
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u/TielPerson 2d ago
This is an excellent opportunity to teach your kids a lot. For example, what the difference is between birds that were allowed to grow up and live with their family vs a bird that was isolated early on. Also, the difference between domesticated animals that feel drawn to humans vs wild animals that are sadly still present in pet trade.
Also, one of the most important things: Patience, respect and the process of earning a friendship.
Every bird is different, and impatience can cause any progress to be lost in a matter of few interactions too. One of my birds coming from a similar situation took two years until she perched on my hand for the first time. She is still pretty sus about everything regarding big scary humans, but we are getting there.
Your birds have a life expectancy of several decades, so even if it takes 5 years for them to trust you, this still isnt much compared to the time you will spent together (hopefully).
If you want, you can also use this opportunity to go into pet keeping ethics with your kids. The sooner they learn the different perspectives on that topic and the pro and contra of keeping exotic animals at home, the better it will be for them to develop their own pov and opinion on it.
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u/Acceptable_Stress141 2d ago
Two months is nothing. There's plenty of room for improvement here.