Growing Phases

[Nychsa]

Greetings everyone!

 

My lovely Bella is six months old, and I'm wondering if what kind of growth phases she is going to go through - are there "typical" phases, such as the "terrible two's" or the "teenage years"?

 

It struck me that I may need to find out much more about this as this weekend she all of a sudden decided something about my conure Jiggy really bugged her and she chased him from one playtop to the other, staying on him relentlessly, pecking at him, and clearly wanting a serious piece of him! Now granted, he is a rascal and he usually starts the trouble, and I'm sure he had it coming, but this really seemed like it came out of no where!

 

Then this morning she wanted to rough house with me, which is fine - I just haven't seen her do that before. She was playfully nibbling on my fingers, on my hair, wanting to play tug-of-war with my glasses, and in general getting a huge case of the nibbles on everything. I tugged at her beak, and ruffled her head too and she kept coming back for more. I'm wondering if she wanted to rough house with Jiggy and just play with him the day before, or was she really mad at him about something??

 

Any inisights??

 

Thanks!

Terri

[dblhelix]

They absolutely go through phases not so much different than humans. At 6 months she is probably just getting to a point where she will begin to test boundaries. They are known to go through a "terrible 2" and then may become much more independent. Next big one is when they become sexually mature at 6-8 yrs (I believe). So, there are lots of things to try and prepare for! Others on this forum will chime in that have kept greys for long periods of time to help, I am sure. I would be careful having the two birds out together. I would make sure at minimum the are always supervised. The grey is considerably larger than the conure and could easily injure or even kill it. There ar many stories of such things happening...:ohmy:

 

B)

[Nychsa]

Hi, Thank you for your insights - I thought she seemed like she was acting a little differently - a little bratty almost.

 

When both are out I'm with them they could get into any number of things that could hurt them if I'm not around. I was just so surprised that she took after Jiggy that way! He usually starts the trouble. If she's on his playtop, he'll come charging out trying to chase her off. She usually backed away from him, trying to avoid a fight. He also just randomly pecks at her toes until she makes herself "big" and flaps her wings at him (blowing him off!).

 

So, she's always been the peace maker between the two. That's why I was SO surprised that Jiggy was just in his cage, nibbling on his millet and she was rough housing on his cage door when she decided she wanted to play with one of the toys in his cage - he squawked at her (from a distance!) and that is when she tore after him! Yikes! He's lucky he's as agile as he he is! She was no match for his swift agility, but she was relentless and didn't break off the pursuit until he flew off the cages and to my daughter!

[chapala]

Parrots are territorial, and their territory is their cage. It's not surprising that your Conure tries to drive her off - it's his cage, after all and she is invading his space. As someone above mentioned, it's best to keep two parrots of different sizes apart (and sometimes even the same size!) for safety reasons.

Reta

[Nychsa]

Hi Chapala,

 

I think you've pegged Jiggy quite correctly! When I took him to the vet he jumped on to my shoulder and tried to attack the vet when the vet reached over to him. I thought he didn't want to be touched but the vet said he was defending me!

 

My grey does not appear to be as territorial as my conure. The environment she came from at the breeders was quite open, the birds were in a large space with lots of windows, cages open, and they hopped from one cage to the next, foraging around each playtop. So Bella doesn't care a lick if he's in her cage, she's never chased him off, but he's furious about his!

[judygram]

My sun conure, Sunny is like that also, she will sit on my shoulder and defend me, she gets quite rowdy and will attack if someone tries to take her off of me, Josey is not like that.

[danmcq]

My Conure "Jake" tries to defend Dayo when I am going to get him off the counter top or else. That crazy Conure will run over and start beaking me like a Jackhammer :-) Then Dayo defends me and runs him off!! B)

 

They are too much LOL!!

[Guest briansmum]

hi nychsa, great info from everyone already, but i just wanted to add i asked a similar question when my grey was about 6 months, it was like he was posessed for a little while, i was bitten so much in the couple of months following, he was so so naughty all the time and stopped wanting all cuddles and tickles.

 

he's now approaching 10 months and for the past few weeks he's been a little darling, much better behaved, isn't biting me at all and spends as much time as he can sitting with me cuddling and preening, aswell as saying his first proper words and learning to dance :lol:

 

anyway the point is, it seems some of them go through a short detatchment period, testing their boundaries as dblhelix said. just bare with her, she'll come round soon

[Nychsa]

Greetings everyone!

 

I'm delighted to see so many Grey-Conure households! The Conures are certainly a one-bird show. Jiggy does the "jiggy dance" bobbing around when ever someone tells him to do the Jiggy dance, and now he's kicked it up a notch by hanging upside down in his cage doing the Jiggy dance when he has an audience! When he gives kisses it isn't soft and delicate like Bella, it's a big SMOOCH!!!!!!!! What a character!

 

And Briansmum, I too can tell the my Bella is a bit of a brat right now. She wants to rough house with me, and that's fine, when she beaks me, she barely touches me with her beak. However, I do think she's serious about wanting to put the hurt on Jiggy when he pushes his luck. I can't believe that nut case! After she chased him around the other day, he came charging out of his cage yesterday attempting to nip her toes. She's a slapper, so she just wacks at him with her talons. It's like watching my kids growing up all over again!

 

 

Cheers!

Terri

[Slayer]

I have a Grey and a Quaker and can't let them no where near each other. The Quaker is extremely territorial and is strictly my wife's bird. Our Grey on the other hand so far is attatched to me.She wants to be friends with our quaker but he won't let it happen. And our Grey is slowly warming up to my wife.

[judygram]

Yep those little conures are characters for sure, my Sunny likes to do the head bobbing thing and she is such a clown. If I have both of my birds out at the same time I have to keep them separated also, the conure is jealous of the grey, you would think she was the bigger bird by the way she acts, the little hussey.

[Nychsa]

I have another questions re: growing up greys - my Bella has lovely grey eyes, almot a bluish grey. But friends are telling me they've read her eyes will turn colors and will turn yellow/gold. Not that this would bother me, both are lovely - but does anyone know if this is true or not?

[judygram]

Yes as they get older the eyes will turn a light yellow color, they start out at nearly black and then lighten up to gray and finally to a light yellowish color, they all do.