I was giving my 1yo green check some scratches on his neck and felt a really thick pin. I was trying to help break it apart and he pulled away. I am very gentle when helping him. I listen to his voice and watch his body language. But before I could let go the whole pin came out with little to no resistance. When I was examining this pin it fell apart almost immediately and he seemed to give it more attention. Tried to grab it out of my hands. As it fell apart the feather in side almost disintegrated. The feather didn’t have a vane or shaft. It was really thick pin too. Almost like a flight or tail feather. Way thicker than a neck feather. I couldn’t get a picture of the pin before he chewed it.

I feel like the worst bird parent ever. Looking for advice.. please help. So I have 2 female GGC. As far as I knew they bonded immediately, I had them in their own cages for the first year but they seemed to like preening each other and sitting next to each other out of the cage, I thought maybe they should just stay in the same cage, and all seemed to be well. Today my husband had the day off work and he said that one of the ladies (Maddi) was almost hunting the other (Tango) and being really aggressive with poor Tango. Maddi has always been the boss but I didn't know it got like this. I have them in their own cages now but they seem so depressed. The cages are side by side and they are trying to cuddle between the bars. I'm so sad. I don't know what to do. They need to be in their cages while I'm at work, for safety reasons. Which is 8 hours a day and all night. I have lots of toys and enrichment activities for them to play with while I'm gone. They are in fairly large flight cages. Am I doing the right thing buy keeping them away from each other? Should I try something different? Is bird on bird aggression normal or should I bring Maddi in for an appointment?

One thing to note is the ladies are in love with my husband. He has enjoying his lunch in view of them, perhaps they became over excited and Maddi had to take her frustrations out on Tango? not that, that would be ok.. I'm just so confused and sad.

I can't find a clear answer online. Despite sounding like a relative of tomato, tomatillos are a member of the gooseberry family. Does that make it ok for conures?

I love my Green Cheek. He is always with me. Skittles has a pretty broad vocabulary.

https://learningyourpet.com/discover-the-benefits-of-a-green-cheek-conure-as-a-pet/

My pet budgies is death has devastes me I’m still in shock and its been a week I miss him and I’m grieving I hope no one will ever experience such thing.

Hello all. I was just wondering if anyone could lend some advice for Christmas with the cheeks. I have a pineapple who I raised and is very attached and a turquoise who’s more shy. My question is are pine needles dangerous for them? Last year we had a fake tree and this year there will be a real one. This will also be year two with them. My pineapple likes to pick up stuff like push pins and toothpicks so I’d imagine he’ll also like pine needles but are they toxic? Should I keep them away at all cost? and I mean dropped pine needles, not them being in the trees.

Hi all! I've just gotten a brand new turquoise green cheek conure(6m old) yesterday. I got him from a reputable breeder..he was handfed and the breeder said he was tame, but that he'd need a bit of work to warm up. His name is Ares. I've done a TON of research, and have owned budgies for about 2 years now(I know they are worlds different, just stating I have prior bird experience). I left him in his new cage for the first day(from about 4pm-bedtime and he was going crazy wanting to come out of his cage. Once he settled down for bed he was okay. But this morning he was acting that way again, so I let him out and he was comfortable enough to come out on his own, fly/walk around, and just chill. He landed on the end of the couch where I was sitting and with some coaxing and treats, he came right up to me and let me scratch his head, and even sat there with me for a few moments before going off to explore. So everything seems to be going fine, however, he is very, very interested in my 5 year old son. Everytime he sees my son he will bob up and down at him. And while he is out of the cage he will literally follow him around. He hasn't lunged at him or bitten him..just kind of sits there with him and keeps trying to get closer but my son is scared of him so I usually end up getting some distance between them. I'm wondering if he is chasing because he likes the reaction he's getting? My son will run away or scrunch up away from him. Ares' cage is next to the spot my son hangs out in, and he is currently in there just sitting on the end of the perch closest to my son. Can anyone explain this to me? Is it negative? And is there a way I can discourage it a bit until my son is used to him? Ares is a bit bigger than my budgies so I figured he'd need some time to get used to him. My son is also autistic so he needs time to get used to most new things. I'm also welcoming training tips and just tips overall from those of you who actually own one instead of Google and old forums. 😊 I want the best for my new baby. 💗

So per my other post I have a green cheek who has very conflicting behavior.

As of 5 minutes ago we were vibing. He was sitting on top of his travel cage crunching at me and bobbing his head while I gently blew air at him and bobbed back, when he suddenly jumped/flew at me and landed on my shirt.

For one blissful moment I had my "horse girl move moment" (aka that moment where your suddenly a special and unique person because an aggressive with everyone animal is very nice to you in your first few times meeting).

He chilled on my shirt for a moment, stretched his neck up and began nibbling on my chin gently, but then a nanosecond later he just chomped down as hard as possible while screeching. I tried to stay calm and brought up my hand to try and gently get him to stop which worked....because he then began bitting the crap out of my hand. And then it was a back and forth of me pulling my hand away, him Turing back to bite my face, bringing said hand back up and so on and so forth.

It only stopped because all I could think to do was shake my shirt to get him to jump off of me but then he started flying around my room and bumped into two walls before settling on the floor right now. I'm bleeding from all the places he bit me except for one of them. Bit that part of my hand he bit multiple times and the space between the top beak and the bottom beak is already bruising and actually developing into a large raised welt. I'm terrified of attempting to pick him up to put him away.

I have no idea why he's like this and have no idea how to work around this because literally every body language he's expressing is content and happiness. He even calls for me when I leave the room!

He's also not even a year old so it's very unlikely to be hormones. And I know he had been returned once for aggression but the place I bought him from said that family said he was just protective of their already existing bird and when he was alone he was fairly sweet.

This is Yoshi, she's 5 years old and we've had her since she was 3 months. She is definitely more bonded to me, but has never had a problem with "dad" (my husband). She used to really like laying in his hand while we watched TV. we have had some big changes recently. We just had our first human baby 2 months ago, and a few days later we had to replace our furnace so we boarded the birds (we have 2 greencheeks and a cockatiel) for a few days to keep them safe while we turned on the new heater for the first time.

Anyway, we have been dividing and conquering since the baby has been here- one of us spending time with birds while the other is with baby- and Yoshi has been biting her dad EVERY single time he's with her. She will fly to his shoulder and bite his face or neck, bite the crap out of his hands, and won't accept scritches from him. She's been a little less snuggly with me too, but nowhere near as mean as she is to him. I know hormone season is coming up with the days getting shorter, and we know how to deal with hormones. but I was wondering if anyone had any advice that we might not have thought of, because this is really breaking my husband's heart. Is it still a grudge from boarding? Is she pissed about the baby taking up a lot of our time? What can we do? Could a vet visit provide some answers? Thanks in advance!!!!

Also- our other greencheek and cockatiel have been totally normal. Our other GCC, Bowie, has been sweet as can be. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So I got a green cheek a few weeks ago, had to leave him with my grandma for a bit (took excellent care of him) but now I have him back and I'm just now noticing his interesting behavior.

First off he seems to be very agressive. If he sees a finger or your face gets close to his cage he's up against the bars trying to nip you. But even if you're just a foot away from him he's up against the bars. He seems to enjoy "being angry" as he'll hide behind one of his toys and then suddenly rush at you then Bob back behind the toy, wait a second, and then rush at you again. I was worried he was acting out due to boredom but he has lots of toys and my grandma would talk to him every day too.

But what makes his behavior conflicting is that right now I have him on my bed in his travel cage with the door open and he's sitting on the ledge "crunching" at me while occasionally puffing up in a relaxed manner and preening himself, and occasionally my hair if I hold a piece up to him. Which I heard is actually a very good thing?

Also as I was typing this out he walked down the open door and stretched out to try and bite me lol. But I just pulled back and he walked back into his cage.

Is this good? Bad? Normal? Fixable? Just a personality he'll have forever? Any insight would be great.

So, I got my green cheek as a rescue that was surrendered to petco about 4 months ago. He is 4 years old and couldn’t move with his original family. I think they either never hand trained him or scared him away from hands because he does not like them. Over the past few months i’ve started trying to gain his trust. Just recently he will now come to my hand and kind of peck around a finger. But after about 15 seconds he clamps down super hard. He doesn’t seem angry, especially as I am not forcing him to be near my hand. I’m not sure why he does this or what I can do to make it better? I would like to be able to hold him one day so this is just one step forward. He is my first birdie and I’m so happy to have him but I need help! Any ideas? Thanks!