CONURES

Conures, which vary in size from small to medium, often charm people with their playfulness and inquisitive personalities. They generally like to be where the household activity is, which can include mealtime and hanging out with their favored people.

OTHER BIRDS IN THIS FAMILY
Blue-Crowned Conure
Green-Cheeked Conure
Jenday Conure
Sun Conure

QUICK FACTS

  • The popular conure genus “Aratinga” means “little macaw” in Latin
  • There are naturalized conures populations in both Northern California and Southern California
  • Diet & Nutrition: Parrot food
Conures

There’s a reason why conures are popular pet companions; these spunky and often comical parrots come in a range of eye-catching colors and have equally colorful personalities. Conures are one of the more varied groups of parrots. These small to medium parrots with long tail feathers range in size to just under 10 inches to just over 20 inches, depending on the conure species.

Native Region / Natural Habitat

Conures are native to South America.

Care & Feeding

Conures are active birds and need a spacious cage to move about and to accommodate toys. A minimum cage size for a conure is 36 inches long, 24 inches wide, and 24 inches high. Conures generally love to bathe — in their water dish, in the shower with their owner or via a spray bath.

A conure’s diet should include a nutritionally balanced manufactured diet, supplemented with fresh vegetables, fruit and healthy table foods. Conures have busy beaks, which makes Lafeber foods a conure favorite. Lafeber’s Avi-Cakes, Pellet-Berries and Nutri-Berries offer balanced nutrition that appeals to a conure’s chewing needs. A properly cared for conure can live between 20 to 30 years.Conures Love to eat:
Nutri-Berries

Personality & Behavior

Conures can be very playful, very cuddly and, at times, very loud. A conure is more inclined to be curious and bold instead of shy and cautious. Conures are active and busy birds that need plenty of toys and other forms of enrichment to keep them happily occupied throughout the day. A conure can make a great family pet because of its playful and outgoing personality. In a family situation, children should be taught how to respectively interact with the conure, including proper handling and not forcing interaction. A conure loves to be where its people are or on them; even going so far as to climb under their owner’s shirt, head poking out of the collar, during cuddle time. Some conures will dance back and forth, and might even mimic its person’s movements. Conures can also be taught to perform tricks on cue if trained using positive enforcement.

Speech & Sound

A conure’s signature sound is a high-pitched screech, which is often emitted when the bird is excited, startled and/or when it wants attention. Many owners make the mistake of inadvertently reinforcing a conure’s screech by running over to the cage or otherwise giving the bird direct attention whenever it begins to screech. Conures are capable talking and, although their vocabularies are not as extensive as that of other parrot species, they can learn to speak a few words and phrases.

Health & Common Conditions

Conures can be prone to feather picking. If a complete medical exam rules out medical causes of feather plucking, boredom and/or lack of appropriate mental stimulation can be a cause. Offer your conure an enriched environment with plenty of opportunities for play and exercise, as well as a staple supply of safe items to chew. Conures are also susceptible to Proventricular Dilatation Disease (PDD), Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease, Psittacosis, beak malocclusion and Aspergillosis. Regular health checkups by an avian veterinarian are crucial to your conure’s health, as they can help diagnose and treat many disease processes early on.

Get a Conure

Conures are available for sale in large pet stores, as well as from avian specialty stores and reputable conure breeders. They are also often available for adoption from avian rescue and adoption organizations. A hand-raised, people-socialized conure can make an excellent family pet.