- What's a good way to keep them from squawking? (laughs)
- No clue.
- Ready?
- [Child] No.
(exclaims and babbles)
(child shrieks and laughs)
- Woo, good girl! (squawks)
- [Child] Well, they're gone.
- Girly girl girl girls, we love it!
(reverberant, upbeat music)
- Ready? (tapping repeatedly)
Get him to move, please.
(chuckles)
(laughs) Get him!
Get him to fly. (murmurs) - You're trying to scare him?
- Yeah.
- Where is the third one?
- Right there. - Oh, right there.
Ready?
- [Child] Ready.
- Why don't you stand over there,
so they know they can come to you?
Ready?
Here we go.
(claps)
(both laughing)
- [Child] Didn't go. (giggles)
- Nice try, kiddo.
So do they like to always be together,
or do they prefer to be alone?
I notice a lot of the time that Lily tends
to break off from the other two,
but I do think that they enjoy being together,
because it's just safer to be a flock.
So instinctively, I think they like being together.
However, recently, Dave converted one of our five
by eight aviaries into a divided aviary,
and he hadn't paid attention to the center divider
and he left a little extra space there,
not realizing he needed to come down more.
And we kept finding Lily sneaking under the divider
to go hang out with Bondi on the other side.
And it was really funny and I was just hoping
that she wasn't picking on her,
and they seem to get along great,
but it was just interesting to me that Lily chose
to ditch the other two to go hang out with Bondi.
And I tested it and put Cressi on that side.
And she did the same thing with Cressi.
So she wasn't really picky about who she went
to hang out with, but definitely,
Lily's very independent from the other two.
She's okay being away from them.
She will take any opportunity to go
and jump and do something new,
whereas Phoebe's literally the opposite.
And yeah, kinda just falls somewhere in the middle.
She just has to choose who she's following suit with.
(laughs) If she's following Phoebe
to stay behind, or if she's following Lily
to go forward and try something.
(flapping)
- Come on, guys.
- (chuckles) Speaking of Lily. (squawks)
Hi, baby girl. (kisses)
Hey, baby girl!
She's wondering what you're drawing.
Do they snuggle if cold?
(squawking)
Yes, they actually do.
So at one point, I think we were in Monticello in Moab.
I wanted to make sure that the conures were extra safe
at night and so a lot of the times,
when they stay outside, I put a little travel carrier
at the bottom of the aviary, and if it's pinned open,
they will often put themselves right
in it to go to sleep at night.
So they love snuggling up at the very back of the carrier,
all three of them, and that's usually where they'll sleep.
And I just feel it's an extra precaution
for them, since they are so tiny.
It's a way to keep them warmer because it's enclosed.
And then also, they can all be together,
as well, snuggling up.
And it's just another barrier, as well.
So yes, they definitely do snuggle up.
And a lot of the times, if we ever have
to enter the bird area when they're already asleep,
the three of them are snuggled together.
It's pretty cute.
What are their favorite things to do?
- Probably eat or something?
- Eat, oh yeah, they love to eat.
- Or if they find treats somewhere,
they'll dive down to get it. - Yeah.
- They'll like (mimics munching).
(laughs)
Gimme, gimme, gimme.
- Yeah, they're very enthusiastic eaters.
I would say the other thing they like
to do, they love taking baths.
Anytime I offer them a bath,
even if one isn't into it and another one is,
eventually, all three are totally into it.
They love taking baths, whether it's me giving it to them
or them diving into their water bowl.
And they are the type of parrots that take it
at any anytime of day, so usually, with my experience,
my birds do not like having baths in the evening,
but I have found that conures just totally douse themselves,
right before getting their evening meal and going to bed.
So they have no preference of when to get soaking wet,
but they absolutely love to bathe and they love to eat.
They also love just zooming around so free flying,
whatever. (squawks)
They'll just take very random flights.
Like you've seen them do throughout this video,
where they just zoom past.
They are all on stands currently,
but they love zooming around the house
from stand to stand, or head to stand.
This says, "I wonder if you train them together
and if they have the same training."
So for the most part, yes, (squawks)
but Lily has more training than the other two,
just because she's showed a lot more interest.
So there's been times where we have wanted to demo something
and we will train her to do it because we know
that she's the most interested in the most likely
to give us the footage that we're trying to acquire.
So yeah, if you guys keep up with my Of Flock series,
it's a series that I've started doing,
where it's completely unedited videos.
You just get to see raw training sessions with me
and my own birds, working through certain situations.
And some of them that I've had to work through
with the conures is just simple step up stuff,
because having three of them, we tend
to treat them all three of them as one bird,
instead of three individual birds.
And I found myself guilty of this, a lot.
It was like I took out all three,
instead of spending individual time with certain ones.
(squawking) It was always done
in all three of them and all three of them.
And it came to a point where we kind of lost the step up,
as a trick because we would just let them land wherever,
and they would just fly to us and we would just call them.
And it was always flighted behavior.
So they would just land on us,
and it was just stuff that was getting sloppy.
So yeah, it's kind of a pitfall of having more
than one just because of how you fall
into certain grooves and routines with them.
What you babies doing?
All right, this is a pretty broad question.
And it's about how to stop sun conures from plucking.
And I think when it comes to plucking,
the first step is always having a medical check
to make sure it's not a medical reason
that they are plucking. - Aw.
- What were you trying to do?
- Trying to hug her.
- Well, no wonder.
(squawks) She didn't want to be hugged.
She finally came to you and you ruined it.
(giggles)
So yeah, when it comes to plucking, you always have
to check them out medically first just to make sure
that there's no underlying issue.
But after that, I believe in starting with diet
and starting from the foundations up.
And diet is huge with plucking, especially with cockatoos.
I've heard of cockatoo owners completely taking fruit out
of a diet and that being a game changer,
changing the pellet to a high quality pellet
and that being a game changer.
But I think a complete diet revamp is really the answer
with starting to look at fixing plucking.
I also think sunlight is incredibly important and fresh air.
We don't have the air quality in our homes
that these guys really need.
These are animals that are used to living outdoors 24/7.
And so I think as much exposure to natural sunlight
and fresh air that you can give,
the better for their plumage and feathers.
And then of course, frequent, frequent bathing,
which is daily. (flapping)
If they have the opportunity to bathe daily,
even if they aren't doing it every single time,
as long as they have that opportunity,
it's really ideal for keeping them super healthy.
(humming playfully)
Okay, let's smell her and see.
(squawks)
What's she smell like? (flapping)
- What do you think?
I think she just smells like a bird.
(both laughing)
I mean, she smells good.
She's like, "Stop sniffing me, humans."
(laughs)
She smells good.
I'm still a bigger fan of how macaws smell.
- I think she still smells like a little bird.
- She smells like a little bird. (laughs)
- I want her to smell like lavender.
(both laugh)
- Even though our macaws can get really loud,
they don't make noise this frequently.
(squawking) So as you can tell,
they're not getting reinforced
for the noise that they're making,
they're just making it because there's sun conures.
So one of the things that we changed last year,
was I added wheels to all of my aviaries that are indoors,
so that I can easily move them outdoors.
And this has been a game changer for me because it tends
to be almost a on-display sort of thing in my driveway,
where I can leave the birds out and I can do it
for a designated amount of time.
So I can wait 'til nine, 10:00 a.m. or so,
once it's warmed up, and I can move the aviaries out.
They can be out, I can be giving them a bath,
and they can stay out there without much issue.
But if I put them in the backyard,
the complaints just start flying in, literally.
So yeah.
So I do try to get them outside as much as possible,
but for the most part, unless we're free flying them,
bathing them, cleaning aviaries and it's
for a designated chunk of time where it's usually maybe nine
or 10:00 AM through 6:00 p.m.? - Five?
- 6 p.m. before it gets dark, they can be outside,
but they're outside the least,
admittedly. (squawking)
Just because of the noise, alone.
Although they're not noisy when they're eating! (laughs)
It just doesn't take that long.
I also think part of the problem
for why these guys are so noisy is that they are used
to being together and having each other
for companionship, versus when they're separated.
What are you doing?
(laughs)
When they're separated, I think they would start
to self entertain a little bit more.
They would play with their toys a little bit more.
And although they're active with their toys,
it's not what it could be.
So I think if they were separated, it would be better.
(Child giggling excitedly)
So any basic tips on conure hormones.
Yes!
So one of the things that owners think is really adorable
with conures is that they love to nestle
into your sleeves and your shirt and go down your shirt
and be all up in your clothes and make it a nesty thing.
I've also seen people feeding their conures
out of their mouths.
Those sorts of things is just
initiating a hormonal response.
So you never wanna feed your bird out of your own mouth.
(chuckles)
- Not even we do that, that's disgusting.
- And then the other thing is although they're adorable,
when they're burrowing into clothes and stuff,
and it's really, really cute, it can escalate
into more of a nesty type behavior.
And if they have one person they prefer
to do that with, they might become very aggressive
towards anybody who approaches.
So minimizing that as much as possible is really ideal.
Also, fabric sort of textures are just not safe,
because a lot of these birds, they get obsessive
with a texture, and they love to chew and gnaw on it.
And eventually, they will ingest it
and it'll be causing an impact issue
in their digestive system because they
cannot push it all the way through.
So it becomes a surgery needed sort of response.
So just being aware of those types
of things and not doing it.
Also, a lot of people like to let their birds play
with boxes and that can create a nesting type response,
as well, so cardboard is great.
Just make sure that it's not making an enclosed,
dark space for them.
That's really what you're trying to avoid,
but if they tend to destroy the box
into a point where there is nothing left
and there is no dark, enclosed space, great.
It's really just paying attention to whether or not
that is a hormonal trigger for your bird.
And if it's not, great, but if it is
or if you see it becoming one,
you definitely wanna avoid it.
So how big of a cage do they need?
The bigger, the better.
Just keep in mind bar spacing.
These guys are just flying all over.
You wanna have adequate and safe bar spacing
for these guys. (squawks)
'Cause they are smaller, but I've always been a believer
that the bigger environment enclosure you can give them,
the better, because that way,
they're really a lot more content
self entertaining and all that good stuff.
- I was trying to get the girls in my frame.
- (chuckles) You cute, little girl.
(chirping softly) Hey, cute little girl.
- She's wanting to let me hug her.
- Also a great thing for keeping them
from squawking is teaching talking.
This is something that we haven't expanded on that much.
Lily is the only one that talks.
She says "babies," and "Cute, cute, cute."
- Cute cute, cute cute, cute! - And she just doesn't say it
on cue yet, or that often.
Okay.
What do we feed them? (squawks)
Do you know the answer to this question?
- Fresh fruit, pellets, and a little bit of treats.
- Yes.
So they get the same diet that you see us give our medium
and large birds, just obviously
in a little bit different quantity.
So they get that and then, we use treats for them.
You're sneaking off. (giggles)
And we give them our same pellets and--
(squawks enthusiastically)
Woo!
They're the large size pellets that we use for other birds.
They just break them up because they're cold press.
They break nice and easy.
These guys can eat 'em, as well.
So same exact feeding schedule.
And then, their treats tend to be pine nuts,
sunflower seeds, and Millets, their absolute favorite.
So if anything varies, it's just the treats
that they prefer from bird to bird.
(flapping)
Oh, and safflower seeds, they like safflower seeds.
(squawks enthusiastically)
How often do you trim their nails and beak?
So I don't think we've ever had this done.
- Not really.
- I just simply use some sandy or cement perches,
every so often, especially when we're gonna be traveling.
(squawking) I might use them
in the very beginning and then take them out.
So Sandy and cement perches are great
for keeping nails maintained and then as far as their beaks,
I just offer a lot of toys that they can use
to play with and keep those beaks trim.
But as long as the diet's in place, you have a healthy bird,
there shouldn't be a reason for overgrowth.
How much do they actually scream?
- A hundred times, well actually, a thousand times a day.
- Yeah, so pretty much when we enter into the bird room.
- They scream. - They go nuts.
- The second time, they scream.
- While I'm getting the food ready, they're pretty much
going crazy. - Screaming.
(squawks enthusiastically)
- Like that.
- When I put them outside, they're screaming.
At some point, they do stop and they tend to relax,
but if anything interesting or exciting goes by,
they'll scream about it.
- Or like I'm a crow or a hawk.
- They'll scream.
- Yeah, sometimes if we have one more bird out,
they'll come out, at least scream.
Sometimes. - So if we have only one
or two sun conures out of the three out,
they'll usually call to each other.
Or if we have all three out, they'll scream,
because they're calling to each other.
- They'll do this. - It's pretty much like this.
(squawking)
All the time.
Yeah, they're noisy, guys, they're some of the noisiest.
And there's no attention reinforcement
or anything like that, especially when they're outdoors,
obviously.
They just... (squawks)
They got screams and they know how to use 'em.
- Do you send-- (squawking enthusiastically)
Do you send toy bundles to Australia!?
(both chuckle)
Yes, we ship all of our toy bundles internationally.
Are they quieter if they're in a flock?
- No. (giggles)
- I beg to differ.
I think that if we only had one, it wouldn't be so bad!
(laughs) But at the same time,
I know people that just have one and they're going nuts too.
So as far as if they bite more
than our large birds, definitely not.
Sun conures, at least our son conures,
are way more likely to just fly away from a situation
that they don't like, versus feel as though they have
to bite you to communicate something.
They're way more likely to just bail.
So no, I can't even remember the last time I was bit
by one of our sun conures, it just doesn't really happen.
And then this question's kind of,
whoa. (squawking)
A little bit of the same of are they territorial.
And if I have the other birds out in the house,
I don't really notice anything like that.
And then, when we're traveling or even here at home,
what I try to do to bring that down
to a reasonable level is I rotate which birds are
in which aviaries, which birds are on which stands.
I even move the aviaries around.
Now that they're on wheels, I can do that.
So I put them in, in different locations.
I put them in, in different aviary parts.
So instead of rotating toys so much, I actually rotate birds
into different parts of different aviaries.
So it works for me.
It tends to make it so that they aren't so much
like this is my space.
They're used to all the different aviaries.
So this question says, "My sun conure bites,
"but not with the intention to hurt.
"Is this something to worry about?"
I think it is something that you need to think
about how it's going to escalate in the future.
It's most likely happening because you're ignoring
different signs of the bird doesn't want something
and it's feeling the need to tell you in that way.
Luckily, it doesn't hurt, but there's gotta be signs
before that, that you might be missing
that you could respect to not get
to the point of getting these little bites.
Would you tell somebody to get a sun conure as a pet?
- No.
- (chuckles) Me, either.
- Get a sun conure as a pet!
- Agh! (giggles excitedly)