Conure Attention Seeking (Screaming checked out)


Birds make wonderfully delightful companions, and conures are no exception to that fact. But before dashing to a pet store or aviary for one, it’s essential to ask yourself, how much of your time and attention will it take for you to nurture this bird?

So, how much attention do conures need? Conures are naturally social birds that love and require attention from their owners; that is two hours of your day at the very least on weekdays and at least four hours during the weekend. As an owner, you can give conures attention by spending time with it and teaching it new tricks. You also need to pay attention to your bird’s vocalization and body language to communicate effectively with it.

Conures require an amount of playtime and a specific kind of interaction for your attention to be impactful. Therefore, it is prudent to understand the need, type, and effect of attention on conures. Read on to know if conures need a lot of attention, how much time you should spend with them, and if they get attached to one person.

Some pets prefer to be left alone, while others enjoy attention. While it is normal to want to bond with your conure, you may want to know if they like or need a lot of attention.

Conures love attention. Therefore, place them in high active areas in your house, which is often the living or family room for most homes. Also, it’s advisable to leave the door to its cage open to allow them to freely mingle with people.

Conures need direct interaction, such as someone talking to them, petting them, or simply placing them on your shoulder as you relax in the living room, watch television or just go about your other activities. Some pet owners go to the extent of taking their conures with them to the gym.

Conures are very social pets and need a lot of interaction for their well-being. Like all parrots, they need to have daily interaction with entertainment, a social group, and things to do. Otherwise, the conure may easily get bored and may even develop behavioral problems.

When in the wild, a conure would never move away from their flockmate’s company. Therefore, in captivity, you can expect your hand-fed conure to require a similar amount of attention and social interaction with you and your family.

When you have too little time to give, maybe a parrot conure would not be the best pet choice for you. Alternatively, you will require a person at home for several hours every day; the person should preferably spend most of the day in the house.

Pet conures flourish and have a happier, healthier stay when they live in a home where there are always people spending time with them for most hours of the day.

How Much Time Should I Spend With My Conure?

Parrots want you to spend more time with them as a social companion. Before defining how long this time should be, it’s important to point out that spending time with it while it’s locked in its cage is not the same as when you’re physically handling it. So, how much time should you spend with your conure?

You should spend a minimum of 2 hours of active interaction with your conure during the weekdays. On weekends or on your specific free days, try to reach a minimum of 4 hours. These time limits are for when you’re pressed on time, the more the interaction time, the better for your conure.

Conures yearn to be the center of attraction. They want to do what you are doing; therefore, being a passive player in your life is not satisfying to them. Spending time together involves active interaction, not merely having the conure in the same room as you. Having them on a stand as you go through your emails is no less tedious than having them sit in their cage.

Conures require daily interaction for socialization and training. When you keep a conure without spending enough time with them, they begin to develop problems like feather picking, biting, or screaming that are all behavioral problems due to lack of socialization

Conures like all other parrot family birds require significant dedication to quality and quantity time in your interactions. You might not have a happy conure if your work schedule is demanding or you enjoy traveling a lot, traveling that you can’t go with the conure.

Do Conures Get Attached To One Person?

Other pets like dogs can get attached to more than one person. Therefore, is this the case for conures or can they get attached to one person?

It’s not uncommon for conures to get attached and favor one person over all others in a household. Conures tend to get attached to the person that spends a lot of time with them, they accept such a person as their flock, and they relate with them as family members. There isn’t a specific way to tell why the conures choose to get attached to the person they do, especially in a home where multiple people interact with it.

However, the more attention and time you give your conure, the higher the chances of gaining a particular liking and attachment with you. Getting attached to the person they singled out does not mean they dislike the others; on the contrary, they’ll still enjoy socializing with everyone else. Conures are social birds that love attention; the only difference is that they will always have their favorite.

The deeper reason for their one-person attachment is that conures are naturally ‘one person’ birds. Naturally, when in the wild, conures pick a mate, then drive away every other bird from their mate. This nature may get a little problematic when your conure becomes a bit too territorial when all you want is a well-domesticated pet.

However, if you put in the effort to socialize with your conure, they are very unlikely to get all crazy on your strangers from the get-go. You can do this by encouraging your guests to give the conure some treats, ask him to stop, or do a few tricks; eventually, your bird might just let a stranger pet them.

The attachment may grow to the extent that your conure dislikes anyone that poses a threat to the attention you give them. To prevent it from getting here, especially for couples that are about to introduce a baby into the home, spend some time teaching the conure some basic commands.

Once the conure understands the tricks, have someone else in the household run them through the tricks; that way, you will manage their attention and how it bonds with other household members. If you fail to work on your conure’s socializing skills, they might try to bite every time someone else attempts to handle them.

Do Conures Socialize Well With Family?

If you’re about to bring a new pet home, it’s natural to be concerned about how well it will fit in with the family. So, do conures adapt well to a perfect setting?

Conures make great family pets as long as you have socialized them well, although they eventually choose and get attached to a favorite. Also, conures tend to flourish in homes with numerous activities taking place. When there’s activity surrounding a conure, they generally feel happier and very much entertained.

As long as your conure has bonded with your family members, they will maintain their friendliness and get along well. Fortunately, conures love to be handled and touched, so they will often get along well with kids.

However, conures go through some nippy phases that may be hard on both children and adults. Teaching your child appropriate ways to handle the conure may help prevent some experiences, though not eliminating them. Even the tamest of conures will bite when startled. Biting from such a conure is not a reflection of ill behavior but a natural reaction.

Paying attention to your bird helps you read your bird’s body language and train them to prevent the accidental bite from growing into a behavioral problem. However, instructing more minor children on the proper parrot behavior may be quite tricky and often ineffective.

Therefore, always to supervise and monitor their interactions with the conure. How well the conure-child interaction goes mostly depends on how well you have socialized the conure and your child’s maturity level.

Genetics may come into play for some conures, and the parent family in general. Some birds are naturally more aggressive than the rest. The cause is often a family trait where one pair of parrots produces sweet conure babies while the other produces nippy offspring. Sweet babies can quickly turn nippy if you don’t socialize them well, while on the other hand, you can hardly turn a nippy bird.

Usually, you can socialize the fearful and nervous ones to become great family pets. Finally, birds pick up on humans’ anger and stress, which may affect how they act towards us. Therefore, approach the bird calmly, and leave all anger and anxiety behind when interacting with them.

Why does my conure scream when I leave the room?

Conures are exciting pets that form great companions. Unfortunately, they sometimes pick up behaviors like screaming that can get any pet owner confused.

Conures scream to get the attention of their owners. They will scream when bored, when anxious, stressed, injured, ill, or when afraid. Whatever the reasons, conures will scream when you leave the room because they believe you are the only one that can get them out of whatever situation is disturbing them.

For humans, screaming is a sign of immediate danger that needs addressing. However, for conures, it’s simply a means of communication. Read on to discover the many reasons a conure might be screaming, how to stop their screaming and how to calm them.

Why Is My Conure Screaming Repeatedly When I Leave?

If your conure has been screaming repeatedly, it may be quite a confusing experience for you, especially when you are doing everything to keep your parrot happy. However, you don’t need to worry as we have debunked the most probable reasons as to why your conure is screaming repeatedly.

Most times, a conure screams to get attention. When your conure is left inside and alone for too long, they may begin screaming due to boredom. Because conures love attention, once the conure realizes that the screaming brings a human into the room, they make it a habit.

Also, your conure may be screaming because you do not spend enough time with them. A conure is an amiable bird. If they realize that once you leave, you take long before ever coming back, they may start screaming to prevent you from leaving.

Your conure may also scream from boredom. If your conure is entertained only when you are around, they’ll do everything they can to try and get you to stay in the room more. If screaming always brings you back in the room, the conure will practice the behavior every time you try to leave.

It may also scream because they are in a new stressing environment. If you have moved from a previous home or shifted your conures from their usual spot in the house, the conure may start screaming to get your attention and comfort.

If your conure was recently rescued, then it may be screaming in an attempt to locate their flock. Screaming is among the most common vocalization forms. Also, it may be screaming as a mode of vocalizing the level of noise in your house. Parrots sometimes reflect the general noise that is going on in your home, from loud kids to vacuum and stereos. Once you leave their vicinity, the conure just moves to vocalize as much noise as expressed in your homestead.

Finally, the conure may be feeling unsafe in the area you have opted to place their cage. The scream is, in this case, a cry of distress and hope that you protect them by placing them in a safer space.

How Do I Stop My Green Cheek Conure From Screaming?

While pet owners will do just about anything to keep their pets happy, it’s normal not to want to endure their screaming. Therefore, you may be wondering how to stop your conure from screaming.

To stop your green cheek conure from screaming, develop your contact call phrase with the bird. Teach the bird how to make a whistle or phrases like, ‘I am right here’ or ‘I will be right back’. Once the conure starts to call on you, use the contact phrase. When used consistently, the bird will realize that you mean you will be back.

Also, focus on fixing the problem at hand rather than your frustration over the screaming. If you choose to attend to your conure every time, they scream just to have them stop, you will end up motivating the very behavior you are trying to fight.

You should also create a regular and consistent time that you always spend time with your conure; that way, they are aware that you will come back when you leave. Over time, once the conure realizes you always come back, their anxiety eases down and may even stop the screaming every time you leave.

If your green cheek conure is fond of screaming, you can extinguish the screaming by ignoring it since the conure is screaming to get your attention. Leave as soon as they start screaming for your attention. Soon, your conure will realize that screaming will not give them extra attention.

Also, you can practice leaving the cage open for some time, roughly four to five hours a day. This will allow them to climb about and watch you freely. This is a good idea if your conure was screaming from the anxiety of you leaving.

Importantly, reinforce other means of communication that do not entail screaming. Once the conure does a behavior you like, reinforce it. Give all the strategies enough time; your conure will catch up.

How Do You Calm Down a Conure?

Conures are naturally boisterous and noisy; it’s their way of communication in the jungle. However, the behavior is necessary for wild parrots that have to live that way to survive. Therefore, it’s essential to calm the wild screaming in your conure before it becomes a behavioral problem.

To calm down your conure, reward your conure for calmness. When your conure screams to get attention, deny them the attention. Once they are calm, reward them with a treat or something they like. That way, they’ll realize that calmness attracts you while the screaming puts you off or has no effect on you. Eventually, they will drop the habit of screaming since it does not give them their desired result.

Learning your conure’s body language makes it easier for you to calm them down. By understanding their body language, you can identify whether they are trying to make you react a certain way or are themselves responding to a situation.

You can tell how they express certain emotions, such as anxiety when you are leaving and address them. The best way to learn your conure’s body language is through being keen on their reactions when you are training them tricks.

Cue your conure to perform trained behavior. For instance, you might notice that your bird cannot simultaneously wave and scream. Therefore, you can try to interrupt their screaming by conditioning them to perform a trained behavior.

Teach your bird new tricks to use instead of screaming. For instance, teach the conure how to whistle, reward them every time they do. If they are in a screaming fit, cue them to whistle, then reward the whistling. They’ll soon replace the problem behavior with the trained trick when trying to get your attention.

Keep your conure busy and calm through foraging. If your conure is entertained only when interacting with you, you can expect the screaming fits every time you leave. Foraging is making your conure work to get their food. Simply look for foraging ideas online and implement them at home. When your conure is busy with the foraging, expect t to maintain calmness.

Get your conure toys to keep them busy. It’s the same principle as foraging. It keeps your conure calm to know that they can still entertain themselves when you are away. Buy many various distractions and keep switching the toys to keep your conure interested.

Calm the environment that may have unsettled the conure. Some conures get easily startled by disturbances like a piece of loud music or if they saw something unsettling while watching tv. Select a peaceful spot within your house, far from troublesome disturbances but with a good view of you and your activities so that they do not feel alone.

Use sights and sounds to calm your conure. Conures find soft music very soothing; play soothing music right before bedtime for them to associate the music with peace and sleepiness. Once your conure gets into any kind of fit, you can then play them the same soft music to help them relax. Also, you can leave a radio or television running to calm your conure.

You should never leave a parrot in a completely silent area; the silence may cause stress on the bird. A radio is a good entertainment source or plays them a kid’s tv channel since they will never have obscenely loud or scary scenes.

If none of the home remedies works, take the conure for a check-up. They will check whether the fit and screaming are a result of an injury or an illness. The vet may prescribe your conure some proactive medications to supplement the proactive coming techniques.

Conure Screams Can Be Stopped

The thing with pets is that you have to know and understand them to cohabit peacefully. Conure screaming is a behavioral problem that slowly grows and gets worse by the day when not attended to. A creaming conure is not always a sign of unhappiness, just a re-affirmed behavior.

Once you bond more with your conure and understand their body language, you’ll manage to control the screaming right from its onset. Remember, it takes time to build or kill a habit. Therefore, give the strategies time to work.

Wrap Up

If you opt to own a conure, just like any other bird, be psychologically prepared to dedicate quantity and quality time to care for them. It’s also essential to consider the lifespan of the bird. A conure is a lifetime commitment since the bird may live for up to fifty years. Therefore, consider whether you will manage to meet the needs of the bird as both of you age.

It’s prudent of you to seek knowledge on a conure’s needs; too many people launch into bird ownership without conducting the proper research. The result, unfortunately, is an abandoned bird and an unhappy owner. Conures are charming and great friends. Therefore, if you invest in the time you spend together, you’ll likely cohabit peacefully and happily.

Bal Kang

Bal Kang is an owner of several pets including reptiles, cats and dogs. An avid writer, who loves to share her insights into caring for pets.

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