Thinking of getting a sun conure
 

So if I can put together the money by the end of the month, I'm going to buy this sun conure from my workplace. She's totally charmed me. Hand fed, and very very socialized.

I teach dog training classes, but this will be my first experience owning a bird. I've done a fair amount of reading on the subject, and I'm getting more confident with the body language, and what is and isn't allowed. I know about what my time and money investment is going to be too.

Are there any conure-owners here who have some advice? Some specific things I'm wondering about are:

Food - Is there some kind of advantage to a properly supplemented seed diet? Because from what I can see, the extruded kibble-type foods are better in general. What are some good brands?

Safety - I'd really like to let this bird be flighted. What kind of safety precautions should I be taking? I'm thinking I can hang up some sheets over a couple places I'd like to keep it out of. What other bird-proofing measures can I take?

Mirrors - Your thoughts? I've met people who are all for them, and people who say to never give one to your bird.

Don't have a conure, but I do have budgerigars. I assume the advice will be the same, considering they're all part of the small parrot family.

If you want to let the bird fly, keep the curtains or blinds closed for the first couple of days when you let it out of it's cage.

That way it won't think it can fly out of the window and injure itself. Flying fast enough, it could break it's own wing or leg or even kill itself. And you don't want that.

If you're hanging up sheets to keep it out of places (vases, behind clocks or do you mean other rooms?) expect the bird to be interested.
If the sheet is over something it WILL try to get it off of there to find out what it is.

As for mirrors... it depends on what you want to do with the bird.
If you want to eventually breed with him/her, stay away from mirrors.
In the best case the bird won't have interest in the breeding partner because he's/she's known the mirror-bird longer and better.
In the worst case, it will consider the mirror image as competition and try to hurt it. You can imagine the bird might go nuts.

If you don't plan to breed a mirror will be okay, seeing as it'll provide distraction. And believe you me, any type of parrot (budgerigar, conures, actual parrots) WILL want attention if they're not busy trying to escape or busy entertaining themselves.

Speaking of which, get a good cage that's escape proof.
If you get it a bath that hangs on the outside of the cage, make sure it can't lift it off of the support easily, because we've had the bird escape numerous times that way.

Also... conures can make a hell of a noise. Be warned.

Yeah, I was talking more about rooms. And yes, I'm aware of the noise. I consider it advantageous, because if the bird gets antsy when he knows it's time to come out for a bit (and I know he does), it's really easy to teach one to be a biological alarm clock. I've done the same thing with dogs before.

Thanks for the advice.

Yeah, you want to stick with the pellets, and stay away from seed as a primary food source. Also, researching what fruits and veggies she can have would be good to, and give her some fresh fruits and veggies. You have to be careful with mirrors. The bird may become bonded with her reflection instead of you.

This I'm aware of, but I figure if I wait awhile before introducing one, I should be fine. Here's a question though: Is the bird likely to get stressed out if its mirror is taken away?

Depends fully on the bird.
Every bird has it's own personality and likes and dislikes.

Some like to be petted and handled, others don't.

Some are fiercely territorial and will gnaw your finger off if you stick it in the cage (or at least try), others will just come close and look at it funny (and maybe give you a "kiss" on the finger or play with it).

Same goes with property. If it's used to the mirror and sees it as it's own, it WILL stress out and maybe go look for it. Or maybe it won't.
Or maybe just 'till it's found something else to entertain it with.

*snicker*

In my experience, mirrors are good if you don't plan to breed, as Melfy said.

Hurhurhur.
That's showing age, right there.

Fine.
If you want to breed USING A PAIR OF BIRDS.
Better?

EDIT: Also, Melfy? I didn't know we were in that kind of relationship.

Would that result in something like this?

I was thinking more about the loss of a "companion" than territorial...ness.

This one's been preening my eye-lashes, and lets me do pretty much anything with it, so I think we're good there.

Birds are the dirtiest and messiest animals you can have.

It's something to be aware of going in. There will be dander and feathers everywhere, and bird crap all around the outside of the cage no matter how well you layer the bottom with newspaper or whatever else. That will also be full of feathers and droppings.

Seriously, I've had cats, birds, rabbits, squirrels, dogs, ferrets, iguanas, savannah monitors, geckos, three different kinds of snake (at least), newts, spiders... and shit, I don't even know what else.

The birds were by far the messiest.

Oh, except monkeys. They're messier. But not by much.