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Handfeeding and Weaning Rose-Crowned Conures
PET POTENTIAL OF THE ROSE-CROWNED CONURE (Pyrrhura Rhodocephala)
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BY Darlene Johnson of LITTLE DARLINGS
Copyright © September 2005 - 2008 All rights reserved.
Weight Chart for Seven Rose-Crowned Conure Chicks
1st Breeding Award Article [for the Country of Canada]
published in the AACC journal
Copyright © 2003 - 2008 by Darlene Johnson of LITTLE DARLINGS
in Ontario, Canada All rights reserved.
I currently breed the Green-Cheeked, Crimson-Bellied, Painted Conure and Rose-Crowned Conure. Working with these four species as hand fed baby birds, I have found that, the Rose-Crowned Conure is now my absolute favourite as a hand fed feathered pet companion. They are a very sweet natured, affectionate bird that has a very gentle, calm and trusting disposition, generally quiet, quite intelligent, mischievous, can be clownish and energetic, the least tendency to nip and just craves human contact. Whether they be male or female, they are quite the cuddle bug and are just love sponges, almost like the cockatoo species. They have been affectionately called little green cockatoos by their owners. One of their favourite pastimes is to snuggle right up under your chin on your throat and chest for long periods of time. Where you can rub their head, neck and back feathers with your chin and also scratch their head and cheek feathers with your fingers. Or another great place is on your shoulder, snuggled tightly against your neck. While being there, they will be cuddling, playing, preening, relaxing, sleeping or hiding in your hair.They also enjoy riding around on your shoulder while you go from place to place in your home or when you are doing the chores and will also use your body as a play area. They really enjoy all the parrot toys that we humans love to wear on our bodies. For instance, like buttons, earrings, eyeglasses, necklaces, rings, watches and zippers, etc. I prefer not to wear these toys when they are on my shoulder and give them other appropriate things for them to entertain themselves with. They also enjoy cuddling right up against the face, in the palm of your hand. You can use your nose and cheek to caress their feathers around their head and body. When in/on your hand, they listen so attentively to everything you have to say and keep cocking their heads from side to side as you speak. They really enjoy you stroking and caressing their feathers and give them little kisses on their beak, cheek, head (lips closed and no salvia on the lips please). They constantly want to be with you and bounce up and down on the side of the cage asking to come out. I have noticed that you can do anything with them, they are so trustworthy of humans and feel very comfortable with us. They truly become a member of the family. The Rose-Crowned conure is a constant delight to its owner!Females as hand feds, are very sweet, gentle, love to cuddle, affectionate and quiet birds. They make soft little noises and only once in awhile a squawk. Females can talk quite well, when taught. The Rose-Crowned Conurefemales have the best talking ability and can have the largest vocalbulary of the four species that I currently breed.
Males as hand feds, love to be petted, have their head and cheeks scratched
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and cuddling under your chin. The males tend to have the greatest talking ability and larger vocalbulary of the four species that I currently breed. Occasionally some males when they are in their cages, can be a little feisty about their territory as they grow older (mostly bluffing I find). But once out of the cage, they change and become real sweeties when they are with their humans.
Males and females tend to become really attached to their favourite humans, but when well socialized will go to the whole family as well as friends and strangers. Some Rose-Crowned conures will even accept other species as friends and can become friends with various avian psittacines, when well-socialized.Talking can start as early as four to five months of age in the males and six to nine months in the females.The chicks at night really enjoy sleeping in a Kleenex box lined with thick paper towelling. Around the age of 8 - 9 weeks they will not dirty their bed. It is so cute to see them sleeping there with their tails sticking out of the box. Occasionally some of the Rose-Crowned Conures enjoy being on their backs any time through out the day, when taking a nap. The chicks also like to hang upside down from the perch doing nothing or flapping their wings in that position. One chick I am currently handfeeding will hang onto the perch, fall forward until he is upside down and immediately flap his wings holding onto the perch until he is in an upright position. Just like a somersault. They seem to enjoy all different types of toys that you can put in their cage and in their play area. Whether it be hanging toys, foot held toys, swings, home-made toys. Just remember to give them parrot safe toys. Some of their absolute favourite toys are popsicle sticks, a swing, toys with leather, cotton and sisal strips. Just remember to keep an eye on the cotton or sisal as they become frayed as you do not want the bird to get caught in them.This is a species that enthusiastically enjoys bathing a few times a week in a room temperature room, so they can’t catch a chill.They will totally drench themselves from head to toe and immediately start the process all over again until they are soaking wet with water dripping off their feathers from most parts of their body. When they shake their wings and body, you are sprayed with many tiny droplets of water. I put fresh water in a three inch ceramic dish on the bottom of cage after the first meal of the day and the Rose-Crowned Conure chicks see the fresh water as an invitation to go for a dip. The chicks are so comical as they are all perched around the bowl and everyone tries to bathe at the same time. Then they figured it out that this doesn't work and some will get off and usually two are left trying to bathe. One will bend down and splash around for a bit, then come up for a breather and then the other chick will push the drenched one off the bowl and proceed to bathe, as a different chick will hop onto the edge of the dish and wait or push the other one off and bathe too. This will go on until all are completely and thoroughly drenched! When it comes to the diet. They are most willing and not too picky to try anything that you offer them. They enjoy a wide variety of foods. They bounce up and down and run back and forth in the cage when they see you bringing their treats! They seem to have a zest for various types of food and will eat it with pure enjoyment.When well socialized, the Rose-Crowned Conures can keep themselves entertained in or out of their cages for quite while, when there is an abundance of toys to choose from. They are very quick to learn to do various tricks and can adapt to many different situations because of their calm demeanour. I would say in my opinion, that the Rose-Crowned Conure has the best pet potential of the four Pyrrhura species that I currently breed. They have such wonderful personalities and qualities that are so totally irresistible, that come in a small bundle of feathers. Current owners of hand fed birds of this species, just cannot say enough wonderful things about them! To read what owners have to say about them go to http://www.mylittledarlings.com/testimonials.html and go to bottom of the page and CLICK the button that says CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE CONURE TESTIMONIALS.Background Information
On July 25th, 2001 my two pairs of close-banded, aviary bred Rose-Crowned Conures came into a Canadian quarantine from Belguim. The one pair was eighteen months old and the other pair was a two year old male with a six month old hen. I received them from the quarantine station on September 11th, 2001. They came in poor feather condition with black stress mark feathering, missing feathers, broken and missing tail feathers, low energy level, non vocal, etc. I then proceeded to place them in my personal quarantine for sixty days and basic tests were run. I converted them over to a better diet ( mentioned below ). They passed the tests before being placed in the breeding facility on November 10th, 2001. The quarantine is directly in my main living area, the laundry room on the first floor. We have steam heating, which there is no air exchange at all, into the breeding room.Aviary Set-up
My breeding aviary is indoors on the first floor of my house separated by a double brick wall from the main living area. It is twenty-two feet wide by twenty-eight feet long. You can only get in this room from two outside entrances. Both have a small foyer with closed doors opening into the bird workshop. From the workshop, you can proceed through another closed door with a window in it to the breeding facility. It is covered with a semi-closed mini blind, so that we might check on the birds without them knowing it. Before entering the aviary, we change our shoes and put on aviary shoes before servicing our birds. The room is painted white with clay coloured trim and from the ceiling we have hanging spider plants and other types of plants placed throughout the aviary for privacy and to help clean and humidify the air. The floor is covered with blue, grey and white industrial tile. Off in one corner is a small bathroom with a large sink for cleaning our utensils, dishes, trays, perches and other things. We also have storage shelves for our paper towels, toilet paper, disinfectants, soap, candler, utensils, dishes, etc. We have four banks of double four foot fluorescent lighting, consisting of Vita lights and cool whites which are set on timers. Banks one & three come on fifteen minutes before and goes off fifteen minutes later than the second set of lights. This we hope sort of stimulates sunrise and sunset. I make gradual adjustments as the seasons change. Shortening the hours of daylight as the breeding season comes to a close and lengthening the hours as breeding season approaches. We also have two sets of double four foot fluorescent lights, placed separately throughout the aviary. We first painted the light bulbs yellow and then painted them blue and use them for our night lights. When these lights come on in the evening it creates a wonderful, peaceful soft green glow throughout the whole room. It reminds me of being at the edge of the forest in the evening with the moon casting light over the leaves in the canopy above, bathing the forest below in a greenish glow. They are also on a light sensor. The night lights come on within a minute of the others going out. We have installed throughout the months of October through to May, a humidifier going twenty-four hours a day to help with the humidity level. It is usually kept around 35% minimum. A radio is on a timer too, for the birds all day long, on a channel that has soft music playing. This we find, makes the birds calmer, when my husband and I are in the aviary working together. We are able to talk to our hearts content without disturbing them. We have a hepa filter placed in the room to help filter the air. The aviary is swept a couple of times a week and the floor disinfected twice a month.We maintain the room temperature between seventy to seventy-two degrees Fahranheit throughout the year. With the exception of the summer months between June to August were the temperatures can reach up and over eighty-five degrees Fahranheit as we do not have a cooling system installed. We do run a large industrial fan during the summer months on the hotest days. In the springtime and early autumn we have a electronic oiled filled radiator centred in the breeding facility to help maintain the above degrees when the furnance is noton yet.
Screened windows are opened daily for fresh air exchange.
Photo by: Dr. Donna Flanagan D.V.M and her husband Phil with their chick Ochï and his siblings.
Breeder: Kevin & Darlene Johnson
Cage Set-up
We place three separate cages on top of each other, which is then sitting on top of two by four’s pine wood frame with quality swivelled castors attached at the four corners on the bottom of the wood framework to make a triple decker cage unit. All the cages are made out of 100% galvanized wire of fourteen gauge with one inch square spacing. The cage sizes are twenty-four inches by twenty-eight inches by fourty-eight inches. There is galvanized sheet metal dividers between the stacked cages with metal trays placed on top. When the trays which are lined with newspaper are out for cleaning, the birds in the upper level cannot see the birds below. Plus, if the birds above defecate, the metal sheet stops it from going into the next cage and we can easily wipe it
up. When the trays are out being cleaned and the paper changed, we have hanging wire guards that are attached to the bottom of the front of the cage,
to keep the birds in. All cages are covered on top, back and one side with
galvanized metal sheets for privacy.
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Photo by Darlene Johnson
The other side of the cage, is a bump out section, where the nest box goes in the top part of the wire bump out section and underneath the nest box is where the stainless steel dishes are placed in a wire three section feeding station which is attached to the inside of the cage. Easy access from the outside and a guard hanging down with a spring attached to keep it tight, so the birds cannot push the dishes out. This is really handy when the birds are breeding and into protecting their nests and chicks, they cannot reach you to bite when giving them fresh food and water. With the bump out, the birds cannotdefecate into their food and water since the perch is so far away from
the feeding station. Our pairs have access to toys and a swing at
Nest boxes
The nest boxes are made out of one inch pine wood from the mill, planed smooth on one side. The smooth side is the outside of the nest boxes. Keeps me from snagging my clothes on it all the time. The dimensions are twelve inches deep by twelve inches wide by twenty-four inches long ( horizontal ). They are screwed together, so if a section is chewed too much. We only have to replace the one piece of wood. We place in the middle of the bottom of the nest box a two by four divider to make two even compartments. Then the compartment farthest away from the nest box opening ( it is by the inspection door ) we use three - one inch by two inch by whatever length pieces nailed just under the inspection door and the back and the side until touching the two by four divider.
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They use these small pieces of wood to chew when sitting on the eggs and chicks
and tend to leave the nest box alone.
We sprinkle Sevin Powder along the bottom of the nest box to kill any bugs that might hatch from the moist pine shavings. Then we pile pine shavings up to the bottom of the nest box inspection door and none under the other compartment under the nest box opening. The conures when they go to nest, dig into the pile of shavings and make a deep depression, the excess shavings go into the other compartment under the opening. I usually take all the pine shavings that they threw out to the other side and put them back in the original place. I do this three or four times. This really seems to stimulate them to breeding mode with all this digging and preparing the nest, plus giving them my soft food mixture a few times a week as they do this. Then they proceed to lay their eggs in the darkest part of the box under the nest 
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inspection door. When it is near the hatch dates, we spray water into the nest
box opening were the excess shavings are and this creates the humidity they
need for hatching out the eggs. They also have access, a few times a week to fresh clean bathing water in a low dish placed in the middle of their cage.
Diet
For all our birds we use in each cage three stainless steel half pint dishes. One for the Roudybush pellets which is available at all times, one for water and one for their soft foods and treats. Pellets and fresh water twice a day, plus in the evening, an almond and on alternating days one teaspoon per pair, a mixture consisting of Hagen Tropican Gourmet Parrot treat, mixed with pumpkin seeds and dried pasta in shapes and different colours of wagon wheels, radiators, etc. They just love the different shapes. On Sunday, they get a roasted peanut in the shell. In the breeding season, no seed mix is given, if there is chicks in the nest. They get more almonds because of the higher calcium factor. The soft food is given twice a day which I make up fresh each time. I put a small amount of soft peanut butter in warm water and mix well until slightly dissolved. The peanut butter gives the mixture a very slight peanutty taste. Then I proceed to put in Roudybush Breeder Pellets. Mix well. Once a day, I put in just enough spirulina to make the mixture slightly pale green. The breeding pairs are always bouncing up and down waiting for this mixture and will only eat the pellets when the soft food is all gone. The peanut butter is a great source of protein and helps put a little fat on the chicks. They are well plumped! The spirulina has so many health benefits and great antioxidants to help with the stress of feeding chicks and helps build up their immune systems and when the chicks feather out, they have an iridescence and vibrant colouration of the feathers. My Breeding Experience
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When it was time to inspect the nest box, we would knock on the nest box to open the inspection door. We would open the inspection door a couple of inches and shine a tiny flashlight into it. The imported pair would then slowly leave with their neck feathers raised in protest and they would stay on the perch by the nest box opening just waiting to hear the door close. As soon as the door closed, they immediately went back in.Banding of the first and second chick was on January 31st, 2002 with the size P coded bands at seventeen and fifteen days old. Banding of the 3rd chick was on February 4th, 2002 at eighteen days old. Banding of the fourth chick was on February 8th, 2002 at seventeen days old. Banding of chicks five and six was done on February 15th, 2002 at the ages of twenty-two and nineteen days of age. The Hen “ Belle “ started to come out of the nest box on February 5th, 2002 for minute periods of time. Mostly to get food to feed the chicks. The Cock bird “ Tinker” I had two Green-Cheeked Conure chicks under first time parents as well and they were not being fed by the parents. They had let one chick die already, so I decided to place them under “Tinker” and “ Belle” the Rose-Crowned Conure pair. They were back up to five chicks in the nest with the two foster Green-Cheeked Conures. The next day I peeked into the nest and the two Green-Cheeked Conures had been fed! They continued to feed the Green-Cheeked Conure chicks very well until I took them out of the nest for the handfeeding process. The Green-Cheeked Conure chicks were taken out of the nest on February 19th, 2002.When the chicks had become fully feathered. I had noticed that they had juvenile plumage. They almost looked like the parents, but not quite. 
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The six Rose-Crowned Conure chicks weaned at twelve weeks of age. We DNA sexed the clutch and the results were three Hens and three Cock birds. Photographs were taken from the time of hatching to weaning of this clutch.The Rose-Crowned Conure pair decided to start their second clutch of yet again seven eggs. Eggs one through five were fertile. The sixth egg was clear and the seventh egg was fertile. The first 
all times. We have one to two natural perches of various widths.
One is placed up high near the nest box opening and the other is at the opposite end, placed lower in the cage.
Photo by Darlene Johnson
Photo by Darlene Johnson
The eighteen month old pair “ Tinker and Belle “ were placed in the breeding facility on November 10th, 2001. They were the first to breed for me in just under five months after I got them. They bred at the age of twenty-three months. This pair was set up in the upper cage of the triple decker cage unit described above, beside a frosted window. There is a radio that is on a timer on the window sill playing easy listening music with the volume on moderate. Underneath this window sill is the steam radiator with a garbage pail in front and a workstation to the left of the garbage pail for changing newspapers from trays and to band chicks. We are also on a main road with moderate traffic and headlights can shine into the frosted windows in the evening. The nest box was attached to the cage on December 1, 2001. The first egg was laid on December 22, 2001 with the second following on the 24th, third the 26th, fourth on the 28th. Then the fifth egg was laid on January 3rd, 2002, sixth egg on the 5th of January and the last one on January 7th for a total of seven eggs in the clutch. All seven were fertile and hatching commenced on January 14th, 16th, 18th,
22nd, 24th, 28th and the 30th of 2002. There was sixteen days between the first chick
and the seventh chick.
Photo by Darlene Johnson
Both the Cock bird and Hen incubated. When the cage was serviced the Cock bird would come out of the nest box and stay out until we left the area. Then he proceeded back into the nest box. When the chicks were starting to hatch. The Cock bird would also sit on the chicks and eggs and stay with the Hen all the time, unless we were servicing the cage. He would come out and sit on the feeding station with his head and neck feathers raised waiting for the soft food mixture. As soon as we placed it into the feeding station, he would immediately dive in.After all the chicks were hatched the Cock bird and Hen still brooded them faithfully. We raised in total six chicks. There would have been a seventh Photo by Darlene Johnson
chick.
We raised in total six chicks. There would have been a seventh chick. But, the day of hatching on January 30th, 2002. I had a breeder over to buy up quite a few of my breeder cockatiels as I was no longer breeding this species. The breeder and I were in the breeding facility a couple of hours as the breeder was deciding on which ones to purchase. Of course some of the parrots in the facility were vocalizing more than usual from this disturbance and the cockatiels too as they were being caught. During this disturbance, the seventh chick was hatching. The next day I looked in the nest and the seventh chick had a large bruise on half of its head. It had food in its crop. The next day I decided to photograph the whole clutch of seven chicks. The seventh chick had grown and was still being fed. The following day at the age of three days old the seventh chick passed away from the severe head trama that it had received from its parents. Photo by Darlene Johnson
at this stage was spending more time out of the nest as well. As the days progressed,
the outings of the Hen lengthen.
Since this was a good size clutch and the babies were so wide spread in ages. I decided to help the parents by taking two chicks out for handfeeding earlier than I normally would have with smaller clutches. On January 31st, 2002 when I banded the two oldest chicks at seventeen and fifteen days old, I took them into the nursery to be hand fed. This left four chicks in the nest. I had noticed that these first time parents were not feeding as much as they should since they had a large clutch. I took one chick out of the nest on February 8th, 2002 to help the youngest chicks to be fed better by the parents. The youngest three chicks seem to be doing fairly well. I took the last three chicks out February 17th, 2002.Photo by Darlene Johnson
The major difference being in the forehead and crown area. They were mostly covered with green feathers in this area. Some chicks tend to have a blue frontal band ( which could be a thin band or a wide band ) with a few scattered red head feathers or tend to have more red head feathers or quite a lot of red head feathers on the head and usually no blue frontal band. Occasionally there is a creamy coloured frontal band on the young. The maroon ear coverts are not as prominent as the adults. There is the colour of watermelon pink under the chin on the throat. Each chick looked alittle different from each of their clutchmates in the colouration of the head feathers and the maroon patches on the abdomen so that you can tell them apart.
egg was laid on March 11th, 2002 with the second following on the
13th, third the 15th, fourth on the 17th. Then the fifth egg was laid on March 19th, 2002, sixth egg on the 21st of March and the last one on March 23rd for a total of seven eggs in the clutch. Hatching commenced on April 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 12th and the 17th. There was fifteen days between the first chick and the sixth chick.
Banding of the first and second chick was on April 18th, 2002 with the size P coded bands at sixteen and fourteen days old. Banding of the third and fourth chick was on April 21st, 2002 at fifteen and thirteen days old. Banding of the fifth chick was on April 28th, 2002 at sixteen days old. Banding of the sixth chick was done on May 2nd, 2002 at the ages of fifteen days old.Once again I took the chicks out of the nest to be hand fed. I took two chicks from the nest when I was banding chicks number three and four on April 21st, 2002. Leaving just four chicks behind. I took the third chick out on April 25th, 2002 leaving behind three chicks. The two youngest chicks were smaller and this would give the parents the chance to concentrate on feeding the youngest chicks better as they did not have to feed the bigger and more demanding older chicks. I took out the last three chicks together for handfeeding on April 30th, 2002. The two youngest chicks had triple in size in just five days. I had noticed with this clutch that the parents seemed to be feeding the chicks much better as I was banding them earlier than the first clutch.This clutch of six Rose-Crowned Conure chicks also weaned at twelve weeks of age.Once again the pair decided to breed and produced a third clutch! Egg laying commenced on June 4th, 2002 with the first egg. Second egg layed on June 6th, 2002, third egg on June 8th, 2002, fourth egg on June 10th, 2002, fifth egg on June 12th, 2002 and the last egg on June 14th, 2002. For a grand total of six eggs. They were all fertile.The first chick to hatch was on June 26th, 2002, followed by the second chick on June 28th, 2002, the third chick hatched on June 30th, 2002, with the fourth chick hatching on July 2nd, 2002, fifth chick on July 4th, 2002 and the last chick on July 6th, 2002. For a total of six chicks born.This particular clutch ended up with some disastrous results in the outcome. Being Map Certified we like to keep our breeding stock in tip top shape to make sure that our livestock are healthy to produce large and exceptional chicks each and every year. This takes place in the month of July, as this is the only time to do it while my husband is on vacation. The annual veterinary well-bird check up consists of the check up, weighing, beak and nail trims, questions concerning the health, eating habits, behavior and activity of that particular bird, gram stains, cultures, bloodwork, etc., are done. This took place on July 9th, 2002, just three days after the sixth Rose-Crowned Conure chick was born. During the veterinarian’s visit each year, the birds do not take kindly to this disturbance and react by vocalizing more, hiding in nest boxes, flying frantically around, afraid of being caught, etc.