How much time is recommended to spend with your conure?

Question

please dont say "as much as you can" as i realize of course its as much time as you can. i was just wondering if there is a certain time frame...like an estimate? maybe from someone who has a bird and full time job too. i want my bird to have a strong bond with me.but i have a job and am worrying about leaving him home. any advice? thanks

Answer 1

My birds are home alone (well they have each other, and I leave the TV on for them) during the day while we're at work. We generally leave the house at 6:30am and get back around 4pm. When we get home, we spend most of the evening with our parrots. It can be just letting them play on their stands out of their cage while we all watch tv together, or physically picking them up and playing. They seem to be happy as long as they get out of the cage, and are in the room with us.

Like right now, I was checking emails, decided to stop by answers, but I have one of the parrots on the back of my chair and he's preening my hair, while the others are doing various things (one's helping my hubby try to read a book, 2 of the others are playing together with a new toy on their stand, one's eating some of his fresh veggies for dinner, etc...)

As long as you have at least a good hour or 2, everyday, and more when you can, I think the bird should be ok. As long as there are toys and other things to keep him entertained if you can't spend all day with him, he shouldn't get too bored.

Keeping the bird in a room where he can see people coming and going, even if you might not have the time to actually get him out of the cage is great too (like the living room- not stuck off in a back bedroom somewhere). He still feels like he's part of the "flock", and gets to see everyone.

Answer 2

With conures it's best to interact with them as much as possible...but you also want to make sure that they can entertain themselves too. If not you can end up with a screamimg bird that demands to be held and carried around all the time. To little time can result in a nippy bird that you can't go near.

Their is no "time frame" for the amount of time spent with your bird. I have so many birds now....I can't possibly cart them all around with me 24/7. I have window perches, and portable playstands, and one huge play gym. I alternated my birds from perch to stand and cage top. We have "dancing birds" once a day for at least an hour, this is when we turn the music up and dance and sing (yeah it sounds nutty- but they look forward to it). They have learned to play and entertain themselves, and they enjoy being out of their cages and being in the same room as the rest of the family. It works for me...none of my birds are screamers.