Sun

STORY OF SUN

We had heard the row being made by the birds, before we even entered the building. On asking if that was normal, the youngster serving us confirmed that it was. We guessed we would have some noisy parrots for a change if we bought any of these. They definitely more than make up for the quietness of all the others, the African Greys being the only exception.

When I approached the cage for the first time, there were a few birds on the wire, and Sun was the only one to remain there. She allowed me to touch her through the wire without flying off. She was our bird! We looked at the others and chose another as her mate. It was the same sex as her. We then chose another, and it was confirmed to be the opposite sex. They were all kept in the same cage as they had come from the same breeder. When asking if they were related, we were told that they could not say, but as the one we chose as a mate was a month or two younger, it was probably not related. We were told that it would be borne out by the moult and wing feathers being replaced by yellow ones. This was true as Moon was at least three months behind Sun in getting his colours.

It was Friday 15 October 1999 when we first saw and fell in love with Sun. We were informed that she was approximately nine months old when we bought her. As her mate, we chose Moon. The youngster who caught sun checked for dye on the inside of her wing. Apparently the breeder had sexed the birds by putting dye on one wing to designate a female and the other to designate a male. He had ringed all the birds on the same leg, so the usual format of left for female and right for male did not apply in this case. He informed us that Sun was a male and Moon was a female as he caught and inspected them.

Sun gets her name

We decided that as she was a Sun Conure, and was a beautiful golden yellow, she would be called Sun. She still had completely green wings, with just a few yellow feathers here and there. She got her full colours after her first moult.

Personality, likes and dislikes

Sun has a really lovely and friendly personality. Right from the start, she would obey most requests. She always flies from anywhere in the room to settle on your finger when called. She loves nibbling the lobe of your ear if she wants attention. If you ignore her, she gives a pressure tweak and you are then reminded to respond. She loves "escaping" at every opportunity. Unless the cage door is firmly fastened, she will open it and let herself and the others out for a fly, so we have crimped the door on the front and put extra pressure on the other door. When feeding them, we need to block the water and seed bowl holes, as she is quick to exit from any opening. Having said all of this, if she does escape when feeding or cleaning the cage, it is a simple task to get her back home. Just call her, and at the same time as moving to the door, give her a kiss on the beak and she is back home. The occasions where she will not go to bed are rare, but if they do occur, forget about it until she is ready, as you are wasting your time. These, thankfully are maybe two or three a year, so she is very good.

She loves playing with all the toys that are up. Her favourite is threading things, whether it be chain or string, she will weave it in and out of the bars of the cage. When she has run out of whatever she is threading, she will then unwind it, unless she has become bored.

When we put new paper on the bottom of the cage, she will hop down and roll over and pull the paper as she does so. It really is lovely to watch.

Talking ability

Sun makes no real effort to talk, other than at bed time. Once the cage cover is in sight, she says "Nite nite Sun. Nite nite" and repeats this until the light has been turned out. At which time she then sounds like a duck quacking, and then slowly settles for the night. On the day following her third egg, when I was saying the usual "Goodbye, see you later", Sun responded with "NiteNite" and repeated that several times.

Sun lays her first eggs

It was Sunday 15 July 2001 at 09:40 when we had an incident between the female Barraband, Flash and Sun. Sun bit the front flange and toenail completely off Flash's left foot. There was a hang of a din going on in the cage and we found Moon and Sun having a go at Flash as she climbed out of "her" nest box. It was on closer investigation that we found an egg in the box, which explained everything. It measured about 28mm x 23mm against the ruler. I decided to inspect the box which Sun had been sleeping in the previous few nights and found another egg in that box. I moved the egg from Flash's box to Sun's box. Sun insisted on settling down in Flash's box, so I moved both eggs to the other box. When out of the box, Sun was twitching first one wing, then the other, bobbing her head up and down and twitching her tail. Something we had never seen her doing before. On checking her vent, she was rather large with obvious signs of having another egg inside her and a very pink vent. This was laid on 16 July 2001 and on the morning of 17 July 2001, she had obvious signs of another egg ready to be deposited.

I guess the original sexing was wrong. Only hope though that we have a male with Moon, otherwise no babies! We won't do any more nest investigation, unless it becomes necessary, as it is the first time she has laid since we got her as a baby.

At Select they have several hand-reared baby Sun Conures for sale at this time and at Safari, they have several baby parent-reared Sun Conures. I assume that our two are breeding out of the normal season, or at least, very much later than anyone else's Suns here in the UK. The eggs were both a reddish orange colour, so I am hoping that they are fertile. There was no rejection of the eggs once I moved them, and although Sun sat with fluffed feathers and an aggressive look about her, she was still just as loveable and cuddly when I talked to her and touched her. Whether she will still be the same closer to hatching time remains to be seen. It may be that Sun is an inexperienced mother and nothing may come of the eggs, as she spends a lot of time out of the nest, although this may be normal for them.

I tried handling Sun when she was out to see if her nature had changed, as it had with the others when in breeding fettle. No. She was still cuddly, although fluffed her feathers up so she looked just like a ball of feathers.

We were already into mid October and Sun was still laying one egg every two weeks. We had already disposed of seven eggs at this stage, but they were not sitting in earnest. We let them out for a fly around at the end of September and I assumed that Sun had already laid her egg, as she remained rather distended for a few days after laying.. She was sitting on my shoulder being very lovable, when all of a sudden, there was an egg heading for the floor. She was not in the least bit concerned about it.

We are firmly of the opinion that there will be no babies this year, as she and her mate are still far too immature. It is also only her first year to lay, so some learning required on her part anyway.

Watch this space! Still watching in 2003!

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