OMG I've never seen a baby dusky, he's so adorable! Once you bring Benny home, that'll make I think three of us in the community with duskies: you, splatterhouse, and me. She (?) and I recently discussed our duskies a bunch in first this post, then this post. I'll be curious to see how his personality compares to Kappa's (mine) and Apollo's (splatterhouse's).
In short though, like all conures expect him to be high energy, curious, demanding, temperamental, bratty, playful, and loud, but a little less so on each than most other species of conures.
His personality is starting to show a bit already--very, very sweet (as of course, all babies are) but a bit independent, too. He wants to fly, fly, fly! (He's never been clipped and won't be.) He kept flying over and landing on the breeder, because it was OMGFEEDME time! :D But he's awesome for a cuddle. I cannot WAIT to get him home!
I would encourage you to introduce him to as many people as possible while he's still young, and to keep it up as he hits puberty. Kappa was very nervous when I first met her at age 1, but soon after I brought her home she liked all new people, and then when she was around 2 she started disliking new people. Puberty seems to be around 2 or 3 years old.
She's really sweet to me, loves scratches, preens my eyelashes, those sorts of things. She doesn't do the snuggling inside my shirt or upside down in my hand that some conures do, though.
Kappa loves loves loves flying! She especially loves to fly when she's boarding, and she tries to visit with every conure in the house. If there aren't any conures present, then she tries to visit with any macaws in the house. She doesn't really understand the idea of danger...
I'm so glad to see that you have new friends. Sunshine was a ridiculously special bird, and I will miss her immensely, but the world of parrots would be a poorer place if you weren't a parrot owner.
Benny and Ducky are adorable. I can't wait to hear more stories about them.
I don't have much advice for Ducky, but it's an extremely common injury among parrotlets - one reason why I feel that keeping them in close contact in what usually passes for a pet's cage is a Very Bad Idea.
Given that he's a wild-type, and his breeder can probably tell you if there's any mutation birds in his background, I might switch him to soaked pellets (Harrison's, etc.) - I almost think that would be easier for him to handle, beak-impaired. Mutation parrotlets seem to have the most trouble with the pellet diet, for whatever reason.
Good luck with him, and you're definitely not alone - quite a few parrotlet owners end up with birds with the same issue. The Yahoo group ParrotletsPlus is fantastically supportive on this kind of issue, if you can stand Yahoo. (I haven't been active there for years, so I'm hoping it's still good.) :)
Thank you! I will try the soaked pellets when he gets a chance to settle in a bit. I'll continue to give him the seeds that he can eat, too, of course. And I plan to try him on soft cooked foods, too.
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Best of luck with your new friends.
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In short though, like all conures expect him to be high energy, curious, demanding, temperamental, bratty, playful, and loud, but a little less so on each than most other species of conures.
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She's really sweet to me, loves scratches, preens my eyelashes, those sorts of things. She doesn't do the snuggling inside my shirt or upside down in my hand that some conures do, though.
Kappa loves loves loves flying! She especially loves to fly when she's boarding, and she tries to visit with every conure in the house. If there aren't any conures present, then she tries to visit with any macaws in the house. She doesn't really understand the idea of danger...
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Benny and Ducky are adorable. I can't wait to hear more stories about them.
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I will be around a lot, I'm sure, with pictures, stories, and tons of questions!
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Given that he's a wild-type, and his breeder can probably tell you if there's any mutation birds in his background, I might switch him to soaked pellets (Harrison's, etc.) - I almost think that would be easier for him to handle, beak-impaired. Mutation parrotlets seem to have the most trouble with the pellet diet, for whatever reason.
Good luck with him, and you're definitely not alone - quite a few parrotlet owners end up with birds with the same issue. The Yahoo group ParrotletsPlus is fantastically supportive on this kind of issue, if you can stand Yahoo. (I haven't been active there for years, so I'm hoping it's still good.) :)
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