Conures

Book excerpt: The adorable conure, named for its conically shaped tail, is one of the world’s favorite parrots and the subject of this Complete Care Made Easy pet guide that presents new and experienced bird keepers with insight into every aspect of selecting, caring for, and maintaining well-behaved happy pet birds. Bird specialist and trainer Nikki Moustaki has written an ideal introductory pet guide about the boisterous conure, with chapters on the characteristics of the conure, the varied behaviors of these small macaw-like parrots in the wild, selection of a healthy, typical pet bird, housing and care, feeding, training, and health care. The chapters “The Many Conure Species” and “Selecting a Great Conure” offers potential owners excellent advice about dozens of species and how to select the best one from those available commercially, from the blue-crowned conure and the green-cheeked conure to the sun conure and red-fronted conure. In the chapter on housing and care, the author discusses selection of the right cage, placement of the cage, and all the necessary accessories. A bird’s diet is critical to its ongoing health, and the chapter devoted to feeding gives the reader all the info he or she needs about choosing the best diet . The chapter “Conure Behavior and Training” gives expert advice about how to train the very talkative conure to speak and be quiet, too. The book concludes with an appendix of bird societies, a glossary of terms, and a complete index.