Jenday Conures:

The Good & The Bad

Jenday Conures are fantastic, fun, and fabulous birds.  With proper care, socialization, and training medical and behavior problems are infrequent.
 

However, occasionally a situation can arise where your bird becomes ill, or ill behaved.  Both can be stressful and heartbreaking for both you and your Jenday Conure. The good news is, the majority of the time behavior and illness can be prevented or eliminated.  Let’s take a look at some of the common issues owners of Jenday Conures deal with Jenday Conure Medical issues:

Chlamydiosis. Signs of Chlamydiosis are loss of appetite loss, fluffed feathers, and nasal discharge.  If you recognize any of these symptoms in your Jenday Conure, take them to your avian veterinarian immediately. 

Diarrhea.  Signs of diarrhea are generally a loose stool.  It can be caused from a change in your Jenday’s diet to internal parasites.  Proper diet is essential to preventing diarrhea.  If it occurs, take your Jenday to your avian veterinarian and reduce their fruit intake. 

Polyoma Virus.  This virus is deadly.  Symptoms are loss of appetite, sudden weight loss, lethargy, and sudden death.  If your Jenday begins to lose weight rapidly it is imperative you take them immediately to the avian veterinarian. 

With feather plucking, it is important to first rule out medical causes.  Once your avian veterinarian has given your Jenday a clean bill of health your next step will be to determine what in your bird’s environment doesn’t work.  What is causing them to pull their feathers out? 

Common causes are because they’re bored or because you give them attention every time they pluck a feather.  For example, your intelligent Jenday pulls out a feather and you, unaware that you’re reinforcing the behavior, run over and cuddle with them saying “don’t pull your pretty feathers out.” 

You put your Jenday down or maybe you carry them over to where you were working.  A few minutes later, your attention elsewhere, your Jenday pulls another feather out.  You again run over and pick them up. 

Guess what?  You’ve just taught your Jenday to pluck their feathers for attention.  Yep, it happens that quickly.  The good news is, you can reverse this behavior by ignoring the feather plucking (assuming the veterinarian has ruled out any medical issues). 

Make sure your Jenday receives plenty of your attention during the day, is allowed to interact with you and your family and has plenty of toys to keep them busy when you can’t be with them.  Trick training is a great way to spend time with your parrot.

Screaming is also a complaint from Jenday owners.  Jendays are Conures, not known to be quiet birds.  That being said, they can develop a habit of screaming.  Just like with feather plucking, screaming occurs when there is something missing in your bird’s environment. 

Are they getting enough sleep?  Is their cage large enough?  Do they have enough interesting toys?  Do they feel stressed or threatened by something in the environment? 

Changes in the home, colors, animals and even new people can all set off the normally adaptable Jenday Conure.  Pay attention to when your Jenday screams to determine the cause.  It may be something as simple as your bird screaming for your attention. 

The solution?  Stop giving them attention when they scream.  This may not be easy because screaming is noisy and irritating.  However with a little, training, patience, and love your Jenday’s screaming habit can be reversed. 

Biting.  Jenday Conures are not known to be big biters however during sexual maturity anything can and usually does happen.  If your Jenday begins to nip or bite, your best bet to quickly eliminate the problem is to spend time with your Jenday and train them.

Training helps build a bond of trust, it establishes rules and structure for the home and it positions you as the boss.  Training is far and away the best tool you have in your battle against aggression and biting from your intelligent Jenday Conure.