by Pajarita » Thu Feb 03, 2022 10:58 am
Welcome to the forum and thank you for doing research before you make a decision. Now, if what you want is a bird that will not require A LOT of attention, a Green Cheek conure is NOT the bird for you. You would do much better with an amazon. GCCs are birds that need hours and hours and hours of one-on-one. They might be the same size as a cockatiel but tiels are aviary (they can learn to trust and even love their humans but they do not bond deeply with them) while GCCs are not only companion but one of the companion species that requires the most attention from its owners -so much so that I always compare them to cockatoos, that's how needy they are!
Amazons, on the other hand are one of the most independent species -which, when you talk about parrots is relative because it's not as if they don't require any attention, they just need less. They are called 'perch potatoes' because they choose to stay on a stand or on top of their cage going in and out all day long. It's not that they don't fly, they do but they usually either stay put or walk and climb instead of flying.
There are two things that you need to follow with them: a strict solar schedule and a fresh food, low protein, low fat, high moisture, high fiber diet. In reality, these are things that you need to do with any bird in order to keep it healthy and happy but, when it comes to amazons, especially if they are males, if you don't, in time the bird will become aggressive. Maybe not to one of you (because the bird might mate-bond with one of you) but to everybody else. And believe me when I tell you that you do not want an aggressive bluefront! They are one of the 'hot three' species of zons and, in my personal experience, the only ones that scream when they do.
So, what I recommend is for you to evaluate your lifestyle and see if you will be willing and able to follow a strict solar schedule (most likely, you are not doing this because your tiels scream and they only do that when they are overly-hormonal, otherwise, you hardly hear a peep out of them) and, if you are, adopt a nice adult female. Babies sound wonderful but the truth of the matter is that a baby is hard to raise right -for one thing, you need to be home all day long for months until the baby is old enough and, for another, they are a lottery because a bad breeder can mess up a bird for life (there are studies that prove this). I know that everybody wants to buy from a good breeder but, in truth, there is no such thing, there are just less bad or more bad because anybody who sells animals does not regard them the way an owner does. To us, they are part of our family (very close to a son or a daughter) but, to them, they are merchandise. If they did not regard them that way, they would not sell them to anybody who has the money.