Green Cheek Conure

🗓️ The first week

The numbers a new owner needs in the first week, each taken from the article that explains it.

Day one

At least 30 days quarantined in a separate room with its own airspace, away from any bird you already own. Thirty days is the floor, published guidance runs 30 to 45, and a multi-bird household is safer nearer the 90 days recommended for an aviary.Quarantine guide →

Cage size

24x24x30 inches is the common minimum for a single adult, but treat that as a floor, not a target. Bigger is always better, aim for 30 to 36 inches or more in multiple dimensions, or a genuine flight cage if you can manage it. Your bird should be able to fully stretch and flap its wings without touching the sides.Setup guide →

Bar spacing

Bar spacing should be 1/2 to 5/8 inch maximum to prevent head entrapment or escape.Setup guide →

Temperature

Normal household temperatures of 65 to 80°F work well. Avoid drafts, direct air-conditioning vents, and sudden temperature swings. No supplemental heating is needed in a typical indoor environment.Setup guide →

Lighting and sleep

Full-spectrum UV lighting made for birds (UVB 5.0 or a similar avian-specific bulb) is recommended by multiple care sources for 10 to 12 hours daily, supporting vitamin D synthesis, especially important for indoor birds with limited natural sunlight. Maintain a consistent day and night photoperiod, covering the cage at night gives 10 to 12 hours of real darkness.Setup guide →

Cage bottom

Most keepers use a grate with paper, newspaper, or a cage liner underneath for easy daily cleaning. Avoid loose substrates like corn cob or wood chips, both can be ingested or harbor mold.Setup guide →

Placement

Never use non-stick or Teflon cookware near the bird, the fumes are highly toxic. For placement, a family living area helps the bird feel like part of the flock, but keep one side of the cage against a wall for security, and stay well away from the kitchen, both the fumes and the heat are risks there.Setup guide →

Out-of-cage time

Out-of-cage time, several hours of supervised free time daily, isn't optional, it's essential for both physical and mental health.Setup guide →

Diet

Fatty liver disease and vitamin A deficiency both stem from the same root cause: an all-seed or high-fat diet with too little vegetable variety and not enough exercise. Caught early, this is manageable with diet correction, feeding a quality pelleted diet alongside fresh vegetables instead of a seed-only bowl. Seed-only diets are one of the most common, and most preventable, causes of chronic illness in this species.Health guide →

Pellet conversion

Two workable methods, both built around gradual substitution rather than an abrupt swap: 75% seed and 25% pellets for 3 days, then a 50/50 mix for 3 days, then 25% seed and 75% pellets until the bird is fully converted; or a daily taper from 90% seed down to 0% on day 10. Either one can take days, weeks or months.Pellet guide →

Feeding style

Wild parrots spend up to six hours a day searching for, selecting and manipulating food. A conure with a full bowl is finished in minutes, and everything that goes wrong behaviorally with parrots tends to grow in that empty stretch. Stop using a bowl as the primary delivery method.Enrichment guide →

Handling

Genuine nippiness shows up more in young birds, especially under one to two years old, and in hormonal adults. Watch for warning signs before a bite happens: pinned eyes, flared tail feathers, or lunging.Handling guide →

Sexing

Green cheek conures are sexually monomorphic, males and females look the same, so there's no reliable visual test, despite claims floating around about head shape or foot color. If you actually need to know, DNA testing is the standard.Handling guide →

Budget

$250 to $700+ for the bird itself, more at pet stores. Roughly $400 to $900 or more to set up before the bird. Roughly $250 to $500 a year after that, and a routine wellness exam commonly runs $80 to $160.Cost guide →

Adult size

10 inches (25 cm) including tail; 2-2.5 oz.

Lifespan

20 to 25 years or more is the commonly cited range, with some individuals reaching 30 years under excellent care.Cost guide →

Disease risk

Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD), Proventricular Dilatation Disease (PDD), and polyomavirus are the ones to know. These are contagious, spreading through new birds, contaminated equipment, or breeding facilities, and there's no reliable cure for most of these.Health guide →

Power outage

Keep feeding and watering through an outage rather than pulling food the way you would for a reptile; a small bird carries almost no fat reserve. The real danger is combustion, not cold: no candles, propane heater, or gas stove used for heat in any room the bird is in, and never an indoor generator.Emergency plan →

📰 Where to go next

🛒 What to buy

Prices and the reasoning behind each item are in How Much Does a Green Cheek Conure Really Cost?.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions