TheTameParrot.com - Say “BYE” To Your Parrot Problems

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Jenday Conures are a very colorful, medium size bird. They are closely related to Sun Conures, both being in the aratinga conure family. As with many Conures, they are mostly green. They have a yellow head, and orange front. Their tail is tipped with red or blue, and their wings are commonly tipped with blue. They will have a white to pale grey ring around the eye. Their beaks and feet are black. They certainly are a very colorful bird!

It is believed that Suns, Gold Caps and Jendays are all part of the same species, as opposed to being three separate species or sub-species. They are the same bird, but just a different color variation depending on the region they are from.

Jenday Conures come from South America, and are mostly found in Northern Brazil and Northeastern Argentina. They are easy to breed, and are very popular to bird breeders.

Jendays are a very playful bird. If raised as a baby, they are extremely friendly and do well around children. They love to be handled, and are trained easily.

Jendays are considered a medium sized Conure, averaging around 10 to 12 inches long and weigh 100-180 gm. If properly cared for, they have a lifespan of 20-30 years.

Like most Conures, Jendays are fairly noisy. They have a loud and harsh scream that they use to get your attention. They are also capable of talking, but from my experience they only say a couple of words. They are not known to be very good talkers, however there are cases where they can be good talkers if worked with daily over a long period of time.

Jendays are a very playful bird that loves to be handled and played with. If you get a very young Jenday, it’s recommended that you play with it daily. Let him sit on your lap while you watch TV, and let him play with some toys or wooden blocks. This interaction will make him very tame and friendly.

Their diet is important, and Jendays have a couple of unique requirements. They are susceptible to Conure Bleeding Syndrome, which is caused by the lack of Vitamin K. This condition prevents the bird from being able to clot their blood, causing excessive bleeding.

This can be easily prevented by supplying your bird leafy green vegetables such as broccoli, brussel sprouts and spinach. Some breeders offer their birds parsley leaves to munch on, which is very high in Vitamin K. You can use wheat bran in some home made dishes for them to eat, or supply some diced kiwifruit and bananas. This makes Jenday Conures one of my favorite birds, as I now have an excuse to get rid of my icky vegi’s that my wife tries to feed me. They somehow end up in our birds food dish!

They also love shredded meat or pasta, bean sprouts and hard boiled eggs. Some breeders we know are firm believers in feeding sprouts to their Conures, but I never ventured into growing them myself…this is one of my future research projects.

As usual, be sure they get enough calcium, especially in the females. If you feed your bird a pellet diet, and supplement it with fruits and vegi’s, you will not have to worry too much about this. Pelleted diets are formulated to have all the vitamins and minerals most birds need, and you only need to supplement certain items specific to your bird (like Vitamin K)

Jendays will require a few additional maintenance chores then other birds. They are very good flyers, and since they have a lighter body then other conures, they will take flight unless you do a lot of extensive wing clipping. You want the bird to be able to glide to the floor and not get hurt, but you also want to prevent full flight. With Jendays, you need to educate yourself on how to clip wings, or else expect a lot of trips to the vet. If they can’t fly, they won’t get into trouble!

While Jendays are susceptible to a number of common bird diseases, they are usually fairly healthy and easy to care for. By monitoring their behavior and looking for the telltale signs of problems, you should not have any major problems with their health.

Jendays are known to love to chew. If you have them out of their cage, you must monitor them to ensure they don’t damage your furniture or woodwork. Supply them with some toys they can chew on inside their cage. Most common are colored wood blocks or sticks. Our Jenday enjoyed destroying colored popsicle sticks, quickly turning them into toothpicks. They also love any toys that make noise. You can be a bit creative and make your own using some bells, beads, and bottles.