Pet Of The Month

Meet Olive (left) 6 years old Green-cheeked Conure and Smithson (right), a 3 month old High Red Pineapple Conure.  They are the fun loving pets of Sasha Simon our Product Manager for IV Access, Hospital Care division.  Olive and Smithson keep their mum on her toes, and Sasha tells us a little bit about them and what they get up too.

 What funny quirks do Olive and Smithson have?

Olive is a “Velcro” bird - she has to be on you ALL the time or she will sit there bobbing her head and shrieking… Smithson falls asleep upside down in your hand, and loves being carried like a prince when going for walks. He is obsessed with Olive, she tolerates him although sometimes gets a little irritated and shoves him off the cage. They love picking up my groceries, setting up my lyra, interrupting my work calls, detaching keys from my keyboard, and joining me in the shower (I’ve had to make-do with cold showers, not my usual enjoyable lava temperature thanks to them).

How did they become your pets?

Both are from different breeders, although Olive was a family bird until the summer break.

Some fun facts

Did you know there are 40 species of conures and only a handful are kept as pets? The most common colours we see are: Sun, Jenday, Green-Cheek, and Maroon-Bellied conures.

Other colours that would mostly be seen in the wild and are too rare to keep as pets are: Austral, Fiery-Shouldered, Finsch’s, El Oro, Chapman’s, Blaze-winged, Cactus, Petz, Deville’s, Jamaican and the Slender-Billed conure. 

If you see a beautiful Conure just flying around going about its day, don’t assume it is a pet. We have many wild Conures that live wild and free.