RS>Hi Kathy,
RS>        Thanks for the  reply.  I called the ad about the sun conures and
RS>they are handfed babies.  Couldn't believe it.  Figured they were old 
birds.
RS> Anyway, he has 2 that are 6 mo. old and weaned for 2 mo. but still in the
RS>aviary and 3 that are 4 wks. old, so won't be ready for awhile.  Since 
hey
RS>are handfed, would the 6 mo. old ones still tame back down or would I be
RS>better to wait?
I just sold three conure babies that were 6 months old. They were
indoors with me, rather than in a flight cage, but they didn't get a ton
of attention every day. They all stayed pretty nice, and are doing fine
in their new homes already.
What I'd suggest is playing with the 6 mo.old babies for a while and see
how nice/nasty they really are. If one seems to be OK, then I'd go with
that. If they don't seem fairly friendly right away (expect a bit of
skittishness but not completely wild behavior), then go with the younger
ones when they're ready.
RS>Would it affect their talking ability?  Do both sexes talk
RS>or just one?
Both sexes talk, and ability depends on the individual bird. Some birds
don't talk no matter what, and some never shut up. 
RS>My African Grey loves to talk to other birds and helps teach
RS>them to talk.
That may have more bearing on the Sun talking than anything else--my
conures always seem to learn better from each other. As a result, all my
birds say the same things...
RS>        How do you teach a bird not to be noisy?  He/she would be in the
RS>living room so can't have the constant screaming.  But he'd have plenty of
RS>entertainment..
Start by putting a cage in a room with a door (bedrooms are good).
Take the bird into the living room with you, on a perch or another cage.
If/when it screams, it goes IMMEDIATELY into the bedroom cage, you leave
without saying a word, and close the door. Wait until the bird is quiet,
then go back in happily praising it for being good. If it screams again,
RUN out, close the door. If it stays quiet, or speaks instead of
screaming, let it out of the cage and bedroom. Repeat procedure for next
scream, and next, and next...
What you are doing is rewarding the bird for being quiet with your
presence/attention, and "punishing" (so to speak) screaming with being
alone. You have to be VERY consistent and move VERY quickly when using
this method. You MUST respond to quiet or talking by letting the bird
come out of the bedroom IMMEDIATELY, so it gets the idea. And you must
NOT allow the bird to scream some times and not others, at least until
it's trained, or it will just become confused.
This method worked for us on our first Jenday conure, Rio. To this day,
even with 4 other conures in the room, she's the quietest one in the
house. She hollers "Hey baby!" when everybody else is screaming...
--Kathy
 * SLMR 2.1a * World's Dullest Subject: Somebody elses diet.
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