Jenday Conures Everything you Need to Know about Jenday Conures

Training a Jenday Conure is not difficult, although it is very rewarding. The Jenday is an intelligent and fairly easy to train bird native to South America. Conures, by nature, are inquisitive and playful birds that thrive on interaction. This makes training them a fairly quick and simple process. Before beginning, be sure the bird is getting enough rest and proper nutrition. A healthy bird will be more responsive to training.

The first step in training any parrot is taming and building trust. If the Jenday is young and was handfed, it will be easy to tame by continuing to handle the bird often. An older Conure can be trickier to tame because you must first build trust with the bird. It is important that the wings be clipped no matter the age of the bird so that it does not injure itself. It is also best if the bird has its own cage during the taming process. It will then rely on you for companionship. Start by talking to the bird frequently. Offer treats of fresh fruit through the cage while talking calmly. It may take a while, so patience is important. As the Jenday becomes comfortable around you it will start to take the treats. It is then possible to work on getting the bird to step-up.
Step-up is something every bird should know. It allows you to get them in and out of the cage without any struggle. There are a couple of methods to teaching a bird to step-up. For Conures, the gentler methods are best. If the bird is already comfortably hand tamed, it is simply a matter of putting your finger to its lower belly while keeping your hand very steady. The bird will step onto your finger as though it is a perch. Saying “step-up” every time the Jenday does this will associate the command with the action.
For the Jenday that is just beginning to be hand tamed it will take longer. Start where you left off on taming the bird, but open the cage and offer treats to the bird in the cage. It may panic a little at first about your hand being in the cage, but if it is comfortable with you it will calm down quickly. Offer the Conure the treat. After it takes the treat continue to talk with the bird. Do this at least a couple of times a day. After a few days, though it will vary depending on each bird’s individual personality, you should be able to begin teaching step-up by putting your finger in front of the bird’s belly.

Even well behaved birds will sometimes nip their person if they are tired or stressed. It is also important to know that not all bites are the same: a Conure will sometimes playfully nibble their person, nip a little harder when something is upsetting them, and bite when they are frustrated or afraid. To teach your Jenday that biting is not allowed, be sure to never laugh when it bites or nips. Don’t overreact either. Say “no” firmly and calmly put the bird in its cage for a brief ‘time-out’. Never hurt or yell at the bird when it misbehaves. The goal is not to punish the bird, but to teach appropriate behavior.
Once your Jenday is trained to step-up and has learned that biting means it loses your company, then you can teach the bird tricks. What you teach at this point is entirely up to you. Conures can learn some phrases and words, but it can take time and be unpredictable. They often learn to say their own name because they hear it so frequently. They are great at learning tricks, such as arabesque, and you can have fun teaching them.