Dusky-headed Conure: Breeding, Feeding, Cage and Nest Box
Dusky-headed Conure: Aratinga weddellii
The Dusky-headed Conure, along with the Peach-fronted Conure and Pet’s Conure, make a very pleasant group of small Aratinga conures to keep and work with. They are of similar size, ranging from about 26 cm in length to 28 cm in length. Not only are they of similar size, but their dietary requirements are the same, making feeding very simple. While Aratinga conures are notoriously noisy, this species is relatively quiet and not nearly as noisy as Sun Conures, for instance.
This little conure has never been very plentiful in South Africa. When they were originally imported they were cheap and they bred easily. So, while they were of interest to the hobby, there was little commercial interest in them. This could change in the near future, as there is now a blue strain being developed in America as well as a lutino strain. A blue and lutino will lead to an albino, so we can expect these birds to have a high commercial value, and interest in breeding them will grow.
Dusky-headed Conure Range
The Dusky-headed Conure occurs naturally in wooded habitats in the western Amazon Basin of South America. It prefers semi-open habitats such as forest edges, and forest remnants, but can also be found in coffee plantations. It is generally common, and its habitat preference makes it less vulnerable than many other Amazonian species. Consequently, it is considered to be of least concern by the IUCN.
Dusky-headed Conure Description
Both adults are an overall green with yellow/green underparts, a brown/grey head. This head colouring is where this conure derives its name. The feathers are dull grey/blue at the tips and the tail is green with a wide blue tip. They have a black bill with a bare and white eye ring. This eye itself is pale yellow.
The juvenile colouring is as for the adult, but the head is greener and less grey; it has darker green underparts with less yellow. The eye ring is narrower, and the eye is brown as opposed to the yellow of the adult.
Dusky-headed Conure in Aviaries
We found that the Dusky-headed Conure did not need very long aviaries. We bred them in aviaries that were only 1.8m long x 600 x 600. They also bred easily in our standard aviaries that were 2.7 m x 900 mm x 900 mm. This meant that they were easy birds to accommodate happily.
One-third of the aviary was covered to provide shelter from the wind and rain. Here I must mention that our facility in the Hillcrest area of KwaZulu Natal never experiences freezing conditions, our minimum being 7 degrees to 8 degrees C overnight in winter. This would suit these birds better that the freezing conditions of the Highveld in winter.
In the wild, they are found on the western side of the Amazon basin at low altitudes, up to 500 m. Occasionally they will be found in forests up to 750 m where they go to feed. I believe that they would need to be protected from very cold weather in winter for them to thrive.
Dusky-headed Conure Aviary and Nest Box
We used our standard nests which measured 250 mm x 250 mm x 450 mm high in the 900 mm x 900 mm x 2.7 m long aviaries. In the smaller aviaries, 1.8 m x 600 mm x 600 mm, we used a smaller nest box, 200 mm x 200 mm 0 360 mm high. The smaller nest seemed to work equally well for us, and I think that in a colder area the smaller nest would have been an advantage as it would have been warmer at night. Our birds usually laid clutches of three to four eggs and mostly three babies were reared.
Our babies were all pulled at ten days for hand rearing and proved to be very easy to rear. We used Aiv-Plus Handrearing stage two and at twenty-eight days changed to stage three. The babies made fantastic pets that enjoyed being with their owner and proved to be very confident when handled.
Feeding
When we were breeding them there were no complete parrot or parakeet diets, so I can only write what we used to feed, but these birds, I am sure, can be trained to eat mots diets. Our diet consisted of a dry seed mix: White millet, Golden millet, Japanese millet, and sunflower seed. Then they were given daily a supplement which was Avi-Plus Parrot/Parakeet moistened and mixed with sprouted seeds (white millet, Japanese millet, and red manna). Sunflower can also be sprouted for them, but as it did not sprout as quickly as the millets, we had to sprout it separately. To this mix we also added grated carrots, grated beetroot, grated cabbage or chopped spinach.
While the dry seeds were fed ad-lib, only enough of the “soft food mix” was fed for the birds to finish within three to four hours, any more would become dry and the birds would ignore it. Feeding soft food twice a day would work well but this is not always possible for breeders who have a full-time job.
Conclusion
For those breeders interested in smaller conures, this bird is a good choice, particularly as the mutations are now bound to come onto the market in the future. As I said, blue and lutino are now being bred in America. I am not sure of the situation in Europe, but I am sure it will not be long before they have these mutations.
Dusky-headed Conure: Info-table
| Name: |
| Dusky conure |
| Scientific name: |
| Aratinga weddellii |
| Also known as: |
| Dusky-headed parakeet, Weddell’s conure |
| Distribution: |
| In wooded habitats in the western Amazon basin of South America. |
| Male/Female: |
| Males and females have an identical external appearance. |
| Life Expectancy: |
| 20 years |
| Ring Size: |
| 6mm (Code E) |
| Nest box: |
| Vertical box 10” x 10” x 18” (25.4cm x 25.4cm x 46cm) |
| Clutch: |
| 3 – 4 eggs |
| Incubation: |
| 25 days Chicks fledge at 8 – 9 weeks |
| More info: They are fairly easy to breed if provided with a durable nest box and will lay up to three clutches per year. Extremely good pets, gentle, curious, cute, and very intelligent. |
