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Hi all.

I'm about to get my second Sun Conure this weekend. My son has named the bird Luke after Luke Skywalker, and Luke is about 3 months old.

I'm looking for a good, definitive book on Conures or even Parrots. Most of the books I've seen are either specialized or very basic.

Can anyone recommend a good book that covers diet, training, and overall care of Conures?

I can't really recommend any good conure books, however it seems as if some of the more generalized parrot books (i.e. parrots in general, not just conures) may have tons of ideas.... especially the Parrots for Dummies books or similar...

However, as far as diet related books go, a great one is The Bird Cookbook by Robin Deutsch.

Parrots for Dummies has some great general information. It also has a quick sheet at the front that list toxins and some of the more common foods to feed parrots. When we got each of our birds we went to Barnes and Noble and looked through every book that related to them. You also might be able to order more specific books from them.

The Companion Parrot Handbook by Sally Blanchard is great for behavior.
I think it's always a good idea to have a variety of books that specialize in certain areas in addition to general ones, but that's just my opinion.
The Baron's series has a book on conures.
Try Google and Amazon. I'm sure you'll find something.

Good luck!

The Second Hand Parrot is also very good. Even though this isn't a second hand bird, it has some great info.

There is one called The Conure Handbook.

Thanks for all the replies and great suggestions.

I had tried Amazon, and found that most of the reviews were good, but seemed like the books focused on one aspect of raising a bird.

As I'm finding out, they are wonderfully complex and no one book is going to have "all the answers". I wound up getting the Conure Handbook, and I think my next book will be either "The Guide to Companion Parrot Behavior" by Mattie Sue Athan, or a book on training which who's name escapes me now.

Luke is only 14 weeks old, so I figure we have time to learn from one another.

I was in Petsmart today and they had several books about conures.

The thing to remember is that care of all parrots from budgies to cockatoos is general ,or similar if you prefer,with the exception of things like specialized diets etc,.Teaching a stepup is the same with a budgie as with an Amazon. You can get a lot of info on the web free.

I think the indespensible book is

The Complete Bird Owners Handbook by Gary A Gallerstein,D.V.M

This book has saved my bird's life with the info in it. It is also the book I learned to handfeed from in an emergency situation on a two day old bird no less. I had never seen it done. The bird survived and was my pal for 13 years when he died from illness . The book covers health issues and then some.

Yogi

Yogi, that book is on my list of "books to buy." It looks wonderful.

Cliffy, I have "The Guide to Companion Parrot Behavior." I enjoyed reading and would say that it's a good buy. Mattie Sue Athan knows what she's talking about.

You can probably bet that anything by Mattie Sue Athan or Sally Blanchard is going to be good.