Abstract
T he Sun Conure, Aratinga solstitialis, has come a long way since it first started to show up in the early 1960s. Oh, were we aviculturists excited to see such a beautifully colored parrot. With only a few who had observed the Queen-ofBavaria Conure, most U.S. bird keepers were stunned to believe that such a vivid yellow and orange parrot could exist in the wilds of South America. At that time, the price matched the bird - around the $2000 mark.
A viculturists can be proud of the job they did in breeding this psittacine. It was reproduced so well that prices came down to an affordable level and the question of importing or smuggling this "yellow jewel" became moot. The prices quickly dropped to $1100 each, then even lower. In the early 1990s the standard price for a producing pair was $1000 and pet Sun Conures were $250 to $350 wholesale.
The question now as we approach the turn of the century is, "Where are we going with this parrot?" During the past summer of 1997, it was with surprise and consternation that West Coast pet bird breeders watched as the "jobber" price of Sun Conures dropped as low as $75 per bird from certain sources. The average jobber price going in California was $125 per bird at that time. This significant drop in the price happened in one breeding season.
A bit of background data is necessary here. The Sun Conure species is in aviculture an extremely prolific producer. This is especially true with some of the third generation (and more) handfed birds that are now going to nest at a very early age. Their sexual maturity can appear as early as 18 months. If allowed, some pairs will lay, set and produce large clutches of four and five babies year around. Annual production from some pairs can be 15, 18, 21 babies or more. Some breeders are content to let their prolific pairs lay and hatch, lay and hatch, month after month. Other keepers remove Sun offspring at 14 days and refuse to shut down continuallylaying pairs, believing that adequate nutrition will keep the parent birds healthy. Is this responsible aviculture?
It is interesting to note that, unlike some genera of psittacines in aviculture, Aratinga fledglings which are handfed on today's potent, proteinrich and high fat commercial baby formulas often outweigh and outsize their parents by five to 10 percent. This might explain the reason for their extremely early sexual activity and large clutch size. It also suggests that the current popular commercial baby foods utilize formulas well suited to conure nutrition - though not necessarily nutrition of other parrot species.
The Sun Conure quickly turned into a commercial species. It was highly desired by both the aviculturist and the pet owner. But are we pushing this bird beyond its normal biology just to satisfy our commercial needs? We personally have third generation (F3) Sun Conures. Are we a part of this commercialism? One might say so as we held back those babies from our wild caught Suns that showed some yellow on their wings at fledging. Normally juvenile Sun Conures have green wings and acquire their yellow color starting after their first molt which may be at five to 12 months depending upon your environment.
During the next generation of Sun Conures, we again. held back babies that even showed more color on their wings at fledging. By the third generation many of our baby Suns had 80% of their wing-coloration yellow-gold. Why did we do this? Only for the reason that the baby Suns that show the yellow color in their wings are immediately purchased by a wholesaler. These babies simply had more early color than their nestmates. Pet owners are attracted to this yellow color and the wholesaler could move this baby quicker. It did not matter that all Sun Conures will have the brilliant yellow wings only a few months later. This was originally why the Sun Conure was so popular.
We do not know if early color acquisition is "pushing" the bird, as many other breeders use the same techniques to acquire red or orange Sun Conures. The seriousness of pushing our birds comes with the concept of getting the maximum number of babies from a pair of birds without considering what we are doing to the parent birds. Problems begin to show up with juvenile hen Suns laying at nine months. We were very surprised to observe second generation Suns reproducing successfully at 18 months of age. Should we be going even further? Could nine months be too early for a hen Sun to have a fully developed reproductive tract? We can well remember thinking our original wildcaught Sun Conures would never lay eggs as we waited up to four and five years to get them to lay. Has the aviculturist lost patience with their breeders. Are they urging them to lay earlier than they should? (The breeders of the 1960s had patience as they did not always know the sex of their "pairs.")