Here is a bunch of Green Cheek information and some fun pictures. I hope this is not too much reading :) They come in great colors with the newer mutations that were discovered in the 90's down in South America. (To read more about the importing of Green Cheek mutations, click here.) 

Green Cheeks are wonderful pets and very playful. They are ideal family birds and make awesome companions for most children. The reason I say "most children" is that Green cheeks do tend to go through a nippy stage right after weaning and they have to still be loved and played with to get through this. I have seen many, many work through it and I know it is easily achieved, but a child has to be willing to learn how to handle the bird. Just this year, our babies have gone to live with a 6 year old boy, 9 year old girl and 2 other 12 year old girls who have had no problems getting through this stage. We also have many babies who go to moms :) and dads.  

The Green Cheeks are a smaller conure, but have a big bird personality. They weigh just over 50 grams if that helps.  I wouldn't be able to predict size by weight if I weren't really familiar with birds, but the number may help.

I have heard many people describe their Green Cheek Conure as "cheeky." One day, on one of Mom's bird chat lists, a man wrote in about his Green Cheek. One lady wrote back that "that lil girl indeed has taught her daddy well in such a short time that lil Cheekies rule the household!" He responded that "there must be some good reason why we call them 'cheekies?'" She wrote in a few days later with some of the funniest definitions (from the dictionary) of the word "cheeky"

adj. cheek·i·er, cheek·i·est
Impertinently bold; impudent and saucy.

Adj.
1. cheeky - offensively bold; "a brash newcomer disputed the age-old rules for admission to the club"; "a nervy thing to say"
brash, nervy, forward - used of temperament or behavior; lacking restraint or modesty; "a forward child badly in need of discipline"

cheeky adj. To be cheeky is just short of being rude (in the sense of offensive, not dodgy). You're being cheeky if you make a joke that you can only just get away with without getting into trouble.

I love the "a forward child badly in need of discipline!!!" That describes the Green Cheeks so well!

The great thing about their size is that they have "cling power!"  With our big parrots, I can't begin to walk around fast or they loose their balance. Even with our medium sized parrots, they topple fairly easy...but the Green Cheeks don't let go. They love being on you and when my daughters are studying, the babies love to be on a little girl's shoulder, then jump off and attack her pencil and then hop back up to the shoulder. They are fairly active and inquisitive. I can even vacuum my floors with them attached. Green Cheeks are very interactive and very playful and can say a few words. 

We put our babies in harnesses/flight suits while they are weaning to help encourage them and their new owners to use them when they are in their new homes. The harnesses are like little halters that they can wear while you take them hiking or on outings. This is a Cinnamon GC wearing a harness.

The Green Cheek conure is in a different family than the loud Conures. Most of the loud ones are in the Aratinga family. Green Cheeks are in the Pyrrhura family and are much, much quieter.  They do learn to talk and learn faster and more depending on the amount of interaction they receive. To hear a video of 16 Pyrrhuras all screaming at once, click here. This is a video of their morning feed dish being delivered by my youngest. This is the birds being at their most excited state! And remember, there are 16 of them all going off at one time. They do this every morning when Jessie yells out her, "Birdies!" call. The dogs are pretty excited too!

You can also hear how loud they are for Green Cheeks always argue with you when you try to put them to bed! Click here to hear this.

This is my thought on my "Beau" about 1-2 years ago when he was a pet. He is now paired up, but we can take him out of the breeding cage and he will be still wonderful despite not being handled regularly for a few years.

"At one time, I had a little Yellow Sided Green Cheek. Green Cheeks come in different mutations and Yellow Sideds are one of the more rare ones. Anyway, Beau was a little dear. When I first got him, he would fly away from me when I tried to pick him up. But, as time went on, he got very sweet and tame. My sisters and I, along with our piano teacher, go to retirement centers (or rest homes) and entertain with the piano. Well, we would put Beau on a harness and leash and take him along with us when we went to play. All the people loved him and he loved them. He was so sweet to them. He would go to anyone there and didn't seem to mind in the least bit. Everyone would handle him and pet him all over. He didn't mind being pet on the back, under the wings, on the tail or anywhere. Wherever you wanted to pet him, that's where he wanted to be pet. At first with the harness on he would buckle up like he was in a straight jacket. It was so funny! He would roll around the table and when we put him on the couch, he rolled around until he fell off! After a while, though, he calmed down, almost seeming to say," I give up. Put it on me if you will." He also was a pretty good talker for such a little bird! He would bounce up and down and talk. And what talking! I don't know quite how to describe it. He would almost mutter under his breath with a whistle and a slur. Well, he would say," Lishash's bird" (his version of Lisa's bird) and  "Beaushky"  and " Shkipper bird" (Skipper was a Caique that we had) and so many other cute things with added "sh's." When I would say," Bouncy, bouncy, Beau" he would bounce up and down and say," Lishash's bird, Lishash's bird" again and again. Even as a breeder when we would look in the nest box he would still say " Beaushky, Beaushky," from over the eggs. About 8 months ago, we needed to pull him inside from being a breeder for almost 2 years and we could still handle him and pet him! Beau the wonder bird!! I just loved him and would take another GC any day."

Well, that was my description written when I was about 10 years old. Here I am with Beau back before he got a mate.

The other fun thing about GCs is that they love to bathe, love to lay on their backs, they always find little snuggly places to hide and cuddle into, and do a bopping up and down dance that is very cute. This is Zoey enjoying a snuggle!

Green cheeks are fun birds that love to be with people, are very playful and are scared of nothing. With a green cheek, you will get an intelligent, cuddly little bird.  They love to play and have definite personalities of their own.  They also will test you as a youngster and may nip to see how far they can go. Don't worry if they go through this phase, they usually outgrow it. My little bird loves to play games, snuggle, strut around to show me how tough he is....He is very in tune to my emotions.....the more you include him in your daily activities and play with him, the better pet you will have, especially as a youngster.  And don't forget, they are flock animals...they CRAVE interaction. 

This is what a "Normal" mutation Green Cheek looks like.. I love the eyes on these guys!!

Next is a Cinnamon Green cheek. They are wonderful pastel colors....even their primaries are a light blue color.

The  Yellow Sided Green Cheeks are beautiful. (To see more pictures and learn more about them, click here.) The colors I am telling you about are merely mutations within a species, meaning they are not  hybridized.

Here is one of our YS babies, after getting in her feathers.

Her tail is still short just because she is a baby. This little girl is very colorful. Here is the same girl in harness training. She just went home with her new owner this week and the lady who took her said "she is so in love with her already that it is scary." The Yellow Sided Green Cheeks are fairly new in breeding programs and are such a gorgeous mutation of this Green cheek.

This pair is a male Turquoise split to Yellow Sided, and a female Yellow Sided split to Turquoise. They are able to produce the beautiful and rare Turquoise Yellow Sided!!!

These 8 reasons came off of a Pyrrhura conure list I am on and it has some good points about Green Cheek Conures. The Conures that we are mostly familiar with come out of 2 different families. The Aratinga Conures are the Suns, the Blue Crowns, the Cherry Headed, etc and they tend to be a louder bird. The Green Cheeks are in the Pyrrhura Conure family and they are all smaller and quieter overall, but have the same conure personality and are great pets:

Steve Garvin at his site lists the top reasons that Green Cheeks make wonderful PETS!

Why a Green-Cheek Conure? 8 reasons to own one!

1. They are not loud compared to other parrots and conures. They are in the Pyrrhura genus and make about one half the noise of a Sun or Jenday Conure which makes them ideal for condos or apartments.

2. They are small birds with big bird personalities! They play just like a large parrot or macaw - they will use their feet to hold things, roll on their back to play or sleep. They love to wrestle with and then be scratched by their favorite human.

3. They are easy to feed and not as destructive as a large parrot.

4. They are easy to house with their ideal size they can use most cockatiel cages and they do not need the heavy bars of a more expensive cage.

5. Green-Cheeks have oil glands they use to preen their feathers and do not create the dust found on cockatiels, cockatoos, and African Grey Parrots.

6. Besides their personality and ideal size, Green Cheeks can be found on many beautiful colors. These include the Yellow Sided, the Cinnamon, the Pineapple, the Turquoise, the Normals and even the Turquoise Yellow Sideds!

7. People with pets, especially seniors, have lower blood pressure, are happier, and live longer lives.

8. Tame Green-Cheeked Conures are very interactive with people. They are bold and very personable but with individual personalities. Green Cheeks love to lay on their backs and are quite snuggly. Note the red tail (Fire tail is where Pyrrhura comes from) and the red on the belly, but really no red on the head. 

All pictures are photographed by Pampered Peeps and are copyrighted. They may not be copied without permission.

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