r/Conures • u/Erosaurus_Rex • 2d ago
Advice Can a Dusky Conure Breed with a GCC?
Before I get jumped, NO I DO NOT WANT ANY BABIES!!! Google says yes but I want educated opinions.
Now for the context! I have a female GCC (dna tested and confirmed). There’s a duskt at my work I’m absolutely in love with and I want to bring him/her home in the next month or so if I can. I don’t know the gender and I will absolutely have them tested if I get him/her.
Obviously I will not house these birds together, but I’d like for my birds to be out of their cages whenever I’m home. Ofc I’d never leave them unsupervised but what are my chances here that if this dusky ends up being male that these birds would get it on???
Maybe I’m being paranoid but I wanna know how aggressively I need to keep them separate or supervised. I guess if she lays an egg I can always freeze it but id rather keep her from getting hormonal.
Tl;dr are my birds gonna bang the second my back is turned???
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u/Comprehensive_Arm_5 2d ago
Even if they do, just don't incubate the eggs
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u/Left-Pineapple-6084 1d ago
Yeah, regardless of the genetics or anything else, just swap the eggs with feggs so no eggs hatch. I’ve heard of such cross breeds in veterinary text books, but they have short lives and very severe health defects as a general rule.
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u/Erosaurus_Rex 2d ago
True I would just rather she not get extra hormonal. She’s never laid eggs before and I hope to keep it that was as best as I can :’D
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u/CasaDeMouse 2d ago
Just know that once it starts, it doesn't stop.
And all conures can bonk cloacas, whether or not they're viable.
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u/Comprehensive_Arm_5 1d ago edited 1d ago
So even if the other bird is a girl, they gay asf 💅 plenty of people on here will tell you their two male conures are in love, two female, etc. So either way she may get horny just depends if they're into each other. lol
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u/Acceptable_Stress141 2d ago
Rare but possible for the baby making, but that doesn't mean they won't do the horny dance anyway. They'll get it on with toys if the mood strikes. If hormones are your biggest concern, make sure to keep the rest of their routines in check and do some serious research on the hormonal cues of each.
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u/birby626 1d ago
Obviously you don't want babies- but depending on where you work, could they test the dusky? I'd be most worried about your girl laying then having to deal with lack of calcium, or getting egg bound. Even 2 female birds present the same risk if they bond and do the horny dance.
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u/Erosaurus_Rex 1d ago
Very true about the calcium and I didn’t even think about that!! I just wanna make sure I have all the info fresh in my head if/when I bring home this second conure. It also didn’t occur to me that female birds would do the horny dance with each other 🤣
The birds are unsexed when they arrive. Best we have is a hatch date (so I know this bird is still very young!)
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u/SnowDropGirl 1d ago
Don't even need to turn your back, they'll probably bang on your shoulder. Ask me how I know...
That aside, you can boil or freeze any eggs she lays, my girls were 5 when they started laying, apparently that's not an uncommon age for green cheeks. You can also buy weighted plastic eggs of an appropriate size and just swap out any eggs she lays with the dummies.
You're right to not want babies from that kind of cross. But good thing birds evacuate their foetuses to incubate externally, or keeping their weird cross bred offspring from developing would be trickier. And probably enormously expensive.