Sun Conure Care Guide

The sun conure is a golden-orange Aratinga conure from north-eastern Brazil and Guyana. It is very common in captivity and one of the loudest parrots for its size. Two facts shape owning one: the scream, which MSD calls piercing, and its status in the wild, where trapping for the pet trade has pushed it to Endangered. It suits a detached house and an owner who wants a bold, affectionate bird, not someone in an apartment with shared walls. For how sun conures compare with green-cheeked and other conures, see the conure overview.

Care requirements

Need	What to provide
Enclosure	At least 2 × 2 × 3 ft (60 × 60 × 90 cm), plus at least 6 hours a day out of the cage in a bird-safe room (VCA; RSPCA)
Temperature	Within about 54–79°F (12–26°C), away from radiators, stoves and draughts (RSPCA)
Humidity	Normal indoor air. Aviary birds need a draught-proof indoor shelter (RSPCA)
Lighting	Flicker-free bird UVA/UVB lamp run for natural daylight length, with shaded perches (RSPCA)
Diet	About 75–80% pellets, the rest mostly vegetables, fruit no more than 10% (VCA)
Lifespan	Up to 30–35 years (MSD; SeaWorld)
Social needs	Bonds closely with people and needs a moderate amount of daily attention (VCA)
Legal notes	IUCN Endangered in the wild; CITES Appendix II, so international trade needs permits (SeaWorld). Buy captive-bred.

Living with the noise

All conures can scream. VCA notes they are known for screaming loudly at times and will screech when they want something. MSD singles out the larger Aratinga conures, the sun among them, for a piercing scream. If you share a wall with neighbours, this matters more than anything else on the page.

The pattern is predictable. VCA explains that birds call hardest in the early morning and at dusk, when wild flocks gather to feed and socialise. A sun conure treats your household as its flock. Noise also rises when people talk loudly, vacuum, phone or play music. You can’t train the calling out, but you can stop making it worse:

• Don’t reward screaming. Running over to soothe or scold the bird, or covering the cage, all count as attention. VCA says the bird quickly learns that screaming works.
• Reward quiet. Give praise, a nut fragment or a foraging toy when the bird is calm or talking softly.
• Plan for dawn and dusk. Give a foraging toy or some out-of-cage time just before the usual calling times.
• Treat a new sound as a warning. VCA notes that most birds vocalise during a seizure, so an unfamiliar cry needs urgent veterinary attention.

Endangered in the wild: buy captive-bred only

SeaWorld’s species profile, based on the IUCN assessment, lists the sun conure as Endangered. Fewer than 2,500 mature birds are thought to remain, at least 90% of them in Brazil, in a small and shrinking range. High demand from the pet trade drove the decline. Heavy export from Guyana virtually wiped out the population there.

What that means when you buy:

• Buy only hand-raised, captive-bred birds from a breeder who can show where the parents came from. VCA also notes that hand-raised babies tend to make more affectionate pets than older wild-caught or parent-raised birds.
• Ask for breeding records and walk away from vague answers about a bird’s origin.
• Know that some pet “sun conures” are hybrids. SeaWorld notes that the share of captive birds that are crosses with the closely related Aratinga maculata is unknown. This doesn’t change their care, but it matters if you breed.

Rehoming an existing sun conure from a rescue avoids the supply question entirely.

Feeding a sun conure

Diet needs are the same as for other conures: pellets as the base, fresh vegetables daily, little fruit, and seed or nuts only as treats or training rewards. VCA notes that conures go for peanuts and sunflower seeds first, and that conures are prone to vitamin A deficiency, low calcium and egg binding on seed diets. Use the bird’s appetite for nuts as a training tool rather than filling the bowl with them.

Five things new sun conure owners get wrong

• Buying one for an apartment. MSD describes the larger conures’ scream as piercing, and it carries through shared walls.
• Shouting back. Yelling or rushing over rewards the scream, so it gets worse (VCA).
• Not asking where the bird came from. The wild population is Endangered because of trapping (SeaWorld).
• Filling the bowl with peanuts. Conures pick out the fatty nuts and seeds first, which leaves them short of calcium and vitamin A. Use nuts as training rewards instead (VCA).
• Underestimating the lifespan. At up to 30–35 years, a sun conure can outlive the plans you made when you bought it (MSD; SeaWorld).

Avoid

• Avocado and onion (VCA).
• Grit and gravel (VCA).
• Seed mixes as the main food. Peanuts and sunflower seeds are high in fat and low in calcium and vitamin A (VCA).
• Covering the cage as punishment for screaming (VCA).
• Ceiling fans running and windows uncovered during flying time (RSPCA).
• Non-stick (PTFE) cookware, smoke and aerosols near the cage. Bird lungs are highly sensitive to airborne toxins. Overheated PTFE gives off fumes that can kill a bird quickly (VCA).
• Buying wild-caught or undocumented birds (SeaWorld).