u/PapaPepeFieri

Both won’t stop screaming send help

Before you make suggestion on taking her to a vet, food, etc. please read the post before commenting.

So I recently adopted a female pineapple green-cheek conure from my local PetSmart, and I’m trying to figure out what exactly was going on with her because some of the things I was told by the store don’t really line up with what I’m seeing now.
I’ve been seeing this same bird at the store since around June or July. I normally go to this PetSmart because it’s basically the only place around me where I can get frozen rats for my ball python, plus random supplies for my bearded dragon and fish. So every time I’m there I usually walk by the birds and mess with the two conures they had.
This particular one was actually pretty funny when I first started seeing her. She’d roll around in the enclosure, knock on the glass with her beak, and generally seemed pretty bold and interested in people.
But over the last few months she got really quiet.
Then I went in recently and noticed she had a sign on her cage saying “I’m up for adoption.”
So obviously I asked why.
The employee told me they thought she might have a neurological problem because she wasn’t able to groom herself properly. They also said her beak was getting long because she supposedly couldn’t maintain it herself.
I asked them if she had actually been diagnosed with anything neurological, and they said no. It was just something they suspected.
She was free, so I basically said fuck it, I’m taking her 😂.
I still had my old cockatiel cage and a bunch of bird supplies from when I had cockatiels, so I brought her home, cleaned everything up, set the cage up, and got her settled in.
And this is where things get interesting.
She’s like a completely different bird at home.
She’s chirping, screaming, head bobbing, asking to come out of the cage, climbing all over me, and just generally acting like a young conure. She’s also extremely affectionate. The first day I brought her home she wanted to sit on my shoulder and be right next to me.
She also had a TON of pin feathers around her head and neck. It looked like she just wasn’t able to reach them very well, so I helped her preen the ones around her head and neck. I wasn’t pulling feathers out or anything, just helping get the keratin sheaths off the feathers that were ready.
After that, she started preening the rest of herself on her own.
That’s honestly one of the things that has me questioning the whole neurological thing.
I’m obviously not saying that means she definitely doesn’t have a neurological problem, because I’m not a vet. But if she supposedly couldn’t groom herself because of a neurological issue, it’s interesting that after getting home and having someone help her with the areas she couldn’t reach, she’s now grooming herself normally.
Her tail feathers are also pretty rough/frayed, and her beak is definitely longer than I’d expect. It also looks a little dry.
She’s only six months old too. Her paperwork says she hatched March 1st, 2026.
As far as food goes, I bought some of the food PetSmart was feeding her so I wouldn’t just completely change her diet overnight. I’m gradually switching her over to Roudybush California Blend, which is what I was planning on feeding her anyway.
I’m not assuming the food is responsible for everything I’m seeing, but I definitely want the vet to take a look at her beak and overall condition.
I already have an appointment scheduled with my local vet at the end of the month for an overall health exam and a professional beak trim if she needs one. I’m also going to ask about her feathers, diet, and whether they think she needs bloodwork or anything else done.
This is my first conure, but definitely not my first bird. I’ve had multiple cockatiels throughout my life and I’ve also hand-fed budgies from babies, so I’m not completely clueless when it comes to birds 😂. Conures are just new to me.
And honestly, I’m pretty pissed off about the whole PetSmart situation.
I don’t want to sit here and say every employee at PetSmart is abusing animals or anything like that, because I don’t know what happens behind the scenes. But I’ve literally watched this bird sit there for months. She went from being this bold little bird that would interact with people to being extremely quiet and looking pretty rough.
Then she gets put up for adoption because they think she has a neurological problem, but she was never actually diagnosed with one.
I take her home, give her a proper cage, attention, start helping her with the pin feathers she couldn’t seem to manage, and suddenly she’s chirping, screaming, playing, head bobbing, demanding to come out, cuddling with me, and grooming herself.
Like… 🤨
Maybe there really is something medically wrong with her. That’s exactly why I’m taking her to the vet. I’m not trying to diagnose her from Reddit.
But I’m really curious if anyone who’s owned green-cheeks has seen something like this before.
Could this just be stress, poor nutrition, lack of proper grooming, feather damage, or the environment she was living in? Or does her behavior still sound like something neurological could be going on?
And has anyone else taken a conure out of a pet-store environment and had them basically become a completely different bird once they got home?
Because honestly, right now I’m starting to think this little girl just needed somebody to give her a chance.
And I’m really glad I did. ❤️🦜

Meet Bob! I picked him up at the Ontario Expo last weekend after searching for the perfect BEL for a while. I almost went with an Enchi pied, but then I spotted Bob and knew I had to bring him home.