Adopted a new conure today; some issues.

[daddylongnails]

Hi there! I'm new here. First post.

As the subject line says, I adopted a conure today. He's a 1 year old (sex unknown) green cheek conure and I found him on craigslist. The owner gave him up because she and her mother are moving into a much smaller house and did not think they'd have room for the cages. (they are also re-homing a cockatiel).

So that's how I got him. Now comes the hard part; integrating him in with my other birds. I have 1 sun conure and 1 congo african grey. I have this no-name bird in a cage on the opposite side of the house because I'm going to quarantine him for 3-4 months. I have no idea what he's carrying and judging from the conditions he was kept in, I can't say I have much trust that his previous owners did a very good job of things.

I have several things to overcome here....

1st, he's on a 100% seed diet.
2nd, his nails are sooo long that they are curled all the way around and under his toes.
3rd, one of his toe nails is missing altogether.
4th, he is hand shy and will bite (hard) if you try to make him step up.

Oddly, he looooooves head scratches and will let you do that all day long.

His plumage is just "meh" dull. A direct result of the seed diet, I'm sure.

The girl gave me his toys. I threw away all of them except for one. They were all rusted and nasty. I don't know any 1 year old bird that would have toys that old. Something tells me he was kept outdoors... I dunno.

I refused to take the cage. It was the worst cage I had ever seen. Rusted aall over the place and just nasty looking.

Anyways, it seems I have my work cut out for me here. My main reason for posting is to ask how would you switch him over from an all seed diet to pellets and fresh produce?

I plan on "fixing" his nails tonight altho I think that may actually turn out to be a traumatic experience for him. His nails get caught on everything in his cage and he's only got one toy in there for now.

Thanks!
-Tania

 

[SunConureboy]

Maybe keep about 80% of the seed diet and the rest pellets and fresh produce I'm not sure but that's how I would do , correct me if I'm wrong .

 

[solobaby]

start slowly by mixing pellets into the seed at about 80% seed 20% pellets and then start making the seed less and less or have seed i his cage in the morning and night and pellets during the day - if your bird is getting fresh foods then there is really no reaso to completely cut out seed infact seed is part of a healthy balanced diet

 

[suebee]

hello an welcome great advice from above, but don't give up with the change to pellets, as it can take ages!

keep us up dated an pics please

 

[Spiritbird]

Any new birds needs to go see an avian vet. Especially since he was on a seed diet only. He may need some extra supplements. He will need to have blood work done and the droppings checked. Move very slowly with him as it sounds like he has not been used to being handled. Poor guy I am glad you have him now. It may be a long process to wein him from the seeds but be patient. Vet should be first thing on your list. Best to get him groomed at the vets also. Please keep us posted on your progress.

 

[greycloud]

Great advice by everyone! Definitely a vet check is in order!
Never drastically change a birds diet as it can shock the organs. Start slow. You may have better luck introducing pellets into fresh food mix or birdie bread. All my birds get a small amount of seed along with pellets, fresh mash, nuts and birdie bread.

 

[artemis]

And as for fresh foods - start with fruits, as birds seem more willing to nibble them than veggies. Apples and grapes seem to be well-liked. Once he's eating that, you can slowly add other things to his dish for variety. Be very patient, as birds can be quite wary of new foods. Once the bird trusts you, eating a new food in front of him or allowing him to nibble food off your plate is another way to tempt him into trying new things. "Birdie see, birdie do!" often works.

Be careful clipping back the nails. Severely overgrown nails can have a longer-than-normal quick, which you don't want to hit. Since the bird needs to see an avian vet ASAP anyway, you may want to let the vet do the nail trimming in this case.

 

[daddylongnails]

Hi there. i appreciate the responses. His nails are no longer a problem. I searched high and low for a cordless dremel I use to trim my pets nails but I couldn't find it. So I used a pet nail clipper with a length guard on it. A couple of his nails bled but I was ready with stiptic powder. The others did not bleed at all which was surprising. I was expecting them all to bleed. I also filed down his beak just a hair to tak the edge off his bites. This bird had the sharpest beak on the planet and made me bleed 3 places in 5 minutes. Anyways..

I worked with him a little last night hand feeding him safflower seeds.

I weighed him while I was at it. He weighs 68 grams. According to the 'net', this is within normal range but this bird just seems boney to me. His chest boy sticks out like a razor.

Yes, going to the vet was already in the plans. There's no way I would feel comfortable letting him meet my other birds unless I get an all clear. My other birds are also not 100% healthy with the conure testing positive for chlamydia last week. He's getting treated with doxy now. And if this new guy is not healthy, the last thing he needs is a chlamydia infection too, ya know ? So he will remain a loner for now.

I decided to name him Chewie. Because he likes to 'chew' on my fingers. Get it? lol! anyways... I almost named him Yoda because he's green and ugly, but my kids didn't like that. But I digress..

Chewie does something odd. He will bite the bejesus out of my fingers when he's inside his cage, but when he's out of his cage, he hardly bites. He cowers and tries to hide in corners or even in your neck if you're lying down.

He smells! So I gave him a bath. I know this is not advisable but it was a quick dunk, soap, dunk, dry with the blow dryer on low. Now at least he doesn't stink like death.

I've been giving him pellets with some seeds mixed in with it. apples and bananas. I'm thinking of giving him water with doxy because how can that hurt?

He sits on my finger in an odd way. I noticed this in the pictures before I even went to see him but figured it was just a picture thing... But no, he stands on my finger as if he has a problem with his back or tail, or as tho he is just so afraid that cowering is all he has the energy to do. He lowers his entire body down with his tail at a 90 degree angle to his body and pointing straight down. See for yourself below

 

[artemis]

Poor little fellow! But thanks to you, his life is looking up. I'm sure you'll have Chewie healthy and happy in no time. He's lucky it was you who answered that Craigslist ad!

 

[evesta]

What a sweetie. I'm so glad you saved him.

 

[MollyGreenCheeks]

He'll be fine in no time, just do what you already know needs to be done. He likely just lacks energy to sit up straight and once his color brightens up he is sure to be a beautiful GCC!

 

[daddylongnails]

Thank you!! I sure hope he peps up in a few days. Today he was very very quiet. I took him out twice and spent some time with him outside of the cage but he was not interested in anything other than running away from me, or rushing to my shoulder which I think makes him feel secure, but all he'd do there is hunch over and cower with his head flat on my shoulder. So after a while of this I put him back and left him alone the rest of the day.

He was very very quiet today. And his poop is very runny. I think the best I can do is leave him alone and just feed him safflower seeds thru the cage bars. He gets too stressed out when I take him out because it's always a battle with him. He runs and wants to bite, freaks out, jumps, etc..

I was going to switch him to pellets using a combination of introduction and starvation because I feel the sooner he starts eating pellets, the better it would be for him, but I think the last thing he needs right now is to lose weight. Thankfully, he does take baby hand feeding formula in small quantities. I think he's young enough that he remembers it from his pre-weening days. I feed this to my cag and sun conure twice a day. When I'm done with them, I take the leftovers to Chewie. I think this is going to make switching to pellets much much easier. He also eats apples readily. I'm glad for that too!

I'll be taking him to a very good avian veterinarian on Saturday. 6 days away.

I was playing around with some picture editing apps on my ipad and thought I'd share 2 pictures of Chewie.

 

[daddylongnails]

Btw, I'm sure you would all agree that birds are like crack? I just got this little guy and I already feel like I want to "save" another sad bird on Craigslist. Snake-keeping is the same way. I have 2 ball pythons and want more. sigh... sometimes I think being addicted to meth might be a cheaper pass-time than being a pet enthusiast.

 

[Mozzie]

What a cutie pie! Sounds like you are doing a great job with him! I am glad he found you!

 

[patch]

Let us know what the vet says on Saturday, I'm really interested in his story. Poor Chewie!

 

[daddylongnails]

I've had to postpone the vet visit until tomorrow. It's at 1pm tomorrow. I will let you all know how that goes. I am still keeping him separated from the other birds so far.

I need some advice or insight into this bird's aggression issues. I can't seem to understand his problem stepping up. I was making great progress and he had stopped biting me but then we went on vacation this past weekend and he seems to have regressed. We left him alone for 2 days (sat & sun) and came back monday. I left him alone on monday and today I started working with him again. He bit me like he has never bit me before. *So* hard and he latched on like a pitt bull. He did this about 3 times until I gave up trying to get him to step up and come out of his cage. I was really upset but left him alone until I calmed down. Then I decided to get a perch and get him to step up on that instead. I got him out, he let me give him head scratches, and now he's sitting quietly on my shoulder.

What I don't understand is that he enjoys head scratches. he will let me touch him all over his head, neck, and back, but when it comes to stepping up, he turns into Cujo. What the heck is up with that ?? How can he be so docile and trust me enough to scratch his head and even grab him from above without any issues, but when it comes to his feet and standing on my fingers, he just loses it.

And I'm not sure if I'm doing the right things here either. If he were just afraid of me and people in general, then I'd move slow, but like I said he doesn't have this issue. he will even push his head against you to get you to scratch him.

Anyways, any help you guys can give me or especially insight into this behavior with stepping up would be greatly appreciated.

 

[daddylongnails]

Btw, he is eating pellets like a champ now. He still prefers seeds but I am not giving him any unless I am working with stepping up and sitting on my hands. He has no choice but to eat pellets now because hunger makes him give in and he eats them . I just watched him eat a ton of roudybush tonight.

 

[patch]

Pepper didn't want to learn to step up either when I first got him, but he loved being rubbed. He didn't even trust perches. I ended up spending months building up trust between us. I also changed the command his previous owner was using. For the last month or so, he's been stepping up successfully. Maybe he's like Pepper; lots of quality time to build a good relationship?

 

[aufde]

I'd love to hear how you overcome the step up problem. My Yoshi likes the scratches too and is ok with petting his back, chest wings, whatever. But as soon as I put my finger out and say step up, he just walks away (the biting is already trained out of him thankfully). Funny thing is though as soon as I take my hand away he'll come right back for another head scratch

I've already got some good advice, I just need to build the relationship, just curious how you do it.

 

[friedsoup]

that is the posture of a unsure bird he is not confident of a hand as a perch he was most likely dropped or thrown down from a hand you should try laying your hand flat on a table and have him just sit on your hand until he gets comfortable sitting on your hand.