conure diet

[Keinanna]

the conure i adopted recently came to me with a small container of food it is a seed mix.

I know that pellets should be given as well but his previous owners said he refuses to eat them.

I have been giving fruit and veggies to him (melons, grapes, beans, peas and carrots) as well as small bites of my food bits of toast, hashbrowns, eggs, pasta. I have also been giving him some unsalted mixed nuts.

I offer one small dish of mixed fruit and veggies to him leave it in the cage for a couple hours then take it away and give him another small dish of it again later in the day.

I talked to the woman i got him from asking about his weird behaviour and she suggested he may be acting like that because he is not feeling well because i am giving him too many treats and that all he needs is his seed mix.

Now i could be wrong but i was under the impression that conures should have a pretty varied diet and a seed only mix is not enough to be nutritionally sufficient.

Is it possible i am making him sick by feeding him fruits and veggies twice daily? Along with other small bits of food.

For example today at breakfast he had 1/4 of a teaspoon of plain cooked oatmeal, a small corner torn off my peanut butter toast and then maybe 1 and 1/2 grapes a couple peas and a couple nibbles of carrot.

Does that sound reasonable?

Also i know he should be on pellets and i want to try to get him eating them is there any kind of pellets that are good to try for birds who dont like pellets?

 

[Helitorian]

You don't want to feed them an all seed diet as it it devoid of many nutrients and vitamins that they need. Feeding him the fresh foods and some of your food is what you're supposed to do just be careful what you feed him. To try and get him to eat pellets, (I recommend Zupreem) put a few in a small bowl them soak them in a fruit juice (I use apple and grape). Add them to his dish of fresh food and he should start nibbling on them. After awhile, you can wean him off the wet pellets or you can keep using the juice. It's the only way that my Con will eat her pellets.

 

[roxynoodle]

First, keep offering him all the fruits and veggies and other things. Parrots all need some of that to be healthy. If he's not eating it, eat it in front of him, and begin offering him pieces. Try making yummy sounds while you eat it.

As for pellets, I had a very hard time getting my BC on them. I tried different ones, and I was sure eating a lot more of them than she was! She was eating...none! Finally it was the fruit flavored Zupreem she tasted. And from there I just started putting them in her dish, first just a few. Then when I knew she really was eating them, I begin putting in less seed and more pellets each day until she was on pellets. I also have recently gotten the zon, who was a 28 year old seed junkie on pellets, too. In his case he wanted Harrison's so they are eating different foods, but oh well! Rowdy has been eating the Zupreem so long now she wasn't that keen on the Harrison's. Pete was only eating the purple Zupreem, but ate the Harrison's. And I don't care that much if they eat different pellets. Just so long that they do.

Sometimes it takes a long time for birds to try new foods, but they will. Just keep introducing them. And as frustrating as the pellet thing is sometimes, just keep trying. If Pete can eat them after nearly 3 decades, I'm pretty sure almost any bird can. He didn't know what veggies and fruit were either, and now he dives to the bowl to get them.

 

[Keinanna]

oh i am so glad to hear i am not doing it wrong i was pretty sure he needed more food than just seeds.

I grew up in a house that had a blue and gold macaw a lesser sulfer crested cockatoo, two african greys, a pair of indian ringnecks and various other small birds. I grew up with most of them and those who i did not grow up with as a young child were aquired as babies and we finished the hand feedings so some of the issues i am having i have never faced before. Like adopting a rehomed bird he has already been rehomed a few times. that never happened in my family and all the birds always had a good diet.

I was just unsure if the change from seed only to a nutritional diet could be making him feel sick.

I have no issues getting him to eat the other food anything i have given him he has happily eaten. I brought my plate of toast in this morning and then left to go get a drink and took a bit too long to come back he was screaming at me cause he wanted some. I commented about it to my boyfriend saying he was mad at me cause i left the plate in the room and did not come back fast enough to give him some and that was why he was mad so my boyfriend came and gave him a very small piece and he stopped screaming but when i came back in he had finished it and was clinging to the cage waiting for more so i gave him a bit more and he ate most of it. He did not like the peanut butter on his beak though. thats one of his quirks he hates his beak being messy

 

[Helitorian]

My little Con has that same quirk. If she eats something sticky, she runs across her cage to me and flutters her wings until I notice her. I hold my hand out and she sticks her beak between my thumb and index finger then wipes her face off. It's cute

 

[Keinanna]

thats very cute

 

[roxynoodle]

Rowdy always ends up with a messy beak, too. She wants to wipe it off on her bars or toys and then I clean it off. If I try to clean it, she wants to eat the tissue or whatever I try to use, lol!

 

[Keinanna]

chewy has a small piece of cloth hanging in his cage that he uses to wipe his beak on. it was in his cage when i got him so i dont know if that is the intended use of it but it seems to be the only thing he uses it for its pretty funny to see him wipe his beak after eating

 

[erik7181]

i feed my conure the birdie blend from mybirdstore.com http://www.mybirdstore.com/product.cgi?group=232972&product=242836