Marianne-in-hoian
New member
- Oct 2, 2024
- 5
- 3
Hello everyone!
My daughter's conures have arrived on Monday (3 days ago). We got them from a breeder. They are about 1 year old and were breeder parrots. We live in Vietnam and the way animals are taken care of here is very different than Europe or the US, there is no bird rescue to adopt from so breeder it was.
Their names are Nori and Wasabi they are pineapple/cinnamon conures.
Nori (who we think is the female) is very skittish, which is to be expected, but curious. She looks at us, and took a bit of cucumber from my fingers for the first time this afternoon which was cute, this morning I called her, showed her a treat, she moved closer but was still too scared so I dropped it in her bowl and she went to take it. Small victories LoL! She is pretty chilled, she perches, puffs up her feathers a bit and tucks her little foot and just looks at the world around. I think she'll settle in well with patience.
Wasabi though is a total other story! He has been taking treats through the bars straight away, even at the breeder's. However he displays territorial behaviours: marching, posturing, rubbing his beak, he even does the marching dancing thing which looks cute but I know it to be a sign of warning. He will take treats but sometimes will deliberately go for the fingers. When showing treats to Nori on a different perch he'll sometimes try to bite our arm through the bars.
Here is question 1: how can we discourage this behaviour while still trying to get them used to us? his territoriality makes basic day to day care a bit difficult: changing water and food bowls he sometimes charges to try and get the fingers. Cleaning the bottom of the cage is difficult because he charges for my hands.
2 thing is diet.
As said earlier the way animals are taken care of here is very different. Their diet at the breeder's wasn't great: seed mix with a majority of sunflower seeds and a sort of fruit pellet thing that smells so sweet, to be honest they don't even seem to like it!
So we are progressively introducing vegetable chops. First day they had carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers and I sprinkled a bit of quinoa and chopped almonds and walnuts. They really enjoyed it! So today I got bolder: broccoli, sweet potato, pumpkin, spinach, bell pepper and celery: they loved it! I give it to them in the morning and in the afternoon i give them their seeds mix that the breeder gave us (i order some pellets but they haven't arrived yet). Parrot food here (Vietnam) isn't easy to get. I give the chop in the morning because they take some time to eat it and make a mess and because it's hot and humid here I want to clean their cage in the late afternoon so nothing moulds..
So here is question 2: is morning chop and seeds (which will be replaced with pellets slowly) in the afternoon ok? Can I keep seeds for treats and training (when the time comes)?
Question 3: what quantity of chop should I give them each morning per bird?
Question 4: How much pellet should I give?
Question 5 : what are healthier seed and grain mix I can give them? Should I mix some in their chop? Note that I don't want to sprout due to high risk of mould here with the humidity and heat.
Question 6 is not related to food: when is a good time to start letting them out of the cage? what signs that they're ready should I look for? I wouldn't want them to get out and be unable to get them back in. I guess it's when their comfortable with hands and stepping up but when do I know it's the right time to put a hand in the cage? I wouldn't want do it too soon and risk losing their trust.
Advice please!!!
Video of Wasabi taking a bath and Nori chilling on her favourite perch.
My daughter's conures have arrived on Monday (3 days ago). We got them from a breeder. They are about 1 year old and were breeder parrots. We live in Vietnam and the way animals are taken care of here is very different than Europe or the US, there is no bird rescue to adopt from so breeder it was.
Their names are Nori and Wasabi they are pineapple/cinnamon conures.
Nori (who we think is the female) is very skittish, which is to be expected, but curious. She looks at us, and took a bit of cucumber from my fingers for the first time this afternoon which was cute, this morning I called her, showed her a treat, she moved closer but was still too scared so I dropped it in her bowl and she went to take it. Small victories LoL! She is pretty chilled, she perches, puffs up her feathers a bit and tucks her little foot and just looks at the world around. I think she'll settle in well with patience.
Wasabi though is a total other story! He has been taking treats through the bars straight away, even at the breeder's. However he displays territorial behaviours: marching, posturing, rubbing his beak, he even does the marching dancing thing which looks cute but I know it to be a sign of warning. He will take treats but sometimes will deliberately go for the fingers. When showing treats to Nori on a different perch he'll sometimes try to bite our arm through the bars.
Here is question 1: how can we discourage this behaviour while still trying to get them used to us? his territoriality makes basic day to day care a bit difficult: changing water and food bowls he sometimes charges to try and get the fingers. Cleaning the bottom of the cage is difficult because he charges for my hands.
2 thing is diet.
As said earlier the way animals are taken care of here is very different. Their diet at the breeder's wasn't great: seed mix with a majority of sunflower seeds and a sort of fruit pellet thing that smells so sweet, to be honest they don't even seem to like it!
So we are progressively introducing vegetable chops. First day they had carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers and I sprinkled a bit of quinoa and chopped almonds and walnuts. They really enjoyed it! So today I got bolder: broccoli, sweet potato, pumpkin, spinach, bell pepper and celery: they loved it! I give it to them in the morning and in the afternoon i give them their seeds mix that the breeder gave us (i order some pellets but they haven't arrived yet). Parrot food here (Vietnam) isn't easy to get. I give the chop in the morning because they take some time to eat it and make a mess and because it's hot and humid here I want to clean their cage in the late afternoon so nothing moulds..
So here is question 2: is morning chop and seeds (which will be replaced with pellets slowly) in the afternoon ok? Can I keep seeds for treats and training (when the time comes)?
Question 3: what quantity of chop should I give them each morning per bird?
Question 4: How much pellet should I give?
Question 5 : what are healthier seed and grain mix I can give them? Should I mix some in their chop? Note that I don't want to sprout due to high risk of mould here with the humidity and heat.
Question 6 is not related to food: when is a good time to start letting them out of the cage? what signs that they're ready should I look for? I wouldn't want them to get out and be unable to get them back in. I guess it's when their comfortable with hands and stepping up but when do I know it's the right time to put a hand in the cage? I wouldn't want do it too soon and risk losing their trust.
Advice please!!!
Video of Wasabi taking a bath and Nori chilling on her favourite perch.
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