Help! Conure eats nothing but seeds.

[a_osborne]

Hi! I am not new to owning birds of various sorts and have had my green cheek conure, Eva, for about 3 years. I have been feeding her what I thought to be a balanced diet but further research tells me otherwise. I was originally feeding her a seed mix (the brand is kaytee) along with kale and some fruits plus treats. I recently decided to switch her over to pellets (will be using roudybush) but have not yet started. However, my big problem is that, over time, she has quit eating fruits and vegetables entirely. I have tried enticing her with numerous treats, fruits, greens, etc. and she won't touch them. She usually ends up throwing it on the bottom of her cage. She also used to love millet spray and won't touch that anymore either. On top of that, she refuses to use a cuttle bone. I make sure her beak is taken care of but wonder if anyone knows why she is doing all this? She seems very healthy. Her weight is maintained, feathers look nice, and she is active. I don't want to shorten her life span by not feeding her healthy foods but she simply won't touch it

 

[nicolee003]

You definitely need to find some way for her to get fruits and vegetables. Mine absolutely loves carrots and peas. Try juicing them and offer it as a drink. I had to do this with my first gcc and it actually worked! I would make enough to fill an ice cube tray and freeze it so it was more convenient!

 

[a_osborne]

I never thought of juicing, I think I'll try that! Thank you are you able to give as actual chunks now or still juice?

 

[a_osborne]

oh and I've never offered peas, I will try them. Do you buy frozen and offer the individual thawed peas or like snow peas in a pod?

 

[nicolee003]

I buy frozen peas and take some out every night to thaw for the next day. As far as juicing... I lost my little guy to a very rare disease in october, but at that point he was still only getting the juice. The only thing he would eat chunks of was various pepers.

 

[a_osborne]

Oh my goodness! So sorry to hear that. Thank you for the advice though. I will try peas and see how she does. I don't know why she has gotten like this in the first place. She used to like to try lots of things and then quit eating fruits, vegetables, treats, etc. Anything but her seeds.

 

[nicolee003]

Oh my goodness! So sorry to hear that. Thank you for the advice though. I will try peas and see how she does. I don't know why she has gotten like this in the first place. She used to like to try lots of things and then quit eating fruits, vegetables, treats, etc. Anything but her seeds.

Hmm, thats weird that she used to like everything but not anymore. Both of the conures I've had absolutely loved green/red or every very hot peppers. I would cut it open and just put it on the food dish and they would pick off all the seeds and eat them, and also bite off pieces of the actual pepper. Also try cooked potato

 

[a_osborne]

Okay, great! I will keep you posted if I start to have progress!

 

[aliray]

I feed my parrots a dish of fresh food every day but what is in it varies. Little bits of cooked pasta, cooked brown rice, birdie bread that I make cooked sweet potato, any kind of cooked grain, A protein like a couple of nuts, little bit of cooked meat or fish, hard boiled or scrambled egg etc., veg raw and or cooked. any dark leafy greens, corn, sugar snap peas, raw baby carrots, fresh broccalli florets, cauliflower, squash raw or cooked. cooked bearns or raw string beans, Any veg except avacodo, mushrooms, or onions, is okay. Then also some fruit fresh or frozen and thawed. There are links on some threads that give you safe food lists. Just keep trying and try a few things each day and let them pick and choose what they want from the dish. At times it will take a few tries before they will taste a food. Try clipping a slice of cored apple or a broccollie bud on the side of the cage

 

[JasmineGCC]

My conure Jasmine loves mashed potato, scrambled egg, raw baby sweetcorn and basically anything yellow! Fruit she likes red grapes - not green, blueberries, blackberries - anything red! Green things - nope
Try different colours and textures. Maybe mixing a little seed into mashed veg or fruit may help. Try raw and cooked. Try juice too.
Hope this helps

 

[a_osborne]

Thank you JasmineGCC and aliray! Jasmine, I will try mixing fruit/veggies in with her seed. I have tried sprinkling bits on the top of it but she'd just eat around it. I have also clipped things to the side of the cage and they end up just drying out and needing thrown away I'll keep trying!

 

[Kiwibird]

When we first got Kiwi, he wouldn't eat anything but seed either (probably the only thing he was ever fed in his 2 prior homes). He was actually frightened at first of fruits and veggies in his dish! We chose to continue feeding seed as his staple food (I'm not a fan of pellets, they're too processed for me) but also needed to get him eating a varied and balanced diet. We started him on mushy food since he was so scared of big pieces of produce (just put his fruits and veggies through the food processor). It took a while, but he slowly started to try little bites of the mushy stuff off a baby spoon through the bars. Once he started acquiring a taste for his fruits and veggies, I started putting them through the food chopper, and put the tiny pieces in his dish. During his dietary transition, he got a dish of produce only in the morning/evening, and after I made sure he had eaten some, then he got his dish of seed. Gradually, we moved up to larger slices, and now he will eat anything and everything (he actually eats very little seed anymore compared to his produce and healthy table food). You can use the same concept with pellets. It's very important that parrots eat a varied diet, so nipping this in the bud is the best thing you can do for your birds health. Best of luck!

 

[a_osborne]

Thank you for all the help!