Introductions & Conure Food

[DuskyEmmitt]

Hello everyone. I recently bought a beautiful 7 month old Dusky Conure from our local pet store. He is so calm, gentle and friendly. We are thrilled to have him.

We got him home saturday night and he already appears to be settling in. He very rarely even makes a noise. Spends his day playing with his foraging toy, coming out and sitting on my finger for a bit, sitting on top of his cage. He is still a little nervous around my 6 year old son. He will sit on his finger for a minute or so, but doesnt like it too much yet. My wife isn't a fan of birds, but Emmitt really wants her to pay attn to him. She is worried he will bond with her, due to the fact he was hand raised by females, so she is giving him space to bond with me first.

I have a question about food. Currently I am giving him a mix of seed and fruit shaped pellets. I also set out a water bowl with a dose of vitaflight in the water (pet shops reccomendations). I bought him some pine nut treats, and put those in his foraging toy to pick out when he wants.

He doesn't seem to drink too much, but I have caught him hanging upside down with his beak dipped in the vitaflight water. I also noticed he only seems to be picking seeds out of his bowl, he doesnt mess with the pellets much. He will take one from my hand, but kinda rolls it around, then spits it out.

1. Should I phase out seed and try to get him to eat the pellets more?

2. Should I be offering anything else than seed and pellets? Maybe fruits and veg? What kinds?

3. In order to get the water he kinda has to hang on the bars and dip his beak in. Should I have some better set up to allow him more comfortable eating / drinking?

thanks for everything! Look forward to being a member of this community.

 

[DuskyEmmitt]

Ill take a couple of pictures of Emmitt and his food this afternoon when I get home.

Everything I bought was at the reccomendation of the girl at the store. She seemed really knowledgable, having owned a couple of conures herself.

The pellet we got him looks like broken up fruit loops. Smells good too! Do you guys give them fruit like once a day, or make it available whenever?

Thanks!



One thing I noticed is Emmitt seems pretty low key. Not really like many of the Conure stories I read. (thankfully!) I am guessing it may just be that he is still settling in, or maybe it is just his nature. He is only 7 months old, he is OK being on my finger, but really doesnt want to go on my shoulder or any flat surface. He doesnt like to be touched on his back, but is OK with rubbing the side of his face or his beak. He actually loves to burry his beak in between my knuckles. He also likes to pick at my beard and my lips, not hard, more like bird kisses. He gets testy if he is on top of his cage and doesnt want to be moved. He mostly just kinda grumbles and tries to avoid the finger.

I wonder if he will get more lively as he gets more comfortable.

Last night it was pretty funny. It was around 730 and I was going to start putting him to bed. He was getting really chirpy and active, like pacing on his perch, doing his double tweet at my wife (mostly) and me as we were kind of walking around. I dont know if he was just tired and annoyed we werent settling him down, or he didnt want to go to bed yet. As soon as I said, good night emmitt and put his blanket over the back half of his cage, he jumped up on his rope perch, fluffed up, and settled down. Around 8 I covered the front part and we watched tv until 10. he didnt make a peep until I uncovered him this morning before work around 630. Even then, I could tell he wasnt really wanting to wake up. I tried to take him out first thing and he fussed at me. A gentle fuss, but fussy none the less.

Funny how much personality these guys have.

 

[DannyA93]

I would give fresh fruits and veggies twice a day in the morning and in the evening. He could eat the pellets during the day if he was hungry. You don't want to leave the fresh foods out for more than a couple hours, you don't want it to go bad and start growing bacteria and such ��.

 

[DuskyEmmitt]

I would give fresh fruits and veggies twice a day in the morning and in the evening. He could eat the pellets during the day if he was hungry. You don't want to leave the fresh foods out for more than a couple hours, you don't want it to go bad and start growing bacteria and such ��.

Thanks Danny. What kind of fruit or veggies would you recommend to start him with? I dont think he has had any before. Would you recommend hand feeding him at first, or just putting some in his bowl?

Should I take away seed altogether for a bit, or just make a mixture with mostly pellet and less seed?

 

[DannyA93]

Hmm I would try starting with broccoli because they look like seed. And put finely chopped veggies like carrots celery snow peas you could even try cooked sweet potato! Most are a fan of sweet potato with blueberries black berries strawberries apple without the core. You can try cooking them different ways with no seasoning to see if he has a preference but you're gonna have to keep trying even if you think he won't you can't give up! Eventually he'll get curious and test it out.

As far as your pellets don't switch him cold turkey it probably won't work. Put about 75% of whatever he's on now and 25% pellets. And SLOWLY over time put more and more pellets and less and less seed till there are no seeds in his diet and if that doesn't work you could try the juice trick, put the pellets in and soak them in low or sugar free apple juice and sprinkle some seed on top so it's appealing and hopefully hell "accidentally" taste the juice on the pellets and start eating those. And if that works then just start putting less and less juice in the pellets till you don't have to anymore

 

[kimn818]

I would give fresh fruits and veggies twice a day in the morning and in the evening. He could eat the pellets during the day if he was hungry. You don't want to leave the fresh foods out for more than a couple hours, you don't want it to go bad and start growing bacteria and such ��.

Thanks Danny. What kind of fruit or veggies would you recommend to start him with? I dont think he has had any before. Would you recommend hand feeding him at first, or just putting some in his bowl?

Should I take away seed altogether for a bit, or just make a mixture with mostly pellet and less seed?

I am also a new conure parent congratulations on your baby! I tried peas and carrots yesterday, he wasn't thrilled lol (like a child).. However.. He LOVED sweet potatoes! I would recommend sweet potatoes to start especially since he's only had seed and pellets! Good luck!

 

[DuskyEmmitt]

Thanks guys. I chopped up some blueberry, apple and grape this morning and put it in his bowl before I left for work. He didnt appear to be too interested.

I asked my wife to swap it out in a few hours back to a pellet / seed mix.

I wasnt sure how small to cut everything. I chopped the blueberries and grapes in half, then the halfs into 4ths. the apples I just cut up in similar small pieces.

 

[DannyA93]

I used to just cut the small fruits in half so they can taste the juice and apple I would take out the seed (<very important) and just chop it into squares or something lol did your wife see him mess with them at all?