Alright, I am back and ready to continue with this. The first thing that I am going to do is to post a link to a topic found in the nutrition, diet and health section of this forum as it has a list which begins on page 2 of the topic that contains toxic and non toxic items ranging from plant, trees and woods to foods and household items. This is a good list but then you should know that it is not a complete listing as more are being learned about as the days pass.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521 You should also do more research into the diet and nutrition for your bird, you will find several topics on foods such as chop, gloop and raw foods for your bird in the diet, health and nutrition section of this forum that I recommend that you read for a start.
You will find, in addition, to the things that I have said that the majority of us do not really recommend the feeding of pellets to birds as we feel for the most part that they are a convenience for the bird owner, but are just not all that good for your birds. For now, this is all that I will say about your choice of foods, leaving that for you to research more on your own, I will however suggest some differences in how you are feeding the ones that you are using.
All of what I am saying will be tied into your training question before I am done as all of what I have said and what I am going to say affect how well your bird behaves as a whole and how well he responds to your efforts at training him, especially for trick training.
Lets continue with your birds schedules, You bird and indeed all birds are photoperiodic which is simply a big word stating that your bird reacts to light. Some of these things have an effect on the way that your bird responds to you as a whole. One such thing is the birds breeding cycle and another is the cycle of replacing its feathers which is called molting. Your bird is a little bit young to experience the full impact of effects from their breeding cycle as they are not sexually mature until they reach 2 years of age, although young sun conures have been known to form monogamous pairs as early as 4 to 5 months of age. The first time that they will experience the full impact of the breeding cycle is when they go through puberty and become sexually mature. One of the effects of the onset of puberty is often an increase in how aggressive they become during the transition from juvenile to adult bird and another will be a change in their personality. The increase in aggressive behavior is temporary and only remains in effect while the birds level of sexual hormones remains high, but the change in personality is permanent and also changes the manner in which they bond with you their human. The level of protein in your birds diet also affects how aggressive your bird is because some of the excessive protein is used in the manufacture of hormones. Now the triggers for their breeding cycle are protein and the abundance of food and the light or solar radiation that they receive on a daily basis as either of these can cause your bird to go into breeding condition or to remain in breeding condition and this is partly because of the effect of light on the birds internal biological clock, which is the primary trigger for the bird to begin to produce the hormones related to reproduction. This biological clock is regulated by the light that occurs at two specific times of the day. These are the twilight periods that occur at dawn and again at dusk each day. These two times could be regarded much like the start/ stop button on a stop watch as they trigger the start and the end of the measurement of they length of the day/ night periods of the day which is used to trigger the right time for reproduction in your bird. This also means that artificial lights can override the effects of the solar light that controls the biological clock so that it no longer works effectively to control the reproductive cycle and that means that your bird remains in breeding condition.
A very important thing occurs with a bird that is in breeding condition either due to solar radiation or due to the level of hormones remaining too high because of too much protein in their diet. This is that the birds internal sexual organs which begin at about the size of a green pea in a bird the size of an African Grey, begin to grow when the level of hormones increases and they grow to more than 100 times their normal size, but then when the level of hormones remains high they continue to grow and so the internal pressure on the sexual organs and the organs near them in the birds body increases as well and this results in excruciating levels of pain. This level of pain increases the level of aggression in the bird. As the length of time that the hormones remain high increases so does the length of time that the organs continue to grow larger. As these organs increase in size so does the amount of pain that the bird experiences and the more pain that is experienced, the more irritable and aggressive that the bird becomes. Over time the bird will experience so much pain that it can not tolerate being touched anywhere on its body and will also begin to pluck its feathers out and self mutilate in the effort to reduce the pain as well as biting anyone that tries to touch the bird.
Now as far as your birds schedules go this simply means that your bird needs to wake up near dawn or sunrise at the latest with no artificial lights being turned on until after sun rise and lights off just before dusk so that the bird is exposed to the full effects of the two twilight periods and then the bird should be asleep by the time of full dark. So keeping the bird up until 11 pm is not good for your bird and a lack of good sleep as well as not enough sleep will make your bird more irritable and more aggressive and reduce your ability to train your bird as well as interfering with you having a good relationship with your bird. These negative effects may not be apparent in these early stages but will increase in severity over time and especially after the bird goes through puberty. This means that this is something that you really need to research about your bird.
Back to diet and more specifically feeding schedule for your bird. I think that the easiest way to approach this is to begin by sharing with you what and how I feed my birds.
My birds sleep uncovered and this works really well for me because I live out in the country so there is no artificial light to interfere with their sleep at night or to interfere with them receiving the full benefits of the twilight period at dawn. They then wake up shortly after dawn and before sunrise. I am wording this in relation to dawn sunrise, dusk and full dark and am doing this as the clock times will vary according to the time of the year, but the timing of what I do remains consistent with these events. Within the first hour of them waking up I give them breakfast, which for my birds consists of a fresh raw fruit, a fresh raw vegetable and a fresh raw leafy green and gloop. My birds receive enough of these foods for all day foraging as well as for their breakfast. If you do not choose to make and use gloop for your bird, you could use a food such as chop for breakfast and all day foraging. Then about an hour before dark or near the beginning of dusk I feed my birds a quality seed mix with a tree nut or so depending on the nutritional requirements of the bird as well as its size. and then my birds are asleep by full dark. You could use your pellets instead of the seed mix that I use. I remove my seed mix after my birds go to sleep each night which is also what you should do if you use pellets. This is because both my seed mix and your pellets are a high protein food source. I use almonds as the main treat for my birds you could use the same of a different tree nut, a roasted, unsalted peanut or some other high protein food.
The best times to train your bird are after they eat their breakfast and before their mid day nap, as most parrots will take a short nap in the middle of the day, and then again in the afternoon or early evening before dusk. There is also a short period before they eat breakfast that could be used effectively for training. The reason that these times are normally the best times for training is due the normal eating habits of your bird. Most parrots eat and drink at breakfast and then again at dinnertime which times occur shortly after sunrise and about or just before dusk in the evening. They do eat some food during the remainder of the day, but mostly twice a day and so the times that I mentioned for training are the times that they are most receptive to accepting treats for training.
You said that your bird likes to come to you first thing in the morning before he eats breakfast and that he likes to snuggle and cuddle with you at this time which makes it a wonderful time to practice laying on his back, since he is already at least halfway there.