Adopted new conure today; some issues.

[Crazypetlady]

As the subject line says, I adopted a conure today. He's a 1 year old (sex unknown) green cheek conure and I found him on craigslist. The owner gave him up because she and her mother are moving into a much smaller house and did not think they'd have room for the cages. (they are also re-homing a cockatiel).

So that's how I got him. Now comes the hard part; integrating him in with my other birds. I have this no-name bird in a cage on the opposite side of the house because I'm going to quarantine him for 3-4 months. I have no idea what he's carrying and judging from the conditions he was kept in, I can't say I have much trust that his previous owners did a very good job of things.

I have several things to overcome here....

1st, he's on a 100% seed diet.
2nd, his nails are sooo long that they are curled all the way around and under his toes.
3rd, one of his toe nails is missing altogether.
4th, he is hand shy and will bite (hard) if you try to make him step up.

Oddly, he looooooves head scratches and will let you do that all day long.

His plumage is just "meh" dull. A direct result of the seed diet, I'm sure.

The girl gave me his toys. I threw away all of them except for one. They were all rusted and nasty. I don't know any 1 year old bird that would have toys that old. Something tells me he was kept outdoors... I dunno.

I refused to take the cage. It was the worst cage I had ever seen. Rusted aall over the place and just nasty looking.

Anyways, it seems I have my work cut out for me here. My main reason for posting is to ask how would you switch him over from an all seed diet to pellets and fresh produce?

I plan on "fixing" his nails tonight altho I think that may actually turn out to be a traumatic experience for him. His nails get caught on everything in his cage and he's only got one toy in there for now.

Thanks!
-Tania

[marie83]

I used this article to convert my birds onto other foods.
http://www.northernparrots.com/successf ... et-blog43/


Don't feel you have to follow it strictly, tailor it to your bird if need be. My cockateil wont touch anything wet or damp so the mash idea didn't work. I eventually converted her by slowly reducing the amount of seed in her diet and replacing it with pellets.
Some other people have suggested using fruit juice to get the pellets moist and add flavor. That may help kick start the transition but I wouldn't do it long term because juice has a high concentration of sugar.
Sometimes eating new foods in front of a bird helps, as does presenting it in different ways (big, small, cooked, raw, putting it on a birdy kabob)

Regarding his nails take it slowly, you may need to chop teeny tiny bits off every few days if you cannot see the quick inside or get a vet to do it. Don't worry about the missing nail if the toes looks ok, not red, inflammed or painful or prone to bleeding.

He sounds tame enough if he is accepting scratches, he probably learned to bite so he didn't have to step up with his previous owner. You will soon overcome this as he learns to trust you more, just start at the beginning as if he is a baby and don't react to the bites. Don't forget he is settling in so this may be a factor in him not wanting to step up, at the moment he doesn't know what will happen once he is on your hand/arm but he will soon learn it brings good things.


Let us know how things go

[liz]

You are already doing good.
Thank you for rescuing him.
Find out what name they used for him and if you don't like it just add another name with it and eventually drop off the old name. Give him little dishes of everything you want him to eat including pellets. A flock learns from each other. A brave bird eats something and likes it the others in the flock will try it. Right now you are his only flock. Once out of quarentine he will start learning from your other bird.
Myrtle learned from Rambo. All she was fed was seed. Now she has expanded her tastes and she is teaching Rambo what to eat.