Rescue parrot, unsure of species.. any support appreciated

[Pajarita]

I just went through something similar with my new bird (jenday conure) who was not doing well when i first got her and i didn't know why. there were two things that worked better than anything else.

1. every necessity (food, sleep, etc)... every activity, actually, is a social activity

2. the bird is really the boss, for now, of everything even though you are still the parent. s/he will let you know when the stress is starting to break....

Point 1 - YES!!!! You are absolutely correct, EVERYTHING in a parrot's life is a social activity - that's why it's so bad to leave them alone for hours and hours. It does something to their heads...

Point 2 - If you took out the 'for now', you would be 100% right because birds are always 'the boss'. But I don't agree that they let you know when they are stressed out... actually, by the time you see anything, the bird has been under stress for a long time.

[carysaurus]

Woowww, thank you all. I hadn't checked back in a while and hadn't seen all of the responses. Thank you so much.

Roger is now settling in well. He's definitely going through a molt as his major feathers are dropping out in pairs and he has pin feathers coming through a lot, but I do think he might be over preening his chest and shoulders still, because they're very fluffy, and so we're trying to keep him stimulated and happy.

He's a very friendly and intelligent boy. He communicates with us in ever surprising ways (blows kisses for both affection and to apologise if caught being naughty). My boyfriend is definitely his favourite (I accept this because his previous owner was male, thought it breaks my heart )

He's made some progress (baby steps.. tiny baby steps) towards trying other food, will eat cooked sweet potato if we are also, some cooked peas and a tiny bit of egg. We've tried introducing pellets but that's not going so well. I think we just have to resign ourself to gradual introduction by way of eating with him and him trying our food.

He's a very cool dude and entertains us daily. We are still committed to rehoming him because, although he seems to have adjusted well to our working 9-5, I still think he would benefit more from someone who was retired and able to be with him all day every day. But we will do what we can to get him a great home and happy and healthy in the meantime.

Any more tips for getting him to try more varied foods would be much appreciated! Would be lovely to hear from someone else with a Patagonian Conure..

[Pajarita]

Forget the pellets, it's real hard to switch birds to them and they are not the best dietary option for parrots. But you also cannot continue feeding him seeds and keeping him to a solar schedule (which you are doing if you work full time) as they are, most likely (and I am talking 99.99% chance), the reason why he is molting now (in the middle of the winter when it's not supposed to happen) and he is still plucking (overpreening is a euphemism as it implies doing a normal thing a bit too much when, in reality, feather destruction behaviors are completely abnormal). Please try gloop. It's healthy and very easy to switch parrots to it.

I don't know anybody with a Patagonian... they are not popular birds so they are not breeding them as much as they were some years ago.

[Wolf]

Since it is your intent to rehome him, it would be useful to know where you are located ( city, state, country) as well as providing rehoming conditions, requirements, etc.