New Jenday - Josie

[mstroup1]

We just got a Jenday Conure. I have had a sun conure in the past. I am new to this, is there anything I need to know about diet and treats? Thank you

[Wolf]

Without knowing what your feeding schedule is and what you are feeding your bird, I don't think that I can give you a definitive answer, but probably. I have 7 parrots of 5 different species and I am still learning more every day.

[Pajarita]

Welcome! Jendays are VERY similar to sun conures in pretty much everything: size, coloring, diet, behaviors, vocalizations, lifespan, etc so, in reality, you are not 'new' to it if you had a sun conure in the past but, please, give us details as to gender, age, diet, schedule, routine, etc and we will do our best to give you specific pointers to help you out.

[mstroup1]

Not sure if it is a male or female. She/he is one year old next month. I feed Josie in the morning and want to give him some fresh vegetables and fruit in the afternoon and not sure what to give. Josie is coming around a lot since we got him last Sunday. The boyfriend thought it would be smart to try and touch him and he got bit. Since then has done a complete 180. He comes right up to the cage and likes his belly rubbed. The only thing that has me worried is he shakes head a lot at me and him. I don't remember my sun doing that. Any help would be greatly appreciated. He is in a huge parrot cage with lots of room and an assortment of toys to play with. Thank you in advance.

[Pajarita]

OK, but what, exactly, do you feed Josie? And where is his cage located, what is his daily schedule and routines?

Also, please never touch a bird in the belly, it's a HIGHLY erogenous zone and a no-no with birds.

[mstroup1]

The food is called Sunburst Gourmet Conure food. He gets fed in the morning before I leave for work. We would like to feed Josie some fresh fruit and vegetables along with that. What are they allowed to eat. I gave my sun conure, grapes, bananas, apples, carrots, cucumber, cantaloupe. Thanks.

[Wolf]

Starting on the second page of this link viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521 is a listing od both toxic and non toxic foods, plants, trees, woods and household products for your bird. Along with the fruits and vegetables in the non toxic foods list I would feed this viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13666 for your birds breakfast and a good quality seed mix for dinner. I would pass on the conure food that you are currently providing for your bird for a simple seed mix without all of the dehydrated fruits and such as well as one that has a limited amount of sunflower seeds in it.

[liz]

vegies and some form of gloop in the morning. give him enough to pick on all day and have leftovers when you serve his evening meal.

pajarita had me switch to budgie seed for my tiels. no sunflower seed. they eat it well

[Pajarita]

I checked the ingredients on the food you are using and there are several I don't like: three types of dry corn food (maize flakes, cracked corn and ground corn -dry corn is the number one source of aspergillus), carrot flakes (carrots need to be organic), raw peanuts, papaya and apricot (the list doesn't say but they look as if they were treated with sulfites), soybean meal, brown rice (high in arsenic) and sucrose (which is nothing but processed sugar). I could go into the egg product, salt, parsley, spinach, etc and explain what I don't like about each, also...

Personally, I would much rather my birds ate a good quality seed mix with nothing but seeds in it than something full of stuff I don't approve of. I also would not recommend you free-feed high protein food. It's really not good for ANY parrot but conures eat a lot of fruits in the wild so they are much better off with cooked whole grains, veggies and fruits than with any dry, high protein food. And that's why both Wolf and Liz recommended the gloop with fresh produce for breakfast and all day eating plus a good quality seed mix for dinner.

Sun conures are good eaters so you shouldn't have a big problem transitioning him/her to a good diet but that will imply a bit extra work (you will have to cook the food) as well as time because you will have to eat with him/her. This is not only because parrots learn what is good and what is not good to eat from their parents or other parrots so, now, this function is yours to fulfill but also because eating is a social event for them, something done with their flock, so it's one of the best bonding tools we have.

Now, if you work full time, you are, eventually, going to have a problem because, although your bird is still a juvenile, it will mature sexually and, when it does, you will have to keep it to a strict solar schedule or his endocrine system is going to go out of whack and produce sexual hormones all year round - which is not good for him/her or you. Not good for him/her because it will be sexually frustrated and physically uncomfortable, if not in pain, and not good for you because, chances are, it will scream A LOT and, most likely, become bitey (an animal in pain is unpredictable in its reactions). Is there anybody else in the house that could take care of feeding the bird a bit before dawn and when the sun is halfway down to the horizon in the evening? Because the only way to keep their endocrine system in tune with the season it's to keep them to a strict solar schedule (which you cannot do in the winter if you work full time because the days are too short).

Just as a matter of curiosity, how did you end up with a one year old bird? It's a very unusual age for a bird to be rehomed...

[mstroup1]

we got it at Petco. Thanks for the advice. I work day shift and I am usually home at night. So keeping Josie on a schedule should be pretty easy.