skinny conure HELP!!

[nicolewalicki21]

I have a 4 year old white eyed conure

shes super skinny
shes eating and drinking and making healthy droppings
I have taken her to the vet and they said shes healthy just needs to eat more

so I guess what im asking is
Whats a good healthy diet to make sure she eats and puts weight on? She picky about eating new food and takes a while to warm up to new foods

thank you

[Wolf]

Since your bird is a picky eater and is shy about new foods and things ( not that this sounds like you have a parrot ), let us begin with us learning what food does she already eat. If you would help us with this perhaps we could better be able to help you.

[nicolewalicki21]

She gets
fruits dried and fresh
pomegranate
bannas
raisins
pineapple
oranges
apples
Papaya
mango
strawberries
blueberries
raspberry
apricots

veggies
lettuce
tomatoes rarely and with her pasta
broccoli
carrots
green beans
corn
peppers

other
eggs (scrambled)
pasta
sunflower and pumpkin seeds as her treats
cashews
pecans
walnuts
pistachios
And a pellet



I feel like I should be feeding her more food thats better for her

[Wolf]

OK, Nicole, it appears to me that for the most part that you have the what of her diet down pretty well. I think that I would try adding cooked beans and brown rice to your food list as well as sprouts. Try out a variety of both sprouts and cooked beans. It just occurred to me that some conures are grass seed eaters, so a parakeet seed mix may prove to be helpful.

I have several books that I use as a reference, but although the different species of parrots have been observed eating various things, there has never been a comprehensive study of any species of parrots diet. In other words we know some of what they eat but not how much or what proportions they eat.

From your posts your bird appears to need an increase in protein and/or carbohydrates. A bird can only eat so much at a time so consider what your bird eats that will increase these things.

I do not have conures, myself, but there are a number of members who will likely offer you further assistance and there are a number of posts in this forum ( Health and nutrition ) that should help greatly.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[nicolewalicki21]

Thank you so much ill keep this updated on her progress

thank you again

ill try some rice right now

[marie83]

When you say she is skinny then how skinny do you mean? Just underweight compared to the "normal" range for a conure of her type- some birds are just naturally smaller than the "normal" and just because she doesn't weigh in at exactly on or between xx grams and xx grams doesn't necessarily mean she is underweight.

So lets say she is actually skinny and she has a bad condition score (clipped birds will come out worse here due to poor muscle tone so again may not be as underweight as they might look) and not just a smaller than usual conure - how long has she been skinny? if its a recent development but she is still eating the same as usual I would say she needs to undergo proper tests (not just a physical exam) under an avian vet. To be honest this might be a good idea anyway if she has never been tested even if she has always been skinny.

All this said I have one bird that came to me obviously skinny and underweight, he lived to a good age but never put on weight in all the time I had him no matter how much he ate. We never found any cause for him being underweight either so there is exceptions to the rules but my initial thought on the matter is if she is genuinely underweight then medical issues should be ruled out first.

[nicolewalicki21]

I took her to the vet they ran test and did an xray. Said she is fine. Shes looks like skin and bones its been about a month shes been to the vet twice and nothing is found to be wrong with her

[marie83]

Has she always been skinny? If not are you sure she is eating exactly the same as she was before the weight loss started? The only reason I ask is it amazes me the number of people who believe their birds are eating like normal but don't actually know for a fact- even a couple of grams less per day can result in weight loss whilst not actually looking any different in the dish.

Also I would be interested in what tests they have performed and what conditions have been ruled out. Again, I'm not saying your vet hasn't been thorough with the testing but there are vets out there who make out they have ruled everything out when in actual fact they have missed lots of things out - I've experienced this myself unfortunately.

Your conure has a very good variety of foods offered to her, does she eat all those foods or is that just a list of what you give her? I do agree with one of the previous replies that the amounts of certain nutrients might need tweaking to create a more balanced nutritional profile but that would be hard for us to advise you on without knowing the quantities of what she eats.

[Pajarita]

When you say 'tests', what kind of tests were those? Was there a bile acids test done? Because liver malfunction makes them skinny and the only test that shows it is the bile acids. How old is she? How long have you had her? What species?

Now, your list of foods is the list of foods she actually eats daily or the list of foods you give her? Because offering food is not good if the bird doesn't eat it. For example, I give my tiels the same food I give to the other parrots but, although they eat the gloop (which has cooked, chopped vegetables) same as the others, and more leafy greens than some of the others (like the grays, for example, which hardly ever touch them), they very seldom touch the fruits or the raw veggie they get.

As to more protein, it depends on what species of conure you have but most of them are mostly fruit eaters so more protein would not be the answer for your problem.

If all tests are OK and her behavior is OK, I would just give her some nice multigrain bread early in the morning. The last bird I took in (a screaming cockatoo) was too skinny for my taste so what I did was, in the early morning and before he got his breakfast, I gave him a piece of multigrain bread and, in a matter of a few weeks, he had gained enough weight to make me happy. All my birds are on the low side of what is considered a normal weight but that's because they all fly around (they don't live in cages) but their chest 'feels' good - a good indication of weigh and fitness is how protruding the keel bone and how firm is the 'padding' (muscle) on either side. If the bone sticks out sharply, the bird is too skinny; if you can feel only the edge of the ridge, it's too fat but, if you feel the ridge clearly (sticking out a bit) and the sides are well 'padded' -you feel nice, firm muscle on either side instead of the softness of fat - then the bird is fine.

[nicolewalicki21]

I dont remeber off hand what the test were but she was there for about 2 days for testing

I try to offer more just to make sure she eats.

Shes eating the same cause I weigh it after she's done

The list is what she's actually eats I offer her a lot of food shes just so picky

I hope that answered the questions