Conure Diet

[Ducatimom]

I was wondering the best way to introduce vegetables. I was told he likes apples so I was planning on picking some of those up today, but I was wanting to get him to start eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. Should I just put some in with his seeds during his meal? I know he won't eat them right away so I was planning on always putting at least some shredded carrots in there.

[Wolf]

I would not put the fruit and/ or veggies in with his seed. I would start the morning with a cooked mix of whole grains, chopped up veggies, and chopped up fruit. Or you can give him a mix of raw veggies and fruit and sprouts chopped up for him. I would feed his seeds to him at night and remove it after he goes to sleep. When introducing new veggies, I would sit down with some for him and some for me and eat mine while making a big scene about how good mine was and how good it tastes. Take your time and give him a really good show because you want to get him interested in the food. When you have his attention, make another scene while eating just a little more and then offer him a small piece of his to try. Repeat this as often as needed to get him to try a new food a few times.

[Ducatimom]

Ok. I'll try that with some fresh fruits and veggies in the morning. Thanks!

[sunconure86]

we bought a sun conure off someone i work with. He would tell me stories about her personality and things she ate before i took her home. I've had her now for about 4 months and she's nothing like he said. I have Trouble getting her to eat, she's SO picky. The only things she really eats well are grapes and apples and eggs. I've tried so many different things including raw and cooked vegetables which include peas, green beans carrots, corn, bananas, strawberries, raspberries,.mangoes, oranges. All she does is spit them out. She eats her.seeds but i feel like i should give her s larger variety of food, i just don't know how if she's refusing everything i give her...please help

[Wolf]

:sun: we bought a sun conure off someone i work with. He would tell me stories about her personality and things she ate before i took her home. I've had her now for about 4 months and she's nothing like he said. I have Trouble getting her to eat, she's SO picky. The only things she really eats well are grapes and apples and eggs. I've tried so many different things including raw and cooked vegetables which include peas, green beans carrots, corn, bananas, strawberries, raspberries,.mangoes, oranges. All she does is spit them out. She eats her.seeds but i feel like i should give her s larger variety of food, i just don't know how if she's refusing everything i give her...please help

This is probably the single most perplexing problems that most if not all parrot owners must learn to deal with effectively. The first part of this problem is whether they have ever tried the specific fruit or vegetable that we are trying to get them to consume, then we have to work out which way that they prefer to have a particular fruit or veggie and by this I mean cooked or raw, do they want big pieces that they can hold in their foot or do they want small pieces or do they prefer them shredded. Do they want them separate from each other or do they prefer a fruit or veggie medley? These are just a few to the things that the parrot owner must figure out. But here is the thing, You cannot give up or your parrot will suffer for it in the long term. You will have to learn to get creative in offering these foods to your parrot and you will need to try several times for the ones that are rejected. So in addition to eating them in front of them while making a big show of how good this food is you may need to try every way that you can think of to give it to them.

[Harpmaker]

This is probably the single most perplexing problems that most if not all parrot owners must learn to deal with effectively. The first part of this problem is whether they have ever tried the specific fruit or vegetable that we are trying to get them to consume, then we have to work out which way that they prefer to have a particular fruit or veggie and by this I mean cooked or raw, do they want big pieces that they can hold in their foot or do they want small pieces or do they prefer them shredded. Do they want them separate from each other or do they prefer a fruit or veggie medley? These are just a few to the things that the parrot owner must figure out. But here is the thing, You cannot give up or your parrot will suffer for it in the long term. You will have to learn to get creative in offering these foods to your parrot and you will need to try several times for the ones that are rejected. So in addition to eating them in front of them while making a big show of how good this food is you may need to try every way that you can think of to give it to them.

Keep trying. I gave my bird broccoli everyday for months and months before she ate it. She also prefers carrots grated, and yams cooked.

And their tastes change. In the Parrot Wizard's blog he has a video on getting his parrots to try Pineapple. He commented that Kili used to hate soft food, but she changed her mind.

[RenLynn]

Make sure you take veggies and fruit out of the cage after 3 hours. (Or it could be less)

[Pajarita]

I you offer both seeds and veggies/fruits/leafy greens, the parrot will almost always go for the seeds so what you need to do is like Wolf says, take the seeds out after the bird eats his/her dinner and put out fresh food in the morning.

A warning about apples, parrots should never be offered regular ones, they need to be organic. Apples have been the No 1 on the list of the USDA 'dirtiest' produce for years and years now. Each apple has more than 40 different pesticides on it and peeling it makes no difference because the skin is so thin that the chemicals go right through into the 'meat'.

You don't need to remove produce after three hours, it can stay there all day long. The only thing that will happen is that the greens will wilt and the fruit or veggie will become riper and softer. There is nothing bad about this, quite the contrary, the bacteria that ripens fruit is a beneficial one which provides digestive enzymes - and parrots eat over-ripen and even half-rotten fruit in the wild with real gusto (some, in Australia, eat fruit that is already rotten and get drunk on it -LOL). We might not like fruit that has gone 'over' but birds do.