Getting Sun Conure off cheap bird seed

[mls475]

The pet store I got my Ogi from got him hooked on that cheap parakeet seed..he is 3 1/2 months old and I really want to take him off of it since i know that it's not healthy. What is best way to wean him off of this stuff without messing up his eating or his stomach? Thanks

[Fidget]

When I acquired my birds one was on cheap bird seed, 3 were on some sort of pellet, and 1 was fed peanuts and wheat bread. I joined this forum mostly due to the knowledge Wolf and Pajarita seem to have. I used their "gloop" "recipe" (you can search for "gloop", or maybe one of them will pop in and describe what they do. They each do it slightly differently, and mine is slightly different than theirs.

To transition them, I made a whole grain, pasta, legume, bean, lentil heavy batch and started feeding it to them in the mornings along with fresh fruit and veggie options. I sprinkled a little seed and mixed it in and added a few seeds right on top. They all did pretty ok with this and I started adding in thawed frozen mixed veggies and eventually cut out the seeds. This fresh/cooked dish is left in the cage all day until dinner time. (no free feeding seeds or pellets)

In the evening I feed them seed and remove the dish after they go to sleep. This way, they're hungry when they wake up and happily eat the "good" food.

It took a couple of days for the 3 conures to be excited about gloop and produce time. It took my rosella about a week, and my quaker about 2 weeks (she's still deciding if she wants to try new things; she was the one fed wheat bread and peanuts in her former home). They all make so so so much noise when they see me preparing their dishes in the am. It's adorable.

[Fidget]

Here is a link to a post with a similar issue to yours. And a nice reply about what kind of diet is better for you bird friend. Hope it helps!

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13102&p=90170&hilit=overgrown+beak#p90170

[Pajarita]

And soon we will be posting a thread with pictures of the different stages of gloop. I started it and got into a snag with my new camera downloading the pictures into the PC but my daughter took the day off today, came over and fix it so very soon we will have a step by step recipe with pictures.

[mls475]

Thanks for the response and i will look "gloop" up..I am new to parrots..have had parakeets but i feel like my conure is on a whole different level and have been reading as much as possible, but so many different opinions/theories etc..thanks.