Conure feeding plan

[Chihuahua]

I know that a conure needs a good pellet diet, fruits and veggies, some seeds (?) and protein like eggs or tuna (?). If anyone could give me a good feeding plan that would be awesome. I've found some info about what to feed or what not to feed, and have read that they need to have pellet food available all day. How much protein, seeds, and fruit would be a good idea to feed? Thank you.

[liz]

Hi
I don't know much about conures so I can't help with specifics. All I have are Amazons and Cockatiels. I was feeding the same way except for using seed instead of pellets. I went a good 20 years this way.
When I started posting into Rambo & Myrtle about my kids, Pajarita and Wolf realized that I was feeding them wrong.

Gloop is a mixture of softened grains and whatever veggie you can cut small enough to add in.
The cheapest place I found to get organic grain is Big Lots or a health foods store.

Chop is a mixture of chopped fresh or frozen veggies cut to the size the bird needs. I use the same veggies for both amazon and cockatiel but chop them different. Amazons like to pick up their food to eat it. Cockatiels want little bites that they can pick up with their beaks. Day to day I change the veggie combination to give them a variety.

The people in the know in this forum don't like using pellets. A commercial see mix has too much protein, which to my amazement was bad for them. Pajarita said to use budgie seed. The budgie seed is what all commercial mixtures start with then they add sunflower seeds and nuts which are too high in protein. I switched to budgie mix and now only use sunflower seed and nuts such as almonds, peanuts and walnuts as a treat.

I give them a plate of softened grain to start while I chop. Then I give them the veggies. At dusk I give them budgie seed so that the picky eaters won't go to bed hungry. Most of them fill up on the grain and veggies and now don't bother with the seed.

The new diet made a big change. My 20+ Amazon, Rambo, used to be a pedestrian. He had his first good molt this year and grew flight feathers. He knows that when he used to jump off the top of his cage and flap that he would do a controlled crash. Now he flies about a foot off the floor and sometimes bounces himself up with a foot to stay airborne.

Okay, that is all I got. Wolf will probably be the next to answer you. Pajarita won't come on until she has all of hers fed.

Wow, this is a long posting for me.

P.S. The new light has made a big difference too.

[Wolf]

I would use either soaked or cooked( al dente) whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables for all day eating.
Seeds and pellets, which are made from seeds, are too high in protein and fat for free feeding ( all day) and will in time lead to serious medical issues such as liver disease, kidney disease and heart disease. They are however fine to feed as their evening meal as birds do require some fat and protein in their diet, however you should limit these to about 30% of their total daily diet. I prefer using seeds over pellets. Foods such as eggs or meats should be fed either very sparingly or not at all until the beginning of breeding season as this is normally the only time that they would actively seek animal proteins out in the wild.
As for a feeding schedule and dietary plan, I can share with you what I feed my birds. My birds get up as the sun is coming up and I offer them a different fresh raw vegetable ( 2 different ones) a fresh fruit and a fresh raw leafy green. About an hour later I feed them a cooked mixture of Whole grains (40%), cooked mixed vegetables (40%) and cooked white beans and lentils ( 20%). I give enough of these food to last until dinner time at which time I give them a quality seed mix and remove them when the birds go to bed for the night.
From here all I can do is to recommend that you continue to research out the dietary requirements of your individual species of parrot, and make your own choices. There is a lot of conflicting information available for you to sort out, I have been researching the diets of my birds for three years and am still going strong, their is a lot to learn and there are no qualified experts in this field of parrot husbandry, or any other field for that matter. Good luck.

[Pajarita]

No animal protein that has cholesterol or anything else that is not good for birds (and that means no tuna because of the mercury and PCB contamination - besides, why in the world would you feed a plant material eating bird fish?). Conures eat lots of fruits and buds with some seeds for extra protein so gloop and raw produce for breakfast and a small quantity of a good quality seed mix is best for them. During breeding season (which means you have to keep it at a strict solar schedule), you can supplement a bit of insect protein but that is about the ONLY animal protein a herbivorous bird should eat.

[Chihuahua]

yeah the protein thing seemed weird to me too... as for pellets, i was told and have read in several places that harrisons or zupreem are good and to use a corn based pellet? i have been researching intensely.. definitely not planning on giving anything seed based, but ive read vet articles and the like and they all recommended a pellet.

[Wolf]

The main reason that vets recommend pellets is not because they think that pellets are a good thing, but because they know that most of the people who have birds will not put in the time nor effort to ensure that the birds receives an adequately nutritious diet otherwise. Many of them simply do not have the time. Pellets are seed based, they are just ground up and dried out. If I were to recommend a pellet, which I am not, it would be TOPS.

[Chihuahua]

The pellet that I am using has NO seeds in it. Not sure what you have been looking at. Every other forum and facebook group I have seen has recommended non seed based pelleted diets.

[Wolf]

Could you tell me what the pellet is so I can check it out?

[Chihuahua]

currently this but i am going to mix it woth tbe naturals version which has more veggies in it

http://m.petco.com/product/12567/ZuPree ... SiteSearch

[Wolf]

Well the good news is that Zupreem has indeed changed the formulation of its parrot foods, I am still not impressed with the ingredients as soy and sugar are still two of the main ingredients and then it is full of artificial vitamins none of which are really any good for your bird. There are much better quality pellets available for your bird.
I do not totally exclude seeds from the diets of my birds as they naturally consume seeds in the wild, so seeds are not bad for the bird it is just the way that we humans have been feeding them that causes the problems. I also freely admit that I am not a fan of pellets and do not use them for my birds. I can provide much better nutrition using natural foods than what I can find with any pelleted feed. I also do not recommend the use of pellets for birds, but I know that not everyone is going to agree with me or have the time to feed the way that I do. So all I will say about pellets is that keep doing your research because there are much better pellets available to feed if you are going to use pellets.
Thank you for the information of the pellets that you are using.