Not eating much

[Midnight]

Hello, my ten month old conure is not eating much food. She will eat her favorites such as sunflower seeds and peanuts but isn't eating her pellets much at all. Aside from that she is acting normal and moves around in her cage like always. She did lose two wing feathers in the past three days so I'm not sure if that has to do with anything? She might be starting a molt though.

Thanks

[liz]

What she is eating is the high fat foods. They are also high in calories and can damage her liver.
A steak is more filling than an apple but the apple is much better for you.
Eat fruit and veg in front of her and share. They learn from each other in a flock but you are the only flock she has.
I give fruit, veg, gloop or softened and rinsed grain to my birds in the morning. They eat and then pick at it the rest of the day. I give them seed and an almond in the evening to make sure they have had enough before night time. Most of the time they are so full that they eat very little seed.

[seagoatdeb]

Conures shoudl be feed lots of fruits and veggies and some grains and keep the amount of high fat foods down. They will always eat their favorites just like kids will pick sugary food as their favorite, but it is not good for them.

[Wolf]

None of the thing said above are wrong and in fact are right, but we could be much more effective in helping both you and your bird with this issue if you would tell us what foods you give to your bird and when you give them what foods. You are in effect our eyes and ears into the life of your bird and we have no other source of information.

I can tell you that sharing mealtimes and foods with your bird is the best way to get them to eat a more varied diet and while this is 100% true, I would be remiss if I did not tell you that when you share the food is just as important as what the food is and that how you share the food with them can make a big difference in how quickly they will begin to eat the food. Parrots eat the majority of their daily food intake in the mornings and again just before they go to roost at night and for the purpose of getting them to eat a good diet the best time to share foods with then is in the mornings before they have any other foods and then again in the late afternoon or evening about an hour before they receive their dinner.

In the wild, when the parent birds teach the young bird where to find a food as well as what foods to eat, they bring the food to the young bird and show it to the bird first thing and then they eat the food in front of the young bird, but they do not give it to the young bird until the young one is willing to try and take it away from the parent bird. So I think that this is an important step in getting them to eat a more varied diet. When I share a new food with my birds I used to just give it to them and watch them ignore it or just throw it away all of the time. Since I learned how the parent birds do it and changed how I was sharing the new food so that the bird must try to steal the piece of food from me I have had much better luck at getting them to try new foods.

I do hope that this will help you and your bird. We can be of greater help if you share with us your feeding schedule and what foods that you currently feed the bird.

[Midnight]

None of the thing said above are wrong and in fact are right, but we could be much more effective in helping both you and your bird with this issue if you would tell us what foods you give to your bird and when you give them what foods. You are in effect our eyes and ears into the life of your bird and we have no other source of information.

I can tell you that sharing mealtimes and foods with your bird is the best way to get them to eat a more varied diet and while this is 100% true, I would be remiss if I did not tell you that when you share the food is just as important as what the food is and that how you share the food with them can make a big difference in how quickly they will begin to eat the food. Parrots eat the majority of their daily food intake in the mornings and again just before they go to roost at night and for the purpose of getting them to eat a good diet the best time to share foods with then is in the mornings before they have any other foods and then again in the late afternoon or evening about an hour before they receive their dinner.

In the wild, when the parent birds teach the young bird where to find a food as well as what foods to eat, they bring the food to the young bird and show it to the bird first thing and then they eat the food in front of the young bird, but they do not give it to the young bird until the young one is willing to try and take it away from the parent bird. So I think that this is an important step in getting them to eat a more varied diet. When I share a new food with my birds I used to just give it to them and watch them ignore it or just throw it away all of the time. Since I learned how the parent birds do it and changed how I was sharing the new food so that the bird must try to steal the piece of food from me I have had much better luck at getting them to try new foods.

I do hope that this will help you and your bird. We can be of greater help if you share with us your feeding schedule and what foods that you currently feed the bird.

Thanks for your response I think I mislead a lot of you by not explaining properly but I do already feed her fruits and veggies in the morning and have little to no problem in getting her to try new foods. I feed her zupreem pellets and a little bit of seed each day along with some corn, carrot, snap peas, and apple in the morning. In the past few days I've found that she is not eating as much pellets as she usually does. Normally I change her pellets each day but now when I look the next day, there is still quite a bit left. She use to be a great eater so I'm not sure what happened.

[seagoatdeb]

Oh okay, then I wouldn't even worry about it if eveything else is eaten well, the parrot may not feel like the pellets. It is quite common for them to do this sort of thing.

[Pajarita]

I would not worry about it. I don't know of a single bird that would choose to eat pellets when they have seed or nuts available - it would be like somebody preferring to eat astronaut food (have you ever tried it? They sell it in Cape Canaveral and some museums) instead of a real meal!

[seagoatdeb]

I would not worry about it. I don't know of a single bird that would choose to eat pellets when they have seed or nuts available - it would be like somebody preferring to eat astronaut food (have you ever tried it? They sell it in Cape Canaveral and some museums) instead of a real meal!

Lol you are really funny sometimes. They do love real meals. I do give Gaugan the odd seed ball, she will eat them and they have vitamins, i just want to make sure she is lacking none since she is picky and older too......Sunny is such a good eater I would never want to supplement him, he eats everything but if he doesnt get a seed ball when Gaugan does he dances, chirps pittifully and nothing else will do, he must have a seed ball too. But they eat lots of fresh food and raw foods so they are healthy, their feather are so shiny, and energy is high, and moods are even, although for Gaugan she is and has always been moody, so even for her is not biting people or chasing Sunny off things very often....lol.. They both prefer nuts to any other food there is, so i am always searching out human grade raw nuts of differrent varieties. Walnuts are clearly their favorite nut. Gaugan eats only a few fruits but will eat more veggies, and when sunny is eating some banana, she looks at him like he is wierd, she absolutely hates bananas.

[Wolf]

Which would you choose to eat a dehydrated ground up steak dinner or a fresh stew?

[Pajarita]

Lol you are really funny sometimes.

That's what my grandkids think, too ("Nana, you are sooooo funny!")... except for my 6 year old Babo who has just learned the word 'hilarious' and seems to love the word 'actually' because he uses it in every other sentence as in "Nana, you are sooo funny... Actually, you are hilarious" I LOVE kids!