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Sun Conure refuses to eat fresh fruit and veggies

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Sun Conure refuses to eat fresh fruit and veggies

Postby madeofvoid » Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:14 am

I've had trouble trying to get my conure to eat fruit or veggies for awhile now. I really want to broaden his diet so he doesnt just eat his normal seed food all day but whenever id try to give him something fresh, he shakes his head and refuses to try(he's very very picky). The only veggie that has ever worked was baby spinach, but after the times i tried to give him some more, he wouldn't touch it. Is there any ways I could get him to eat healthier? and what are some fruits and veggies sun conures typically enjoy?
I just want my baby to be healthy, and it confuses me how other parrots seem to easily eat fruits and vegetables.
M A N G O :sun:
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madeofvoid
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Re: Sun Conure refuses to eat fresh fruit and veggies

Postby Pajarita » Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:26 pm

Well, I tell you, as long as you free-feed protein, he will get full on it and reject anything healthier [nature hard-wired them for this because herbivores don't find abundant sources of high protein in the wild]. Sun conures are mainly fruit eaters in the wild [all conures are] and require a diet with low protein so free-feeding pellets, seeds, nuts, nutriberries, avicakes or anything else that is high in protein is not good for them. It not only makes them hormonal [read: aggressive], it also destroys their liver and kidneys in time.

All my parrots eat gloop and raw produce for breakfast and a seed or a nut/seed mix for dinner [it depends on the species] but it's always a small and measured portion [for a sun conure it would be a measuring tablespoon of a cockatiel mix and a nut during the summer and a budgie mix with half a nut during the winter]. They are not big on veggies although they do LOVE corn on the cob, carrots, sweet potatoes and sweet squashes] but they eat the ones in the gloop and love their fruit -leafy greens not so much. The trick is to feed them low protein all day long, to give them the raw produce early in the morning and before the gloop [because this is when they are hungriest and more willing to try new things] and to eat with them [not your food but his]. It takes a while but if you do it every single day and stick to it, he will start to eat it [especially if you eat it in front of him and pretend not to want to give him any :lol: ]. Mine get their cages uncovered and the blinds open at 6:15 am this time of the year. They get their raw produce at around 7 to 7:30 and their gloop at 8 to 8:30 [it depends on the brightness of the day] which is when the overhead full spectrum lights are turned on. In the afternoon, at around 3 pm, the lights [and the radio I leave on for them] are turned off and at around 4 to 4:15 pm they get their dinner and cages are covered at around 6 pm.
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