sun conure diet queries.

[Taleah1989]

i have a baby sunconure Ive had for a few weeks. Im aware that his diet should only have a small percentage of seed and fuit & vege, but all he want is his seed! hes taken to the vitapet vitamin pellets n eats them like its going out of fashion! but hes the same with the seed, especially the sunflower seeds! i never knew birds ate so much! Everything the bird raisers told me to give him he HATES!, he even wipes his beak n screeches at me as if to say how dare you give me that crap. Hes very picky with his fruit, loves grapes but 2 many gives him runny poo so i try alternate corn cherries peas and a little watermelon are all he likes. Am i harming him letting him eat so much seed? I dnt want to starve him but im worried everything says not too much seed in their diet????
please help

[GlassOnion]

Well, it's great that you're trying to give him a proper diet! Not many people care, and diet is extremely important to avian health.

First off... his diet should be about 30-50% in pellets. Totally Organics, Harrisons, Roudybush, Goldenfeast are the best pellets on the market. However, many birds like Zupreem because of the high corn/sugar content as well as the colorful artificial dyes. You can try feeding Zupreem Natural first, and slowly transition him over to Harrion's or Totally Organics pellets (TOPS).

Kaytee is considered unhealthy and Hagen Tropican has a weird perfume-like smell that's VERY strong. So stay away from those two. Remember, the lower quality pellets are NOT cheaper than the healthiest brands out there. www.mysafebirdstore.com has a LOT of pellet brands, you can look around for price comparison/ingredients lists.

You can try making him bird bread. Look up recipes on google. Or cook him rice/barley/quinoa with vegetables. If you look on the My Safe Bird Store, there are cook mixes as well as a product called "Bountiful Harvest" that is loved by many parrots.

You should sprout your bird seed by soaking the seeds overnight and then rinsing them several times a day, for the next couple days until you see little tails sprouting. Sprouted seeds are loved by seed junkies.

I'd suggest offering different vegetables in different textures. Cut up in little pieces as well as big chunks hanging from the cage.

[Taleah1989]

oh thank you SOOOOO much! i thought i might get in trouble for letting him eat to much seed . Ill get onto that website now and have a look around ive only used what i was given by the rearer pellet wise ( all still a bit daunting to me brands etc) and thanx for the idea of hanging it in the cage! he will LOVE that over the boring bowl or me handing it 2 him.
Thank you so much again....my mother will appreciate her phone not ringing contantly with me stressing

[GlassOnion]

Good luck and I look forward to updates!

[gabbagabbawill]

My Sun loves Zupreem pellets... That's his main diet right now... I've tried to convert him to Harrison's without much luck, but hopefully will be able to eventually.

I feed him a mixed seed diet as maybe 5% added to his pellets... this seed contains groats, pumpkin seeds, pepper seeds, and many other types of seeds other than sunflower and millet. Along with this, I feed him a mixture of dried fruits and veggies. I have not been able to get him to eat many raw veggies or fruits. When I try he just won't take them...

His ABSOLUTE FAVORITE treat is dried papaya. I believe papaya is part of their natural diet, since it is native to their habitat and so it's probably a really good treat. It's a fruit with an alkaline base, so it won't upset their tummies like acidic fruits and has relatively low sugar. It's also very high in Vitamin A, which I have read is important to the diet of norther Brazilian conures, and many "parrot foods" are deficient in.

[Taleah1989]

thank you so much for your advise! i never gave papaya a thort, i can just see him now with it all ova his beak being the little piggy he is! too cute! thanks again!

[LemonLover]

All of my birds absolutly LOVE mangos! I eat them to if I can get some for me and my birds. Dimas, is the one I hear muching on apples, and mangos even after the lights are turned out. The little cockatiels. Hmmmm...Not so much. But they will at apples from my hands.

[gabbagabbawill]

My Sun likes dried mangos and fruits, but he has an aversion to any foods that are cold and wet... so no fresh fruit for some reason. The way I see it, as long as there is no added sugar, dried (dehydrated) fruit should be perfectly good for them in small amounts. They have the same nutrition as fresh fruit, without the water... If you think about it, the water from fruit gives birds polyuria, while not necessarily bad, it makes it difficult to diagnose other problems.

So, a short list of dried fruits/veggies that my sun conure seems to like: mango, papaya, strawberry, kiwi, raisins, dates, carrots, and figs. These are given in about a 5%-10% ratio along with mixed seed and nuts as mentioned previously. The rest (90%) is Zupreem pellets.

Jello likes to take his pellets to his water dish and dunk them in water while he eats. He does this even though the water and food dishes are on separate sides of the cage... it's probably a good workout for him... He'll end up with purple colored water that I change out at least twice a day.

[Taleah1989]

ahhhhh im so ova it! Ive tried apples, watermelon, apricot, nectarines, broccoli cooked and raw) carrot (cooked and raw) potato, sweet potato, peas, corn practically everything i eat! and he just makes this unimpressed sqwark then runs away and wipes his beak! but too many grapes give him runny poos and that cant b a good thing! For a couple of days i had an amazing little baby now i have a little terror again that constantly biting and drawing blood and screaming at me and i dont understand it! Im even at the point where i keep giving him sunflower seeds just to keep him happy n make him b quiet :'(. I wasnt going to try mango as most "sloppy" kinds of things he seems to dislike but ill try anything! Im desperate!

[GlassOnion]

You can't give up. A week or two of showing him fresh foods is not going to get him to eat healthy.

You need to try everyday, for months and months on end if it takes that long. NEVER give up.

You only need to offer 1/4 cup of veggies/fruits a day. Just offer it daily and pretend that he eats it everyday.