To many sunflower seeds?

[Tro]

I use sunflower seeds when I train my GCC. I sometimes use millet and I've tried using cut fruit as well but he takes forever to eat it so I'll be standing there for a while waiting for him to finish before we can continue his traing session.
When I use the sunflower seeds I break them in half and he is able to eat them in a much shorter time and we can get along much faster. I know that sunflower seeds are not healthy if they eat to many so I'm wondering if anybody knows how much is to much.
I have daily training sessions (more or less) with my green cheek, they last between 15-30 mins depending on his mood. In that amount of time he will get 10-15 sunflower seeds. Also we (my bird and I) often go to my moms house and she knows he likes sunflower seeds so she will always give him a few when we visit her. Is this to much, should I use a different treat when training?

[GreenWing]

I wouldn't say sunflower seeds are "unhealthy", per se, just that they're like crack to birds. If you feed them too much, the bird might not want to eat anything else.

Try giving dried peas, dried banana chips, or bits of fresh fruit (like apple) as a treat instead.

[marie83]

I think that is pretty heavy on sunflowers tbh baring in mind how small gccs are, thats a large portion of what they would eat in a day. I use a mix of broken up sunflower seeds, millet, chopped up apple or other fruit that can be chopped up finely without turning to mush(into miniscule pieces cuz yea they take forever to eat them otherwise).
Dont forget none food treats can be given as a reward too, most green cheeks respond very well to lots of verbal praise, excitement, head scratches and general attention.

That said my 'tiel sometimes gets about the same amount of sunnies as what you said because literally nothing else motivates her. For that reason I try to keep training short, spread it throughout the day and it is literally the only time she ever gets them. I do limit them though, that is the very very top end she ever gets. I try to limit her to about 14 sunflower halves per day if I can, I would prefer her to have less than that but at the same time I need to tame her down more.

[Tro]

Thanks for the replies! I will switch him over to something a bit more healthy for him as a reward and only give a few sunflower seed halves during his training session I appreciate the help! I had a feeling I was being to generous with the sunflower seeds.

[charlieandkiwi]

That's good that you're trying new stuff with him.

On the other hand, how much total sunflower is he getting per day via training? My training sessions are pretty short and I usually use millet, but I think that if I used sunflower it still wouldn't come out to be that much total portion of their diet.

Is he still eating other foods just fine? How much does the sunflower seem to effect him. I'm cautious about saying "because this MIGHT happen, stop something that's been working". Try to figure out if it really is affecting him and if it isn't and he's the most motivated by sunflower seeds, keep doing what works.

On the flip side, using praise really does work very well with GCC. Mine likes it more than any food and that's convenient because I don't always have a piece of millet in my pocket when he does something I want to reinforce.

[Pricey_boy]

when in training use something different every time my LB corella is a big boy and theyre not supposed to have more than 2 sunflower seeds a day.
when i first got him i would use heaps of sunflower seeds for training and now hes not interested in them at all or any other treats he only performs for scratches now which is keeping him much healthier but he still does get them sometimes.
birds also love the grass seeds and will perform for them and im sure would be alot healthier

[charlieandkiwi]

when in training use something different every time my LB corella is a big boy and theyre not supposed to have more than 2 sunflower seeds a day.
when i first got him i would use heaps of sunflower seeds for training and now hes not interested in them at all or any other treats he only performs for scratches now which is keeping him much healthier but he still does get them sometimes.
birds also love the grass seeds and will perform for them and im sure would be alot healthier

I think it's really funny how much I've heard "well I'm not sure if snuggles and praise are really considered motivation by a parrot". Those people have apparently never met half the parrots on this board My Kiwi is the same way. He's only slightly motivated by the treat. If he doesn't get a shoulder snuggle in between while he eats the treat, he's definitely not as motivated. I've also taught him several "tricks" just by acting excited when he does them. He now flips over my finger and hangs upside down just for the praise.