Sun Conure acting odd...

Last night, my six month old sun conure started acting very strange. Pyros is a six month old, pure bread sun conure. He's on a strict diet of vegetable and fruit protein cocketiel pellets that he's been eating since he was weaned. We first 'got' him when he was four weeks old and I bonded with him at the breeders until he was five months. He's been home and happy for a whole month now, but last night he started showing behavior I had never seen.

He started fluffing out his feathers a lot (no sitting at the bottom of his cage, though), and sitting in his bed a lot more than usual. He's also been slowly bobbing his head and doing short, quick flicks of his wings.

His wings were clipped a month ago when we brought him home for the first time. He has no discharge coming from his nose nor his eyes. He's in the middle of his first molt. We took him to a vet, the only one with an avian specialist in my state. They did a physical examination and found nothing wrong. They did a blood test and found nothing wrong.

They kept him in an incubator over night to monitor his condition. In the morning, they took another blood test and again found nothing wrong. They said he was bright and active with normal stool and has been eating and drinking all on his own. I just got him home and even now he's eating, drinking and playing with his toys...

But he's being very touchy around his wings and is still flicking them a lot, bobbing his head and staying fluffed up. Is this odd behavior normal for a growing baby sun conure? If it's not illness, is it caused by his molt?

Could be some new wing feathers are coming in and hurt just let hem bathe in warm water and keep watch on him.

mne doees a quick wing flick when hes excited and they will fluff up eventually ( to keep warm clean and etc.) bobbing is a sign to you that they want attention and sometimes they just do it .especilly in younger birds. sounds normall to me. birds are also pickey about their wings and dont really like them touched . my bird fluffs up here and there through out the day . all normal nothing to worry about . even when they did tests monitored him and examed him he sounds healthy and its all good!

You might try feeding him some comfort foods...

Mashed sweet potatoes are a good comfort food, and you can always mix in steamed carrots, bananas or even a little nut butter (peanut, almond, etc).

You could also go with baby food, preferably organic baby food with little to no salt and sugar... or if you have any, some hand feeding formula for parrots.


Remaining fluffed up is not a good sign, but it may help to keep him extra warm during this time and to monitor him.

Just curious how the little guy is doing now ?

I don't think it's too much to worry about. Birds fluffy up to keep warm so you might want to introduce a happy hut so he can stay warm.
I saw in a past thread recently that wing flicking can be baby behaviour, or he's just testing them out. If they're clipped they will still use their wings in order to build up the muscles.
As long as the vet says he's ok... Keep an eye on him.

What you describe seems normal. The little flick of the wings is kinda like a blush with my sun. I call her my invoulntary wing twitcher when she does it and it just makes her blush, get puffy cheeks and do that wing flick agian Parrots generally do not like to be touched on the wings, and when they are molting you will notice they may be irritable or less patient with humans when we cross the line.

I believe my sun conure is the crustiest parrot around. She is constantly molting. Help yours out by doing some preening for them on the head and back of the neck. Do your own research on how its done. You kinda gotta do it if your parrot does not have an avian fellow to preen with.

take a look at this article too, it helped me understand my conure better.
RP - Mating

I have a question. Why a strict diet? What is that all about? Feed them everything that is healthy for them. Friuts, veggies, grains, all kinds of stuff! I feed mine multigrain waffles, cheerios (Just the Multigrain and the friuty ones), whole grain bread, pastas. They love cooked pasta, and you can grab all kinds of diff noodles for em. change it up, and give yours a bunch of different stuff and they will benefit. Thats all I can write now, if you have any questions be sure to ask

Donny