Is my conure ill? worried HELP

I just went to get my first ever conure and I have put it in it's cage. It seems very fatigued and it's feathers are puffing and eyes keep closing. It seemed fine at the persons house and I am worried that I've got an ill bird. What can I do??

Congrats on your new baby.

To rule out any disease/illness, I always recommend having a new bird thoroughly checked by an avian vet.

If you JUST brought her home, she may be a bit stressed and unsure of her new home/environment. Stressed birds do tend to ruffle up their feathers.

Good luck with her.

JerseyWendy said:

Congrats on your new baby.

To rule out any disease/illness, I always recommend having a new bird thoroughly checked by an avian vet.

If you JUST brought her home, she may be a bit stressed and unsure of her new home/environment. Stressed birds do tend to ruffle up their feathers.

Good luck with her.

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Hi, yes I just contacted the gentleman and he said all birds were checked my an avian specialist and as it's always been with other birds and now in a rather large cage by itself (african grey sized cage) it must feel threatened or scared.

He could just be tired from the trip home/is adjusting to his new home (assuming you brought him home in the last 24 hours or so) OR he may be ill. You did not specify whether he is a baby or a older bird who is being rehomed, but it is not uncommon for rehomed birds to come home with some illness. The only way to know for sure is to take him to an avian vet. They can look him over and run any necessary tests/provide treatments. With birds, possible illness is nothing to just "wait and see" on. They can die within a day of a common cold. I would make an appointment with the vet ASAP just to be safe rather than sorry.

Our BFA (who was an older rehome bird) came home with a upper respiratory infection. He needed 2 courses of antibiotics to clear the infection. Had we NOT taken him to the vet as soon as we got him, he may have ended up needing more expensive treatment than just some antibiotics or even worse, not be with us anymore. He's been perfectly healthy since, but it is VERY important to take any new bird to a vet as soon as possible after getting them. Best to get started off on a healthy path then end up with serious issues down the line.

Kiwibird said:

He could just be tired from the trip home/is adjusting to his new home (assuming you brought him home in the last 24 hours or so) OR he may be ill. You did not specify whether he is a baby or a older bird who is being rehomed, but it is not uncommon for rehomed birds to come home with some illness. The only way to know for sure is to take him to an avian vet. They can look him over and run any necessary tests/provide treatments. With birds, possible illness is nothing to just "wait and see" on. They can die within a day of a common cold. I would make an appointment with the vet ASAP just to be safe rather than sorry.

Our BFA (who was an older rehome bird) came home with a upper respiratory infection. He needed 2 courses of antibiotics to clear the infection. Had we NOT taken him to the vet as soon as we got him, he may have ended up needing more expensive treatment than just some antibiotics or even worse, not be with us anymore. He's been perfectly healthy since, but it is VERY important to take any new bird to a vet as soon as possible after getting them. Best to get started off on a healthy path then end up with serious issues down the line.

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Yes definitely. I literally just brought him home less than an hour ago. However I'll make an appointment with the vet to get him checked up

Let us know how he is doing and a little more about him as you get to know each other. Welcome to you and your little conure.

Progress has been going great with this little guy, he's been chilling with me for over an hour now pretty comfortably on top of my head!

His feathers still puff up though so i'll be taking him to the vet soon.

Glad to hear he will be going to the vet. It's probably just stress and your needlessly worrying (don't we all at some point), but it's ALWAYS better to be safe than sorry. I've been seeing too many posts in the "bereavement" section lately

Is this a baby or an older bird BTW?

Congrats on your new baby! I'm very glad he's going to the vet. Like everyone else has said, it's better to be safe than sorry. 3 weeks ago I had to drop $200 on a fecal exam for Avery because I was scared she had a yeast infection. Thankfully the results came back clean! Birds kind of breed paranoia, and because of that they can be very expensive creatures But I'd rather drop money than lose my little baby

Hope the results come back clean and all is well with your little one! I look forward to future pictures and stories

Congratulations on your new family member! What kind of conure is he? I hope everything comes back great at the vet.
I would love to see pictures of him
Have you thought up a name yet?

I can 100% agree with you dino, he's only been with us for a day now and everyone adores him!

He's a baby yellow sided conure just 11 weeks old, just maneauvers around my head and shoulders nibbling on my chain I'm thinking about calling him Neo

However a last question, I just went and got some more toys and perches for him along with some pellets but they seem really hard for him to chew so he just gives up and drops them. The breeder had him on seed I believe as that's what he gave me but I'm not sure if thats best for him. (sunflower etc.)

Oh my word! What a cutie! And Neo sounds like a great name, hahaha! Just put some sun glasses on him and fashion him a long leather jacket, too !

Believe me when I say it's not hard for them to chew... these little birdies can easily go through pine wood if they're so inclined. It's probably more of a taste preference, where he's tonguing them and decides he doesn't like the taste and then drops it. If he was on seed, then yes, I do recommend switching him. Seed can be really good in proper dietary amounts and are best left for training or foraging rewards. But generally, a bird who has previously been on seed will be far less inclined to go to pellet because seeds are fatty and delicious, but unfortunately are also causes of liver disease and obesity in sedentary birds.

When I got Avery, she was also a seed bird. But she's not picky either, thank goodness. What I did is I started with a really sweet pellet, the Zupreem fruit pellets. I can't say I recommend them as a permanent pellet staple because the dyes aren't good for birds, and they're pretty high in sugar from what I recall. But, to switch Avery over I reduced the amount of seed and increased the amount of pellet over a period of time. After awhile, when I noticed she was eating both pellet and seed, I removed the seed. Then I purchased a healthier pellet (I use RoudyBush and Harrison's) that I followed the same procedure with. I also did the same thing when I introduced her to Harrison's. She currently eats a mixture of Harrison's and RoudyBush simply because I bought a bag of Harrison's when there was no Roudy and wanted to see how she would take it. She doesn't really like it, but will eat it. So I'm basically feeding it to her to get rid of it

It's also best to introduce new foods when your bird is at their hungriest, so in the morning or right before supper (if you don't let them free-feed, that is). I personally prefer to manage Avery's diet because she's VERY food motivated and won't listen to me when she's all fat , plus she'll over-feed herself.

Here's a thread on our forums to help you further with this:
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...7-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html

I highly recommend giving it a good read. It helped me a lot when I first purchased Avery. Just be patient during the process... cold cutting a bird from their favorite food isn't a good idea. Birds will potentially starve themselves if they aren't receiving the food they like.

Best of luck, and thanks for the cute picture!

Hahaha sounds like a plan!

That beak of his packed quite a punch when he was 'nibbling' on my fingers, far stronger than I expected haha so I do believe you. I have done just that earlier by mixing some pellet with his dried fruit/seed mix.

I threw the packaging out unfortunately but they're green and yellow and smell like fruity bubblegum. Heck they smell delicious! After he's gone through them I see Harrison's being recommended quite a lot so will probably buy him those.

I'm probably asking a lot of questions but right now I've put him into an African grey sized cage but I have a feeling the bar spacing is a bit wide (1 inch). Should I get him another cage?

Will look into the article, thanks for it!

1" I would say is far too large for a green cheek conure, or any conure really. I would definitely recommend any cage with 3/4" spacing or smaller

I would be real careful of switching his food right now since he is newly weaned!!!! You can risk him not eating and regress right now. You can put pellets within as long as he is eating, if he is not, I would suggest let him have his seeds for the time being.

I thought so, I'll buy him a new cage asap, probably tomorrow.

I just woke up and tried hand feeding him some pellets and he's not spitting them out any more so I'll try introducing it and slowly mix it with his seed over the next month orso.