Advice for a new bird owner

Hello everyone,

About 4 months ago I got my first bird (a Cockatiel) and love him to death. Still cant get him to trust me and such but I will save that for the Cockatiel section of the forums. I adopted a Sun Conure yesterday. He's about 5 years old. I just wanted to know if there is any advice you all could provide me. I would like to know any HUGE differences between caring for a Cockatiel and a Sun Conure.

(Will post pictures soon)

Sun Conures are very social critters, and deserve much attention. It helps to have the history from the previous owner on the diet he/she was on. Make sure to have lots of toys to keep them stimulated. Research research research.

I have a green cheek conure (he is smaller than sun), and compared to my cockatiel he is extremely active. Suns can be also very loud. My conure also eats more fresh fruits and veggies than cocketiel and he is much more social (he likes to sit on me, drink form my cup and eat from my plate, sit on my computer, try to rip apart my phone, etc, etc…). Get ready to spend a lot of time with your sun.

I now a decent amount of the diet. It was mostly seeds they would feed him because its what he liked. I know thats a big no-no as that will make them gain weight fast. So im trying different food with him. I gave him millet last night and he has acted like he has never had the stuff before. Also putting him in a new cage because the one came in is falling apart (metal bent and not even put together correctly).

veimar said:

I have a green cheek conure (he is smaller than sun), and compared to my cockatiel he is extremely active. Suns can be also very loud. My conure also eats more fresh fruits and veggies than cocketiel and he is much more social (he likes to sit on me, drink form my cup and eat from my plate, sit on my computer, try to rip apart my phone, etc, etc…). Get ready to spend a lot of time with your sun.

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That was the reason that the original owners gave him to a family member because they couldn't spend time with him. Then that family member had several other birds already and really couldn't give him enough attention. So I offered to take him because outside of work I don't really do anything else but be around my pets.

I'm going to get a new cage and more toys for him.

I would suggest trying to get him on pellet if he is willing . There has been a lot of conure diet chat here in the last few weeks you can read up on. GL enjoy.

I recommend touch training with a clicker, I tamed a untamed young cockatiel in less than a week this way

Trying to change to pellet diet can be very frustrating - for example my conure doesn't eat any pellets (except a little bit I soak in juice). He eats some fruit and veggies though and he loves juices. I ended up having Volkman seed for now. But he is crazy active cage free bird, so there is no danger for him to gain weight. If you keep your conure busy and active he should be fine on seed and fresh stuff.

For a Sun Conure what fruits and vegetables would you guys recommend?

Hello mrsef1,
You will just have to experiment with everything fruits/veges. Some are toxic, like avocado for one, is not recommended so research several different food lists.

My green cheek Larry, is quiet. They are all different and it can depend upon activity around the home as well as other factors. He is a real acrobat

Larry's Diet:
He likes veges: raw broccoli, kale, carrot, romaine lettuce, zucchini (most squash), nearly any chili peppers, green/red/yellow bell peppers, sugar snap peas are a favorite (I steam them lightly first).
Raw fruit: banana, apples (no core or seeds), nearly all melons, plums, grapes, pears, nearly all berries, oranges (especially mandarin oranges fresh or canned), coconut, raisins.
It is recommended to offer more veges than fruits in the diet.
Larry gets fruits several times a week and veges daily or as often as possible.

Try feeding any dark green veges & fruits that are healthy for you. At first Larry would not eat many fruits & veges but I kept offering them and now he goes for more of them. I am always offering them. By not giving up offering small amounts of fresh veges & fruits they may eventually be tried.
Offer more veges than fruits.

It is recommended to keep offering some high quality pellets such as for example Roudybush or Harrisons. They contain vitamins & minerals that you cannot possibly continuously provide on a daily basis. Pellets are available 24/7 for my bird. When I think he is not consuming them, which he does periodically, I reduce the other food choices for a day or two.

Offering an occasional Lafeber's Nutriberries is a great way to introduce pellets as they contain some pellet/fruits/veges/seeds and they are an excellent source of nutritioin.
They also make great rewards.

Larry's diet consists of: Pellets, Seeds of various types (be careful feeding too much sunflower and millet), Fruits 3 times a week, Vegetables daily. I occasionally cook him a cereal which contains fruits & pellet. I ALSO provide a good quality DRY mix, which contains practically all of the above in it plus more. I purchase if from a good bird store and keep it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
I watch daily to be sure he is not 'filling up' on his favorites and he is eating a good variety by eliminating some of the other choices periodically.
Like a child, he will hold out for the candy!
I know that he cannot possibly eat ALL of the above daily, but offering as wide a variety as possible and rotating his choices is most beneficial.

Looking forward to the pics

Sorry mrsef1, I was reading another thread and confused it with yours. (senior moment hehe). I tried to delete my above post but was unable. Anyway, for what it's worth, that is my green cheek's diet