Sun Conure - Diets (Is this diet bad)

Hey everyone!

First day here and already have a question. I have a 8 month old Sun Conure (2nd Aug 2016 - DOB), his name is Sid (From ice age) and he is amazing.

Now moving onto my question he never liked pellets nor seeds (only canary seeds and those ear of wheat idk what they called long golden thing with full of seeds - which i feed occasionally not often) I got him from a private breeder, when he was about 5 months and i was still feeding him porridge and tried moving onto pellets but he hates them and starved himself. So i tried fruits, i started with Grapes and Apples and he likes them allot and i tried to mix some pellets inside his food but he didnt eat much (i fed porridge still for 2x a day morning and evening). So now i make a fresh bowl of fruits and veggies which contain the following:

Apples,
Grapes,
Broccoli,
Coli flower,
peas,
Beans,
carrots,
Zucchini,
Salad,
and finally corn. (Occasionally i will add blueberries, raspberries, cranberries and strawberries. which he also likes)

All these fruits and veggies i keep frozen and every morning i add hot water to a cup to allow them to de-front and then i cut them up into small cubes and he only wants to eat this. Sometimes he eats allot, sometimes not.

My question is, is only feeding him this range of fruits and veggies bad? I have had him on this diet for maybe 2 or 3 months and he is looking good nothing i can see which concerns me.

And yes i tried adding pellets to this mix he hated it, didnt eat anything, i also tried to add hot water to the pellets and make a paste which i put over the food and he didnt eat it.


The thing which concerns me is i read all over the internet on forums that people cant get their bird to eat fruits and veggies they try everything and the bird refuses to eat fresh fruits and veggies. Now why on earth is my bird the complete opposite??

Hello and welcome!! I love Sun conures, I used to have a Jenday and they are similar.

This is great that your bird likes fruits and veggies, as you are right, sometimes it takes parrots a while to warm up to these foods. Most birds really like seeds but that's not always the case. My two cockatiels were on a pellet/seed diet and I have recently switched their diet to incorporate CHOP (a mix of frozen fruits and veggies, as well as whole grain pasta, quinoa and beans) and switched them to a healthier seed mix without sunflower seeds in it. I mix it all up together and feed it to them twice a day.

I made a thread about it here, with lots of pictures I'm almost out of this batch and will be making another tonight!

As far as your sun conure goes, this variety in the diet he is getting sounds great. When I make chop, I use the general rule of: 40% veggies, 40% grains/beans, 10% fruit, 10% dry material (flax seed, oats). It's great because birds can enjoy a variety of many veggies and fruits, so don't be afraid to change it up You can offer seeds as an occasional treat if he'll eat it. I also feed my birds Tropimix, it's a pelleted-type mix that has fruits and veggies in it, too. So in their bowls, right now I do a mix of CHOP, Volkmann's Sunflower-seed-less seed mix, Tropimix, and Zupreem Fruit pellets. It sounds like a lot, but they seem to like the variety. My female pigs out but the male is still trying to get used to it, he loved his sunflower seeds. I mix it all together and they go to town!

Hope that helps
.

itzjbean said:

Hello and welcome!! I love Sun conures, I used to have a Jenday and they are similar.

This is great that your bird likes fruits and veggies, as you are right, sometimes it takes parrots a while to warm up to these foods. Most birds really like seeds but that's not always the case. My two cockatiels were on a pellet/seed diet and I have recently switched their diet to incorporate CHOP (a mix of frozen fruits and veggies, as well as whole grain pasta, quinoa and beans) and switched them to a healthier seed mix without sunflower seeds in it. I mix it all up together and feed it to them twice a day.

I made a thread about it here, with lots of pictures I'm almost out of this batch and will be making another tonight!

As far as your sun conure goes, this variety in the diet he is getting sounds great. When I make chop, I use the general rule of: 40% veggies, 40% grains/beans, 10% fruit, 10% dry material (flax seed, oats). It's great because birds can enjoy a variety of many veggies and fruits, so don't be afraid to change it up You can offer seeds as an occasional treat if he'll eat it. I also feed my birds Tropimix, it's a pelleted-type mix that has fruits and veggies in it, too. So in their bowls, right now I do a mix of CHOP, Volkmann's Sunflower-seed-less seed mix, Tropimix, and Zupreem Fruit pellets. It sounds like a lot, but they seem to like the variety. My female pigs out but the male is still trying to get used to it, he loved his sunflower seeds. I mix it all together and they go to town!

Hope that helps
.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your comment! What im doing now is feeding him a bowl of this mix of mine and only remove it the next morning. I add some water into the bowl to keep the fruits/veggies moist and fresh without them going hard. Is this ok?

Salkio said:

itzjbean said:

Hello and welcome!! I love Sun conures, I used to have a Jenday and they are similar.

This is great that your bird likes fruits and veggies, as you are right, sometimes it takes parrots a while to warm up to these foods. Most birds really like seeds but that's not always the case. My two cockatiels were on a pellet/seed diet and I have recently switched their diet to incorporate CHOP (a mix of frozen fruits and veggies, as well as whole grain pasta, quinoa and beans) and switched them to a healthier seed mix without sunflower seeds in it. I mix it all up together and feed it to them twice a day.

I made a thread about it here, with lots of pictures I'm almost out of this batch and will be making another tonight!

As far as your sun conure goes, this variety in the diet he is getting sounds great. When I make chop, I use the general rule of: 40% veggies, 40% grains/beans, 10% fruit, 10% dry material (flax seed, oats). It's great because birds can enjoy a variety of many veggies and fruits, so don't be afraid to change it up You can offer seeds as an occasional treat if he'll eat it. I also feed my birds Tropimix, it's a pelleted-type mix that has fruits and veggies in it, too. So in their bowls, right now I do a mix of CHOP, Volkmann's Sunflower-seed-less seed mix, Tropimix, and Zupreem Fruit pellets. It sounds like a lot, but they seem to like the variety. My female pigs out but the male is still trying to get used to it, he loved his sunflower seeds. I mix it all together and they go to town!

Hope that helps
.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your comment! What im doing now is feeding him a bowl of this mix of mine and only remove it the next morning. I add some water into the bowl to keep the fruits/veggies moist and fresh without them going hard. Is this ok?

Click to expand...

It's totally up to you, though offering food twice a day is more like their natural habits. Some owners will give one meal a day, while others will provide 3 (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and some (me!) provide one in the morning and one at night.

In the wild, birds will go out and forage at first light, spend the day playing and preening, then will forage again for food at evening time. I have read never to leave out fruits and veggies for more than 24 hours, as it can collect bacteria and gets kind of mushy after a few hours, so maybe you could switch it up to offering half in the morning, and then half again at night.

itzjbean said:

Salkio said:

itzjbean said:

Hello and welcome!! I love Sun conures, I used to have a Jenday and they are similar.

This is great that your bird likes fruits and veggies, as you are right, sometimes it takes parrots a while to warm up to these foods. Most birds really like seeds but that's not always the case. My two cockatiels were on a pellet/seed diet and I have recently switched their diet to incorporate CHOP (a mix of frozen fruits and veggies, as well as whole grain pasta, quinoa and beans) and switched them to a healthier seed mix without sunflower seeds in it. I mix it all up together and feed it to them twice a day.

I made a thread about it here, with lots of pictures I'm almost out of this batch and will be making another tonight!

As far as your sun conure goes, this variety in the diet he is getting sounds great. When I make chop, I use the general rule of: 40% veggies, 40% grains/beans, 10% fruit, 10% dry material (flax seed, oats). It's great because birds can enjoy a variety of many veggies and fruits, so don't be afraid to change it up You can offer seeds as an occasional treat if he'll eat it. I also feed my birds Tropimix, it's a pelleted-type mix that has fruits and veggies in it, too. So in their bowls, right now I do a mix of CHOP, Volkmann's Sunflower-seed-less seed mix, Tropimix, and Zupreem Fruit pellets. It sounds like a lot, but they seem to like the variety. My female pigs out but the male is still trying to get used to it, he loved his sunflower seeds. I mix it all together and they go to town!

Hope that helps
.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your comment! What im doing now is feeding him a bowl of this mix of mine and only remove it the next morning. I add some water into the bowl to keep the fruits/veggies moist and fresh without them going hard. Is this ok?

Click to expand...

It's totally up to you, though offering food twice a day is more like their natural habits. Some owners will give one meal a day, while others will provide 3 (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and some (me!) provide one in the morning and one at night.

In the wild, birds will go out and forage at first light, spend the day playing and preening, then will forage again for food at evening time. I have read never to leave out fruits and veggies for more than 24 hours, as it can collect bacteria and gets kind of mushy after a few hours, so maybe you could switch it up to offering half in the morning, and then half again at night.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a better plan

Yeah the down side of the fresh fruit/veggie diet is the lifespan- its really only good for a few hours once left out.

You could always prepare it ahead of time and put a little bit out at a time like previously mentioned.

Ultimately, you want to go with fruits/veggies that are high in vitamin A (broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, mango, papaya, star fruit etc). But having a variety is good too- as long as they are getting at least some of the above mentioned fruits/veggies is good.

Is this all you feed him or do you also provide some sort of pellet? If this is all you feed him, just try to make sure he's getting enough of a variety to provide the necessary nutrients.

My dos centavos...
For your consideration...
I feed Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first, and later, my current avian vet recommended it. 30-ish years ago, Harrison's was still a small company. My vet was actually able to talk to Dr. Harrison about my bird's species and status, and they decided on the High Potency. My bird loves the pellets now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry enough to try new stuff. I presume the same technique could be used to get him to eat other healthy stuff. My guy was eating pellets in a couple of days, and now I can feed a good variety of other stuff, knowing he has the pellets as a basic. Pellets are out all day... fresh treats a few times a day.