Confused about my conure! Please help!

Hi all! I’m new to this forum and this is my first post.
To start with, I’ve 3 sun conures and about 24 cockatiels put in a 16*18 room sized cage. 2 of my conures are hand tamed and stayed with us for 7-8 years before we left them in a permanent cage with the cockatiels. Been a year since we left them with the cockatiels.The other conure is their baby. Not hand tamed but still comes to us when we go and feed it’s parents, though isn’t still as friendly as it’s parents. The baby is 11 months old, so it’s a grown baby.

The problem lies with my female sun conure now. She’s always fluffed up. Rarely sits normal on the perch. Has watery stools with a little bit of yellow solid in it. Other than that, she is perfect. She comes to me when I go into the aviary,sits on me, nibbles, plays, feels comfortable when I run my fingers through her feathers, kisses and also goes back and eats. Her vocals are normal, flight is normal, eats normally. All fine except for the fluffing up and poop. What could be the reason?
The temperature is becoming hot but she was the same even in moderate temperature . Summer is starting here.
Also to bring to your notice about the food we give, it’s vegetable pellets, apple and sweet corn as their main course everyday along wit other fruits like guava, grapes, pears, bananas and treats twice a week like groundnut, sunflower seeds and cashews. Since they are in the same cage with the cockatiels, they sometimes taste even their food like foxtail millet and roasted gram. Also bread and water is common for both the species. Conures love bread. They are given bread daily.
Hope I’ve provided all the necessary information. Waiting for the reply. Thanks in advance!

Where in the world do you live? We can help you find access to an avian vet.

Tbh, it sounds like a problem (like yeast infection) that requires faecalysis to give a diagnosis and appropriate medication from an avian vet. Not something you can solve at home.

I agree with charmed that it may be a yeast or perhaps a fungal infection, but these are not things that its possible to diagnose by means of this forum, you should definitely take your bird to an avian vet for correct diagnosis and treatment.

Meanwhile your birds' diet does seem to be a bit high in sugary fruits, such as the apple, guava, grapes, pears and banana. Even sweet corn is very high in sugar so these things may indeed actually be feeding an overgrowth in yeast. Your bird may not of course actually have a yeast infection but given the high quantity of simple sugars and warm conditions where you live it would be a good idea to cut down on those foods if you can. Cockatiels in particular don't eat a lot of fruit in their natural environment so I think they would do better with fewer of them. You can replace them with capsicum, chilli peppers, broccoli, kale, spinach and other green leafy vegetables. I would also cut out the bread - unless you are baking it yourself with no preservatives or additives you don't really know what's in it and, let's face it, there's that word "yeast" again!

Certainly since you have so many birds all housed together it would be best to have this one checked out by an avian health professional because if it does have a problem it may spread through your whole flock. As charmed said, please let us know if you need help locating a certified avian vet in your area.

First of all, thank you for replying so soon. Secondly YES! I DO NEED HELP IN LOCATING AN AVIAN VET! It’s been 9+ years since I’m having them and thank God I’ve never needed a vet. But that can’t be the case always. The fact is that I tried a lot locating an avian vet but couldn’t find one. I live in India, state is Tamil Nadu and in Chennai city. Please help me locate an avian vet and I’ll at once take her.

As for food, I do put spinach for my cockatiels (missed that one in the previous post) as for broccoli and greens, my conures don’t take interest in them at all that’s why we started giving them vegetable pellets. So that there is a balance. Both their food tables are kept separate. Both know which is theirs. Though they even eat from the other table, but only what they like.

And please don’t tell me that her life is in danger due to this yeast problem�� .

The Association of Avian Vets show:

Palanivelrajan M. Asst. Prof. Dept Wildlife Science Phone: +919442211887 (Mobile)
Madras Vet. College 600007 Tanwas, Chennai, Vepery. Sees psittacines (parrots), pigeons, doves,. BVSc
[email protected]


That being said, contacts also show:

Thiru Murugan, [email protected], R6 Staff Quarters, Arignar Anna Zoological Park,
Vandalur, Chennai, S. India 600048, +919445307200 (mobile), +914422751089 (Park)

Kadivelu Senthilkumar, [email protected] Tamil Nadu Vet. And Animal Sciences Univ., Madhavaram Milk Colony, Chennai, Tamil Naud, 600051



I don't have any personal recommendations for any of these vets, so you might have to gauge for yourself.

what the? "3 sun conures and about 24 cockatiels put in a 16*18 room sized cage."

Um

are you a breeder?

"ABOUT 24 cockatiels???" you don't know?

I am worried just in general....I can tell you my parrots weight to the gram given a few minutes notice, I'm not sure that...

I'll stop here, I just don't know how to help you, but you do need help I agree. I get it you're in India but...

Sorry I just hope you make good decisions and get an avian vet on the case....

charmedbyekkie said:

The Association of Avian Vets show:

Palanivelrajan M. Asst. Prof. Dept Wildlife Science Phone: +919442211887 (Mobile)
Madras Vet. College 600007 Tanwas, Chennai, Vepery. Sees psittacines (parrots), pigeons, doves,. BVSc
[email protected]


That being said, contacts also show:

Thiru Murugan, [email protected], R6 Staff Quarters, Arignar Anna Zoological Park,
Vandalur, Chennai, S. India 600048, +919445307200 (mobile), +914422751089 (Park)

Kadivelu Senthilkumar, [email protected] Tamil Nadu Vet. And Animal Sciences Univ., Madhavaram Milk Colony, Chennai, Tamil Naud, 600051



I don't have any personal recommendations for any of these vets, so you might have to gauge for yourself.

Click to expand...

I know the vet at madras veterinary college. But the thing is, no one is specialised in avian veterinary. All of them are animal vets.

clark_conure said:

what the? "3 sun conures and about 24 cockatiels put in a 16*18 room sized cage."

Um

are you a breeder?

"ABOUT 24 cockatiels???" you don't know?

I am worried just in general....I can tell you my parrots weight to the gram given a few minutes notice, I'm not sure that...

I'll stop here, I just don't know how to help you, but you do need help I agree. I get it you're in India but...

Sorry I just hope you make good decisions and get an avian vet on the case....

Click to expand...

Hey! Im not a breeder. I bought 2 pairs of cockatiels 8 years ago. Wild untamed ones. They turned into a good number , also few cockatiels were given to us as their owners couldn’t take care of them and bear their expenses.

(P.s - 16 feet * 18 feet. In case you are wondering it is 16 inches * 18 inches)

When I said there may be a bit too much fruit in the diet I meant for your conures as well, not just the cockatiels. Birds in the wild often fly enormous distances searching for food so can burn off all the calories in fruit which they do not do in captivity. IF your conure does have an infection of some sort (and this is yet to be determined) the simple sugars in the fruit and corn may just be encouraging it’s growth. Also 24-plus (?) cockatiels will generate a lot of feather dander and sometimes other species don’t cope with it or are allergic. I hope you’re able to visit a vet very soon for proper diagnosis for your conure.

Yeah I get it. Well today she seemed absolutely fine. No puffing up, solid green and white dropping. May be it was just my insecurities or may be she does have some sort of a potential danger. Anyways Ill check it out with the 'whatever vet' I've in town. Thank You all so very much for all your help and responses. Will reach you guys in need. Thanks again!