First time bird owner with questions

Hello! First post here, new bird owner. Just two days ago I adopted an 8 year old sun conure named Poncho. His (her?) previous owner no longer had the time to care for him and was sad to let him go, but now he is in a home where he will get lots of love and attention. Being a first time bird owner, I naturally have lots of questions. But first, the pictures!






The first question I have is about clicker training and treats. I've read a lot of articles online in the past week about how to train a bird so I went out and got some treats and a clicker for Poncho. The issue I'm having is that he doesn't like the treats! I have a papaya, peanut and mango mix from the pet store, which I thought he would like.

To figure out if he really didn't like them or was just not hungry, I took his food out of his cage for a few hours yesterday and then tried to feed him the treats when I thought he would be hungry but he still didn't go for them. He absolutely LOVES his normal food though. I was given a big bag of Wild Harvest Parrot Advanced Nutrition Diet by the previous owner, which I think he may have been eating exclusively for the past 8 years. (I am going to try to feed him fruits and veggies too, but haven't tried so far.) He loves the sunflower seeds that are in the mix. I'm thinking that I may have to use the sunflower seeds as treats, but what would I use as normal food then?

Any suggestions are appreciated!

First of all, welcome to the forum. Your new bird is super cute. Second of all in a week or two you should take him to an avain vet for a wellness exam. Birds are prey animals and do not show their illnesses. Looks like the bird is molting and has several pin feathers. When he lets you scratch his head you can help him by rolling the pin feather in your fingers but only the ones that have the dry casing over them. the ones that do not are painful if you touch them. Sunflower seeds are like french fries to the birds. Lots of fat in them. It will take time to change him over to good pellets (cosult the vet on what is best for him) and the other fresh foods such as brown rice, legumes, nuts (no peanuts), grains, leafy greens, sweet potatoes, carrots and of course fruits. Our birds need lots of the orange vegies to help absorb calcium.
Also small amts. of yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken and hard cooked eggs are good for protein which they need lots of during a molt. As far as treats go you will find out what he likes but most likley not this early. Another good item you can try is a good organic grain cereal fed dry. Also a nice warm oatmeal in the evening is nice and they seem to love cornbread mixed with cooked vegies. I purchased a food processor and make mashes for evening meals with lots of nice ingredients. There is a fantastic cookbook offered on the Phoenix Landing web page.
Have fun and I am happy you joined us.

http://www.phoenixlanding.org/books.html

I just lost a bird to illness and found out that I was almost completely unprepared for his illness in terms of knowledge and supplies. I was a lot more ignorant than I thought I was, and I'm not normally ignorant about things that are important to me. It's very important to learn all you can about all the things you need to do to take proper care of your bird and how to detect signs of illness. And at the first sign of illness you should take it very seriously and take your bird to the vet immediately, because by that time they may be very close to death. Otherwise you'll deeply regret losing a great friend, like I did. I couldn't be more sorry about this, and I swear that I will never let it happen again. My bird seemed to be vigorous for 6 years, so it seemed like nothing could kill him. I was wrong. Learn everything you can about taking care of your bird. Read books and web pages. Prepare in advance for illness, so when it happens, you'll be ready with the correct knowledge and supplies, and money for vet care.

by the way, that's a Jenday Conure you got there, not a Sun!

Here is a Jenday Here is a Sun conure


Jenday has no orange on the head and the Sun does have orange on the head. I vote for Sun.

Hi and welcome to the forum...I am new here myself..
Poncho is a beauty......congrats on the new family member.
You will want to get Poncho on some kind of a pellet diet...I use zupreme because it was recommended by my vet but there are a lot out there to choose from.
As far as seed mixtures...My babies only get seeds once a week but some people offer them much more then that.
Fresh fruit and veggies are great.
My birds favorite treats are nutriberries.
Now, what you may expect from you new bird is that he may be quiet and a little timid at first...this can last as long as two weeks and is called the honeymoon phase. LOL It's just poncho adjusting to his new surroundings.
Yep, he is a little pin head..LOL Look at those pin feathers...these may make him a little grumpy so don't be surprised by that.
You are going to want to make a first aid kit for your bird.
You can google that or they may have something listed on this site..This is VERY IMPORTANT....
You may also want to invest in a scale....I just use a small kitchen scale that I bought at the evil empire (Walmart) I weigh my birds once a month, some do it weekly or even daily...Keeping a record of your birds weight is important.
I really don't know anything abut conures except that they can be loud....You are already starting out on the right foot by coming to a forum and asking for help....my hats off to you and good luck with your new baby.........

Oh man I almost forgot....be sure to get a list of what is safe for your bird to eat. For example avacados are fatal to birds.
Also, tephlon pans are bad as are most candles, air fresheners and so on.....again, these are things you can google or look around on this site. Like I said, I am new here and still learning my way around....good luck.

Thanks for all the input! I will definitely look into everything mentioned here. He is nibbling on my ear as I type.

Spiritbird said:

Here is a Jenday Here is a Sun conure


Jenday has no orange on the head and the Sun does have orange on the head. I vote for Sun.

Click to expand...

His bird is 8 years old, not a baby! His wings are green if you go back to his first pic! I have owned a Jenday once. They're very similiar but sun's wings are not solid green! But it can be a mix as a lot of breeders mix them now days! You can't always go by google pic... I actually owned one once....and many sun conures that I refused to take.... Conures may not be the specie for me cause I dealt with them years ago. I remember my birds....

Coming home to see pictures on my big computer screen and looked up the hybrids, take a look at Sunday Conure, there's one picture looks just like your baby!!! The breeder that I bought the conures from before was doing hybrids like Sunday and other types. I didn't get to see them since most breeders have closed aviary....There's many different pictures of the Sunday Conure, different variations between the parents of Jenday and Sun Conure. Some have the wings like the Sun while some are mixed and some are just like the Jenday's wing color which is solid green!

hi,

my self ashish bhatnagar. i am new member on this website.

you posted good pictures.