New Green Cheek Conure!

[MoniW]

Hello from Australia! We are first time bird owners - a Green Cheek Conure named Kevin! Apparently he is 11-12 weeks old and we just got him on 14th January. What an amazing little bird! If somebody told me few months back that I will have a little parrot sitting on my shoulder while I'm typing on a computer I would laugh at them and say "no way"! Well... there is a saying "never say never".

It's such a challenge figuring out what's the right thing to do for our little Kevin. We have NO experience with birds whatsoever so internet seems the only source until we learn a little bit more. However, being a responsible pet owner, we are taking Kevin to an Avian Vet this week to make sure everything is ok and to ask some questions as to his care. I am amazed that we only had Kevin for 5 days and he already responds to his name and flies to us when called (we have not clipped his wings). But you guys being parrot owners already know how clever these little creatures are!

The biggest challenge we are facing at the moment is Kevin's diet. It became very obvious after one day of having him that Kevin has never been introduced to fresh fruit or vegetables before (we bought him from a breeder) so we will have to work slowly on introducing these to him.

Please don't laugh (it's a bit of a "blonde question" lol) but can someone please tell me the difference between bird "seed" and bird "pellets"? I understand you feed conures twice a day (morning and evening) but that they snack on pellets during the day. Because Kevin is still not interested in veggies or fruit - all I can give him at present is bird seed (I bought him a premium mix [for small parrots] with fruit and nut. But I am confused whether I only give him the bird seed in the morning and evening or do I leave it out all day (as I don't have any pellets). I haven't seen anything specifically called "bird pellets" in the shops I went to so I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Are there any people from Australia on this forum that could help with some products?

Thank you in advance and apologies to the Mod if I don't know how to use this forum properly. The set up is slightly different to the forums I have been a part of in the past (and those forums were not bird related lol).

 

[ZephyrFly]

Hi and welcome! Green cheeks and cute and fun so you have a lot of silly bird antics in your future.

Seed vs Pellets. Seed has little nutrient value, they are mostly fat. Pellets have been made to try and cover a complete dietry range for most birds. A bit of seed each day is fine but it shouldn't be a primary food source. But pellets shouldn't make up all of his diet, he should be eating some veg along side. If you check out the food and diet section of the forum you'll find lots of information on chops (chopped up veg, beans, fruits etc, alot of people here make chops for our birds along side them eating pellets).

As for pellets, pellets are a personal preference for most people. I don't know what's available to you in Australia but the normal recommended pellet brand is Harrisons, although it is one of the expensive pellets it is mostly organic and generally accepted as one of the premium brands. After that you'll hear a out brands like tops, golden feast, Hagen, and more I can't remember. These are mid to upper range pellets for price and quality. Personal opinion, avoid any Kaytee exact brands, the company has some links to had practice and their bird foods are low quality. Avoid any pellets that are brightly coloured too, those the to be coloured with dyes that aren't food quality and can seriously shorten the life of your bird.
There's several great threads on here somewhere of people discussing pellets so if you search you'll find it.
As for real foods, the best way reply is to have the veg around and play with it and eat so e of it in front of your birds. Flocks animals as they are they'll eventually want what you're eating. Peas are quite easy, have a small bunch of peas, eat a few and offer Kevin one every now and then.

I'm not an expert, only had my bird for just over a year (I was you a year ago but in the UK). This is just my advice
Goodluck and have fun !

 

[Flboy]

Welcome to y'all!

 

[Kyoto]

Welcome to the forum!
I feed my GCC roudybush california blend pellets, supplemented with a variety of organic dried veggies and fresh when we have them in the house. Her favourite treat is to be given a carrot piece to tear apart and devour, and she really loves crunchy foods.

I would like her to eat more lentils and soft cooked veggies, but that is a struggle for us. She really prefers raw and won't eat mushy potatoes or squash, so that is a work in progress. I find she LOVES kale as well, as much as I hate it ><.

I usually offer her veggies first thing in the morning when she will be hungriest.

Hope this helps!

 

[MoniW]

Thank you Zephyrfly, Kyoto and Flboy for the welcome and helpful advice. Owning a bird is very much a learning experience! Yes, I would love for Kevin to eat fruit and veggies but for now despite offering a variety of fruit and veggies he's TOTALLY not interested! In fact when we stuck a piece of carrot between the cage bars (as suggested by someone) he totally freaked out and made a run for it lol.

Someone who works with birds suggested doing a "kebab" wire next to his perch with small pieces of fruit on it and that apparently over time he will start pecking at it and being interested so we're in the process of doing that. I'm so jealous of you Kyoto when you wrote your GCC loves crunchy raw food! Hopefully over time Kevin will do that too.

And Zephyrfly - that's invaluable advice about pellets v seed. That helps a lot. I will start looking around for it. I saw a "low fat" enriched formula for "small parrots" in the pet store but they called it "crumble" so maybe that's one and the same thing as pellets. God, I feel stupid lol. I'll ask the pet shop owner.

 

[Dinosrawr]

Howdy and welcome! You'll love having a GCC, they're lovely birds. You've received some great advice already too, so I'll just chime in with some help in eating veggies!

1.) Try eating the vegetables yourself and make a HUGE deal about how delicious they are, how much you love them, and how yum yum yummmm they are for you. I swear it's a rule in the parrot world that if their person is eating it, they need to eat it too.

2.) Try feeding it in the morning when they're hungriest. It might motivate them to eat whatever is there just because they're hungry.

3.) Try making a veggie smoothie, with a little bit of low sugar juice! Once again, apply "ohmygodthisissogood, noyoucan'thaveitit'smine!" technique.

4.) Make it a toy - I've seen cool ideas where you cut the top off a bell pepper and put other fruits and veggies in it using a skewer. Looked fun and tasty!

5.) Cut the food up into teeny tiny pieces (processing it really - this is the essence of a "chop"). They may be more inclined to eat it if they don't really know what it is

 

[MoniW]

OMG Success!!! Kevin has finally tasted his first green apple and nectarine!! Dinosrawr you were onto something with the chopping of the fruit into tiny pieces (especially as he's never had it before). I've chopped up the green apple and literally kept on shoving it in his beak and he started licking it at first and obviously liked it but didn't know what to do with it so then I chopped it up into even smaller pieces and it worked!! I quickly added a soft ripe nectarine and he started nibbling on it more and more. I laughed that now that he's discovered "sugar" there's no going back lol

I swear it was pathetic just how excited I was about this, I'm sure I resembled a mother of a newborn baby who just ate their first solid food lol. I literally had to stop myself from texting my entire family and friends about this (no one else has a bird so they wouldn't understand). By the way, Dinosrawr your post made me crack up with the "parrot rule" that if we love something then they MUST have it lol. I will try your other tips Thank you!!

 

[Mango7218]

Birds should have food available at all times though its ok to remove it at night.You cannot feed an all seed diet or an all pelleted diet as it is bad for the bird.You should feed him Seed,Pellets and fresh fruit and veg.You dont wanna give him too much protein though since there is protein in the pellets and not too much in the seed and in the veg so you dont need to give much seed or much veg but you know what will work best for you.Hanging the fruit and veg in the cage is a great way of getting them to try it.Goodluck and enjoy your new feathered pal.