My conure's diet. How am I doing?

[Gizmomania]

I wanted to run by what I've been feeding my dusky conure since I brought him hom in July. Please let me know if I'm 'on track', or if I should be adding anything else.

cooked 9 bean soup mixture
ZuPreem fruit blend pellet
spinach
sugar snap peas
sprout mixture
cooked corn on the cob
grapes

Gizmo doesn't like very many fruits. Sometimes he'll eat strawberries.

Thanks!

 

[MollyGreenCheeks]

I would recommend adding in a little "small hook-bill seed mixture" because birds are foraging animals and cracking seeds helps the state of their mental health.

 

[OtterKin]

Lol, well you're doing better then me on the fresh foods department. I myself am working on eating fresh veggies and fruits, so my animals tend to suffer in that department as well.
Mine eat Zupreem natural and Roudybush pellets (alternate every other day), and three different seed mixes in the pellets. The seed mixes contain TONS of different seed, grains and fruit bits. I really just have to work on the fresh veggie part. They got broccoli-slaw today! Without the slaw part of course.

 

[MonicaMc]

Instead of 9 bean soup, I'd recommend adzuko, mung, lentils, sprouting peas and chickpeas/garbanzo beans. These can be fed sprouted or cooked.

Add in some grains such as spelt or kamut, wild rice, brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, whole oats, hulless barley, teff...

I'd recommend the Zupreem Natural over the Fruitblend. If pellets in general, I'd recommend Roudybush, TOP's, Harrison's or Mazuri over Zupreem. I've fed Zupreem in the past but I've never been crazy about the dyes or the sugars in it.


Have you tried other types of berries? Mangos? Papayas? Pomegranates? Apples? Bananas? Cherries? Etc for fruits?

Go easy on the spinach. You can also try carrots, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, endive, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, dandelion leaves, peppers, etc for vegetables. Vegetables are more important than fruits, so if he isn't big on fruits, that's ok!

 

[Gizmomania]

These suggestions are all great! Thank you! I forgot to mention that I also feed him millet sprays and he also gets seeds for treats.

I never thought about cooking up quinoa and brown rice for him. He doesn't really like the 9 bean soup all that much, so these other grains suggestions sound like a great way to go.

 

[greenbirdsf]

Watch the grapes as they are pretty much pure sugar. My bird loves blueberries and raspberries which I think are more nutrient-dense. I used to let my bird have grapes often but now it is more like half a grape, as a treat.

Corn is pretty much "empty" calories, but I don't know if your bird is a flyer who gets lots of exercise? My vet likes to remind me that birds in the wild can fly up to 40 miles a day but when they are fed high energy foods in captivity it can be a recipe for disaster......