Picky Sun Conure Diet/Behavior...how to correct?

[ChickensMom]

My 5 year old sun, Chicken, is so incredibly picky when it comes to anything. When she was a chick, she would eat jalapenos, carrots, broccoli, green beans, oranges, apples, millet, and her pellets. As of about 3 years ago she stopped eating most of those things and would let them sit in/on her cage and let them wilt. Since then she won't touch anything but granola, walnuts, pellets, millet, and apples...that's it!!! She eats the same thing evvvveryday.

So how do I correct this without her moody a$$ taking it out on the family? I was thinking of just leaving her with just a little bit of pellets in one bowl and another bowl with mixed veggies hoping she would get hungry enough to eat what was available.

Also, with toys she hardly likes anything. If the wood is too hard to penetrate she gives up. I started buying this bag full of Yucca bark that she can easily tear up, but that's all she seems interested in. Anything big that she can't wrap her hand around just sits there going to waste. In the past, I've left those things in her cage for months, but move them around and that still didn't help. Ropes bore her, ladders bore her, the paper you can wrap throughout the cage for her to shred bores her...I mean, what gives? She likes to fly on our kitchen cabinets (I shoo her off) and my stepson's Chester drawers because she likes to chew the wood. If she lands on those she gets ALL fluffy and happy making these whistling noises and glides her beak across the wood and licks it. It's like some weird OCD she has. Then if you open the drawers she jumps in and hides to either to the back of the drawer or behind it not allowing you to get her. If you do get her she gets pissed and bites you. I just don't know how to get her to like toys....what do you guys think??

 

[ann]

it sounds to me like a vet visit would be benificial. she has lost interest in food and toys, which could be a sign of illness. after a clean bill of health, i would tru offering her the foods she used to like in different ways. serve it cooked, raw, mashed, juiced, chopped, sliced, sliced on a mandaline, on a wooden kabob, frozen, shredded ect...
as for toys, try foraging toys, bird shoe toys, just keep trying untill she likes something. You can also take her to the bird store and let her pick out toys. i hope this helps and good luck !

 

[MonicaMc]

Will she eat sprouted seeds? Grains? Legumes? Mashed sweet potato? Have you tried making a mash/chop food? It consists of grains, legumes, vegetables, some fruits, etc. Birds love variety, and variety is more appealing to the eye. What about birdy bread?

The other behavior you describe is pretty normal... conures love dark places, and she might even be attempting to make the place her nest. You may want to keep her from going in there.

 

[WindyRed]

Something else to think about is that many birds prefer to chew on something very solid - something they can stand on and chew at the same time. I've started putting 1 x 2 pieces of pine wood straight through my birds' cages. (I'll have the store cut them down for the smaller bars - or I'll just get the smaller dowels if I need to.) With the wood, it stands on the 1" side and runs all the way through the cage. To keep it from slipping, I drill a bolt hole through each end - on the outside of the cage. Then I just stick a SS bolt through there and loosely thread on a nut.

It works as a perch and it's my birds favorite chew toy.

 

[friedsoup]

Try not leaving food in her cage all day but just a few minutes in the morning and just pellets thru the day and then fruits for a few in the evening. she will learn to eat up while they are there or all she'll get is pellets.