Specific Diet Example for a Green Cheek Conure

[kagan1042]

Howdy
I'm a super newbie in the conure world and I've read that that are high fruit eaters, and not to give them too much protein because it can cause hormonal behaviour problems.
Can someone give me example of their daily diet?
Do I leave food in the cage whilst I am at work, or feed them at brekky time and then dinner time with the dogs?
Any advice would be appreciated - we get Jimmy bird in 5 weeks so I'm trying to spend this time getting all his bits and pieces ready and get myself educated

 

[hacatta]

Hi,i give them harrisons pellets when i am at work.
When i get home they get a huge bowl of fresh greens en some fruits.
In the evening as dinner they get some good seed that doesn't have sunflower seeds but dried berries.

 

[Mekaisto]

Although conures are indeed fruit eaters, too much fruit can be bad for them as well, as it is high in sugar

You can leave food in the cage if it is not a wet pellet mix (wet/juicy fruit is fine). Don't leave food in the cage for over 24 hours, and remove any food with faeces on it.

Here is an example of what I'd give a GCC who is not currently breeding or caring for young. It is approximate, and you might have to change it depending on your conure (whether it loses/gains weight easily, etc)

-Pellets (brands will differ depending on where you live, but some good brands are Vetafarm, Mazuri, Zupreem and Harrison's). You should always have pellets available to your bird. Throw away yesterday's pellets the next morning. Once you have an idea of how much your parrot eats, you can minimise wastage by feeding less pellets.

-1 Fruit stick/bowl (chunks of fruit on a kebab). The amount of fruit is roughly 20g. My GCC enjoys passionfruit, kiwi, apple, orange, watermelon, pear and berries. You can try lots of different things. I'd suggest washing fruit to remove any potential pesticides.

-1 Veggie stick/bowl. The amount of vegetables is roughly 40g. My GCC enjoys spinach, carrot, corn on the cob, peas, chillies, cucumber and broccoli.

-1 Little bowl of 'other'. The amount is roughly 5g. Beans, nuts, sprouted seed.

Your bird's diet should be mainly pellets

Some things NEVER to feed include chocolate, coffee, alcohol and avocado. You can check online for a complete list of things you shouldn't feed birds.

You can feed once a day, twice a day or even more, it's up to you! I prefer to feed once in the morning and once at night, just to prevent food from getting dirty.

 

[hacatta]

I give the nuts in foraging ,they never survive.

 

[kagan1042]

Excellent thank you! The grams of stuff is so good thank you, I like to weigh things.

I'll be getting Vetafarm pellets from the market on the weekend, and am trying to hunt down the hamster kabob sticks that have the screw on thingy - proving to be hard!

 

[bostjan]

I feed my conures roudybush pellets, and give seeds once a week or every other week. They also get treats daily, in small quantities.

 

[Mekaisto]

.
If you can find them, the best pellets would be Vetafarm 'South American mix' or 'Nutriblend'.

I use the "Expandable Habitats" brand stainless steel kebab sticks, but you can use wooden chopsticks if you can't find anything suitable

 

[Nakiska]

I'm a little different then most I suppose...I'm not completely "sold" on pellets or a pellet only diet...I bought some zupreem pellets when they were all the craze and my guy wasn't crazy about them. 3 years later...we still have 3/4 of the little bag I bought.

Anyway, in his cage at all times is his all around seed blend, which is so much more then that...it's called Healthy Selects and it's done well for us.

Our conure is a "dipper/dunker/soaker" and much of his seed blend is fruits and veggies that he rehydrates in his water and eats.

Aside from that he loves, loves, loves cooked potatoes, squash, yams, sweet potatoes, pasta, rice, broccoli, quinoa, he loves raw carrots, corn on the cob, apples, grapes, kale, broccoli, oranges...from time to time he gets a little bit of scrambled eggs, he loves cheese...but only get's a bite or two rarely...as they can't digest it well.

Our guy has a voracious appetite and is offered anything I know won't hurt him. Lucky for me, he will TRY anything at least once. He turns his nose up at raw banana...but absolutely goes nuts for a banana chip! Go figure!

Daily he gets any number of items from the list above, usually what ever we are having with our meal at the time - he'll get a little spoon full in his dish.

Good Luck and congratulations on your future conure, they are a LOT of fun.

Toni