Sun Conure Diet and Toy Problems

[RayanMOB]

Hi yall, I recently got a sun conure and he/her (Don't know their gender yet but for sake of simplicity ill just say he) and I named him Mango. I got him when he was a month and a week old, and he just weaned last week, right now he's 2 months old. He's incredibly attached to me and I've even flight trained him. But I'm facing problems with his diet as all he wants to eat right now is nuts and fruit. For context I live in Saudi Arabia, and there aren't any parrot pellets there, just the regular seed mix. I've tried introducing carrots, cucumber and lettuce but right now he's only barely eating the cucumber. I'm not sure how to get him used to eating vegetables for a more healthy diet as only seeds and nuts are not good for him. The other problem I'm facing is him not finding entertainment without me being with him, so he won't play with his toys, he won't try to do anything, except pace from left to right over and over, he's completely ignoring any toy I put into the cage. Thank you for reading, and please reply if you know how to help me out.

 

[RayanMOB]

Hi yall, I recently got a sun conure and he/her (Don't know their gender yet but for sake of simplicity ill just say he) and I named him Mango. I got him when he was a month and a week old, and he just weaned last week, right now he's 2 months old. He's incredibly attached to me and I've even flight trained him. But I'm facing problems with his diet as all he wants to eat right now is nuts and fruit. For context I live in Saudi Arabia, and there aren't any parrot pellets there, just the regular seed mix. I've tried introducing carrots, cucumber and lettuce but right now he's only barely eating the cucumber. I'm not sure how to get him used to eating vegetables for a more healthy diet as only seeds and nuts are not good for him. The other problem I'm facing is him not finding entertainment without me being with him, so he won't play with his toys, he won't try to do anything, except pace from left to right over and over, he's completely ignoring any toy I put into the cage. Thank you for reading, and please reply if you know how to help me out.

No one's replying ):

 

[LaManuka]

Hi yall, I recently got a sun conure and he/her (Don't know their gender yet but for sake of simplicity ill just say he) and I named him Mango. I got him when he was a month and a week old, and he just weaned last week, right now he's 2 months old. He's incredibly attached to me and I've even flight trained him. But I'm facing problems with his diet as all he wants to eat right now is nuts and fruit. For context I live in Saudi Arabia, and there aren't any parrot pellets there, just the regular seed mix. I've tried introducing carrots, cucumber and lettuce but right now he's only barely eating the cucumber. I'm not sure how to get him used to eating vegetables for a more healthy diet as only seeds and nuts are not good for him. The other problem I'm facing is him not finding entertainment without me being with him, so he won't play with his toys, he won't try to do anything, except pace from left to right over and over, he's completely ignoring any toy I put into the cage. Thank you for reading, and please reply if you know how to help me out.

@RayanMOB, I'm sorry nobody else has replied to you yet, I don't know that we have many members in your locations who are active right now. In terms of food, have you tried obtaining pellets from Amazon? Apparently they are selling in Saudi Arabia now so that may be of some help? I'm in Australia and I order most of my bird food online from local sellers, as even here they don't carry much variety in the pet stores any more, lots of things have moved online - for better or worse! Brands like Higgins, Tropican and TOPS come pretty highly recommended.

As far as playing with toys is concerned, perhaps it's a case of finding something your bird particularly likes? I don't have a sun conure but I do have a lorikeet and whereas my other birds enjoy chewing-type toys more, my lorikeet loves toys that make a lot of noise, so I give him stainless steel bells and toys that he can bash and crash and make noise with - he loves them! I guess it's just a case of experimentation to see what your Sun likes best. Amazon in Saudi does appear to have a range of bird toys but I'm not sure I'd trust them to be honest, I'm very picky about where I get my toys from and what they're made of.

Hopefully some Sun parronts will weigh in here for you soon with some of their toy ideas for you

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

The main thing that's missing from a parrots diet if you can't get pellets and he won't eat vegetables would be vitamin D, vitamin A and calcium. These three are the most common in parrot supplements and I personally feed mine a probiotic mix that also has these ingredients in it. I mix it in with their chop to ensure they eat all of it.

If you can get your bird to eat vegetables, especially ones high in vitamin A like carrots and bell peppers, and dark green vegetables like broccoli and spinach, then you only have to worry about vitamin D. If you're able to take him outside, in an aviary or a travel cage as much as you can then that will cover the vitamin D. If not then you can get an avian lamp (make sure it's an avian one as reptile ones are harmful), and you can supplement vitamins too. Giving him some scrambled egg once a week is also a great way to get some nutrition into him, but make sure it's not too often ae the high fat and protein isn't good to have everyday.

I would offer him vegetables with some seeds sprinkled on top, and also eat some vegetables around him as they usually want to eat what you're eating and will copy you. You can also mix the vegetables in with his fruit if he likes eating fruit.

As far as getting him to be more independent, giving him foraging toys will help a lot. I'm a big fan of filling my birds bowls up with foot toys and putting seed at the bottom so they have to move the toys out of the way to get to the toys. Dried pasta is also a huge favourite with my two conures and they spend ages chewing it up (they don't eat it but if they do it's not harmful).

I hope this helps a little bit

 

[Jcas]

Sometimes, playing with the toys WITH your parrot could help to get them more interested in toys. Shake it gently, use your fingers to move the different parts, gently play tug of war with your parrot ( very gently!). Have toys with you when you’re in different areas of your home so when your bird is with you he can both be with you and have the opportunity to play with toys. I also agree that trying lots of different toys to find out what your bird likes is a good idea. My Quaker parrot likes plastic toys while my female budgie likes toys she can shred. Also, eat vegetables in front of your bird ( or at least pretend to) so he can see how yummy they are! Young birds learn what foods are good to eat by watching what other flock members eat and you are your bird’s “flock” 🙂

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Hi yall, I recently got a sun conure and he/her (Don't know their gender yet but for sake of simplicity ill just say he) and I named him Mango. I got him when he was a month and a week old, and he just weaned last week, right now he's 2 months old. He's incredibly attached to me and I've even flight trained him. But I'm facing problems with his diet as all he wants to eat right now is nuts and fruit. For context I live in Saudi Arabia, and there aren't any parrot pellets there, just the regular seed mix. I've tried introducing carrots, cucumber and lettuce but right now he's only barely eating the cucumber. I'm not sure how to get him used to eating vegetables for a more healthy diet as only seeds and nuts are not good for him. The other problem I'm facing is him not finding entertainment without me being with him, so he won't play with his toys, he won't try to do anything, except pace from left to right over and over, he's completely ignoring any toy I put into the cage. Thank you for reading, and please reply if you know how to help me out.

You may have to teach him how to play with his toys by playing with them together.
He's still very young, just weaned and is relying on you to teach him everything. Show him what's good to eat by eating it yourself and offering some to him. Keep it up. He will catch on.

 

[RayanMOB]

Thank you everyone for replying!
In terms of toys, at the moment he has a lot of wood toys he can mess around with, some bells and a foot toy (that's just a cat toy but I've seen a lot of conures play with it) I'll set more time to try to teach him to play with the toys and if he never plays with any of them, I'll try to get more plastic toys because most of them are wood right now. And for his vegetables, I'll try different types, like bell peppers, broccoli, etc, and I'll try the different methods everyone mentioned. But in terms of vitamin D, his cage is always facing a window, to the point where theres always light on his cage, but its not harmful light because the window has a polarizing film. He does also fly and stay by the window a lot when he's out of the cage. And by the way heres his cage if anyones wondering. I'll update when there's some news.(Hopefully good news!)

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

Thank you everyone for replying!
In terms of toys, at the moment he has a lot of wood toys he can mess around with, some bells and a foot toy (that's just a cat toy but I've seen a lot of conures play with it) I'll set more time to try to teach him to play with the toys and if he never plays with any of them, I'll try to get more plastic toys because most of them are wood right now. And for his vegetables, I'll try different types, like bell peppers, broccoli, etc, and I'll try the different methods everyone mentioned. But in terms of vitamin D, his cage is always facing a window, to the point where theres always light on his cage, but its not harmful light because the window has a polarizing film. He does also fly and stay by the window a lot when he's out of the cage. And by the way heres his cage if anyones wondering. I'll update when there's some news.(Hopefully good news!)

That looks like a great setup for him! I think he just needs to realise that he can play with toys and then hopefully he'll be alright. My two conures don't play with toys at all since they grew up (they did when they were younger) but they have each other to keep them company so they don't get too bored. I also give them foraging toys a lot to keep them busy.

Windows don't let the right light through for vitamin D production unfortunately so you'll still need to sort something out for that

 

[RayanMOB]

That looks like a great setup for him! I think he just needs to realise that he can play with toys and then hopefully he'll be alright. My two conures don't play with toys at all since they grew up (they did when they were younger) but they have each other to keep them company so they don't get too bored. I also give them foraging toys a lot to keep them busy.

Windows don't let the right light through for vitamin D production unfortunately so you'll still need to sort something out for that

Oh, I didn't know that. What about opening the window? It has, for lack of a better word, a net that's mainly just for insects but it will keep him in. It is made of metal but I'm afraid he might be able to chew on it and eventually tear it since it's super thin "bars".

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

Oh, I didn't know that. What about opening the window? It has, for lack of a better word, a net that's mainly just for insects but it will keep him in. It is made of metal but I'm afraid he might be able to chew on it and eventually tear it since it's super thin "bars".

As long as the pure sunlight can get through then it's fine! I'm not sure about him chewing on it, maybe only open the window when he's in his cage as it's next to the window so the sunlight should be able to shine on him? Before I got aviary mesh I used an insect curtain in my greenhouse and my birds never chewed it, though I never left them unsupervised either, so he might not even chew it.