Is my sun conure eatting enough

[conureowner1]

Hi i'm just wandering if my sun conure is eatting enough i give him about a handful of pellets 2 or 3 tablespoons of veggies, The pellets are mixed in with the veggies. I do have a bowl of seed in the cage which he only eats a few bites of seed thats it. I want him to eat seed but he won't really eat it. In seed he eats less then what a canary would lol. He loves his pellets and he will eat the pellets first then eat the veggies. Mixing the seed with pellets won't work it io thought it did but i was wrong, He will just eat the pellets and the tiniest amount of seed thats it. His diffenetly favouring the pellets. I've never seen a bird poo or drink so much. He poos more then both my green cheek conures put together.
His about 10 weeks old. I've ordered more pellets for him,This is another reason why i want him to eat seed. I can't really get vetafarm south american pellets with ordering it from the grain store or online which i think will probably be a hassle. The breeder really only feed pellets,fruit and veggies. The seed she gave him were only a handful of sunflower seeds and they were soaked. I guess i'm kind of comparing him to my other sun conure male which was killed. My other male i got just weaned too and when he ate his crop was the size of a tenis ball at the end of the day. My new sun conures crop at the end of the day is about a size of a large marble to a golf ball. He is more interested in playing on his boing then he is in eatting. I'm always having to coax him to eat by putting him at the food bowl and saying eat your dinner which he then does. I think my sun conure would starve itself if i took the pellets away to get him to eat seed.

[vankarhi]

You have not had your new baby for too long and he is still getting used to his new surroundings. I have found nearly all of my birds went off their food for 2 or 3 days when i first bought them home as babies (those that were weaned). Then they ate like there was no tomorrow. He needs to get used to a lot of things and eating is one of them. He should be fine, just keep putting plenty of food in there for him and he will be eating you out of house in no time. Make sure he has plenty of seed and or pellets (I myself dont use pellets but have tried them just to see what they were like) and make sure he has plenty of fresh fruit and veges and other soft foods for him to taste test.

[avinet]

If he is eating a reasonable amount of pellets plus fruit and veggies then he is doing just fine. And he knows what's good for him with pellets being far healthier and balanced than seed.

He sounds like he is doing OK

cheers,

Mike

[conureowner1]

THis bird loves his pellets he polished off all his pellets then around 4pm kept going back down to his bowl looking for more, So i put a tiny handful in and he polished them off. I don't think i want to really keep a half bowl filled f pellets in his cage, KNowing my sun conure already if i did he would eat the pellets and not touch his veggies. He ate pretty well today he ate all his pellets i gave him plus most of his veggies only left about half a tablespoon. When i handle him he fills heavy. But if i touch his front i can feel his keel bone a bit he has some meat on the sides of the keel. I guess i'm also being careful with feeding amount of pellets, I got the 350gram bag in melbourne hoping that i could get him to eat seed. So now i have to be careful till my order comes in which will hopefully be tommorrow or monday. If i run out he will just have to eat veggies and seed.

[Robyn]

Has your little fellow got a name yet? or have i missed a post.
Sounds like he is one healthy little dude. As far as you being able to feel the keel bone , you should be able to. If your worried about him dropping weight. WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Feel the sternum or breastbone & the pectoral muscles on each side you are checking to feel where the keel is protruding like a knife blade & whether the pectoral are convex [meaning rounded out][they should be], flat. slightly concave or very concave [severely ill or weak bird]
Did you get that.
From what your saying he is already eating like a little piggy. My suns eat pellets, seed & heaps of fruit & veg & they almost lick the bowl clean. Come to think of it they also prefer their fruit & veg & pellets over seed. So you are on the right track to having a very healthy bird. You'd have to be happy with that.

You can also try him on raw nuts like almonds.

Robyn.

[asharee]

SKITTLES! i swear ill keep calling him that until you find him a name tara!

[conureowner1]

I can feel the keel bone and the sides of the keel bone he hasn't got much meat on him at all. My mum and I reckon if he got sick he wouldn't last a week. He eats alot yes but i don't like it how his poo really stinks,is sloopy cause of all the water he drinks. This is what he is like he eats a pellet then a second later has to poo. His healthy my mum and i reckon its the pellets making his poo really stink.,we also reckon his not getting enough from the pellets eg the lack of meat. He may be a baby but when my MoJo was a baby at 7 weeks she had much more meat then my sun conure at 10 weeks old. The breeder reckons i'm feeding too much he should only be getting a tablespoon of pellets a day. She said the 350gram bag i got should last me a month. God 350grams of seed would last MoJo 4-5 days.

[Robyn]

I have just read all your threads regarding your concerns for your baby sunny. You have to remember a 10 week old baby bird isn't nice & plump like say a 12 month old. They have to fill out so to speak. Before a baby bird has fledged they start to drop weight so they can get off the ground. By the sounds you are giving him to many pellets to eat daily. I never have smelly poop from my babies but they certainly do whoppers especially that first one in the morning. Compared to my Green Cheeks i would also have to say that their droppings are a lot smaller than the sun. I reckon a sunny could give an eckie a run for their money in that department

Also i would like to add Mike {Avinet} has been working with birds for many years & his help and advice is second to none.

Like i have said i do feed pellets but its not everyday, but i do like to feed them to the birds that have babies. I suggest you pop your sunnie on a set of kitchen scales & check his weight. The average weight for an adult should be around 100 - 120 g so if your little fellow is close to that there is nothing wrong your just being a worry wart.

Robyn.

[vankarhi]

Yes like Robyn just said baby birds do not have a lot of "meat" on them as they have just weaned and have usually learned to fly if not clipped too soon plus they are not fully mature......I can still feel Eriks keel bone and he has meat on either side......but he is not a fat boy either.

[conureowner1]

Its been a about a year since i've had such a young bird, I supose every bird is different. I just know my green cheek conure MoJo and Aqua my quaker who i hand reared MoJo from 4 weeks old and aqua from 3 weeks old where not like this. They had plenty of meat on the sides of the keel bone, But yet i only allowed them to fly for a week then clipped there wings. My sun conure has had full flight feathers till he came home. So that could be another reason why he hasn't got much meat. He weighs 106grams still.

[vankarhi]

I would say your little fellow is normal. Maybe a bit on the light side but normal. If it were me I would be giving him things like pine nuts too. Not too much though, but mine love pine nuts and almonds. In one of my other posts I mentioned heaps of different foods you could be giving him just to make sure he is eating. I am sure you will find he will be putting on weight and pigging out real soon.

[Robyn]

Tara, you would have to be very happy with that weight. I know i would be. I just weighted my to chicks which are about 6 & 7 weeks old, their weighing in at just on 120g. So by the time they fledge i am guessing they would be around the same as your little one.
You know he looks very healthy in his pictures.
I also have Quakers & Minty is a little porker, he is 6 years old, i have another 2 that are 18 months old , they are still slim. So Tara really you can't compare as all birds are different.

Robyn.

[conureowner1]

Thanks everyone i just need to learn to settle down and relax.

[rainbowfeathers]

Hi.
I haven't read the earlier replies to this post (in a bit of hurry) so I'm not sure where this thread is at...but to me, it's like you are almost trying to UNDO, what most of us are trying to do/achieve !! If he loves his vegies, fruit & (good quality) pellets, then you can be rest assured, that you will have one damm healthy bird, on ya hands. You hit the jackpot. His diet is the best it could be. Stay with it!! Only offer seeds as the occasional treat... but allow the GOOD QUALITY pellets, to be his main diet.
Anyways, thats my 2 cents.

[rainbowfeathers]

PS. I think you are worrying more than you need to, re the amounts, volumes, metrics etc of the food you give him. I always think more is better than less. As long as he gets some sort of excercise or is allwed to roam freely during the day, he will eat the amount he needs. Seeds have a lot higher fat content and litlle nutrition value. Pellets provide all the nutrients in the right amounts.
xo

[rainbowfeathers]

PPS. ;oP ...I may be starving my birds but any of my birds I pick up to see if I can feel their keel bone, then I always can.. all to different degrees. I've never felt a birds breast, that was so plump and full, that I couldn't feel that tip of the 'V' at ALL.
All my birds have access to food (pellets), all day long. They don't tend to snack throughout the whole day.. it's usually the typical wild bird feeding times... mornings, late aftenoons etc

[conureowner1]

ok i've come to decision to feed vetafarm south american pellets and to convert my other birds. MOjo my normal green cheek is on her way shes already eatting pellets but still jumps on the seed,May my cinnamon green cheek conure is picking at the pellets which is a good start. Aqua the blue quaker on the other hand is a seed junking he won't even eat fresh fruit and veggies so will be very difficult to convert him. I will be ordering the 10kg bag veatafarm pellets on thursday my pay day. I have 1 2kg bag and 350gram bag on order should hopefully be sent out to me next week.

[kebz]

Oct 11, 2009 22:47:18 GMT 10 conureowner1 said:

Aqua the blue quaker on the other hand is a seed junking he won't even eat fresh fruit and veggies so will be very difficult to convert him.

A good example as to why a seed based diet is bad... Its like giving a kid the option between lollies/junk food and fresh and healthy food, ofcourse they are gonna take the junk food.

This is why seed/pellets should only be given in moderation with a balanced fresh food diet.

[rainbowfeathers]

I have 18 birds and have succesfully converted all of them, onto verafarm's MD pellets (well, except for my lorri ofcourse ;p) They get fruit & veg daily.
Good luck. You're doing a good job

[raven]

Oh my gosh! Common sence at last....well done rainbowbirds!