Feeding The Conure

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By peace | August 14, 2007

According to avian veterinarian Gary Gallerstein, birds require vitamin A, D, E, K, B1, B2, niacin, B6, B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, and choline to stay healthy, but they can only partially manufacture vitamin D3 and niacin in their bodies. A balanced diet can help provide the rest.

Pet birds also need trace amounts of some minerals to maintain good health. These minerals are calcium, phosphorus, sodium, chlorine, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, sulphur, iodine, and manganese. They can be provided with a well-balanced diet and a supplemental mineral block or cuttlebone.

Seeds, Grains and Legumes
To ensure your bird is receiving the proper nutrients from her diet, you need to know whether the seed you are serving is fresh. One way to do this is to try sprouting some of the seeds. Sprouted seeds can also tempt a finicky eater to broaden his diet. To sprout seeds, you will need to soak them overnight in lukewarm water. Drain the water off and let the seeds sit in a closed cupboard or other out-of-the way place for twenty-four hours. Rinse the sprouted seeds thoroughly before offering them to your bird.

Be sure that your pet has an adequate supply of seeds in her dish at all times. Some conures drop the empty seed hulls back into their dishes. This seemingly full dish can lead to a very hungry conure if you are not observant enough. Other items in the bread group that you can offer to the pet conure is unsweetened breakfast cereals, whole-wheat bread, cooked beans, cooked rice and pasta. Offer a few flakes of cereal at time, serve small bread cubes, and conure-size portions of rice, beans or pasta. Another good stuff that is quite popular with many conures is mung beans.

Fruits and Vegetables
Dark green or dark orange vegetables and fruits contain vitamin A, an important part of a bird’s diet that is missing from seeds, grains and legumes. This vitamin helps fight off infection and keeps a bird’s eyes, mouth, and respiratory system healthy. Some vitamin A-rich food are carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, broccoli, dried red peppers, and dandelion greens.

Proteins
Along with small portions of well-cooked meat, you can also offer your bird bits of tofu, water-packed tuna, fully cooked scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, unsweetened yogurt, or low-fat cheese. Do not overdo the dairy products though, because a bird’s digestive system lacks the enzyme lactase, which means he is unable to fully process dairy food.

Supplements
You may be concerned about whether your bird is receiving enough vitamins and minerals in his diet. If your conure’s diet is mostly seeds and fresh food, you may wnat to sprinkle a good quality vitamin and mineral powder onto the fresh food, where it is the best chance of sticking to the food and being eaten. Vitamin-enriched seed diets may provide some supplementation, but some of them add the vitamins and minerals to the seed hulls, which your pet will discard while she’s eating.

Water
Provide your conure with fresh, clean water twice a day to maintain her good health.

Pelleted Diet
Pelleted diets created by mixing as many as forty different nutrients into a mash and then forcing the hot mixture through a machine to form various shapes. Some pelleted diets have clolurs and flavours added, while others are fairly plain. These formulated diets provide balanced nutrition for your pet bird in an easy-to-serve form that reduces the amount of wasted food and eliminates the chance fo ra bird to pick through a smorgasbord of healthy food to find him favourites and reject the foods he is not particularly fond of . Some conures accept pelleted diets quickly, while others require some persuading.

Although most conures are not shy about trying new food, your conure may be hesitant to accept pellets. If your conure seems a bit finicky about trying pellets, another bird in the house may show your conure how yummy pellets can be. Whatever you do, do not starve your bird into trying a new food. Offer new food along with familiar favourites. This will ensure that your bird is eating and will also encourage him to try new food. Do not be discouraged if your conure does not dive right into a new food. Be patient, keep offering new food to your bird, praise her enthusiastically when she samples something new.

Food To Avoid For Conure

alcohol
avocado
candy
chocolate
potato chips
pretzels
rhubarb
seeds or pits from apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, pears and plums

Whatever fresh food you offer your pet, be sure to remove food from the cage promptly to prevent spoiling and to help keep your bird healthy. Ideally, you should change the food in your bird’s cage every two to four hours (about every thirty minutes in warm weather), so a conure should be all right with a tray of food to pick through in the morning, another to select from during the afternoon, and a third fresh salad to nibble on for dinner.

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