Sunflower Seeds and Green Cheek Conures

[Jax]

So what's the deal with sunflower seeds. I've read many times that they are not healthy and they are "addictive" for birds, and of course mine loves them.

I bought a seed mix for her at the pet store that said it was specifically for conures and it had the proper nutrition and all of that, but I noticed that a large percentage of it is sunflower seeds. It has other stuff like pumpkin seeds, canary seeds, some sort of dried peppers, pellets, and other miscellaneous nuts, but there are a lot of sunflower seeds! Should I pick them al out by hand before feeding that mix to her and save them for treats, or is it okay to have sunflower seeds mixed into her food?

I also feed her millet, and I try to feed her vegies too (she is more picky with those but she will usually nibble a bit on broccoli and peas), and fruits (she likes bananas). So this issue isn't that she is getting only sunflower seeds. I am just wondering how many sunflower seeds is okay, and why does my seed mix have so many of them if it's supposed to be a proper diet for conures? It's called "Pretty Bird premium". Check out the link for the specifics on what is in the food mix. Is this a bad type of food to buy?

[Busguy]

I have noticed that many "healthy" bird mixes do include varying amounts of sunflower seeds. I let mine have them but also ensure that they all get a lot of fresh food and variety; berries, vegetables, etc.

We buy bird'elicious Conure and Parrotlet specific food and serve it regularly, sometimes mixed with berries, sometimes mixed with veggies and usually with a pinch of high grade calcium powder and a few drops of oil and vitamins.

As for nuts, they seem to go in cycles and at times only want the sunflower seeds but the next day they ignore those completely and only want the safflower seeds or pick out various other things.

You will find that some people will strongly advocate that you never give any sunflower seeds at all and I don't necessarily disagree but I choose to keep them available while ensuring that they are only a very small part of their diets.

[DarwinTheSun]

Sunflower seeds are mostly fat, and you can imagine it would be like you having french fries as your staple diet (with little nutrition). I would personally pick them out, and not buy that food anymore. Is your bird on a pellet diet too? All conures are prone to getting fat, and my vet recommends no seeds at all (except for treats). Millet also does not offer any real nutritional value and should also be offered as a treat.

[Jax]

I didn't realize millet was not nutritional, I thought I read somewhere that it was... Can anybody confirm? I know it can't be the only thing they eat, but I thought it was at least more nutritional than the seeds.

So as long as she gets a variety of foods, the sunflower seeds aren't going to hurt her, are they? They have a lack of nutrition but nothing really harmful right? I will try to pick most of them out, but they are by far her favorite food so I don't think I can take them out of her diet completely, especially for learning tricks. Maybe next time I'll buy food with no sunflowers and keep this bag of sunflower seed food for teaching her tricks.

Did anybody check out the link I posted to the bird food I bought? Can anybody say whether or not it sounds nutritious besides the sunflower seeds?

[xafsmom]

Millet is one of those hotly discussed items. Some say it's got no nutritional value and is just a 'junk food', others say it's got a lot to offer. People eat millet as a staple quite regularly, and in poultry production it's a staple food for laying hens and meat birds. If you check the average nutritional values on consumable millet, it's low in fat and contains approximately 60% carbohydrates, 10% protein and 5% minerals and essential amino acids and is a complete protein, so it can utilise those amino acids productively.

For human consumption, it's got a ton of health goodness, for birds though... point is, if it's a staple in many countries that use millet like we use oatmeal... it cannot be un-nutritional.

My take on it is the 'everything in moderation'. I offer my conures a couple of millet sprays a day. They love to attack it, and in reality a good half of the seed is lost in the exuberance of the attack anyway.

Your seed mix ... I dunno. I feel like I have to be a scientist to decipher all the non-food things in it. I'd have to look it over, I guess. Here's what I feed my boys:

Roudybush maintenance pellets - small size and Zupreme fruit blend, because they love the colours.
South American Preservation Blend I
South American Preservation Blend II
They LOVE goldenfeast mixes and actually prefer the bigger bird mix more than the littler. Go figure.

Fresh veggie/beans and Beak Appetit (assorted for variety), and a verrry small, maybe 10% of the food mix is a 'parrot mix' of seeds. In a crock of dry food, there is probably 3 sunflower seeds max.

Sunflower seeds do to birds what they do to us ...make us fat. /shrug Use them for training treats and don't have your birds depend on them for food. I'm going through this with my baby African Grey right now. The breeder used sunflower seeds as a weaning food, so he's addicted to them. He will cry out and rush you for sunflower seeds. I can't even use them for hand treats because he gets so excited over having them and will fret and not eat anything else in hopes for having more sunflower seeds.

[ccg]

Thought I might give some input as I recently went through this, mind you I am know expert...

I bought my Nanday in december 2007, so its only been 4-5 months so I am new myself. When we got him he was on a seed diet, mostly eating the ,sun flower seeds and corn in the mix. I started to feed him zupreem pellets, making them always avaiable, in another dish, and mixing it in with his seed. Over maybe a month, I would start to pull a few sunflower seeds from the mix everyday, this didnt seem to work, he wanted nothing to do with the pellets... This is when I realized something, he won't try to eat anything unless he sees me eating it, so I acted as if pellets were treats, I would have a few and tease him, putting it up to his beak and pulling it back in pretending I ate it, and you have to actually pretend, hes not stupid lol... Once he sees me eating it, he cant wait to have one! Over the course of a month I did this and it worked perfect. On top of that, I don't think this poor guy has ever seen fresh fruit or veggies! This is somewhat what his diet looks like now:

1. 2 different kinds of pellets offered in the morning (both zupreem)

2. at least 2 types of fruit a day, usually apple, papaya, pomigranits, mango, mellons, banana, pears, cranberries are a hit, fresh berries of any type, the list goes on...

3. At dinner time when we make dinner for ourselves we ALWAYS prepare fresh veggiees, favorite are fresh (or frozen) green beans, green peas and corn.

4. During the day he gets a nut or 2 for a treat, usually an half and almond, or a peanut, and a couple times a week before bedtime he gets to feast on his seeds! He's like a kid in a candy shop when that happens!

5. He also gets a bit of brown rice whenever we eat it, and I have oats and berries in the morning and he appreciates a warm spoonful of that as well.

He goes out of his way to steal our food when he has the chance, we never let in or give him food that isnt good for him.

Anyhow, I continue to do my reading and research ways I can improve this little guys life, he is spoiled compared to his last home and doesnt know what to do with himself!

Keep reading and researching yourself, its never ending, you'll find tons of information online, and you cant beat a good book.

Good luck with your new green cheek!