First-Time GCC Owner Here (or bird for that matter!)

[TempleGCC]

Hello! My wife and I (mainly me) are new to birds and have put a deposit on a GCC at a local breeder that we will be picking up next week. I'm not sure what "good conditions" are with breeders as I had never been to one before, but we were not very happy about the condition of the breeder's home we went to. Thankfully, the birds appeared healthy, and thankfully, the breeder is getting out of the business. Given that, we had to "rescue" our new addition, but we can't stand that he has to stay there for a week!

Anyway, not to distract from my intention of this post... I did a lot of research on conures in general before we decided on the GCC. I read everything I could find and luckily stumbled upon this board. The information here is great!! I have a few questions though, mainly regarding feeding. I have read many posts, including Monica's on safe and toxic foods. We plan on feeding as much of a fresh diet as we can, likely 40-50% or more. Pellet wise, I'm debating between Zupreem or Harrison's. Zupreem is much easier to obtain locally, but from what I've seen on the boards Harrison's tends to be recommended more. My main question that I'm having a hard time finding an answer to is how much to feed? I've read the whole "your bird will consume approximately 20% of it's body weight in food per day" bit, but that doesn't seem to satisfy me. I think I'm too used to my dogs who get an exact portion per day. Is that similar for conures? We are so excited about our new addition and we just want to make sure we do everything right. Thank you in advance for the information, and I will post some pics of our new boy (Ziggy) as soon as I can.

-Joe

[Jwhear]

Congrats and welcome to the board. I have a green cheek and basically as far as diet goes is like this...I give him fresh pellet in the morning along with fresh water. Later in the day he gets fresh/cooked veggies and more fresh water. He is only about 3 months old so I give him a little hand feeding formula. He also gets birdie bread and other fresh foods that are healthy such as scrambled eggs, yogurt, grains, beans and other stuff. I leave pellets in his cage all day which I change twice during the day and the other stuff he gets when we eat supper.

If he is hungry I let him eat, I just make sure he gets exercise with his toys and on the playgym.

I have 8 birds and they are all pretty much on the same feeding schedule/diet.

Zupreem is ok as long as it is the natural variety without dies and flavorings. You could also order the Harrisons on line and have it shipped, just not real large portions so it is fresh or you could freeze it.

Keep us posted and pics soon

[jenseits]

I've never measured out how much pelleted food my birds get. I just scoop a bunch into their bowls and refill as necessary every couple of days. You need to make sure nothing gets in there that can spoil, but otherwise I just leave their pellets out for them 24/7 -- no idea how much exactly they're getting but they won't gorge themselves (although they probably would if I gave them all the seeds they could eat).

Now that I think about it, I did cut back on my sun conure's pellets for a while because he developed a habit of tossing his food across the room. At that time, a generous "handful" (my hands are small) lasted him a day, but he also gets that supplemented with fruits and veggies, so it's still hard to tell exactly how much he's eating.

Not very specific, I know. =)

[NotEnoughTime]

I keep pellets out all the time. My girl was weened onto pellets and she just eats them when she is hungry.

In the morning and evening when we (as a family) sit down to supper Gari (my green cheek) joins us at the table and has her meal of whatever is cooking that day... Bird-safe food from Monica's list and usually made up of mostly fresh veggies, sprouts and little bit of grain.

She gets treats (sunflower seeds) when she performs tasks and once a week I spoil her with a little bit of sunflower/millet mix.

I like the process that the author of the rationalparrot.com website goes through here: Parrot Diet and I recommend glop as another food for your bird - but I use yogurt without cornstarch (usually the expensive stuff) and sweetners in it for the glop recipe...

Good luck with your new bird (when you get her). I am sure you will love her to pieces!! Green cheeks are great!!

[pecks]

Harrison's has a feeding guide on their bags and on their website. They state it's only a recommendation, but it's a start. Here's one of the guides.

Personally, when I get my conure in, I'll be using Harrison's. I trust their brand and they have a great track record. You can order it online at various outlets, as Jwhear stated, but you can also usually find it at vet offices. It's actually cheaper for me to get it at my vet's office than to order it online! (Not counting shipping charges for online orders, either.) Granted, it might not be the same for you, but I think Harrison's would be worth it.

Granted, any organic pelleted diet is better than a seed-based diet. :p

[NotEnoughTime]

I keep pellets out all the time. My girl was weened onto pellets and she just eats them when she is hungry.

In the morning and evening when we (as a family) sit down to supper Gari (my green cheek) joins us at the table and has her meal of whatever is cooking that day... Bird-safe food from Monica's list and usually made up of mostly fresh veggies, sprouts and little bit of grain.

She gets treats (sunflower seeds) when she performs tasks and once a week I spoil her with a little bit of sunflower/millet mix.

I like the process that the author of the rationalparrot.com website goes through here: Parrot Diet and I recommend glop as another food for your bird - but I use yogurt without cornstarch (usually the expensive stuff) and sweetners in it for the glop recipe...

Good luck with your new bird (when you get her). I am sure you will love her to pieces!! Green cheeks are great!!

[NotEnoughTime]

Interesting - somehow a double post... And 11 minutes apart...

Sorry 'bout that.

[TempleGCC]

Thank you all for your replies. That gives me some great information to start with. I'm sure that I will learn along the way and I probably overthink things sometimes, but better safe than sorry!

NotEnoughTime - great reading at rationalparrot.com. That article alone educated me more than any of the research on diet I had done previously.

Thanks again everyone!

[Shutterbugmom]

Joe, I don't know if you saw this, but thought it might be useful since you say that you will be a first time bird owner. This is a short article on cage placement:

Conure - Cage Placement

[TempleGCC]

Originally Posted by Shutterbugmom

Joe, I don't know if you saw this, but thought it might be useful since you say that you will be a first time bird owner. This is a short article on cage placement:

Conure - Cage Placement

Great read, Shutterbugmom. The good news is that I think this article reinforces my previously chosen cage placement. I have the luxury of "telecommuting," therefore I work from home. Our cage will be placed in my office in the corner, against two walls. My only concern is that I'm on conference calls often throughout the day, so noise may be an issue. That's one of the main reasons I went with the GCC though, as I was originally looking at the suns. My other concern is being distracted from work (I can't imagine that would ever happen ). Come to think of it, I'm supposed to be working now...

Thanks again!