2 replies to "Storytime: My Green Cheek Conure Rio Almost Died!"
SnuffPuppet
07/01/2023
He's high red. Unfortunately , high red greencheeks suffer health issues more than normal ones. They're genetically 'bad', and they should never be used to breed, so some breeders kill them when they are hatched. 🙁 So I'm glad you have him, and his breeder wasn't a monster! You are both very fortunate to have each other.
As for your little one's liver troubles, They did know what caused it, and it was his deficiencies. It's usually always deficiencies that causes liver failure, and most of the time you find that it's either fatty liver disease from an all seed and nut diet, or lack of calcium, vitamin d, or vitamin a. This is why they are recommending mineral blocks, greens, and sunlight.
The sunlight provides the vitamin d, which just like us, birds need to metabolize calcium. So even if you have a mineral block, and the birdo is eating it, if he doesn't have enough d, that extra calcium goes to waste. A lot of people don't realize that, and nobody ever tells us, so we think our birds are getting plenty only to be devestatingly surprised later when a problem arises.
They suggested the leafy greens for vitamin a. I heard how your buddy doesn't like his new diet as well, and that's not unheard of at all lol. Try to offer them in other ways, such as whole leaves hanging in the cage, instead of chopped in his bowl. Do you make birdy bread? Chop them very finely and add them into the batter. Have a foraging toy he loves to play with? Fill it with greens (Birds are more willing to eat food they work for, to the point that they would RATHER work for it than get it from their bowls a lot of the time. This is how I got all of my budgies to eat pellets. They would eat anything from their foraging toys, or grass pads before anything in their bowls. So I stopped putting anything but pellets in those, and they just started eating them lol.) Mix it up!
Try a wider variety of things. Yes, leafy greens are high in vitamin a, but beta carotene is metabolized into retinol too, so you can offer green, red, and orange veggies as well. Offer carrot, peas, squash, SWEET POTATO (birds LOOOOVE sweet potato), broccoli (very appealing as the tops are very much like sprouted seeds to them), peppers of all sorts (especially green and red peppers), pumpkin, as well as mango and papaya. And I know we're supposed to minimize fruit, but if our feathered kids won't eat their veggies, and it's killing them, it's better to have them eat fruit that will provide what they need than nothing at all! Especially if it's going to get them more enthused about eating more types of food!
Another thing that got my very seed spoiled conure to even bother to try another type of food at all was Kaytee Bird Greens. It is actually all kinds of leafy, good in vitamin a stuff mixed into a dried salad for them (with small chunks of sweet potato thrown in but not enough to call it sufficient). And best of all, it's cheap! Something about having the leafy greens dried out made them more appealing to him, and praise the Phoenix, he started eating them! After a while, he was much more open to trying many other new foods I offered.
2 replies to "Storytime: My Green Cheek Conure Rio Almost Died!"
He's high red. Unfortunately , high red greencheeks suffer health issues more than normal ones. They're genetically 'bad', and they should never be used to breed, so some breeders kill them when they are hatched. 🙁 So I'm glad you have him, and his breeder wasn't a monster! You are both very fortunate to have each other.
As for your little one's liver troubles, They did know what caused it, and it was his deficiencies. It's usually always deficiencies that causes liver failure, and most of the time you find that it's either fatty liver disease from an all seed and nut diet, or lack of calcium, vitamin d, or vitamin a. This is why they are recommending mineral blocks, greens, and sunlight.
The sunlight provides the vitamin d, which just like us, birds need to metabolize calcium. So even if you have a mineral block, and the birdo is eating it, if he doesn't have enough d, that extra calcium goes to waste. A lot of people don't realize that, and nobody ever tells us, so we think our birds are getting plenty only to be devestatingly surprised later when a problem arises.
They suggested the leafy greens for vitamin a. I heard how your buddy doesn't like his new diet as well, and that's not unheard of at all lol. Try to offer them in other ways, such as whole leaves hanging in the cage, instead of chopped in his bowl. Do you make birdy bread? Chop them very finely and add them into the batter. Have a foraging toy he loves to play with? Fill it with greens (Birds are more willing to eat food they work for, to the point that they would RATHER work for it than get it from their bowls a lot of the time. This is how I got all of my budgies to eat pellets. They would eat anything from their foraging toys, or grass pads before anything in their bowls. So I stopped putting anything but pellets in those, and they just started eating them lol.) Mix it up!
Try a wider variety of things. Yes, leafy greens are high in vitamin a, but beta carotene is metabolized into retinol too, so you can offer green, red, and orange veggies as well. Offer carrot, peas, squash, SWEET POTATO (birds LOOOOVE sweet potato), broccoli (very appealing as the tops are very much like sprouted seeds to them), peppers of all sorts (especially green and red peppers), pumpkin, as well as mango and papaya. And I know we're supposed to minimize fruit, but if our feathered kids won't eat their veggies, and it's killing them, it's better to have them eat fruit that will provide what they need than nothing at all! Especially if it's going to get them more enthused about eating more types of food!
Another thing that got my very seed spoiled conure to even bother to try another type of food at all was Kaytee Bird Greens. It is actually all kinds of leafy, good in vitamin a stuff mixed into a dried salad for them (with small chunks of sweet potato thrown in but not enough to call it sufficient). And best of all, it's cheap! Something about having the leafy greens dried out made them more appealing to him, and praise the Phoenix, he started eating them! After a while, he was much more open to trying many other new foods I offered.
Best of wishes for your baby, and you!
why is he clipped?