Tajra
Meeting neighbors
Hello, I am a veterinary student and I aim to become an avian specialist one day but I have a, presumably/hopefully, nutrition problem with my bird that I don´t know how to solve.
I have a crimson-bellied conure, female, 1year and 9months old. A single housed bird. Never tested for viral diseases but her parents are the only two parrots in the house. She was parent-raised. Parents were fed a seed-based diet with multiple vegetables and fruits daily, occasionally with vitamin or pellet supplementation. She was on the same diet for 3 months until I got her.
After that she was on seed-mix 60%, zupreem high potency 30%, vegetables, and fruit 10% till the age of 6 – 7 months, then I started feeding her Harrison´s pellets 50 – 60% vegetables 10-15%, seed-mix 10-20%, sprouted seeds during training sessions
Over the months I added more variety to the vegetables I fed her and cut back the seeds.
One month ago I added a new pellet brand: Psittacus. Several months before that she was on Harrison´s lifetime adult fine and all the stuff listed below.
Her current diet consists of: Harrison´s lifetime adult fine + Psittacus pellet around 60-70% - she gets a roughly equal amount of each brand, Fresh or frozen vegetables 25 – 35%, Sprouted seeds and microgreens 5 - 10%, dried herbs, 1-2 times a week fresh or bio dried fruit, primrose oil 2drops once a week, A seed-mix with a large variety of seeds including wild seeds and vegetable seeds 5-10%
Medical history and current problem
Around the age of 10-11 months, she needed her first nail trim (which is quite soon in my understanding) I purchased a sand perch and changed all rope perches for wooden perches in her cage. She still has some rope perches outside but also a variety of wooden perches of various shapes and sizes.
Now at the age of 1year and 9months, she has overgrown nails and beak. To add it up the tip of her upper beak and a small piece of her lower beak broke off a few days ago.
Her feathers also have poor quality – she has black feather apexes and few whole black feathers. They start out normal but slowly turn black over time.
She is otherwise a healthy bird. I weigh her usually once a week and her weight stayed the same the whole year: 72 – 74g. She loves foraging and chewing on various wooden and cardboard/paper toys. I encourage her to play with toys and train with her almost daily.
I am in a covid quarantine right now but as soon as the quarantine ends I am taking her to the avian vet to get her beak and nails trimmed and have full bloodwork done. I have a good avian vet but she is not a nutrition specialist and there isn´t one in the whole country (Czech Republic).
I need advice if there is anything I could do to improve her diet or what additional tests I could let the vet run to find out what is wrong with her.
The only thing that I know is wrong is that my parrot never got enough unfiltered sunlight but I am not sure if it would cause beak and nail overgrowth. And Harrison´s pellets should have sufficient content of vitamin D3 so it should supplement the sunlight at least partially.
Does anyone have any idea or do you know an avian nutrition specialist who I could ask online for help?
I have a crimson-bellied conure, female, 1year and 9months old. A single housed bird. Never tested for viral diseases but her parents are the only two parrots in the house. She was parent-raised. Parents were fed a seed-based diet with multiple vegetables and fruits daily, occasionally with vitamin or pellet supplementation. She was on the same diet for 3 months until I got her.
After that she was on seed-mix 60%, zupreem high potency 30%, vegetables, and fruit 10% till the age of 6 – 7 months, then I started feeding her Harrison´s pellets 50 – 60% vegetables 10-15%, seed-mix 10-20%, sprouted seeds during training sessions
Over the months I added more variety to the vegetables I fed her and cut back the seeds.
One month ago I added a new pellet brand: Psittacus. Several months before that she was on Harrison´s lifetime adult fine and all the stuff listed below.
Her current diet consists of: Harrison´s lifetime adult fine + Psittacus pellet around 60-70% - she gets a roughly equal amount of each brand, Fresh or frozen vegetables 25 – 35%, Sprouted seeds and microgreens 5 - 10%, dried herbs, 1-2 times a week fresh or bio dried fruit, primrose oil 2drops once a week, A seed-mix with a large variety of seeds including wild seeds and vegetable seeds 5-10%
Medical history and current problem
Around the age of 10-11 months, she needed her first nail trim (which is quite soon in my understanding) I purchased a sand perch and changed all rope perches for wooden perches in her cage. She still has some rope perches outside but also a variety of wooden perches of various shapes and sizes.
Now at the age of 1year and 9months, she has overgrown nails and beak. To add it up the tip of her upper beak and a small piece of her lower beak broke off a few days ago.
Her feathers also have poor quality – she has black feather apexes and few whole black feathers. They start out normal but slowly turn black over time.
She is otherwise a healthy bird. I weigh her usually once a week and her weight stayed the same the whole year: 72 – 74g. She loves foraging and chewing on various wooden and cardboard/paper toys. I encourage her to play with toys and train with her almost daily.
I am in a covid quarantine right now but as soon as the quarantine ends I am taking her to the avian vet to get her beak and nails trimmed and have full bloodwork done. I have a good avian vet but she is not a nutrition specialist and there isn´t one in the whole country (Czech Republic).
I need advice if there is anything I could do to improve her diet or what additional tests I could let the vet run to find out what is wrong with her.
The only thing that I know is wrong is that my parrot never got enough unfiltered sunlight but I am not sure if it would cause beak and nail overgrowth. And Harrison´s pellets should have sufficient content of vitamin D3 so it should supplement the sunlight at least partially.
Does anyone have any idea or do you know an avian nutrition specialist who I could ask online for help?
