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We have a couple of blue crown conures. Have them for a year or so now. They are on a good diet, zupreem/exact pellets, some quality seed mix, cooked foods, veggies and fruits.

Question is this: Someone told us yesterday that if the tip of their upper beak gets needle sharp and is black/dark in color, and if it can break off (just the very tip!!) and not bleed, that the bird has a nutritional deficiency in their diet somehow.

Can anyone yea or nay this? With the diet they're on, I can't see where the deficiency would be.

Thanks.

Your diet sounds very good. You might consider adding a mineral block if you havent done so already.If the beaks get very sharp perhaps they need things to chew on like wooden toys or plain pieces of pine. Your avian vet is the best place for this sort of info. Ask the next time you go in----Yogi

Thanks Yogi. We keep cuttle bone in all of the cages, and since conures like to "make" toothpicks, always have some kind of wood toys in their cages. Didn't think of a mineral block, might have to try that.

As far as asking the vet, sure will. In fact, one BC has to go back in for her followup from a bacterial crop infection, so will add that to the list of questions we always seem to bring him LOL!!

It was just a nagging question for us, hate to think that we're not providing something that they need in their diets.

Actually I do give my birds cuttlebone as I have a good supply of them stashed away but I keep a good eye on it . I recently found out after using it forever that the sharp edges on the back can splinter and the sharp edges can cause damage to the birds. It doesnt happen often but once is too much. So I keep mineral blocks in the cages and I have one bird that needs extra calcium so I scrape the cuttlebone over his food.

Blue crowns are getting very popular. Do you find them very noisey?---Yogi

Both of these birds are owner surrenders. The one female that had the crop infection is very noisy! She has a pretty good vocabulary tho' too, things from her past like "What momma got", "Is it good", "Give me a kiss", and "Bye Bye Bye". But she also "sqwacks" 50 % of the time. And, unfortunately, as much as I love her, it's in that octive range that just sets your teeth on edge! But she's still a good bird and has come a long long way in trusting again.

The other female is very quiet except at feeding time and when she wants her one-on-one time. She also has a fairly good vocabulary but is very quiet spoken. But her calls too have that teeth clenching tone. She is taking a bit longer then Lilly to completely trust but is coming along.

As far as popularity in the general public goes, I am definitely seeing a lot of them up for adoption or sale.

Okay----I post on several chats and I cant tell you how many BC's I have seen being rehomed because of noise.On one post I begged a guy not to get a BC because the whole first paragraph of his list of questions was about how much noise do BCs make. Sure enough about two months later he was looking to rehome the bird because of noise.I find the fact you mentioned the pitch was more annoying than the actual noise level very interesting.If it's any comfort I have an abused nanday that was rescued 17 years ago at the age of 4. Visitors dropped in and left after a few minutes because of the screaming.The screaming became less and less until now you have to look to see if he's ok because he's so quiet. I find if a bird feels safe the screaming disappears. It takes a long time. A very long time. It seems like forever.But it does happen and I wish you the best of luck. They are so beautiful when the trust comes.-----Yogi