5 Best Conure Foods in 2024 – Reviews & Top Picks

Nearly 10 million American households have invited birds into their homes, and it’s easy to see why. These intelligent animals can interact with humans, are easily trained, and can learn words, which makes them unique among pets.

Providing the best for your conure is part of the responsibility of pet ownership. These South and Central American birds enjoy a varied diet in their native habitats, as these environments support a plethora of vegetation and plant species.

Here, we discuss the best conure foods with detailed reviews. We also cover what to look for in these products so you can choose the best one for your pet.

A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites in 2024

	Image	Product	Details
Best Overall		Lafeber Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries Bird Food	Tasty Native fruit sources Excellent protein content	Check Price
Best Value		Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Bird Greens Bird Food	Convenient Excellent nutritional value Less waste	Check Price
		Roudybush Daily Maintenance Small Bird Food	Convenient Complete nutrition Highly palatable	Check Price
		ZuPreem VeggieBlend Flavor With Natural Flavor Daily Medium Bird Food	High-quality nutrition Convenient Highly palatable	Check Price
		Higgins Safflower Gold Natural Mix Conure & Cockatiel Food	Minimal waste Excellent choice for picky birds Convenient	Check Price

The 5 Best Conure Foods

This product satisfies several nutritional needs with its diversity of ingredients. Lafeber Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries Bird Food includes many things that a conure would find in its native South America, including papaya, mango, and pineapple. It has a variety of protein sources, such as egg and gelatin, which make it the best overall conure food.

The mix is excellent. It covers all the bases with fruit, grains, and dietary supplements. There are a few ingredients that some conures won’t like, though, such as safflowers. Those will likely end up on the bottom of the cage. Overall, it’s a nutritional everyday diet.

The Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Bird Greens Bird Food is one of the best conure foods for the money for its nutritional value. This product is a supplement that offers a wide range of nutrients, primarily protein. That makes it an excellent choice for birds of all ages. The food is convenient to use. You simply add it to your pet’s existing diet.

The food is veggie focused and doesn’t include fruits for balance. Consequently, some conures may not like it without the natural sweetness that they may prefer. While there isn’t a lot of waste using the product, it can have the opposite effect if your conure doesn’t like it.

Roudybush Daily Maintenance Small Bird Food is a complete diet that supplies everything your conure needs with one food. The only time you’ll need to supplement it is during egglaying, which isn’t unusual. It comes in a pellet form that is highly palatable, making for minimal waste. That makes this product convenient to use. Simply fill your conure’s bowl and it’s set for the day.

Even though it covers the nutritional bases, it misses the mark for the mental stimulation that eating provides conures. We recommend occasionally offering your pet fresh fruits and vegetables to add interest.

ZuPreem VeggieBlend Flavor With Natural Flavor Daily Medium Bird Food is an excellent choice for its convenience and nutritional value. It is veggie based, which may limit its appeal for conures with a sweet tooth. It comes in a pellet form, which ensures that it offers complete nutrition. It has visual appeal too, with different colored pellets that your pet will likely appreciate.

The formula works quite well. Even picky pets will at least try this food, if not fall in love with its plethora of flavors, even without fruits. However, conures that like sweets may not enjoy it as much, making supplementing with fruits essential.

The name of the Higgins Safflower Gold Natural Mix Conure & Cockatiel Food belies the fact that it is a complex blend of ingredients that offers superior nutrition for birds. Safflowers are seeds that many birds don’t like, but this mix makes it work and with minimal waste. Several other ingredients improve the taste and boost the nutritional value of the food. That makes it an excellent choice for picky pets.

The food is easy to use, with a well-mixed blend that includes a variety of foodstuffs. It’ll certainly keep your conure’s interest during feeding. The only drawback is that it only comes in either a 3-pound or 25-pound bag. The small size is pricey, but it’s understandable considering the ingredients.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Find the Best Food for a Conure

In order to decide which is the best conure food, it’s helpful to begin with what these birds would eat in the wild. These animals live in places where there is a cornucopia of available foods. The climate supports the growth of numerous plant species. That also comes into play with the specialization you’ll see among conures. The diversity of foodstuffs enables different species to home in on the foods that they prefer.

It’s a formidable challenge to offer the same bounty of offerings in captivity. That can make it more difficult to find the right food for your conure. However, manufacturers have stepped up with products that offer better nutrition and the diversity of foodstuffs that can come close to what these birds might find in the wild.

Each factor can play a significant role in choosing one product over another. Let’s see how each one stacks up to help you make an informed choice.

Food Form

One of the first things that you’ll probably notice with conure foods is the wide range of food forms. You’ll see products that run the gamut from seeds and pellets to dehydrated foodstuffs. In the wild, the table would include fruits, seeds, and invertebrates. Availability drives the choices in the wild. As pets, conures will have their favorites, which isn’t uncommon.

Mixed blends will include many of the options that conures would find in the wild. However, that doesn’t mean they’re making the best choices in captivity. They may gravitate toward seeds, such as sunflower seeds and peanuts. While these offer excellent nutrition, they are not complete diets. That puts them at risk for nutritional deficiencies. As if that weren’t enough, many conures will toss out the seeds they don’t like, creating a bigger mess.

That’s why many experts suggest that a conure’s diet should comprise up to 85% pellets. Such commercial diets can pack all the necessary nutrients in a palatable form to cut down on waste.

Variety of Ingredients

Variety refers not just to the mix of foods available but also to the nutritional profile of the ingredients in the mix. Offering several food types provides mental stimulation, which is essential for intelligent animals like conures. It encourages them to figure out how to use different foodstuffs, whether it’s how to open a nut or whether a fruit tastes good to them.

The mixes may include different textures, which also adds interest. Remember that in the wild, conures will eat what’s available.  Eben after years as pets, they still have this curiosity about their environment. Encouraging curiosity is an essential part of keeping your conure active and mentally stimulated.

Nutritional Value

Optimal nutritional value is high on the list when choosing the best conure foods. These birds do a suitable job of adding variety to their diet and thus, boosting the nutritional value of what they eat. The primary concerns are ingredients that the conures won’t encounter in the wild, particularly additives and preservatives. These are double-edged swords because feeding moldy food to your bird is also problematic.

Serving Size

The serving size is a dynamic quality. It plays a direct role in the value of a particular product. For example, if your conure is tossing out half of what it eats, you’re not getting your money’s worth. Your pet may also pay the price because it’s not getting the nutrition that it needs. Often, you can gauge a product’s value by the serving size. The goal is to provide nutrient-dense foods, particularly with pellet diets.

You also need to consider the size of the package that you buy. You’ll often get a deal for a larger size. However, it’s not good value if you’re only feeding your bird a small amount each day, and the rest goes stale or bad before you finish it. We suggest keeping this factor in mind when comparing different conure foods.

Final Thoughts

Among these reviews, Lafeber Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries Bird Food ticks off many of the requirement boxes that we want to see in pet foods. It contains a healthy blend of vitamins and nutrients with a diverse mix of foodstuffs. Although some birds will pick and choose, there are many good things here to keep your conure happy.

The Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Bird Greens Bird Food is an excellent affordable addition to your conure’s regular diet that ensures that your pet gets everything that it needs for optimal health.

Featured Image Credit: Bruce Hong, Unsplash