Apricots are easily one of the more underappreciated fruits in the modern day.
They just don’t get the same press as the staples like apples and oranges.
For those of us who do like them, though, I have no doubt the question has entered your head—can my conure eat apricots?
Yes, conures can eat apricots as part of a balanced diet. They are really tasty and nutritious when fed in the correct moderation. Your conure will love them, and they make fantastic treats. But that’s the key word—treat. They need only be fed in strict moderation.
Apricots are highly nutritious, and it is for this very reason that you need to be careful when feeding them to your conures.
Your little parrot only needs to eat a few before it has really gotten all the benefit it can from them.
Let’s find out more.
Are apricots good for conures?
Yes, they are, in a great many ways.
Firstly, if you’ve tasted apricots yourself, you know how sweet and tasty they are.
Your conure will appreciate this, too.
They will always benefit from having a greater variety of tasty treats on their menu, and apricots can definitely be part of this.
It will improve their mood, and this in turn will improve their physical health—it’s mind over matter!
Beyond that, though, there are many things we can say in apricot’s favor in terms of their nutritional content.
Perhaps most simply is the beneficial fiber content in apricots.
Fiber is a central part of any conure’s diet. It aids healthy digestion and sees everything move smoothly through the gut.
Apricots are great for this reason.
They are also rich in many vital vitamins.
They contain large quantities of vitamin A, C, and E, which serve a variety of functions in the body.
Vitamin A, for example, promotes healthy vision, and slows the degradation of the eyes over time.
Vitamin C is actually a powerful antioxidant, which is a vital agent against the formation of free radicals in the body’s cells.
These free radicals damage the cells over time, leading to degenerative illnesses earlier in life than they ought to appear naturally.
Apricots are also a rich source of potassium. Potassium is a vital mineral, and aids in the flow and regulation of fluid inside the conure’s cells.
Again, your conure needs good amounts of potassium, and apricots are a great, low-calorie vessel for this kind of nutrition.
That’s the final thing to say about apricots: they are incredibly nutritious for being so low in overall calories.
That said, it’s still really important to keep moderation in mind—so let’s look at the caveats.
Are apricots bad for conures?
No, apricots are not bad for conures.
They aren’t dangerous or toxic and pose no specific threat to your conure.
They won’t do them any harm in the short term.
That said, of course, as anything, they need to be fed as part of a balanced diet.
Because apricots are so nutrient-rich, a little conure only needs to eat a small amount before it has gotten all the benefit it can from them.
If it eats too much more, then it will begin having trouble digesting the apricot.
This will lead to digestive troubles of numerous kinds, including potential diarrhea.
The key is moderation. Your conure’s diet should be made up of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, on top of its regular feed.
So, with that in mind, just how often should I be giving my conure apricots?
How much apricot should conures have?
If you want to make it a regular staple of their diet, then at most your conure should be eating apricot once or twice a week.
Swap the apricot for other treats during the rest of the week.
Apricots are quite small, so a single one sliced up would probably do a pair of conures just fine.
As we said above, the main reason for this is to provide the best balance and range of nutrients.
Your conure can’t get everything it needs from one fruit, however nutritious that fruit might be.
The other thing is that, in the wild, your conure would have a very wide-ranging and varied diet.
This is what they are instinctively used to.
Thus, they will get bored very quickly if you try and give them the same treat every time.
It will end up not having t he same effect on its mood as it otherwise would.
So, once or twice a week in small amounts is plenty of apricot for your conure.
What about the parts of the fruit?
Are they all safe for conures?
Can conures eat apricot flesh?
Yes, conures can eat apricot flesh.
Unsurprisingly, the flesh is the tastiest and most nutritious part, and the part that your conures will be most attracted to.
It’s perfectly safe and contains all the vitamins and other nutrients that we’ve looked at so far.
My advice would be to slice up the apricot flesh to give to your conures.
While they will be able to get it open themselves, they’ll have a much easier time with sliced apricot.
That said, some might say a whole apricot makes for better enrichment.
In any case, the flesh is totally safe and edible.
What about the skin?
Can conures eat apricot skin?
Yes, your conure can also eat the skin of the apricot.
For the most part, they’ll be less interested in the skin than in the rest of the fruit.
They will certainly eat it when they are trying to get at the flesh.
But they won’t be as excited about the skin.
The skin of many fruits, though, often is more nutritionally dense in a couple of ways than the flesh itself.
They often contain a lot of the vitamin content.
So, it’s certainly worth letting them have the skin.
But the flesh still has plenty of vitamin content.
Can conures eat apricot pits?
This is a really important point.
Though they are very unlikely to try to eat the pit, it is toxic and should not be given to them with the fruit.
This, again, is another reason I suggest cutting the apricot into slices.
While the actual risks are very low, and your conure would have to eat an entire pit and grind it up to cause any real harm, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Keep the pits well away from them.
Can conures eat canned apricots?
Yes, they can, but it’s really better not to give them canned apricots.
They are often filled with added preservatives to keep them from spoiling, which is not ideal for your sensitive conure’s diet.
Where possible, give them fresh apricots, and keep the canned ones out of the picture.
As I said, apricots should only be an occasional treat anyway, so you won’t save a great deal of money by going for canned apricots, either.
Ideally, you would source fresh apricots outside of the larger, chain grocery stores.
This reduces the risks of things like pesticides used in the growing process.
What about dried apricots?
Can conures eat dried apricots?
The answer here is predictably similar to canned.
While dried apricots are better than canned, nothing can match up to fresh.
They will be the tastiest and most enjoyable kind of apricot.
That said, dried do have their advantages.
With dried, you can keep them on hand and feed them as and when, rather than needing to go grocery shopping again.
But, again, you are losing out on some degree of nutritional value, and they will still be doused in preservatives to a lesser extent.
Can conures eat frozen apricots?
I wouldn’t give your conures frozen apricots, at least without defrosting them.
Frozen anything could be a big shock to your conure’s system.
Beyond that, everything we’ve said above still applies.
Fresh are far more nutritionally valuable, tasty, and healthy.
Where you can, just use fresh apricots—I would even advise just swapping them for a different fruit entirely if you can’t get them fresh.
So, virtually however you want to do it, apricots make a fantastic treat for your conures.
They are juicy, tasty, and highly nutritious.
As part of a well-balanced and varied diet, apricots can be hugely beneficial to your conure’s health.
But this moderation is the most important thing to keep in mind.
Your little conure really doesn’t need to eat very much before apricot can start making it sick—and remember to remove those pits!