I love dried fruit from a local organic grocery store. Is it okay for my conure to eat it as well?

Pretty much if sulfite free. and Organic. Its' tricky. It should be labeled. At Whole Foods you'd expect alot of them to be that way but there's only a couple in the bulk bins.

Plenty of birds eat regular dry with sulfites but we know that long term it's not a good thing. And even short term can be a big problem like plucking, aggression. But it's hard for the companies to come up with different ways to preserve I guess.

Just like you see warning signs for humans like at the salad bars.

If it's Just Tomatoes brand then it's been dehydrated with no preservatives added. It's dry and most items are crunchy - my tiels love it. You can also buy a dehydrator (about forty bucks at Walmart) and make your own dried veggies and fruits. Some of my birds' favorite treats (like dried kiwi fruit) aren't available commercially so I'm glad I have this option.

The dried fruit at regular grocery stores is mostly sulfured - the raisins, prunes and other soft/moist stuff. This is not great for birds and mine won't touch it anyway - it's too wet for their taste.

tielfan thanks for posting that. They carry that brand with every possible fruit especially the dehydrated apricots are real high vitamin a. But I couldnt tell from reading the package. But they look like a normal color not exactly "organic" but not exactly sulfer free. So that's good to know.

I'm totally getting the dehydrator first thing tomorrow ! DUH I never thought of that and I go through so much food that would be great to dehydrate. ESPECIALLY Piper's beloved fresh figs right now. THANKS

Just Tomatoes has some organic products and some nonorganic. The organic is clearly marked, but most stores don't carry the whole product line. You can see the full lineup on their website at Just Tomatoes, ETC.!

I also know of a bird-supply place that sells a lot of the organic line at Wranglers Roost Bird Toys, Parrot Toys and Parrot Foods It's handy for people who want to order Just Tomatoes and other bird supplies and only have one shipping fee.

About home dehydration: the texture isn't exactly the same as what you get from Just Tomatoes. Some items (like corn and peas) come out a lot harder and might be too tough for small birds. For that matter the Just Tomatoes carrots are too hard for my cockatiels and Kaytee's dried carrots were more manageable. It's become a moot point since they finally started accepting fresh carrot!