I've had the same problem and solved it following instructions found here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/11939306 My user model now looks like this:

<?php
use LaravelBook\Ardent\Ardent;
use Zizaco\Confide\ConfideUser;
use Zizaco\Confide\ConfideUserInterface;
use Zizaco\Entrust\HasRole;

class User extends Ardent implements ConfideUserInterface
{
    use ConfideUser{
        save as confideSave;
    }
    use HasRole;
    
    public function save(array $rules = Array(), array $customMessages = Array(), array $options = Array(), Closure $beforeSave = NULL, Closure $afterSave = NULL){
        return $this->confideSave();
    }
}

Note: I haven't done a lot of testing, but my seeder used to fail - not it works.