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Post by Holly on Mar 31, 2016 5:59:19 GMT -5
Hi Everyone, I am a new Quaker owner, his name is Norman I am also new to owning birds. I just wanted to check what other Quaker owners feed their birds and how much on a daily basis? I'm a little worried because I started feeding Norman, probably a little too much fruit, and sorry for the details, now may have some extra runny poos? I am just wondering and looking for more type ratio as to how much seed/pellets/fruit/veggies/anything else I have missed. Any advice is very much appreciated! Thank you, Holly
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Post by Caseysmom on Mar 31, 2016 6:28:22 GMT -5
Caseys eats about a tablespoon of pellets daily. Each dinner she gets a small portion of cooked food. If she can't eat what we are eating, I have spoonfuls of a birdie meal frozen in the freezer I pull out. Currently the batch right now consists of a brown rice mixture, egg, broccoli, flax, a tiny bit of coconut oil, and strawberry. She goobles it. Most days she munches on red pepper seeds... And in the morning when she wakes up she gets a pumpkin seed. She might get the occasional bite of fruit but as it is too sugary for them I offer veggies for treats, she loves raw or cooked broccoli.
Others will be by with more food ideas. They usually take a bit to start liking things but if they see you trying they are more apt to eat it.
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Post by easttex on Mar 31, 2016 12:21:40 GMT -5
Peppy is not an ideal example, since he has some chronic health issues and I sometimes have to suspend all the rules to get him to eat, but I'll tell you what he gets when he's well. He was on a grocery store seed mix when I got him, and he is very finicky. I mix three different pellets with a little cockatiel mix and some dried veggies. He has that all day. A little later I give him a bit of scrambled egg. I started that when he was ill, and he demands it every day - the little dictator. I give him a piece of almond, which he never eats. At lunch he gets a little fruit. Every evening he gets some Higgins Worldly Cuisines cooked food, sprinkled with Snack Attack Healthy Greens. I also offer fresh veggies and other people food, when appropriate. He likes pasta. He's a carboholic, like me.
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Post by biteybird on Mar 31, 2016 15:51:25 GMT -5
Bonnie gets 2 tablespoons of pellets, sometimes soaked in water, and a very small amount of Cockatiel/medium parrot mix (the kind with the stripy sunflower seeds, not the black ones). She also likes white rice, cooked potato, toast/bread, scrambled egg, small pieces of chicken - cannibal! - cashew nuts, almonds, mushroom pieces, dried sultanas & pumpkin seeds. She doesn't want to eat fruit except for some apple now and then and she's not keen on veggies unless she is stealing them off the kitchen bench or someone's plate. Edit: There is a pinned thread about safe & unsafe foods you might want to check out...there are some foods toxic to quakers (e.g., avocado).
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Post by cnyguy on Mar 31, 2016 20:28:46 GMT -5
Ralph gets about 1-1/2 tablespoons of pellets daily-- a full tablespoon of dry ones, the half tablespoon soaked in spring water to soften them (he thinks they're a special treat). He prefers Higgins InTune Natural pellets now, but also likes ZuPreem Fruit Blend and Pretty Bird Daily Select. He also gets a small amount of Higgins Safflower Gold Blend, which is a mix of safflower seeds, millet, dried fruits and vegatables and a few nuts. And, of course, he eats lots of vegetables-- fresh green peas are his favorite, but he also likes beans, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and dandelion greens. He doesn't like sweet potatoes or carrots (both good for parrots) because they're orange, but I keep offering them. He also gets some cooked grains (mostly quinoa or barley) or cooked pasta. He eats better than I do.
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Post by julianna on Apr 1, 2016 14:06:18 GMT -5
I learned recently to go easy on the fruit... as it does contain a lot of sugar. All the above advice is excellent.
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Post by Holly on Apr 1, 2016 17:45:42 GMT -5
Thanks for all that information everyone! I went to the petshop and bought a parrot/peachface seed mix and some mini parrot pellets. I also cooked up some diced carrots, peas, corns and broccoli and red capsicum. My Norman only seems to want to eat the peas and corn and also some seeds. He doesn't touch the pellets. The man at the petshop said I will need to ween Norman from seed onto the pellets... Just wanted to see if anyone else has done this, and how they did it and how it went? Thanks
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Post by cnyguy on Apr 1, 2016 20:49:13 GMT -5
Here is an article on the companion site Quakerparrots.com about converting to a pellet diet that might have some ideas for you. Rule #1 in introducing new foods to a parrot is be persistent. Keep offering the same foods over and over, and be prepared to waste some food. Try eating some in front of your parrot and act like it's the most delicious food you've ever tasted. Parrots typically want to share food their human companions are enjoying.
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Post by Holly on Apr 2, 2016 2:35:50 GMT -5
Thank you! I started the tradition today and found that article helpful. I mixed half and half, pellets with seeds with warm water. Norman mostly picked out mostly just the sunflower seeds which I thought would happen but I did see some of the sticky pellets that were stuck to the seeds sneak their way into his mouth. Yay!
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Post by beccilouise on Apr 2, 2016 3:54:26 GMT -5
I spent a week transferring Maya from seeds to pellets. At first, she wouldn't touch them either. Then, I just gave her pellets one day with nothing else in her food bowl so if she got hungy, she'd have to eat them. After that, she was fine, and loves her pellets. Maya is on KAYTEE's Cockatiel rainbow mix. She does have fruit, but never more than once a week. The vast majority of her fresh fruit diet is made up of: peas, broccoli, curly kale, spinach, watercress, green beans, courgettes, sweet potato, carrot, baby corn and red pepper. She also has a Tidymix lentil and pulses mix every so often, and some boiled egg to help balance her protein levels. She also really likes pasta, apples and mango, grapes and banana (when she's in the mood) but I try to limit how often she has these things. Occasionally she has a little tiny piece of brown toast, but certainly not every day! There's a really good book by Rosemary Low called 'Parrots and Finches: Healthy Nutrition' which is really good and goes through nutrition by species. Annoyingly, quakers are not included, but there is lots of excellent general advice for how to balance general parrot nutrition. Since getting hold of that book, Maya has also tried fresh washed dandelions, which she really likes! Make sure you can 100% identify the plant before you pick it for your bird though, and if in doubt, do not feed. I would do your best to remove sunflower seeds from the staple of his diet asap as I learned from my vet the other day that feeding them regularly can have all sorts of health consequences . Maya still has them, but only as treats during training, so I can monitor the amount she has, and I always weigh her before training. She weighs in comfortably at between 88 - 91g (she's quite petite for a Quaker!). If she's too high, we keep the training short so as to not overload her with fatty seeds. QUICK EDIT: Maya is a fuss pot, so apart from the fruits, the pellets and the red pepper, I boil everything for her and then cool it in cold water so it doesn't burn her tongue. She won't eat veggies if they're too crunchy!
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Post by julianna on Apr 2, 2016 10:52:18 GMT -5
The suggestion on ... you eating the food in front of him... is really good. The vet also advised me to eat some of the pellets myself. This way you can tell if they are still fresh. They taste a little nutty but overall are not bad.
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Post by beccilouise on Apr 2, 2016 14:13:16 GMT -5
If they're safe for human consumption, that should be fine. Most of them should be, as there's nothing a bird eats that we couldn't digest. Many packets say 'not for human consumption' on them, but I don't think any of them would harm you. It definitely might help
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Post by Holly on Apr 4, 2016 18:35:45 GMT -5
Thanks everyone. I am still trying to transition Norman, we are having some small success but it's a slow process. I tried just putting some dry ones in over night and in the morning he was starving so he obviously hadn't eaten any! He he is loving his cooked veggies though, he doesn't seem to like them fresh either, probably too crunchy!! His is favourites so far are corn, pea and carrot. There is also broccoli and red pepper in there but he hasn't tried them yet. I will ill try and tempt him with some pellet tonight, I'll give them a try haha I'll let you know what they taste like
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Post by Jasper's minion on Apr 4, 2016 20:58:46 GMT -5
When I got Jasper he was on a cockatiel mix and the store sometimes mixed in fresh carrot and spinach. I changed him over to pellets as soon as I could, he still loves his seed though he's only allowed a small amount once a week. He gets half an apple on a kabob stick a couple of times a week and dines with us at night time usually on whatever we are having, eg steamed potato, sweet potato, pasta or rice and he gets scrambled egg on the weekends when I cook a hot breakfast. He hates anything green so won't even look at green vegetables except the throw them as far as he can if he's offered them. He's around 96 grams but has always been that weight, as a blue quaker I think they might weigh a little less than the green ones.
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Post by zim on Apr 4, 2016 23:18:18 GMT -5
Transitioning from seeds to pellets was a real challenge for Yoshi and me. It took us I think around a month and a half, and 4 different types of pellets before we found one he would like. He finally started eating Harrison's High Potency Fine (the most expensive one he tried, go figure). Others have already offered this advice, but I'd like to reinforce it since it's worked very well with me - if they are hesitant to try something, try eating it in front of them. I semi recently did this with broccolli for Yoshi - he wouldn't touch it for over a week. I took one small piece out of his bowl, took a bite, and he instantly tied in and ate every bit of it. All it took was me eating one bite and now he loves the stuff! Also, here's a page from quakerparrots.com that shows many types of foods and if they are safe, and how good they are for Quakers: www.quakerparrots.com/diet/food-nutrition-table-for-parrots/
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