Raeza
Hatchling
Posts: 33 
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Post by Raeza on May 15, 2016 18:34:05 GMT -5
So I brought Bondi home on Tuesday, it's now Sunday. Other than the first day, I don't think he's eaten the parrot pellets hes got. I wanted to see how much he was eating so I just barely lined the bottom of the dish with pellets. Right now he's got Tropican lifetime formula parrot food, but I had been mixing it with a bit of the same of cockatiel food (this is what the store was doing for him with pellets) the plan was to work the smaller pellets out and just go with the parrot food eventually.
So really my question here is... How often should I be feeding him fresh fruit and veggies, and what should those portions look like? Am I just stuffing him full of the fresh stuff?
Today I came home from work and he was chomping at the bit to get out, he cuddled with me for about 10 seconds then desperately wanted to get on his play top, he had millet up there yesterday and instantly began foraging through the empty seeds like a maniac, he still is actually... about 15 mins later. I was like crap maybe he doesn't know his pellets are there? They are pretty deep dishes and I didn't put a lot in so I don't know. I put some of the pellets into my hand and he jumped up on me acknowledged them chucked one on the floor then jumped right back off to sift through the millet shells some more.
Am I doing something wrong ='(
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Post by Caseysmom on May 15, 2016 19:47:22 GMT -5
Hi, there is an article on our main site that gives you advice on pellet conversion www.quakerparrots.com/diet/convert-parrots-to-pellets/ Also some people soak the pellets a bit at first to see if you can get Bondi to try them that way. Maybe just soak a few in a dish to see what he does. Casey gets some fresh food each day but with that she eats about a tablespoon of pellets, some days more, some less. Fresh things are good, just use more veggies than fruit as fruit contains lots of sugar. Casey loves red pepper seeds for a treat! Others will be by soon with more advice and ideas! |
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Raeza
Hatchling
Posts: 33
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Post by Raeza on May 15, 2016 19:49:38 GMT -5
His main diet was pellets before I brought him home. I got the exact brand and kind they fed him so he should be used to it. They also didn't give him fresh foods every day so maybe hes just feeling spoiled right now. I don't know.
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Post by Caseysmom on May 15, 2016 20:00:40 GMT -5
Everything is new right now, he may just take time to get into a routine with you. Can he get around the cage ok to get to the pellet dish and you have a perch in front of it for him? Years ago when we got Casey she had a broken leg... She likes the perches aligned to get around the cage or she climbs on the side.... She never hops from one to another.
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Raeza
Hatchling
Posts: 33
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Post by Raeza on May 15, 2016 20:45:08 GMT -5
Well, I was torn between buying her the cockateil sized cage or the parrot sized one, i know shes a smaller parrot but I wanted her to have a decent amount to get around with. I've seen pictures of other members parrots in the same cage. I think maybe that is the problem? to me it feels like she is a little scared to move up and down on the side bars of the cage, I've only ever seen him try and go directly from perch to perch. Perhaps I could re work some of his rope perches so that he can easily get to the main perch (The food dish is not movable). Right now his favorite perch is a mediumish sized rope perch that is pretty high in the cage, I know height=comfort at first.
I think part of the reason that he is afraid to travel around is because of his wings. Basically he is flightless and only way he can go is down, I know he knows it too. He tried really hard to get up into his cage from the floor yesterday and he just couldn't do it =( I don't plan on letting him have full flight but I do think he needs to be able to have a bit up upward momentum in order to really be comfortable. Specially with my cat running around. He can't even get from the inside of his cage to the play top on his own so I'm just guessing where he would rather be right now, trying to get him to give me the lean... lol.
Well anyways, maybe I'll move some of the perches around because I've only really ever seen him on the top most perch.
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Post by Holly on May 16, 2016 2:31:41 GMT -5
So if you can get Bondi back to eating pellets tell me your secret!!
When I bought Norman, the breeder told me he was eating a diet of mostly pellets, so I also bought the exact same brand and expected him to gobble them up... but no! I think I may have spoiled him too... I gave him some baby bird feed, all different kinds of fruit and veggies and some birdie muffins I made...
Since then, he still won't eat any of his pellets and his diet mostly consists of veggies and some fruit, seed, baby bird feed, birdie muffins (I sneak some pellets into there haha)
We are trying all the methods of conversion but so far Norman has just been so stubborn and WILL NOT eat a single pellet!!!
Oh well, I will keep trying! I wish you better luck than I'm having haha
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Post by easttex on May 16, 2016 5:36:01 GMT -5
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Post by julianna on May 16, 2016 12:37:27 GMT -5
Your quaker will be able to climb quite well once he is used to it. My Oscar cannot fly but he can climb like the dickens... nothing stops him from getting where he wants to be.
I recently was advised to give Oscar more pellets as well... and at first he did not take to them. What I did is pretend to eat them myself with him on my hand and anything that goes in my mouth... he wants. I had a small dish on the coffee table that I used to put some broken cashews in and would call them his peanuts... he loved those. After I switched the cashews for pellets, I would still call them peanuts and after 2 days he started to eat them. Now he eats them every day.
He adores his fresh veggies like romaine lettuce and fresh green peas.. also broccoli (inside stems) and a little cauliflower. Of course fruit is high on his favorites and I do give him some every day but not a lot. He will not hold his fruit to eat... so I hold it for him. (spoiled a little huh)
There are different types of pellets on the market and they come in different sizes. Perhaps you should try a different brand. Can you imagine eating the same thing every day?? ewww.
Oh... and by the way... welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy being here as much as I do.
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Post by beccilouise on May 16, 2016 15:41:02 GMT -5
Hi Raeza! Wel ome to the forum! I had the same problem with Maya to start off with, and my need to convert was more urgent as the shop had been feeding her seeds. It took me ages to convert her, at first she would only eat her vegetables. Then, one day, I just left the dish of pellets in her cage with nothing else, and she ate them because she was hungry. It helped that I soaked a few first as well. Recently, I've also been feeding her various flavours of Lafabers Nutriberry mix. They are designed to be fed to birds as a pellet diet and are really healthy. I give them to Maya in addition to her regular pellets as a kind of treat/alternative just to make sure she's got lots of variety. It might be better, for now though, to let your birdie get used to what is currently in front of him before you introduce more things. He'll probably be feeling pretty overwhelmed right now and needs a bit of time to settle in.
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Post by aaron on May 16, 2016 16:00:59 GMT -5
You're not doing anything wrong, per se... birds just really like seeds  If Cupcake is given access to seeds in any quantity, she generally will eat them over just about everything else. If they were any part of her diet as a staple, she would be eating just the seeds and spending her time trying to figure out how to get more, rather than eating pellets. If she is going to be a pellet-eating bird, seeds need to have no part in her diet. It's possible that she would be okay if I used them exclusively as a reward in training efforts, but other than that, for Cupcake at least, seeds are a bad idea. If your bird has already been eating pellets, I would elimninate all forms of seed from the diet until the bird is eating pellets again on the regular. As far as fresh foods go, feed veggies daily-- fruits more sparingly. Cupcake eats lentil sprouts and cucumber daily, with various supplemental veggies that she gets when available. I know they say pellets are very important to the diet, and it's certainly important to have them as the main staple as opposed to seeds, but fresh, unprocessed foods are more important, in my opinion. |
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Raeza
Hatchling
Posts: 33
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Post by Raeza on May 16, 2016 23:42:22 GMT -5
Thanks everyone for the input. We did have our initial vet visit today, wanted to make sure I adopted a healthy baby. The day I brought him home he weighed 92 and when we weighed at the vet today he was only 86, so that much loss in only 6 days =(
The vet said pretty much the same thing, soak the pellets, try putting a dish higher up, try moving things down... said i could even try using apple juice instead of water to sweeten the pellets up. We'll see i just hope he eats more =(
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Raeza
Hatchling
Posts: 33
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Post by Raeza on May 17, 2016 18:58:17 GMT -5
Update: Haven't changed anything really yet swapped the deep dish in his cage for one of the shallow ones that sits on the play stand (had water in it)... Came home from work today and Bondi wanted onto his play top, I held his dish out to him with his pellets and he ate one then ran away, I was like ok... well... I just placed the dish down on top of his play top (he has another dish on the actual perch of his play top with food in it but the tray is filled with like... hamster shavings mostly because that's what they had for him in his little habitat at the store... well anyways i placed the dish down in the play top and he ran over to it jumped up on the edge and ate like I've never seen him eat before (Other than the time he was flinging broccoli bits halfway across my apartment... playing with his food >_>)
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Post by julianna on May 19, 2016 15:03:35 GMT -5
lol at flinging broccoli bits... There... it seems you have found the perfect place for his food. By the way... you don't necessarily have to use those shavings just because the pet store did... you can use newspaper as it is much easier on the clean up. As well... it is very safe for the bird.
I change the newspaper every day and it keeps the mess down to a minimum.
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Raeza
Hatchling
Posts: 33
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Post by Raeza on May 19, 2016 19:31:12 GMT -5
yeah that was definitely an option, I think he enjoyed them though, he likes to play with the pieces and its a foraging thing for him too I think, hes usually running around messing with the chips. If its a little extra mess and he's having fun and being happy then meh! He seems to like it, so I don't mind.
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Raeza
Hatchling
Posts: 33
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Post by Raeza on May 19, 2016 19:32:32 GMT -5
Also I am now thinking it was an adjusting to the new environment thing, as he is eating like an elephant now.. =P
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If Cupcake is given access to seeds in any quantity, she generally will eat them over just about everything else. If they were any part of her diet as a staple, she would be eating just the seeds and spending her time trying to figure out how to get more, rather than eating pellets. If she is going to be a pellet-eating bird, seeds need to have no part in her diet. It's possible that she would be okay if I used them exclusively as a reward in training efforts, but other than that, for Cupcake at least, seeds are a bad idea. If your bird has already been eating pellets, I would elimninate all forms of seed from the diet until the bird is eating pellets again on the regular.