How Diet Affected my Birds

Hello!

I am here to share my story. Part of it is here: http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/60280-galah-fearful-women.html

You'll read about my mother's galah in there, and the problems we've had with him.

I have a bird of my own, a male (fairly certain, but no DNA test) peachfaced lovebird. He hit 6 years old this year, and it was a trial for sure! I had some increasing problems with him being extremely hormonal. I mean, we are talking 24/7 masturbation and regurgitation. I was beyond frustrated and upset. I was giving him 14 hours of darkness and as much quiet as I could manage. I was changing out toys and perches. I limited his food to a certain amount each day. Got him a bigger cage, etc. None of it worked, or sometimes it worked for a couple days and then he would start up the behavior again.

He was REALLY bad with perches. Every perch, no matter what I bought or changed, was a mate for him to be 'loved on' and regurgitated to. I finally just removed all the perches out of desperation, and placed platforms, little climbing nets, and toys that didn't have perches big enough for him to make love on. That stopped the masturbation, but he would still run around and regurgitate on EVERYTHING.

One day I had a light bulb moment. If high protein triggers breeding behavior... maybe the pellets themselves were the problem? I was feeding Roudybush maintenance at the time. I started doing some extremely in depth research about hormonal behavior, rather than just scratching the surface. I discovered that a lot of Lina the Galah's behaviors (he ate the same pellets) were also hormonal behaviors (bowing with quivering wings, etc.). Then I started reading about what the two different birds eat in the wild.

I ended up developing a diet that is ALL vegetables and a bean/rice/legume cooked mix (fruit and nuts are just occasional treats). The difference in both birds was phenomenal. Within a week the galah was coming out of his shell, and the lovebird was stopping his obsessive lovemaking. It's been 2 months, and both birds are healthier and happier than I have ever seen them. I still can't put perches into the lovebirds cage, but I have devised clever ways to put perches in some places without him getting all lovey dovey on them. He no longer regurgitates on things, and is sweet, social, and nowhere near as territorial in his cage as he used to be.

My theory is that quite a lot of problem parrot behaviors are caused by a too high protein, too rich diet. Captive birds don't need anywhere near such a great amount of nutrients as their wild relatives. They don't use them. They aren't flying around all day, scavenging. They get maybe a few hours of very active flight and playtime, if they are lucky.

If anyone is interested, I can post the basic breakdown of the diet. I've got all the info lying around in a document somewhere. And honestly, this diet does not take long to do. I just put the veggie mix through a food processor, and stick it in the fridge. It lasts about two weeks, but it's in a very very cold section of the fridge. Then I do have to spend a few hours every couple months making the cooked bean mix. However, I just put it into sandwich bags and then freeze it and remove one bag at a time. One bag is enough for a week. Making up their bowls everyday (which are removed in the evening, usually mostly or totally empty!) only takes about 5 minutes.

I hope this helps someone.

Yes love to see your recipe if you don't mind and so pleased you have made headway with both birds. I do make veggie chop but freeze mine as feel it keeps better than hanging around in the fridge (which is small). If you can meet their needs nutritionally ie no gaps then that is great news. I feed my RB2 TOPs Organics but very small portion and not really sure how much is eaten or just reduced to dust. My friend also uses this pellet for her RB2 who is a lot younger than mine and there has not been any problems with him. You maybe like to store that titbit for later if needed? If your mum's RB2 is eating mostly everything then in all honesty it is unlikely you will need a pellet but if he becomes fussy in the future then do try.

Have you tried sprouting btw?

I have not tried sprouting seeds, simply because it seemed rather unnecessary. More like a special treat than something necessary to the diet.

This was the main article that I devised the diet from:
The Australian Galah - Article 008

Very good one, extremely informative. Below is the diet I made. It is very simple. I forgot about adding wheatgrass, which was my original intention (could not find it at the store first time we went and got the stuff). I'm thinking though that I will just get some kind of vit-min supplement to feed a few times a week and make sure the bases are covered. I have not noticed any signs of deficiencies though. Like I said, they are healthier and happier than ever. I don't have any problems with them not eating all the vegetables, or with wastage, since I turn it all into a mash with the food processor.

LINA'S DIET:
½ cup fresh green vegetable mash put through food processor.
¼ cup cooked bean, rice, and grain. (Currently have at home chia seeds, millet, and lots of pinto beans and brown rice).
Find wheatgrass if possible.
Small amounts of fruit daily.
Vegetable mix: Shredded carrots, Green peas, broccoli, cauliflower, red and green capsicum, cucumbers, cabbage, dark leaf lettuces, dandelion greens, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, beet greens, rosemary.
Suggested beans: black-eyed peas, adzuki, green and yellow split peas, garbanzo, black beans

The only thing I'm still puzzling about on Lina is that he always seems to be in molt, constantly having pin feathers. He had this problem BEFORE I started the fresh diet, so it's not something new. His feather condition has improved on the new diet. Would more baths help with the molting? He doesn't really get bathed. I took him into the shower a couple times and he did OK, but he seemed to get stressed out and not enjoy it so I've kind of avoided doing it.

Sprouting, a treat, goodness no - FYI https://sproutpeople.org/growing-sprouts/sprout-nutrition/

It is also mentioned in your link

Be careful in relation to vitamin and mineral supplements as too much is bad too. If you can be sure you are covering all the bases and they eat it then as such it should be unnecessary.

Yes give the showers a go but could be worth a visit to your CAV if this doesnt resolve. Are the home conditions OK, ie not too warm? They readily want to take their coat off if it is.

Huh, well maybe I'll try this out sometime then: China Prairie Products EASY-SPROUT by Sproutamo

I believe my original thinking (I don't always remember my thought process on a research project lol) was that if I can cover everything just through the veggie mix and the bean/grain mix, then I shouldn't need to mess with the sprouts.

The house is between 78-81 fahrenheit year round. We live in the desert. My lovebird does not visibly grow new feathers all the time. On Lina, I mostly notice them on his crest. I was thinking that if he is constantly in molt, it could be a reason why he can be temperamental at times.
Unfortunately, we've had a friend living with us for some time. An older woman that was in a bad spot and was going to be homeless if she hadn't come to stay with us. Well, she has made things rather difficult for me to take the galah out. She's always worried he is going to fly into windows and gets rather stressed out about it (makes it far less enjoyable for me and bird both), and I've noticed that he acts more neurotic in general when she is in the same room as him for any length of time. She should be moving out soon though (hopefully next month, but no later than September), and then I will have an easier time of getting him out of his cage every day.

If it is a dry skin problem then showers can make it worse? So its try and see really but a little hemp oil * on food can make a difference to skin and feather condition. Definitely for your RB2 go easy with this.

* much lower in saturated fat than coconut or red palm oil.

Hope your temp lodger goes soon LOL. Ask her to go to her room, your birds need exercise and being cooped up is not good. Her problem with them not yours, she should offer to remove herself tbh.

Yes. Well, she is very difficult, the best way I can describe her is neurotic.

She wasn't here now though so I went ahead and took Lina out. He has good days and bad days. Today is a really good day! He's sitting on my leg while I type this.

The tricky part with him is just getting him out of the cage. Sometimes he acts like a wild animal about it, but then once he is out he is fine. (I tried the step up on perch instead of hand thing with a very long branch to see if he would be more comfortable with that. He was worse unfortunately). Today, when I opened the door, he flew out on his own and took a few turns flying around the living room before landing on the floor. Then I went to get him and he stepped up fine.

I hung out with him for a little while, and he was a lot more comfortable today with the head pets and social interactions. Then I took him to the shower. While he didn't get real excited about it, he also didn't get stressed and freaked out and I was able to give him a good thorough shower, just doing a little at a time.

Now he is just chilling with me. Unfortunately, he is still not as talkative and playful as he once was, but I think with enough handling and social time he will go back to that. The great thing is that he is very comfortable with us interacting through the cage bars, and he no longer does the breeding behaviors. I feel like when I handle him now, I'm actually making progress, rather than starting over with the same problems each day.

Also, thanks for the info on the oil. I will look into that.

Thanks for sharing your dietary techniques! The best we can do with companion birds is best approximate a natural diet. Your thesis of high-protein issues may explain many behaviors. It may be helpful to have an avian vet perform a basic blood screening panel to help verify overall health.