101 Questions

[JaxAttack]

Ok it’s not 101, but it sure feels like it. I have a HUGE concern. My baby BE2 boy is 10 months. I worry about his eating habits. To about a month ago he still enjoyed his hand rearing formula in the mornings when he woke up and then at about 6 o’clock. But the last few weeks he stopped eating it completely. He only want scrambled eggs and oats porridge (don’t know what you call it anywhere else). The thing is I don’t mind just giving him that, but he doesn’t want to eat his pellets that are in his cage during the day. He will eat a few, but that’s it. Is he getting all the nutrition he needs? He simply loves gem squash raw. He destroys a half every day. He likes mashed potatoes and sweet potato. He goes through half a corncob also per day. Other than that he just chews on everything. He is not motivated by treats (nuts and sunflower seeds). So this makes it a little bit difficult to train him. He just doesn’t want it, or chews on it for a second and throw it away.
O and he also like chicken bones haha or any type of bones actually.
Is this funny bird normal? He is otherwise the sweetest most lovable happy bird I have ever seen.

 

[melissasparrots]

It sounds to me like he's ready to be done hand-feeding, but you didn't teach him good eating habits. If he eats oats poridge, try converting him to something more nutritious. Mine like cooked sweepotato mashed up with some cooked rice. Maybe you could mix some poridge with small amounts of sweet potatoe and slowly, slowly over the course of many days increase the percentage of sweet potato until you've got him off the porridge? You can also sit and eat sweetpotato with him and see if you can make him think he's getting something yummy by sneaking it from your plate. Then you can start using a food processor to slip other less favored food items into the sweet potatoes. A lot of cockatoos like a cooked grain and bean mixture. I soak brown rice, pearled barely, quinoa and a few other grains with some lentils, mung beans and chick peas for 8 hours then boil until soft. Let cool and they like it. Especially if I mix it with some thawed out frozen peas and corn and a few other veggies. Since its all human quality food, you can sit and eat it with him and often times they will do better than if you just put it in a bowl and walk away. Try eating that stuff with him instead of the porridge and eggs.

Other hints for weaning him off the porridge would be to only offer it cold. If he's using it as a substitute for formula, he might not like it so much at room temp. Make sure you get a gram scale and weigh him daily while undergoing a diet change. Especially with babies that haven't been weaned onto a good diet. They get be picky and get themselves into a bad situation before getting straightened out. Generally with older birds I've found if they aren't eating what I want them to, its because I'm letting them eat too much of other stuff. So you can try to reduce the amount of porridge and eggs your offering until you see him eating more pellets and seed. Keep hand-feeding formula on hand that way if he continues to refuse his pellets and seed, and he's not willing to eat enough other things, you have something available for him if he starts begging again.
Melissa

 

[JaxAttack]

Thank you so much for the much needed advice.
He eats a lot of sweet potato. It seems that he only ignores his pellets and seeds when I offer him some.
I also cook for him. Its a mix of stuff. Brown rice, lentils, pasta rice, corn, some beans and peas. He loves that. I make a big pot and freeze it in small portions I warm up for him every morning.
I am just worried that there are other stuff he needs in the pellets. He eats a whole veg kebab everyday, or destroys it (don't know how much he actually eats of it)

Any other advice is welcome. I also eat the pellets in front of him...not the nicest experience always lol He chews some, but only about 4 or 5 then he moves to his corn or gem squash.

 

[melissasparrots]

Thank you so much for the much needed advice.
He eats a lot of sweet potato. It seems that he only ignores his pellets and seeds when I offer him some.
I also cook for him. Its a mix of stuff. Brown rice, lentils, pasta rice, corn, some beans and peas. He loves that. I make a big pot and freeze it in small portions I warm up for him every morning.
I am just worried that there are other stuff he needs in the pellets. He eats a whole veg kebab everyday, or destroys it (don't know how much he actually eats of it)

Any other advice is welcome. I also eat the pellets in front of him...not the nicest experience always lol He chews some, but only about 4 or 5 then he moves to his corn or gem squash.

Its sounds like your doing pretty okay then. I would leave a few pellets in his bowl at all times. I think your in a better position than a lot of people with picky cockatoos. If he's eating a variety of different grains and veggies, then he's probably doing okay. If he's eating very few pellets then you might want to consider picking up a vitamin/mineral supplement and giving it to him a few times a week. I tend to be very careful with vitamins for birds that are eating any pellets. If I give vitamins, its usually half the recommended dose a couple times a week just as an assurance they are getting what they need. Overdose is more of a problem than underdosing. Otherwise, you can scrape a very little bit of cuttle bone into his soft food a couple times a week too since calcium is more likely to be the biggest deficiency. So if he's eating a small number of pellets, getting a light dose of vitamins to back it up a couple times a week and every once in a while access to a cuttle bone or light scrape into his soft food, he probably is getting everything. I don't know about your vet situation in south africa, but I usually like to do blood work on my birds when they are about a year old and then every few years after that just to make sure everything is okay.