24 hour food supply or not???

[boabab95]

Kiwi has a 24 hour supply of pellets, and he's fine with it, but how come i see some people only feeding like a handfull 3X a day??? i'm not saying it's wrong, just wondering if it makes a difference???

 

[Mel]

In the wild parrots eat in the morning and again in the afternoon. I believe leaving food to graze on all day can lead to putting on too much weight, esp if the bird is clipped. Also some foods can spoil & harvest bacteria & fungus. Some food I leave out if they haven't been eaten but I do remove sprouts after a couple of hours, eggs or dairy if given and in summer friuts - we get fruit flies if left out all day. I'm sure others will have plenty to add to this one

 

[boabab95]

what about pellets though??? kiwi will only eat maybe 2 or 3 pellets each time he eats, but he'll eat through out the day... again, don't want to critisize other owners, just curious...

 

[Auggie's Dad]

I leave pellets available 24 hours a day. There are pros and cons to each method. The downside of leaving food available is that it is harder to use food as a training reward.

Yes wild parrots often have two foraging bouts, one in the morning and again in the afternoon, but they each last for almost the whole morning and the whole afternoon. The majority of a wild parrots day is consumed by foraging.

Of course we can't really parallel this in our home as the food is just delivered to them.

I am not familiar with a pattern of animals overeating when food is always available - but I do know of the opposite happening: if food is always available an animal may loose some of the natural motivation to eat whenever they can. In contrast and animal that gets fed at intervals chows down all they can and stores as much of those nutrients as possible.

 

[HRH Di]

We do pretty much the same as AD. Pellets all day with sprouts and fruit & veggies at breakfast, then veggies and maybe some sort of protein at dinner time. Then we refresh their pellets and water if necessary when they go to bed.

 

[Spiritbird]

On the advice of my avain vet. I remove all food from the cage at night. Leaving food in the cage at night can also draw insects to the cage. This way your start out fresh in the morning. This was also how I trained Rosie to eat pellets instead of seed. She barely touches seed now. The birds do not naturally eat at night.

 

[HRH Di]

On the advice of my avain vet. I remove all food from the cage at night. Leaving food in the cage at night can also draw insects to the cage. This way your start out fresh in the morning. This was also how I trained Rosie to eat pellets instead of seed. She barely touches seed now. The birds do not naturally eat at night.

hmmmmm...hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. I may start taking the pellets out at night.

 

[Birdamor]

I feed gloop with fresh produce in the am and the high protein (grains, seeds and nuts) as dinner when the sun starts to set. Birds are hungriest in the morning so they eat the healthy food without a problem when given to them in the am. I don't really free-feed anything,

 

[Aussie Ben]

I leave pellets for grazing in the cage all day. I don't usually replenish at night, but I have been recently as a ploy to encourage them to eat the pellets first thing in the morning (it is starting to work). My vet recommended this method. As Birdamor says, they are hungriest in the mornings so I try and get the pellets in the night before in case they wake up before I do.

I feed the F&V in the morning and leave it for the most part of the day, or until just before it spoils. I usually give them a smaller meal in the late afternoon (corn on the cob, some nuts or seeds etc).

 

[antoinette]

My AG Mishka gets cereal in the morning at 5am. I do leave pellets for her to eat during the course of the day. At about 9am, she gets 3 nuts, cashew plain, pecan and a walnut. At 12pm she gets fresh fruit. Then at 5pm she is fed fresh veggies.
During her training session at night, at about 6.30pm she gets a small amout of yoghurt, or plain popcorn.
When going to sleep, there is only water in her night cage.
Make sure to weigh your bird, weekly.
Imagine being in the cage, when no one is around, and you do get hungry, it's not like they can get up walk to the kitchen and help themselves.

 

[apatrimo94]

My keet S'mores has pellets out during the day. In the morning, she gets an apple slice. Then In the afternoon, she gets another apple slice. Before I eat dinner, I take her out and put her on top of the cage. Then I hide seeds and papaya yogurt balls all over her cage to forage and look for. Then before bed, all food is taken out except for water. Bartleby doesn't have much of a food scheduele since I'm in the process of converting him from seeds to F&V and pellets. He's doing pretty well.