Diet Questions

[Lucille]

Hi everyone, I have several questions regarding Rosie who is a double yellow headed amazon that I adopted a week ago. I have since been told that she is over weight (her previous owner fed her way tooo many peanuts). I was told no more than 1 peanut a day, I now have a good quality food mix and I'm in the process of growing sprouts for her. My question is - how do I introduce this new food to her? She is showing no interest in it at all nor is she interested in the fresh fruit and vegetables that I'm offering her. Should I mix the new in with the old a little bit at a time and gradually increase it or just keep offering the new to her?

 

[henpecked]

What was her old diet ? just peanuts? substituting sunflower seeds for peanuts won't help her much. Yes mix in new food with old and see what happens. It's only been one week so she might not be settled in yet. I'd eat in front of her and see if she shows some interest. hand her small treats of fresh fruit/veggies to "break the ice". Grapes, Fresh peas in the pod, fresh corn,bananas are favorites around our house. Can you find a small digital kitchen scale that weighs in grams? if you could start weighing her (will take some work with an older bird) in the AM it will help with weaning her onto a better diets. The sprouts are a good choice for seed eaters but sometimes it takes awhile to convert them. Here in the states we mostly feed a 70% pelleted diet with sprouts,fruit/veggies, and limited seeds/nuts. Is she clipped? Exercise will also help with burning the extra fat .

 

[Lucille]

He was feeding her the Parrot food that Walmart sells and peanuts. He said that she loves fruit and vegetables but she has yet to eat anything but her seed and peanuts since she’s been here. I just went and added grapes and bananas to her carrots and nectarines, hopefully she’ll see something that she likes. I’ll go out today and get some corn and fresh peas and try those as well. The new mix that I have has very few sunflower seeds in it and no peanuts. She’s not clipped and she doesn’t even attempt to fly when I have her out of the cage. The avian expert that I took her to said that she didn't want to clip her wings yet because if she did try to fly she was afraid that she might hurt herself if she hit the floor (because of her weight).

 

[henpecked]

The seeds and peanuts are heavy on the fats, which they crave. I'd try new stuff in the AM before giving her the regular food for the day. Will she step up for you and let you handle her yet?

 

[Lucille]

She's had the new food since yesterday and hasn't shown any interest in it at all. Yes she steps up is fine with me handling her.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Welcome to the forum, Lucille, and congrats on your DYH Amazon.

Henpecked's advice is top notch, he's got terrific advice and really REALLY knows his stuff.

I would also try giving your new baby fresh food in the morning BEFORE offering him his seed/pellet mix. You could also try adding a Kabob and fill it with fresh fruit and veggie pieces. Sometimes, during play and/or foraging, they discover they actually like swallowing fruits and veggies other than just tearing them apart and dropping them on the bottom.

There are also tons of homecooked recipes on this site. Perhaps give one or 2 of them a try and see if he likes any of them.

One last idea: Try warming up some food for him. Maybe he's more inclined to try it when it's warm. (i.e. grab a frozen bag of mixed veggies, take a small portion and heat it up. Offer in separate food bowl.)

All my birds have 3 dishes in their cages. One for their pellet/dry mix, one for my homecooked recipes, and one for fresh, bottled water.

Good luck with your new friend.

 

[henpecked]

Yes but she's had her choice of foods,she'll always go with the fatty stuff if given a choice. Intro the new stuff before you give her the same old stuff in the AM.

 

[Lucille]

Great advice, thanks to you both!

I do have 3 bowls in her cage, one for her dry mix, one for fresh vegetables and fruit and one for water. I'll see how today goes and report back....

 

[Lucille]

Ok, so I introduced the new food to Rosie and she wouldn't have anything to do with it but she finally ate some when I added her old food to it. So far I've offered cooked egg beaters along with some watermelon, bananas, cooked carrots and grapes. This morning I made a mixture of cooked yams, raisins and corn with a little yogurt and nothing. Now she won't even eat a peanut and that was her favorite food of all time - she takes it and immediately drops it. I'm assuming that I just keep offering her the vegetables, fruit and new food??? Will she eventually give in???

Something that I didn't mention was that I took her Sunday and had her beak shaped and her nails trimmed as they were a mess. Could that have something to do with her attitude? She was stepping up beautifully and Monday night I got a couple of nasty bites and she didn't want to have anything to do with me. She stepped up last night and today but she wasn't happy about it. I put my hand out and when she went to bite it I distracted her and she stepped up beautifully. I'll be patient but I just want to make sure that I'm doing things right.

 

[Adinafloyd]

I know a favorite of my nappy was warm nibblers corn on the cob, that is what I used to get her to try new stuff. As said before henpecked is our Amazon authority, any advice he gives is good adice

 

[Lucille]

I know a favorite of my nappy was warm nibblers corn on the cob, that is what I used to get her to try new stuff. As said before henpecked is our Amazon authority, any advice he gives is good adice

I saw the nibblers corn on the cob in the grocery yesterday and almost got them but didn't, darn. I'm waiting for henpecked to give his advice too. I don't want to push her, I'm just worried. At least she's drinking water and she might be eating more of her food than I realize.

 

[henpecked]

That's why you need the scales to weigh her and tell if she's eating OK. Did you find a pellet she likes? That's good she like her veggies /fruit, fresh is better than cooked but if you need to warm it so she'll eat, that's fine. Just no hotter than 100F. If you heat in a microwave be sure to stir good to avoid hot spots.

 

[Towee]

Hi we just adopted a blue front Amazon, George, foruntately he is eating very well. Have you trying any Nutriberries or Avicakes? They are a good transition food from a seed diet. For a pellet food try Roudybush. I don't know what it is about Roudybush pellets but all of my birds like it.
Leah

 

[Lucille]

I'm finally getting back to you wonderful people, crazy week!!

Rosie seems to be doing great. She's eating all kinds of vegetables and is starting to try the Roudybush pellets. I'm keeping her old food in the cage temporarily because she is just starting to show an interest in the pellets. She loves the Avicakes, not so crazy about the Nutriberries though.

She's still pretty quiet but in the evenings she's starting to talk a little bit more everyday.

 

[Lucille]

I forgot to mention that I went to 3 local pet shops and none have bird scales. I've looked on line and there are quite a few and some are really pricey. Which one would you recommend?

 

[henpecked]

I get mine from kitchen store (Bed Bath and Beyond), usually about 20-30$ range.

 

[Lucille]

I get mine from kitchen store (Bed Bath and Beyond), usually about 20-30$ range.

I'll check it out tomorrow...thank you!

 

[SpringCottageParrot]

I think I posted this pick before but here it is again. Just a set of kitchen scales with a perch I made to go on them. You can put your bird in a box or a bowl on the scales. whatever you use switch the scales on with with the empty box or perch on it already and it will zero itself so you are just weighing the bird. Just like you do when adding ingredients to a recipe.

How to weigh a parrot by DSdriver, on Flickr
Casper is now down to 410 grams which is a good weight for him. We have recently started him on a Harringtons pellet diet and whilst at first he tended to ignore it he now will pick out the cubes from his other food and eat them first.
He enjoys fruit (especially banana, apple and mango) and seems to get all the moisture he needs from it because he never drinks from his water bowl. But he is a bit childlike when it comes to eating green vegetables.

 

[greenbirdsf]

Watch that fruit consumption as the high sugar content is not optimal. Pick fruits that are more nutrient dense, like blueberries and raspberries. Apples are sadly not so great, even though my bird loves them! My vet recommends mostly vegetables like broccoli, squash, cabbages and other green leafy things. Avoid corn, starchy stuff like potato and other "empty" calories. I used to give my bird big portions of fruit but now I have cut back the serving size considerably.

Unless your bird is getting tons of exercise, you need to weigh him/her regularly. Being overweight leads to many avoidable diseases and can shorten your bird's life. Some people even need to ration the pellets if they have a "perch potato".

 

[greenbirdsf]

We have an Acculab scale that my husband purchased online. It has a flat surface that my bird has no issue with standing on so I didn't need to modify it with a perch. Make sure you get a healthy weight range from your bird vet so you know what you are shooting for.