free feeding...is this the norm?

[mdmarley]

Have read recently how some people only put out food at certain times of the day....wow, I never thought about that before. I have always let my amazon free feed all day and all night at her convienence. Am I supposed to treat my Macaw differently? I just fill up his bowl with food and treats and let him eat at his own pace...unless it's a messy food like fruit or something that will rot quickly. Then I let him have it for about an hour or so, then I will remove it..
Am I doing this wrong?

 

[SoCalWendy]

Here is a really good article that may help to answer your questions. It's a bit long, but a good read. Enjoy!

Feeding the Companion Parrot by Pamela Clark

 

[Merlee]

I leave SOME food in the bowl, but not much because my boy likes to throw it out. It's too expensive for pellets to be treated that way.

 

[kiwiS]

Here is a really good article that may help to answer your questions. It's a bit long, but a good read. Enjoy!

Feeding the Companion Parrot by Pamela Clark

THank you so much for this article!! I love it!! I'm going to try that this week to vary things up!

 

[MrPoppagergio]

I'm new to this forum, but I have a few years of avian experience under my belt and some variety of knowledge from others that I've gained that I hope is helpful.

My Amazon was free-fed for 35 years until I got her. Her original owners said she was aggressive towards them all the time, especially around her cage. They also stated she rarely was motivated to come out of her cage, she was a "perch potato."

Everything that I have read and learned from working at a zoo and with other professionals has taught me that free-feeding is not the way to go for a number of reasons.

My primary reasons are lack of motivation and the harm to the health. My bird was very overweight when I first got her, and it took about 8 months of careful diet altering to get her down to what I think is a "healthy working weight." Where she was motivated enough to work for sunflower seeds and other nuts and reinforcement. After she was finally on a "normalized" diet, two feedings a day many things improved - and almost immediately. For example, she stopped becoming cage aggressive because she was no longer "guarding" her food bowl because there was no food in it longer. She also went from being a somewhat messy eater, to wasting almost NOTHING, and I mean literally nothing. On top of it all, she is highly motivated to do training - which I think is one of the greatest things you can do with your bird or any pet for that matter. It builds a great bond and it is just a fun time for both to be had.

Now, all this being said when it comes to some situations I believe in free-feeding. For example, multiple birds in aviaries. Birds will fight over food when they feel there is competition for food. I've seen it first hand and know of many stories of birds going at it. Plus, most birds in aviaries are highly active from flying through out the day and are burning the calories that they are ingesting. But, mostly because as a safety precaution is why I would have my birds free-fed in an aviary setting with other birds.

Hope this helps!

 

[mdmarley]

thank you for the articles and the information everyone...gives me a lot to think about and digest. I think I will try something from this....think I will try only allowing seed mix on the java tree stand. Will get the birds motivated to come out of their cage for one..Right now, I don't have any problems in that area, but don't want to start. My yellow nape has been an absolute awesome bird for the past 15 years, but I don't want the addition of the macaw to alter her attitude..

 

[MikeyTN]

The way I do it if you waste it I won't refill it til the next feeding time. I have a stubborn cockatoo, Dixie, that don't care. She'll waste regardless.....I however believes in free freeding....

 

[Chesphoto]

Interesting article and it shows I might not be doing my parrot the best for her...

Skittles came to the rescue from a very bad situation. Small cage, no interaction, no sun light and little water and poor diet.

I give her a good pellet diet, but it is so hard not to give her treats... It is so hard not to want to give her something that she loves to eat. For the most part, the treats that I give her don't have sugar or salt, but still, they probably aren't ideal...

Lots to think about.

 

[MonicaMc]

Many people free-feed, so I don't see it as a bad thing! If you do and it works for you, then leave it at that!

I haven't studied parrots out in the wild, but from what I've read, many parrots are most active in the early morning and in the evening. This is due to the fact that around noon, it can be very hot out, so during the hottest part of the day they are "hiding" from the sun and resting. They may snack throughout the day, but they don't eat quite as much as they do in the mornings and evenings.

I'm sure this probably varies depending on the parrots and their locations as well as the seasons... for example, pairs that are raising chicks probably need to gather food throughout the entire day to not only feed themselves, but to feed their offspring!

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Which that in itself is an interesting concept.... does or can free-feeding lead to excessive hormones? Possibly. It's been shown that feeding wet/moist food, especially warm food to a hormonal parrot can indeed increase hormones, because the only place in the wild for a parrot to get that is from it's mate!

 

[JerseyWendy]

I'll be the first to admit I free fed my fids for THE longest time. My YN Amazon WAS becoming quite lazy - I won't lie. She never had food or cage aggression, but she was slowly turning into a perch potato. NO MORE! When I got my Sam (DYH Amazon) I decided to feed him fresh food in the AM & PM and very little dry food in between.

Then I started the same concept with my Macaws, simply because they can empty out food dishes all day long - out of sheer joy of making a mess.

I've seen the biggest improvement in my Hunter. She is no longer lazy and she even flies now. Also, I try and use the dry food in foraging things, so they have to work for it.

As for the big macs, well, when they DO empty the bit of dry food I offer, my motto is: What's gone is gone, now you wait until tomorrow.

Strangely enough none of my birds are wasteful with the fresh food they get.

 

[davisn456]

I'm not sure if how I do things is the "best" way, but it seems to work. Frankie gets a fresh bowl of veggies every morning when I get ready for work, and she always has a portion of Harrison's pellets in her other bowl. When I get home in the evening, I throw out whatever veggies she doesn't eat (although it's rare for anything to be left, she's a healthy eater), and she gets out of the cage to get a small amount of dried fruit/seed mix. She also sometimes shares dinner with me. At night, I always give her a couple of pecans as her treat for being a good bird when she goes in her cage at night. The routine seems to work, and she seems healthy.

I do have problems with her wasting the Lafeber's Nutri-berries that I typically only give her a few of occasionally. She seems to just chew them into big chunks and drops them. I'm not sure she actually eats any of them at all. I'm probably not going to get those anymore, and besides a fresh unsalted nut is probably better for her than those anyway.