Help Me Transition My Birds To Real Food

[bandmeeting]

I agree with you totally on the GMO junk they are pushing on us. Have you tried Tops Totally Organics....there is no GMO in them. I feed them along with a good seed mix and lots of fruits and veggies.

A question for you. One of the reasons that I was using "Brand X" is that it is pretty chunky and my guys like to hold their food in one claw and eat it. It looks as if the Totally Organic only comes in a slightly larger than sand size which will fully preclude their holding it (change that to half the size--or smaller--than a grain of rice) . I guess they'll get over that but, any thoughts?

They have crumpet size and also a size that is bigger, kinda like rabbit pellets . Mine like the bigger size cause they like to hold them with there foot like yours do.

I didn't see that at Fauna yesterday but perhaps I need to look harder. Thanks.

 

[SpringCottageParrot]

We had trouble getting Casper to eat fresh stuff at first but found that he likes it cut to sizes that he can hold in his foot, for instance: carrot and celery etc. we cut into one inch lengths and then split into four sticks.
He wouldn't eat cabbage till I read that weaving a leaf through the bars of the cage makes it a game for him to eat and that works well although he tends to eat mainly the fleshy stalks and not the green leaves.
He loves fresh peas in the pods, usually he opens the pod and eats the peas first before devouring the casing except the stringy bits.
Handy tip:
Don't let your parrot on your shoulder after eating banana unless you want your hair laquered with banana that it wipes off it's beak.

 

[bandmeeting]

I picked up the Totally Organic "all size hookbills" type. As Parrotmama says, they look like rabbit pellets and are, just barely, big enough for a bird to hold while eating.

My guys went right for it so it appears that I will be able to feed them a store bought pellet that they will eat and I feel comfortable with from an ingredient perspective. I'm kicking myself for not changing ages ago but I didn't think they'd be happy with it.

I attempted birdy bread yesterday. I just blended a bunch of vegetables together and made a batter with coconut flour--which I recommend to birdy bakers use instead of flour or cornmeal. While they didn't flee from it they didn't exactly dive into it. It's frustrating to me because if I offered them a piece of bread or corn chips they'd scarf it down as if they hadn't eaten in a week.

 

[bandmeeting]

I'm bring this thread back to life in order to get some more input from the gang here.

As I stated a while back, I brought home a bag of Totally Organics pellets and they seemed to like it fairly well. That didn't last long. Here is my experience so far.

I've continued to give them apples and raisins which they love. These days they aren't even eating the apples. I got some pistachios and they love that and have been chowing that down. They still love millet. As for mixing my old pellets with the new, they just eat the old and ignor the Organics. I cooked a little rice yesterday and they are thrilled about that--love it.

An interesting experience today: I hand fed them the Totally Organics and the Senegal went with it pretty quickly. She seemed to really enjoy it so the more finicky Meyer's jumped in and ate a few of the pellets. That's about the only way they seem willing to eat the new pellets. Hand feed them the pellets for a few days and they'll take it from there?

Any thoughts on what you see happening here are appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SpringCottageParrot]

Casper is very slow to accept change. When we first gave him Jungle Munchies he would throw all of the biscuity bits out of the bowl. Now he loves them, always eats them before anything else.
We have a lot of different food types and we give him different things each meal to give him a balanced diet.
Except the spicy pasta we get him comes on forty gram sachets so it lasts him two days.
Where to put it all is our biggest problem, we only have a tiny kitchen in our cottage. I think a radical rethink on what we keep in there is needed because at the moment all his food is in a big plastic storage box in front of the back door and it has to be moved whenever we want to use the door.
We have a huge sack of sunflower seeds which I bought because he likes them but the vet has forbidden him from having them because they are so fattening.
The wild birds in the garden don't seem very interested in them so any suggestions? (except growing a field of sunflowers ).

 

[Alisana]

I'm bring this thread back to life in order to get some more input from the gang here.

As I stated a while back, I brought home a bag of Totally Organics pellets and they seemed to like it fairly well. That didn't last long. Here is my experience so far.

I've continued to give them apples and raisins which they love. These days they aren't even eating the apples. I got some pistachios and they love that and have been chowing that down. They still love millet. As for mixing my old pellets with the new, they just eat the old and ignor the Organics. I cooked a little rice yesterday and they are thrilled about that--love it.

An interesting experience today: I hand fed them the Totally Organics and the Senegal went with it pretty quickly. She seemed to really enjoy it so the more finicky Meyer's jumped in and ate a few of the pellets. That's about the only way they seem willing to eat the new pellets. Hand feed them the pellets for a few days and they'll take it from there?

Any thoughts on what you see happening here are appreciated. Thanks.

You'll actually find it's common with birds where they'll hate something one week, and like it the next. The theory is that it is reminiscent of behaviour from foraging in the wild due to different fruits ripening for only a few days at a time. As certain fruit would only be ripe for a few days, they get used to the habit of having 'variety' all the time.

Some people rotate certain foods for them, but if the pellets are the ones that they have the like/hate relationship, might be a bit harder to rotate. Fruit is easy enough. I've not had to rotate base diet for my birds, but I do find that they only like certain fruit at certain times. (Pitted cherries and oranges seems to be one - yet apple they eat 98% of the time)

 

[bandmeeting]

My ordeal is over. I came home yesterday and they had devoured the pellets and have continued to do so. They are finally eating quite well. Very happy about that. Thanks to all the people who responded, very considerate of you.

 

[SpringCottageParrot]

Great news - now you have to worry about them eating too much and putting on weight

 

[Alisana]

My ordeal is over. I came home yesterday and they had devoured the pellets and have continued to do so. They are finally eating quite well. Very happy about that. Thanks to all the people who responded, very considerate of you.

Glad to hear!

 

[Mudkips]

The secret to getting your parrot to eat good food?
Learn to cook and eat well, enjoy what you're eating and your fids will naturally follow!