Improving diet - Not sure where to start?

[nailsrglue]

Hi - I've spent the day doing research on avian diet, and there are just so many suggestions that I dont know where to start.

I have a Green Cheek Conure who has had a Zupreem pellet diet with treats of fruit and herbs occasionally. A health incident is making me rethink my parrot-care, and I want to start being a better birdy-mama.

The three things that seem to stand out to me are pellets, mash, and the goldenfeast mixes. However, I cant really tell how to give my bird an easy daily diet, and which route is the best.

Can I give her pellets (I'm thinking Harrisons brand) all day, then some goldenfeast mix in the morning? Would that be a balanced enough diet? Or should I do mash as well? Could I give only pellets or only goldenfeast? With 1,2, or all 3 of these ideas, would I still need to give fresh food daily?

Last - Whatever route I pick, should I keep the zupreem in her diet in small amounts, like how you switch a dog from one brand to another by mixing the food?

Thanks

 

[weco]

I may have answered your question(s) in my post to your other post, but don't mix & match, when you introduce a new food, you change the dynamics of your investigation.

After I posted to your other thread, I remembered a thread, several years ago and on another group, about a 'tiel that they eventually determined was allergic to one of the colorings in the Zupreem she was being fed.

There are a lot of unanswered questions for outsiders to offer you credible info...how old is the bird, how long have you had it, when did all of the mutilation start, what changed in the bird's life, surroundings immediately prior to that.....

Particular brands of commercial feed should be second to trying to figure out what's causing the mutilation.

Again, good luck

 

[nailsrglue]

You misunderstood.

We are working with a vet to determine the cause of the mutilation, and I do not immedaitely think it is diet, but understand that is a possibility.

I am working on changing her diet to give her a healthier environment, separate from the health incident, rather than to "fix" her health. I just realize she doesnt have a good diet and I want to change that. The incident merely spurred this investigation into her current situation and improving her future.

I just dont know what to try first, thats all.

Ducki is 7 years old, I have had her since she was a fledgling, she has been on the same zupreem diet her entire life, and the self mutilation has only begun several weeks ago. We originally thought she got an injury then made it worse due to the irritation and pain it caused her wing, and she got better for several weeks. Two days ago she suddenly chewed two new holes into her skin, and we have a vet appt tmrw to get an e-collar and start looking into skin irritants and other causes for the sudden destructive behavior. I am really hoping this is not a behavioral problem that she will have forever, as she has never been a feather-plucker or showed any other signs of neurotic behavior.

I want to improve her diet as an effort to just take better care of my bird, because the original injury happened during a period of neglect (working too much), and I needed to make real changes to get her back to good health.