My little food monster dilemma... :(

[Dinosrawr]

My goodness! So lately Shiko has been an absolute doll, to start off. He's been great in letting us handle him, and his bluffing stage has come a complete HALT. He's terrified of everyone that isn't Brendon or I, gets scared over the smallest thing and is behaving, to put it simply, like a normal bird - no more "I-am-the-most-fierce-bird-in-the-world-fear-me!" act.

While that has been dandy and training has been going well, something has caught me by complete surprise. Shiko will NOT eat his Roudy or his TOPs, and I just ran out of Harrison's... which I've ordered and will be here tomorrow or Friday, thank goodness, because I think it's the only pellet he'll eat. His random refusal to eat pellets has resulted in a total 5g weight loss over time, which has terrified me. The ONLY food he'll happily eat is the veggie chop I've prepared or fresh food that I've cut up for him. And treats, of course. Always treats.

He's currently eating his morning veggie chop like he's a starved bird and as if I don't feed him. He'll pick at his pellets during the day, but he'll hardly eat any of them unless he feels it's absolutely necessary. He hasn't been letting himself starve, but he's not eating his pellets the same way he used to. Has anyone ever encountered a bird that used to devour pellets to a bird that won't touch them?

I'm seriously considering making a HUGE amount of Birdy Bread, more chop fortified with pellets, and some variation of a dry food mix fortified with pellets because my boyfriend and I leave for two weeks this coming Monday. His parents will be caring for them, and while I trust them entirely with the birds I'm worried about his weight. He is still in the healthy weight range and currently weighs 118g, but he used to weight 123g. Because he is a bigger bird, I'm not positive if losing 5g in total over a period of two weeks is a huge deal or not, but I'm still worried. I weigh him in the morning, and it's been fluctuating but slowly decreasing as I've noticed his decrease in pellet consumption.

Guh. What a time for him to decide to no longer eat his pellets... is this what it feels like to leave a newborn for the first time to have a fun night out with friends? It seriously is beginning to feel like that. I'm going to be worried sick over my birds while I'm gone :52:

 

[a_osborne]

Aww! I wish I could help but all I can do is wish you luck! I bet it will all work out also, I totally freak out when (as seldom as it's been) we leave our babies. We have an excellent pet sitter who comes in but I still worry like crazy and always wonder the same thing about people with newborns haha

 

[Dinosrawr]

hahaha, yeah! It's kind of hilarious. I've been monitoring him, and thankfully after he eats his weight goes back to "normal", so I'm starting to think I was paranoid (again), especially because we're leaving so soon. I would love it if I had an experienced bird sitter I could trust, simply because my boyfriend's parents don't know much about birds. They basically get to see them on their good days and interact with them when they're being good, and haven't dealt with them much when they're being bad. I guess we'll wait and see!

At least they consider them their first set of grandfids, hahaha!