New Eckie Mom

[Jdt]

Hi All

New to forum and being a Eckie MOM!
5 Months old - Male - Zazu
Fully weaned

I need some help /advice please.

Pumpkin- as I understand this should always be cooked not raw ?Can I feed any type of pumpkin ?

Grenadilla: Is this safe? if so how should I feed this ? Can he eat the pits ?

Freezing Food : in what other way can I freeze food for him if I don't have a food sealer to take out all the air .....I made 2 bags of testers but foods all mushy and watery.


Thank you

 

[Flboy]

Welcome! I have no answers for you, but, welcome!

 

[LeaKP]

Welcome! Ekkies need special diet requirements. I suggest you browse the eclectus forum, tons of advice there.

 

[Violet_Diva]

Hello and welcome. I recently acquired my first eclectus. I have found the forums to be an amazing resource of information. All the members I have encountered been very helpful and kind. I've had some great advice in response to my various questions.

My thread is:
http://www.parrotforums.com/new-members-welcome/64083-my-first-parrot-female-vosmaeri-eclectus.html

You might find some helpful info and suggested links there
My top 2 suggested members for eclectus info are Anansi and Scott. If you search for posts by them you'll find a wealth of knowledge! Unfortunately I haven't tried the above foods with my eclectus yet. But I have definitely had some trial and error freezing things!

 

[chris-md]

Hello and welcome!

Ekkies are wonderful! Pumpkin raw should be fine, but I like to stick mine in the oven for 15 min at 350f. I love serving the small decorative pumpkins and watching him go to town.

 

[wrench13]

Ha Ha - way to go Parker! Kill that darn pumpkin. Gotta try that with Salty.

 

[Puck]

Ah, man, Parker is such a cutie! I love Ekkies! Congrats on your new baby Jdt! I have no answers for you (one of the reasons I have never owned an Ekkie!), but welcome to the forum for you and Zazu!

 

[Jdt]

Thanks for the warm welcome!!i have done alllllot of research before getting Zazu...he is such a cutie! I just need to get my freezing down,i froze some chop in a different way than my firts attempt ,hope it's better,maybe its not even wrong its just a bit to watery .

 

[Jdt]

Zazu

Thanks Chris would rather then also do cooked pumpkin

 

[camo]

Hi,

I do a chop mix for my 2. You definately don't want wet (it's not going to be completely dry obviously, but I wouldn't describe mine as wet).

A few suggestions that may help:

* squeeze out anything that is wet from the processor (eg capsicum really needs to be pushed into the strainer to get the liquid out)

* go a bit more coarse a cut (I started out needing to cut very fine, due to a picky girl, but I now cut things more coarse, which releases less moisture)

* I don't cook pumpkin (this made things wet, I peal).

* add some items to soak up any dampness (I use oats and coconut).

Hope some of that might be helpfull

 

[Anansi]

Hi,

I do a chop mix for my 2. You definately don't want wet (it's not going to be completely dry obviously, but I wouldn't describe mine as wet).

A few suggestions that may help:

* squeeze out anything that is wet from the processor (eg capsicum really needs to be pushed into the strainer to get the liquid out)

* go a bit more coarse a cut (I started out needing to cut very fine, due to a picky girl, but I now cut things more coarse, which releases less moisture)

* I don't cook pumpkin (this made things wet, I peal).

* add some items to soak up any dampness (I use oats and coconut).

Hope some of that might be helpfull

Just wanted to cosign on this. I don't personally freeze food at all, as I prefer to do a chop every 3 days and just refrigerate, but using oats or coconut to help suck up the moisture is a very effective measure to combat excessive moisture. Quite a few members use this tactic when freezing their fruits and veggies.

And yes, raw pumpkin wouldn't be a problem. And their seeds are good for treats. Here is a good diet site for ekkies: fruitandveg

And the link Violet_Diva provided is a great one for covering a lot of what's needed for ekkies in general. As is this one: http://www.parrotforums.com/eclectus/52737-so-you-think-you-want-eclectus.html

I just LOVE this pic of Parker!!! He's like, "Uh-oh! Busted!"

 

[jess.reco]

Hi and welcome!!!!

Yes I do the same as Camo and make a chop for my miss Tequila. I work full time so I make it in bulk to last a month.

I only put vegetables in the chop (Raw) and brown rice/quinoa/oats. Fruit I give to her separately as it's so wet.

 

[chris-md]

Parker does love his pumpkin!! Stephen I prefer to see this photo as "Ommm nommm nommm!" wild animal, pigging out, can't even see the camera CHOW DOWN.

zazu is such a CUTIE!.

I do frozen chop as well. Squeezing as Cameron mentioned is very important. Squeeze the life out of it!

Also, for your chip itself, use less watery foods: heavier on the fiber (grains such as brown rice, wild rice, and quinoa), then other assorted veg like carrots, chopped leafy stuff, broccoli, cauliflower, pepper, corn, peas, and the like.

More watery stuff like fruits can be added at the time of serving. The key here being don't let the chop freeze with excess water to begin with. A slap chopper is yourr best friend here! If your guy is picky or a flinger a slap chopper easily and quickly gets the fruit down to micro sized pieces. Especially if you do it while the fruit is still frozen.


For those struggling with picky flingers
Something I also discovered recently as a happy medium is to take pre-prepared dry mixes (look at goldenobles brand, they have a great array) and actually run that through a food processor. It does pulverize a bit of the food to a crummy powder, but some still stays a nice small bit sized pieces. When you wet this and warm it up, it comes out a really nice kind of mash. So the bird is forced to eat not just the chunks but the powder as well. The pulverized chop doesn't go to waste! When I give him theisparker eats for 2 hours straight so it's a great foraging activity for them as well.

Best of all, he can't fling much of it!! So much less mess to clean up

 

[BruceTheQuail]

I read somewhere that orange vegetables (pumpkin/sweet potato/carrot) need to be steamed or cooked to activate an enzyme which is good for the eckies. So I zap sweet potato in the microwave. Otherwise, I give them a chop mix and make up enough for about 3 or 4 days, and keep it in a lunchbox in the fridge. With mine, I give them fruit and veggie/sprout chop in the morning (sprinkled with soluvet vitamin powder) and alternate diet budgie seed and eckie pellets in the afternoon. This was suggested by our avian vet - I'm not saying he is right, but it works for us, and we use the same for the caiques. Strangely enough I dont have an issue with overly wet capsicum, but beetroot leaves marks on the wall when the eckies flick it around.

 

[chris-md]

Hello Bruce, please be careful with the vitamin powder. Ekkies are adapted for relatively nutrient poor diets (meaning this is important that they receive somewhat nutrient deficient diets), compared to other pscittacines; their longer digestive systems mean they are extremely efficient at extracting nutrients from their food.

The addition of vitamin supplements, unless recommended for a specific diagnosis, could be doing more harm than good with hypervitaminosis. This is why ekkies don't generally do well on the vitamin enhanced pellets, they absorbed more vitamins than they need and it has damaging effects. Unlike for a macaw or Amazon.

If you're feeding a chop based diet, I promise they are getting all the nutrients they need.

 

[BruceTheQuail]

Yeah, I had that discussion with the vet. He said that he had seen 10 eckies so far this year (this was a few months ago) and they were all vitamin deficient. Of ours, the hen was quite vitamin deficient and the **** was somewhat deficient. Ours showed signs of vitamin deficiency (transparent tips to the breast feathers, flaky skin on the feet, flattish bumps on the bottom of their feet, and reduced frilly things in the inside of the upper beak). Also the hen was quite overweight, and she had been ever since we got her as she had been on a seed based diet beforehand. I think that his theory (and I hope I have it right) is that parrots are like kids, if they have plenty of choice they only eat what they want to eat, and a lot of the time that is the stuff that isnt as healthy for them. I know mine go for sunflower seeds like a fat kid on a cupcake. So anyway, his recommendation for owners like me is to essentially have less food given to them, but to make up for that by the vitamin powder. So the amount of chop we give them is probably less than you might give yours - about 2 to 3 tablespoons in the morning each day. But yes, I'll be monitoring the vitamins, they will be back to the vet in another few weeks.

 

[chris-md]

Ok good, so it really is in response to a diagnosis. Lots of people just self medicate with the vitamins, which is where the problem lies.

Actually, Ive come to feed him about that amount as well, believe it or not. It cuts down on waste and he winds up eating it all. Of course he gets healthy treats often (dried rotini noodles, quinoa/seed crackers, etc). And during the day has full access to goldenobles III cheerio type dry food that has a bunch of good stuff. So he doesn't starve.