question on diet

[jeffy]

hey everyone name is david im new to the forums and havent posted yet till now but have been reading it for some time and i have to say its a wonderfull place. I have three fids at this time, african grey and a pair of eclectus that i dont breed, there all close too three years of age and ive had them since they were bald, i started the ekkies out on volkom seed diet as well as pretty bird ecectus pellets, which i was told too do by the breeder, i saw this forum about a year later and discovered that the eclectus need to be more on a fresh food diet and some pellets mabye here and there ao i re did the diet and made a mash from a place called phoniex landing, everything has been fine but every once in a blue moon they will tap there toes maybe twice a year you will see them spaz for a day maybe less and i no people are going to say make a vet apointment and get them checked out and i have before and all the vet really says is to put them on harrisons and they should be ok, i guess my question is i have read that sweet potato can cause plucking and maybe toe taping cause of its richness in vitamins and im wondering if anyone knows anything about this thanks.

 

[aliray]

I am sure people will be along to help but I just wanted to say Welcome to the forum.

 

[sodakat]

Pretty Bird pellets are usually not tolerated by Eclectus. Harrisons are a great product but *some* Eclectus cannot tolerate spirulina which Harrisons contain. If I had to choose between the two, I'd definitely choose Harrisons and have fed the High Potency.

You don't have to feed pellets if you feed a good fresh food diet and it sounds like you do. If you cannot take your birds outside or place their cage in direct sunlight for a few minutes a day then you should consider adding a few pellets which contain Vit D. Not all do.

Man made vitamins can be rough on Eclectus, especially man made Vit A so watch that you don't feed many enriched or fortified foods.

I think most Eclectus eventually toe-tap. If it lasts just a day or two I wouldn't worry. When it becomes chronic you know changes are needed. It can be so difficult to figure out what causes toe-tapping as well as wing-flipping. My Sully just went through a prolonged episode. None of my others were affected. I'm still not sure what caused it as I'm very carefule and feed almost entirely a fresh food diet.

Injury can also cause a bout of toe-tapping.

Sweet potato is fed by many Eclectus keepers. I doubt it causes toe tapping and I could just about guarantee it doesn't cause plucking. It might cause weight gain though! There are better sources of Vit A besides sweet potato including winter squash, pumpkin, carrots, kale, mustard greens and turnip greens.

 

[jeffy]

Thanks for the reply