Recipe?

[Owlet]

I may be getting an ekkie tomorrow, my first bird. I'm admitably a bit ill prepared. I want to have a few fresh food recipes I can make that cover all his needs and I've found plenty of guidelines as to what an ekkie needs but I need specific recipes and what foods are good for a parrot. I have a hard time figuring that kind of stuff out on my own though. What are some recipes you guys use for your ekkies?

Also how much and how many times a day do I feed an ekkie? Do I need to give them anything other than fresh foods? Pellets or anything? If so what's a good brand?

 

[wrench13]

Hi Owlet. If your admitting your ill prepared, perhaps you want to wait a bit before bringing a parrot home and now being responsible for this small but intellegent life. How much research have you done on parrots and ekkies in particular? Its easy to a fall in love with these animals but I think every experienced parrot owner here and anywherewill tell you there is no pet that requires more work and commitment then a parrot. I mean an ekkie lives 40-50 years or more - you ready for that? Ekkies need a special diet from other parrots, no commercially available and has to be made by you. Parrots need daily interaction with their human flock, mosst folk say 3-4 hours a day, every day. Parrots get mad, hold a grudge, feel sadness but love and feel joyfull and happy. They are like perpetual 2 year old human babies. We all want you to prepared to have great life with your ekkie, with the best possible relationship that can develope with a human and their parrot. Just make sure that your sure and prepared for it.

 

[Owlet]

Yes I am for sure prepared for a parrot in the long run. I've been interested for a few years now and have had a lot of time to research parrots as a whole. I just have a hard time when it comes to understanding what exactly they need to maintain a healthy diet especially when I have to make it myself. It's easy when there's some kibble that is specially made for a animal, not as much so when you make it yourself in my opinion. I believe I have a little time to prepare recipes as the person I'm getting him from has him on a mix seed diet I believe so I'll have to slowly transfer him onto fresh food.

Since that's probably a mess to read since I'm really tired right now it's basically just; I'm good on everything else but I'm still confused on how to meet the birds dietary needs and just need a basic recipe of fruits, veggies, and other required nutrients that I can put together to begin giving him.

 

[chris-md]

Mix a bunch of veggies together, done. It's really that simple

Start with this (don't stress about how much of each, make it up):
Rice
Bell pepper
Corn
Peas
Chopped radish
Cooked beans (not the canned bushs beans!)
Chopped celery
Top dress with a bit of frozen spinach, hemp seeds, and some uncooked oats (like quaker oats)

Done! You can make a big enough batch to provide a number of meals for a few days. Like I said in your previous post, you can't really go wrong. You slowly learn what you bird likes and doesn't like.

My guy sometimes will get half a pomegranate for dinner. Or a whole kiwi instead of chop.

What really got me going when I first got my ekkie was to start with bagged frozen veggies for a few weeks. From there I started playing with adding other stuff to those (rice and such). Before long I was full on going from scratch.

FOOD PROCESSOR WILL BE YOUR BEAT FRIEND AT THAT POINT.

 

[Owlet]

Thank you so much!

 

[Violet_Diva]

You may find this first thread insightful with regards to diet:

http://www.parrotforums.com/new-members-welcome/64006-hello-thinking-about-getting-eclectus.html

Diet was also touched upon during my thread:

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

Please read as much as you can from using the search function. There's plenty of info out there.

You mentioned the bird was weaned onto a seed mix, which is an unhealthy diet for eclectus, so you would need to transition your potential new feathered friend onto a healthier diet which could be super easy or super difficult. I started by mixing some veg into the seed mix meals and gradually reducing the seeds until we reached a point where just a teaspoon is given in a separate bowl at night time. I found spouted seeds a great gateway food as they are nutritionally as good as veg but to the bird looks like the fatty seeds they've been used to scoffing!

http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...8-sprouting-seeds-why-didnt-i-try-sooner.html

Keep in mind that all birds can be very individual. So although freezing chop is helpful to us humans, we can sometimes find that our birds are food snobs who aren't interested in defrosted or mushy foods, much of what they like can be more related to the texture of the food. This can result in some only wanting to eat food chopped a certain size, grated, mixed, seperate etc. It's up to us to work out what our feathered babies respond best to, in order to get them eating a healthy diet.

Many birds will like different things, so just making a big batch of chop could end up being a costly waste of time if your bird decides they don't like it. There's alot of trial and error involved.

I keep all chopped foods in seperate tubs in the fridge for around 3 days to allow me to make different combos daily as they can tire of particular foods quickly. The key for me is keeping every meal interesting and different to the last. I prep food twice a week usually, and use food from frozen if I'm short on time or fresh produce.

I hope some of this was useful to you

 

[Eitak579]

I usually go for the very Vitamin A dense foods, when I adopted Johnny the vet said he was deficient in VitA and it's SO important they get enough. A lot of kale, dandelion greens, red/orange/yellow peppers, orange squashes usually slightly cooked, carrots, sweet potato cooked and he LOVES a little bit of red palm oil on top which is also super healthy in moderation.

nutrition
This site helped me out a lot, I mainly do chop now morning and night, I make it differently each time, you can google some pretty good recipes out there.

Pellets are very controversial with this species. I give him a small handful of Goldenfeast Goldenobles in foraging toys to keep him happy while I'm at work as they don't add any additional supplements or vitamins to the mix. Others I'm sure will chime in with their suggestions, this has just worked very well for us.

Good luck!! Please post pics and give updates!

 

[plumsmum2005]

Don't forget Sprouting is an excellent source also.

http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/57416-sprouting-made-easy.html

 

[coopedup]

i keep a supply of frozen whole grain muffins on hand as a backup food for those days when i literally only have 5 minutes to swing by home to feed him between shifts. Granted, I have a picky eater who much prefers what is on my plate to what's in his bowl...he also came off a very poor diet and still hasnt completely embraced healthier eating. Costco has Aussie Bites mini muffins, all organic, that are surprisingly tasty. He will pick around the dried fruits (wont eat raisins or cranberries) but it's a meal.

I have also found that he prefers greener fruit..as in not fully ripe. Recently read an article that explains this. In the wild, they have less competition for unripe fruit. As others have commented, it's pretty much a try-it-and-see kind of thing. Also I use cayenne, chili, or paprika seasoning on my chops....he adores hot pepper

 

[Owlet]

I have the bird now, he is indeed on a poor diet and I will swing by the store after school and pick up some fresh foods and prepare all that and begin transferring him onto it. He's doing really well and is currently sleeping in his cage. He appears to be in molt but I'm not 100% sure as I'm not really sure what to look for when a bird might be in molt. His feather look a bit scraggly so I'm thinking it's molt but we'll have to see. I would get a picture but as I said he is sleeping and I don't want to disturb him since he has had a stressful day.

He's relatively friendly and quiet. He's a bit shy and I'll definitely have to do a lot of bonding with him but he's far from being aggressive.

 

[Violet_Diva]

Glad to read you have decided to improve his life! Do you know if he was having regular showers? You will need to mist his feathers regularly with a water spray bottle to help keep his feathers and skin healthy. This might be some of the reason why his feathers don't look great, but his diet probably isn't helping. Please share some photos when you can Congratulations on your new friend!

 

[BruceTheQuail]

If he has been on a poor diet he might be vitamin deficient. Some signs of that can be loss of colour on the tips of the breast feathers (which makes them look as though they have dark edges) and flakey scales on the top of their feet, and flattened nodules on the bottom of their feet. Vitamin deficiency is very common in eckies over here at least, our vet told me that of 10 eckies he had seen in the first 6 months of the year, 8 were vitamin deficient (or something along those lines).

A vet is best to guide you through that.

 

[Owlet]

Yeah I'm waiting for a reply from the vet and the bird shop, I ended up emailing both because the phone reception in my neighborhood is horrid, hopefully I'll hear something back soon!

 

[Anansi]

Congratulations on the new member of your family! You've received some great advice already. Just remember that variety is key when it comes to our ekkies. Most cases of vitamin A deficiency can be traced back to a lack of variety.

I've listed the foods I provide for my Eclectic Duo before, but I try to do it semi often so that research isn't quite the intensive chore for others that it had been for me.

I currently tend to provide between 8 and 12 types of food per feeding for Maya and Jolly, weighted heavily toward the veggie side as only 2 of the food selections in a given meal are fruits.
Various sprouts, carrots (a part of every meal due to the high content of beta carotene - precursor to Vitamin A), bell peppers (red, yellow, orange and green), jalapeno peppers, Jamaican Scotch bonnet peppers, chili peppers, squash (butternut, green and yellow), pumpkin (also high in Vitamin A), blueberries and pomegranates (both among the most nutritious of fruits), snap peas, broccoli (high in calcium), cactus pears, persimmon, starfruit, bananas, grapes, kale, turnips, radishes, brown rice, quinoa, cucumbers, endives, dandelion (nutritional powerhouse offered at every meal), sweet potato (cooked), red swiss chard, granny smith apples, papaya, African horned melon, hominy, oatmeal (sans sugar or flavoring), kiwi, barley, calendula flowers, fennel, chocho beans and garbanzo beans, as well as Volkman's Fancy Soak and Simmer for the majority of their legumes and grains.

For food accents I'll add one or two types of the following as well: star anise, milk thistle, elder berries, rose hips, hibiscus, bee pollen and chamomile flowers.

Twice a month, I'll give some hard-boiled egg (with the crushed shell for calcium). Slightly more frequently during a molt.

For their training treats they get an assortment of unsalted nuts (one or two per bird in a given day, broken into small pieces and fed as rewards through the training sessions). And for their "goodnight treat", up to a teaspoon or two of seeds, or even millet spray once in a while.

 

[Owlet]

I got green beans, whole kernel corn, okra, and peas. They're all frozen... do I need to cook them before I freeze it again (the thaw and serve to Lincoln) probably a stupid question but might as well ask. I also got a red bell pepper and plain quaker oats but I assume those don't need to be cooked