Sigh

[Owlet]

So, Lincoln had his vet appointment today and it went as well as any vet appointment goes (aka lots of screaming) and his fecal came back clear but we are waiting on blood, I should get results on friday. Anyways, the vet recommended I try adding fruit back into Lincoln's diet since eclectus naturally eat more fruit in the wild so, I'm gonna try. I got him one of those little cage things that you can food or toys in for them to try and get out. Got a variety of fruit that would last ~a week and yeah. Tonight Lincoln got a small mix of blackberries, raspberries. strawberries, grapes, and kiwi. They were all small portions just to see what he likes and stuff. Anyways, in the process I gave Apollo half a strawberry to see if she'd eat it.

Lincoln however

good ol' lincoln


Jumped off his cage, went over to Apollo's climbed in, ate her strawberry while she was freaking out.


I was playing a very loud game,,, i usually notice when Lincoln's jumped off BUT yeah.... thanks Lincoln. Thankfully no one was hurt in the strawberry heist.

 

[chris-md]

I do caution you with your vets fruit recommendation, owlet. They need those sugars for flight in the wild, as well as mating. Neither of which Lincoln is engaged in (flying around the home does not equate to flying miles on end every day). Fruit sugar Has a high likelihood of making Lincoln hormonal at best and obese at worst.

You’ve heard it here many times: vets aren’t always up on the most recent information, especially with eclectus.

If you do up the fruit content, do so judiciously and keep an eye on his behavior. Also, I’d hold off until you get bloodwork back. If his bloodwork comes back with no deficiencies, why would you need to tweak the diet any?

To be clear: fruits aren’t bad, just shouldn’t be a huge part of a captive eclectus diet, kept to a minimum. No more than 2 fruits per meal consisting of a small fraction of the meal, and an occasional midday snack (I’ll give Parker a honey mango to forage for nuts through).

 

[Owlet]

Its still going to be a really small portion of his diet, he still gets veggies in the morning and pellets in the evening with fruit for a tiny bit inbetween. Also still trying to do sprouts ><

 

[chris-md]

How have those been going?

 

[Owlet]

I stopped trying to awhile, maybe I'll try again tomorrow. Right now I'm trying to keep my garden alive.

 

[chris-md]

Ugh I gave up on that. At my old place, I couldn’t grow anything. Peppers and tomatoes...I think kept getting hit with herbicide drift from ones lawn, and squirrels would get what little grew from them. Squash borers killed the squash and cucumber vines.

And now that I’m in the woods, I have those to worry about, but also have deer, rabbits, and groundhogs. Nope nope nope. Don’t need the heartache.

Good luck with your garden!

 

[Owlet]

It's been so COLD lately i have to keep the plants inside and then there not getting enough sun and grow weird and then just... cave in on themselves essentially. Like it just snowed last week and its been hovering in the 50s ... to low for a seedling plant :c

 

[chris-md]

Nah, that’s not bad! anything above freezing is fine for veggies of any size (<—— former horticulturist for the better part of a decade). But if it’s snowing, yeah, that’s a whole other thing entirely. Unbelievable. Snow in late May??

 

[plumsmum2005]

Sounds like sprouts and indoor micro greens are the way to go?