How MUCH should he eat?

[Snow]

I can't find an answer to this one. How much should I be feeding Mr.Boo? I am trying to be sensible and feed him what he'll eat.. but I am unsure of the quantities.

 

His former mom gave him pellets and seed mix as well as other things I don't know the specifics of. He does NOT like pellets much and will eat all the seed and almost none of the pellets. I found he likes grapejuice and soaked the pellets in that and he gobbled them up then. Is this ok?

 

How much green? How much fruit? How much pellet and seed? I can't find a standard or general diet guideline to use.

 

Thanks for your help.. I am a little worried.

 

Snow

[Tari]

I just keep my parrots food bowl full. Grapefruit is fine as long as it has not got any added suger or salt. (wow really bad grammer)

I give veggies and fruit in the mornings when that is gone I refill with seed and pellets.

[Guest briansmum]

generally they can eat as much as they want, they will stop when they are full. make sure he always has water and pellets avaliable incase he gets peckish inbetween meals. as for meal times, offer some seed and fresh fruit and vegetables and let him eat all he wants. do not give too much seed though as it isn't very healty for them, encourage him to eat a good pellet diet, like harrisons or zupreem. what are you useing?

the grape juice soaked pellets are ok for a treat every now and then, but grapes are very sugary and have very little other nutritional value.

other than that, greens (like cale, spring greens/collard greens) are great, carrot, fleshy veggis like squash and sweet potato are very healthy. fruit is good but a lot is sugary so he needs his veggies too. also offer some "human" foods. hope this helps

[judygram]

Feed him whatever he will eat, put the pellets with the seeds and slowly increase the pellets and decrease the seeds to get him off a high seed diet. Soaking the pellets in juice is fine to get him to eat them, he needs to get at least 50% of his diet in pellets. Maybe try different brands of pellets, most of us here like Harrison's High Potency pellets.

 

Offer different vegetables and fruits, more veggies than fruit, in different ways, cooked, raw, mashed, slivered, chopped or whatever form you want to offer. There is a thread where it has the ones you should not feed to him, make sure you read that to know what not to offer.

[Snow]

This all helps! thank you so much! Boo's former mom told me he only like Kaytee pellets. But he sure doesn't eat much of them!

 

He's getting kale, celery, romaine, carrots, mixed seed, fresh from the garden string beans, and apple slices and a few other things.... of course not all at once.

 

I am trying to keep him a variety and keep his sugars down just as I did with my conures.

 

So I am doing it right then?

 

Thanks!

Snow

[Guest briansmum]

i meant to add, other juices than grape would be better, organic 100% natural apple, cranberry or pomegranit for example. these are just a bit more nutritional than grape. my grey loves to stick his beak in my glass when i have these.

[Guest briansmum]

thats sounds like a good diet (though i dont know what romaine is). do try and encourage him with the pellets and less seed though.

[judygram]

Beccy, romaine is a type of lettuce, more nutritious than iceberg.

 

Snow, what you are doing sounds fine to me.

[Guest briansmum]

ahh, thankyou Judy, i'll look for that then. i've never given him iceberg it's basically just water and i read somewhere they have trouble digesting it.

[Guest Lidia]

Snow, you certainly do sound like you're giving him all the right stuff. The more variety he gets in his food, the healthier he will be.

[Tricky]

I once stumbled upon a site with a food pyramid for parrots, went into great detail with everything, but I can't find it anymore! I'll continue to search and let you know if I find it...

 

And make sure celery is cut into small pieces! :cheer:

[CeasarsDad]

Snow.. when you talk eating and how much.. You need to also talk Scales and Weight..

 

Do you have a scale? and do you weigh your bird at least once every few days?

 

It's the weight that will tell you if he is eating enough..

 

I believe that when someone buys a bird.. Any bird.. The scale should come with the bird and cage..

[Snow]

oh! I do have a postal scale that measures down to ounces. How much should he weigh?

 

His appearance seems to be healthy. His feathers are in good condition and he has no unseemly habits such as plucking.

 

I will start weighing him and check back.

 

Thank you!

[CeasarsDad]

Actually you need the scale to go down to grams.. Not ounces..

 

It's not what he weighs now that's important it's any change in his weight you would be concerned about.. and it's 10% change.. It there is a 10% drop in weight you need to have him checked by a vet..

[Snow]

Thank you! I'll see if this nifty scale does grams. It might, I don't know.. we just use it for ebay and our website to figure shipping rates.

 

I appreciate the information everyone has been so generous in sharing!

 

Snow

[CeasarsDad]

If it doesn't you can use Ebay to get one.. I paid $19 for mine.. :P Brand new and in the box..

[Guest Monique]

Hi Snow! Sounds like you are doing great with your bird! In general pellets are accepted as a better base diet than seed. It can be difficult to convert a seed-loving bird to pellets sometimes - soaking in juice is one of the tricks to help do that.

 

We feed our birds their base food in the morning plus something fresh (fruit, pasta mix, veggies, etc.) which differs from day-to-day. Then for supper they get more of their base food again.

[Snow]

I appreciate everyone's help here. Boo is still not eating his pellets.

 

Oh.. an my scale does go down to grams! yay! Sister is going to weigh him tonight. He bites me.

 

Lately he has not been eating much. And I have learned that he is roosting in his feed dish. That means poo in his food.

so the first thing I have to do every morning is fight him for the dish. He bites me.

 

I am giving him a variety of foods as mentioned and he has begun throwing his food on the floor. He is only eating what I hand feed him (not much.. did I mention that he bites me?) and what my sister feeds him.

 

now what?

[judygram]

Snow, did you try soaking the pellets in some kind of juice, some of the members here have done that to get them to eat them.

 

I guess you will have to join Dan's "Bite Me Club", he has a thread on that and he recruits members and you just joined.:ohmy:

[Guest Lidia]

Hi Snow,

To avoid the biting, you might get him out of the cage before you deal with the food trays.

He'll also soon get bored roosting in them, as they are not really that comfortable for parrot feet!

B)

[blln314]

Malaki eats plenty of pellets but does not seem really interested in fruits and veggies. If I blend up veggies and meat and so on and feed him through a syringe he gobbles it up but if I just hand him a piece of fruit or veggie he won't eat it. He will take pellets by hand and eat them and also eat them on his own from his bowl.

 

He is still young and I think he will grow into it. Yesterday he ate at the table with us and ate some rice and some chicken and other stuff so I think he is coming along.