Best Diet?

[tbird]

Sunny is six months old and on a seed diet I do give him different types of fresh vegetables and fresh fruits as well. I hear a lot about pellets (Harrison's) is this better. My sister's Grey is on a seed diet and he is 8 years old the bird looks great. What is your opinion?

[Jayd]

Seed by themselves don't make a complete diet, their lacking complete nutrition need by our Fids. Seed/pellet's [ Harrision's, Zupreem Natural] with complements of certain fresh veggies, a little fruit, extra hard boiled egg and shell 2 times a week plus legumes, brown rice, pasta, white meat chicken[2 times a week] will insure a healthy baby.. If your sisters bird had a complete blood test,you'd find out how much she's lacking...They also need daily sun, or a UVB Full spectrum indoor light 4-8 hours a day...Jayd

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?190462-We-Feed-Our-Fid-s!!!-Update

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?112983-Nutrition-Diet

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?190301-What-to-feed-Jack

Edited August 29, 2010 by Jayd

[Guest jamalbirdbiz]

u mite wants to check on other post. i gave my advices there.

[danmcq]

Ok, first to correct a little of what Jamal said. Your parrot will not starve itself and secondly you don't just feed a bird what "It Likes". They are like a child. If you place a bowl full of cookies and a bowl full of spaghetti in front of them, they will of course eat the cookies.

 

With that said, I will now continue with a correct answer to your question on my "Opinion". I believe the mad craze of a parrot, dog, cat etc. should all be on pellet diets because they are specifically formulated with all the correct amounts of proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. They entire pet industry pushes them as if your pet will die or suffer from malnutrition if the are not on their "Special" pellets. This is first of all grass root all about money to the manufacturer, the middle man and finally the retailers marked up price and profit.

 

Now I am NOT saying anything is wrong with pellets, but they are not the "Total" solution. A bird or any critter for that matter should always have fresh seeds, nuts, veggies, a little fruit, some legumes, grains, complex carbohydrates, all the "Omegas" etc. It is all about balance and moderation of each. I offer pellets and always have since I brought my grey home at 15 weeks of age. Most the time I toss them as he just may nibble on one or two and the rest get tossed.

 

A high quality seed\nut mixture along with tons of veggies, legumes, grains etc. will provide an optimum diet. The only other factor you cannot get from the food diet is sunlight. They must have a full spectrum light source from either daily outside time or avian lighting that includes the uva and uvb components which leads to vitamin D3 production in their body just like humans. Vitamin D3 is necessary for the absorption of calcium and critical to many organs in the body and it's immune system.

 

Just make wise choices and feed the proper quantities of each to accomplish a well rounded diet. The food room is the best place to explore all the various food groups many of our members provide to their parrots.

[pearllyn]

Jade and Dan's advice is spot on - variety is the key.

 

Jamal, it sounds as though you could do with taking Dan's advice too. Alfie would eat wotsits all day every day if I allowed her, and on a diet like that I doubt she'd last a year. You really should be feeding your babies a well balanced diet.

Tbird (love the name btw) as well as trying different fresh foods for sunny, you should try two or 3 different pellet brands to see which he prefers, I tried Alfie on the Harrisons for a year or so - she just didn't like it. We use the zupreem natural now and are getting on much better. Also, if he refuses a certain food, do keep offering it to him periodically - there are certain foods, bananas for example, that ALfie just would not touch, but I kept offering them every so often, and now she will eat them readilly - their tastes change just as ours do, so don't give up too quickly on a food that is nutritious.

Edited August 29, 2010 by danmcq

[judygram]

I have to agree with Dan and Lyn, you cannot just let your bird eat what it wants and to do so is irresponsible, in the wild yes they eat what they find but they don't find cookies and other junk foods, they find lots of fresh things to eat and just like children we have to guide them to healthier choices, you wouldn't allow your human child to only eat junk food if that is the only thing they would eat if given the choice, its up to us as caregivers to provide the healthy choices for their nutritional needs.

[tbird]

I want to thank you for your help . The name TBird came from a friend of mine many years ago and him not knowing I became a breeder of cockatiels so I kept using the name even for the business. I stopped breading and wanted one bird (african grey) did not know anything of a parrot. I want to thank God for this web site....

[pearllyn]

Thanks for the name explanation - I know the T-birds from the film Grease - big fan! This is a fantastic forum and will be very helpful to you over the coming months.

[Jayd]

Thank you for being here!!!!!!

[rawleyd]

You should look into Mike's manna mash..

this week I will be trying my hand at making a variation of the recipe, Shanlung's own Tinkerbell mash.

very healthy and a large batch should last quite a while in the freezer.

 

a quick google "shanlung tinkerbell mash" will show you what I'm trying out.

 

good luck =>

[Guest]

Just wanted to add to this thread, in that I recently successfully have gotten both my fids munching happily on their greens and wanted to share how I did it.

 

Both my fids are rescues, and both came from not-so-great situations and certainly were not eating the proper diet. They ate only seeds, tons of peanuts, and had access to ZuPreem (which was largely ignored). I offered fresh veg and fruit from day one and I may as well have been offering hunks of concrete and globs of tar - the veg and fruit were totally ignored, even glared at as if to say "What the heck is THAT doing in my food dish??"

 

Anyway, along with trying all the usual tricks - eating the foods in front of my fids and acting as if it is the most delicious item in the world, cutting the foods into different shapes and sizes (one bird won't touch green beans unless they are cut into 1/8" dice, and the other won't touch them if they ARE cut up), and the like, I did one thing which I believe was the trick that led to success.

 

I make a small container at a time (enough for 2-3 days at most) of a mix of kale, green peas, green beans, flax seed, asparagus, peaches, bananas, and brown rice spaghetti. Both birds love peaches and bananas and brown rice spaghetti (which I just break up raw and mix in with the veg and fruit mix). But neither was enthusiastic about green peas, green beans, asparagus, flax seeds, and most certainly, kale. So what I did was MINCE the kale, and small dice everything else.

 

In the beginning, I made the proportion of peach and banana and brown rice spaghetti to the green vegs bigger. In other words, there was lots of the sweet stuff and less of the green stuff. As each day went by, I lessened the amount of sweet stuff. The trick is, if you MINCE the kale, and small dice everything else, the juices from the sweet stuff mixes onto the green items and makes them tasty. This teaches the birds that they do indeed quite enjoy green peas and asparagus and kale and green beans and so on, even though they at first thought they didn't like these foods.

 

I hope this is helpful to someone out there. Many of my friends and clients who have birds long ago gave up on their birds eating green veg and it is a shame because if my two are now enthusiastic greens munchers, then I wholeheartedly believe anyone's birds can become that as well.