How often do your feed your fids??? and what ??

[Majj]

Mine are like me graze all day .... :blush:

They get Pellets on supply all the time and are usually munching on it for a couple of hours before I get them out for breakfast of a slice of apple and a spoon of porridge with me.. :rolleyes:
Then at 10am when they go back into the bird room they get fresh veggies chopped up bean sprouts/baby corn/carrot/broccolini or what ever I have , plus they have pellets in their open cages...
At 2pm when I get them out of the room to watch Oprah with me I give them a cashew nut and a baby fig each while I have yogurt and fruit and a pot of green tea...and they also get a taste of the yogurt and some fruit if I am having anything nice like Mango or strawberries or grapes.. :shrug: ..
Then at 4.30pm there abouts they get put into their cage with the sweet potato balls and brown rice& cooked veggie dish (or eggs or pasta) where they stay while I cook our dinner and we eat ..they come out for cuddles and a play for about an hour while I clean up their cages and replace their water etc , they enjoy some time with David and Joe sometimes they continue to eat their veggies or and pellets sometimes they just want to snuggle....

Our life is so boring and predictable .... :rolleyes: :shrug:

[Jean]

MAjj, you and I are fortunate enough to attend to them throughout the day. My schedule is a lot like yours. Elvie is fed and re fed through the day.... He usually spends all day out of his cage and often eats from the bowls on his playtop. I guess, it's a picnic for him. Some days I have a little pig.:rotflmao:

It has to be different for those that work away from their fids. They have to feed a good meal before leaving for work. Then usually a good pellet mix while at work to prevent spoiled foods. Then a good meal upon arriving home and maybe a good snack or treat.

[Islandzoo]

Bob and Basil have pellets all day (well, Bob does, Basil throws hers out silly girl!)
then in the morning they get a bowl of fresh veggies.
They get bits of our dinner like potato and peas, with occasional cooked beans and rice tho they don't seem to like rice much
i used to have a bag of nutri berries which they loved, as occasional treats too but sadly theyre not avialable in this country at the moment :( apparantly due to import/ export laws of food or something??

[birdnerd]

They all have pellets all day. From time to time, I chuck a millet spray in with the little ones, and Johnny gets food from the table ... if it's birdie safe.

[Shirley]

We no longer feed pellets, but would if I weren't able to make food for them. This is vet-advised, btw.

Breakfast, Supper, and 9:00 at night dry foods.

And then inbetween meal healthy snacks. I'm home during the day, too.

Breakfast is at 9:30 a.m. or so.

They have dry food in their sleep cages, so they wake up to munchies and fresh water.

[SadennaAndFlock]

My birds have a pellets available at all times, fresh food when I get home from work...

[harleybaby]

I normally feed Pamela Clarks layered salad which they all seem to really like but these last couple of months have been a little crazy for me. So I started feeding Beak Apettit with vegetables added in the meantime. They also get whatever I am eating throughout the day, breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks(nuts, nutriberries, fruit etc.). Then their oatmeal at night with me. I'm also going to add Majj's sweet potato puffs as part of their daily diet, I think it would be a great addition to the layered salad. If anyone is interested in the recipe::)

http://www.featherpicking.com/Layered_Salad.htm

[Islandzoo]

Mine are so fussy, it's incredible anything new they won't touch.
Basil basically likes - Potato, peas, carrot, (cheese, chicken, biscuits - anything she's not meant to have!!) Sunflower seeds, bit of cabbage, sweetcorn. that's IT Oh and she loves baked beans, and kumquats
we give her a variety of things, veggies and such, rice and pasta, but she rarely eats it. Think she likes pasta but not sure if ok to give too often? anyway, she gets selection of veggies each day, most remains uneaten.

[SadennaAndFlock]

pasta is fine no real nutrional value in it but they can have it..chicken is also ok to as long as it is fully cooked and no salt, pepper or other salty seasonings. try running veggies through a food chopper and very finely dice them up into small tiny itty bitty pieces thats what I had to do with all my birds to keep them from tossing out what they liked and what they didn't like when I am done the veggies almost remind of salsa style consistancy lots of colors jumbled up, every tried peppers my birds love bell peppers and jalapeno peppers and they are very good for them to lots of vitamin A

[Islandzoo]

Thanks I might try that!
They hate peppers, tried that one!

[vmtwriter]

Bailey gets Kaytee Exact Rainbow for Conures/Parrots. I give him a fresh dish of it each morning and he munches throughout the day. He picks out the red ones first then eats the yellow ones. I haven't seen him eat too many green ones.

I've tried giving him every fruit you can imagine and even veggies, and he turns up his beak at them. Of course, these have all been raw. I haven't tried giving him cooked fruits or veggies. Oh, and he doesn't like raisins either.

He'll eat yogurt from a spoon, loves the strawberry flavored one the best.

He likes seeds he can crack open and eat. His favorite is sunflower seeds. He's not into anything else. He HATES pinenuts.

I stay home with him and he sits in my office and chatters while I work. He loves to "bark" and will even entice Jack into barking so the two of them can get going and make lots of noise.

[Shirley]

If you feed Jack a lot less of the pellets, he'll start trying the other things more, most likely. We don't cook any of their veggies except sweet potatoes, unless it's what we're having for dinner anyway and it's cooked and they want it.

When we were feeding pellets, they got a tbsp a day, and when they ran out, they got more at night so it was there in the a.m.

We never push hard on the fruit.

Easy on the nuts...some are fattening

Sunflower seeds are fattening... (fatty liver disease, not just a scales / weight thing) I'm no expert in this area... though.

some like chunky veggies, some like them cut up fine.

[NHMarie]

I'm at home as well. I wake the flock up at 7:30am. They get their sprouts mixed with greens or veggies then, or if I've forgotten to sprout, a little unsweetened cereal. I remove their seed dishes at this time. An hour or so later, they come out to their playgyms. This is when I clean the cages and give them their seed mix. No pellets here anymore. My tiel is now eating Goldenfeasts basic tiel mix, my macaw gets Goldenfeast Schmitts Original fruit & nut. My cockatoo and conure get Avian Naturals allergy mix. Around 3pm, they get their big meal of the day: bird bread, my own mix, bird muffins, crazy corn/beak appetit mix, Gonzos birdcakes if I have any or stuff like that, with fruits and veggies

[Jean]

This morning Elvie had a boiled egg and cooked broccoli mix and ate it all like a little pig. Then he had a good lunch of brown and green beans, broccoli, peas and chopped cashews,

[Shirley]

Marie, sounds like you and I feed fairly similarly... ours love the Goldenfeast and it seems to have a lot of what they need AND what they like. Our vet approves the ingredients list and natural part of it, too,

BUT this is not a Goldenfeast ad.

I'm wondering this...

what brought you and your birds away from pellets? For us, it was much discussion with Skyler during his feather plucking ordeal (yes, with Skyler), with Katy McElroy of Hornbeam Aviaries, and our Avian vet. At first, only Skyler was taken off pellets. I think they (the birds) discussed this while we weren't around, b/c it wasn't long and they all started to boycott them and the LOVED Skyler's new diet... and what can be more nutritious than a sprouted organic seed/plant???

So... what's your story...??

Katy, by the way, does have her hubby feed pellets when she's away for conferences, etc. That way, all bases are covered if he's not getting all the veggies chopped, etc.

[morgavin]

Here is an example of my Yellow Naped's menu. She always has fresh seed mix available. Todays breakfast avacado. fresh white corn, zucini (spl), fresh snow peas, couple red grapes, fresh green beans. Later she will be offered a little hard boiled egg, small slice of orange. Dinner is what ever I'm having. Probably BBQ Chinken, mashed taters, salad with sprouts.

[harleybaby]

Neil, Please be careful feeding Pepper avacados. They are on the toxic list for birds and are considered highly toxic to feed. How often have you fed him this? Please watch him carefully and here's a link about it:


http://www.birdvet.co.uk/avocado.html

I don't want to scare you but thought you should know if you didn't already.

Here's a link to another forum that this woman says shes been feeding them to her birds

http://www.mytoos.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000489

I'm sure you could find a lot more about this on the net but I wouldn't feel right not telling you.

[Shirley]

Leah's right... avocado and chocolate... quite toxic.

Thanks Leah, and you deserved a break Neil and got it! :) So now you know.

[morgavin]

Actually its a good thing I posted today as it is the very first time I have put any in her dish. I read the post and immediately remove it from her dish. I feed a large variety so there isn't a whole lot of any one thing. The two little pieces of a small slice were still in the dish. Whew.....:thanx: VM!!!
I would never think of feeding chocolate. Most of what she gets is fresh veggies with a little fruit. It makes me concerned that my ignorance could have possibly hurt my little girl. We have been making such good progress and I'm trying so hard to do the right things for her. :thanx: again for educating me to the hazard.

[Jean]

Neil, they are correct about NO avocados, chocolate you can add onions to that list.

[birdnerd]

Onions, really?

Wow. It's not like a feed Johnny scads of onions, but it's been in stuff he's eaten before.

*shudder*

[Shirley]

Right, Onions are on the "no" and "limited" list, but not nearly as dangerous as avocado, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine...

There's more to the reasons with onions, and I'd have to find the source and post it.

[morgavin]

Who in the world would ever give their pet alcohol. That would be worse than giving a two year old hard liquor. I got a list from the vet (apparently limited) as to what not to feed. It was three pages long, but apparently not long enough. The avacado and onion were not on the "DO NOT FEED" list. I'm very greatful for the information and reference links I find here. I don't always post but read almost every one here every day. This seem to be a forum where all are considered "friends" and I'm sure it's from the common bond of :heart: and caring for our "children".:thanx: Bill for starting it and :thanx: all the admins, mods, and members. My friend and I have a deep gratitude for everyone here.

[SadennaAndFlock]

you would be surprised of how many stories i have heard of people giving their bird alcohol or blowing marijuana smoke in their birds face..it's plain stupidity I know someone who went to a Jimmy buffet concert and saw someone there with a macaw on the their shoulder and was letting their macaw drink their beer..it's plain stupidity but it happens...

[birdnerd]

Some folks think it's funny to see their bird/pet wobbling around. Sheer cruelty.

[Shirley]

Ditto what Sadenna and Birdnerd said. They think it's "cute". Or they are too "high" themselves, and they are " anthropromorphizing (ok, my big word for the day) their pet and later in a normal state of mind, might not do it. These types of mentalities do this with their toddlers sometimes... a sip of liquor or wine, a little pot blown in their faces, and later, as Dr. Phil would say, "What were you THINKING??!?!!?!!"

[Islandzoo]

Some people are so sick aren't they!!!
We had a horrid accident once with Basil - we were outside one evening, with our drinks (beer) on the table outside, well trevor came out with basil. and she jumped on the table. we didnt think about the drinks but she went straight over and went to take a sip of a glass of beer - we were mortified!!! I think the smell/ taste put her off ( you know how they taste a little with their tongue first???) I just ran over and grabbed the glass. she didn't seem any the worse for wear but now we keep our drinks WELL AWAY from Basil.

[Jean]

I have read that cooked onions in small amounts are not as toxin to birds as fresh onions. I have not seen any scientific studies to validate this. If you are unsure and in doubt you may care to contact the ASPCA Poison control center and ask to verify their statistics. 1-800-345-4735

[birdnerd]

Yikes.

Well, Gooberhead just won't get any onions. :O

[Islandzoo]

Trevor used to get spring onions for Basil but I told him to stop after people saying about it being a dodgy one.

[parrotgirl]

Bucc eats once a day, from the time he gets up til the time he goes to bed. LOL

I am at home all day so am lucky to be able to feed him during the day
Breakfast Fresh Fruit
Lunch Yoghurt
Dinner Rice/pasta/mashed potato/jacket potato/fresh veggies or some of whatever we are eating if its bird safe.

He also has his food on tap in his cage which he will eat during the day. Just before bed he will have some of my fruit juice. And if he can get away with it he will grab anything else that's going.

[Greyman]

[QUOTE=vmtwriter]Bailey gets Kaytee Exact Rainbow for Conures/Parrots. I give him a fresh dish of it each morning and he munches throughout the day. He picks out the red ones first then eats the yellow ones. I haven't seen him eat too many green ones.

I've tried giving him every fruit you can imagine and even veggies, and he turns up his beak at them. Of course, these have all been raw. I haven't tried giving him cooked fruits or veggies. Oh, and he doesn't like raisins either.

Theres a neat little device available to encourage finicky eaters to eat their fruits and veggies, its a food skewer called a bird ka-bob with a quick link, you push chunks of fruits and veggies on it, hang it from their cage, and the bird thinks its a toy, I've gotten many "fussy" birds to broaden their diets with this, works really well. Greyman

[vmtwriter]

Interesting concept. I almost got Bailey interested in some pineapple the other day. He tasted it twice before he turned up his beak.

I'l look for a skewer and see if I can tempt him. Thanks.

[Jim]

Good suggestion Greyman. We have a couple bird ka-bobs, I like them. Another thing to think about for picky eaters, for all birds really, is a simple from of food management. We humans tend to put out the buffet everyday. They eat what they like but that isn't always what they need. No different than our kids or us for that matter. If they have the buffet 24/7 most likely they'll eat the taste good stuff. I have seen my birds and others that are feed a well balanced mix only eat part of what is in it -- the part they like. How well balanced of a diet is this if we give so much they can fill up on the stuff they like and not eat everything? Sells a lot of "Balanced Mix" -- that we throw at least 1/2 away -- but I'm not convinced it's all that great for the birds when we feed so much they only eat what they like. Over feeding, although it may make us feel good, where they eat mainly the "goodies" is not healthy for them.

Anyway I feed the best diet I can devise and try not to let them fill up on the things they like best. Also when using a simple food management program you can determine if they are eating healthy. They learn to fill their crop, which by the way is natural and healthy. Good healthy eating habits makes a well behaved and happy bird. There really isn't a need to throw away all that wasted food everyday. I'm not rich and if I was it's not necessary.

Sorry I got a little long here but I think diet and how we present the food is important for our birds.

[parrotgirl]

Some good points there Jim, I used to fill the bowl to the top, then I found out what he liked and was putting MORE of that in and less of everything else. Big Mistake, now I put a little of what he likes in but more of the food he used to ignore, now he gets a well balance diet, he's happy I'm happy and as the bowl is no longer filled to the brink not as much waste. Good news all round.