Call all small parrot owners! (Aww heck, calling any parrot owners!) ;)

[ParrotletLover]

Dear all,

Today, while cleaning the base of Lily's cage (actually, I turned the shower on and put the whole thing in there ), I started looking through my Great Companions magazine.

It got me thinking. I'm not really satisfied with Lily's diet anymore. Sure, she enjoys it and it isn't bad at all, I think I want her to have "more". I would like to know what everyone feeds their small parrots - commercial pellets and seeds, supplements, anything - whatever has worked well with you. I would like Lily to try as many different things as possible.

Also, if you purchase it online, I would appreciate a link to the online store.

And now a question that will probably be best answered by Nancy, Yehuda, Joel or Gary: When I brought Lily home February 4th, 2005, the pet store sent with Lafeber's Bird Vitamins. She had been on them while at the store.

I kept Lily on the vitamin (it goes in the water) until I found an appropriate pellet mixture. I read not to have a bird on pellets and vitamins. So that is my question - should I add these vitamin's back into Lily's diet, or should I keep them out while she is on pellets?

Lily eats a custom mix, by me, hehe. It consists of ZuPreem AvianMaintenance fruity pellets, Lafeber's pellets, Kaytee Fiesta mix and SunSeed mix. She also eats a vegetable each day, usually corn or peas or broccoli (she won't eat anything else). She also usually has something else, like well-cooked chicken, bread, millet and hulled millet seeds, etc. She also likes her "birdy salads" which consist of lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, and a handful of seeds on top.

Beaucoup de merci,

Blake

(Lots of thanks)

[felisdomesticus]

wow. I give my redhead a custom dry mix but she mostly eats the fresh foods that I give her. Of course she is a pig and a good eater so it isn't much of an issue to get her to eat varied foods.

Have you tried making birdie bread for her? The cornbread base tricks birds into eating good things! I have a cockatoo here who will only eat seeds and a few pellets. I gave her a piece of birdie bread containing raisins, zucchini, flax seeds, carrots, cabbage, fish oil, etc. and she ate the whole thing! Shocked the heck of out of me!!!

[basketbagley]

Blake,

All of my fids most favorite thing (besides millet) are sprouts! Nancy turned me onto them and a great site to get them and tells you how to grow them yourself and sells everything you need: www.sproutpeople.com
or try www.thesproutpeople.com.

They are organic and they even have a birdie mixture. one for sm, med & lg birds. Mine will fight over the sprouts! I do rinse them with GSE before feeding them incase any bacteria grows and I do small crops instead of large ones, that seems to help make sure there is no bacteria growing also.

I haven't given them this yet, but I plan on cutting a hard boiled egg in half (1 for each cage) they sell hard boiled egg holders and offering them eggs a couple of times a week.

Mine also love parsley and now cilantro! got the cilantro by mistake, thought it was the parsley, but they seemed to appreciate the new flavor and had a ball with it - it's also how Sunny takes her bath! her "herbal bath"! hee hee

I've been trying all sorts of new foods, some they eat some they don't - pasta, rice, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, squash, etc.... of course they love carrots, it's a staple for them along with apples.

Just don't give up on a food if she doesn't eat it right away, keep trying, eventually she'll try it. Mine will if they see me eating it too!

Oh, I also buy mini bagels in bulk, they just love ripping them to shreds! as well as toast! - but forgo the jelly and butter!

[felisdomesticus]

I do give the redhead half of a hard-boiled egg (with shell) every other day now that she is molting. She loves them!

She does also love sprouted beans, tomatoes, fresh baby zucchini/yellow squash out of the garden, cucumbers, basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, and especially the jalepenos I have been growing. She eats blueberries, strawberries, apples, aloe, banana, pineapple, papaya, etc. She also loves fresh corn, peppers, beans, rice, pasta, granola, cottage cheese, and vanilla yogurt. Did I leave any edible food out? hehehe I even give her half a Frito scoop every other week or so and she is in HEAVEN!

I know that eclectus are easy eaters who love pretty much everything. But there are tons of things that are safe to feed birds--it's just expensive and time consuming to find out the things they like and prepare them all.

[Joel]

Blake....I bought vitamins in the past a lot but hardly ever used them & wound up just throwing them away after they expired. I guess I just never really believed in them all that much, nor do I in human vitamins all that much. I use a good seed mix (non-vitamin coated) and some occassional Z-PELLETS (Fruit Blend) and fresh veggies when I can get them at a fair price (otherwise frozen). I use a good quality no preservative bread and no salt crackers, scrambled & boiled eggs, occassional chicken & very lean meat, fresh fruits, cuttlebone & that's about it.......

[ParrotletLover]

Thanks for the suggestions felisdomesticus (sorry I forgot your name!), Tracey and Joel!

I have tried lots of things with Lily, too - including hardboiled egg, apples, bananas, etc. She is just so tiny, she doesn't care for anything much bigger than her, LOL. And it is very difficult to cut something so small!

I'll look up the sprouts straight away, Tracey. I don't know if Lilian will eat them, but it's worth a try.

I have tried the birdie bread but realized I bought the wrong kind (it was sour apple flavored) so I ate it instead. I'll have to write that down, too.

I'll try the other fruits and vegetables, too. I'm trying to think of the ones she'll be most likely to eat, lol.. and how to get them very tiny. There is a great fruit store in New Buffalo, Michigan, and they always have a lot of things. The next time I get the chance I'll get the things you guys suggested.

Any ideas on how to prepare these things?

[Joel]

What a comic you are Blake - LOL ......Tell me again how difficult it is to cut up a piece of apple or bananna . You aren't giving her a whole one of either are ya or a whole boiled egg .......

To answer your question, I rinse most everything very well under cool running water and feed raw. I remove seeds & skins from fruits. Not hard at all.

Fresh uncooked corn on cob is also well liked by my guys & gals. Good luck.

[ParrotletLover]

Originally Posted by Joel

What a comic you are Blake - LOL ......Tell me again how difficult it is to cut up a piece of apple or bananna . You aren't giving her a whole one of either are ya or a whole boiled egg .......

To answer your question, I rinse most everything very well under cool running water and feed raw. I remove seeds & skins from fruits. Not hard at all.

Fresh uncooked corn on cob is also well liked by my guys & gals. Good luck.

LOL Joel!

Lily wants her food very thin and very tiny, in small little pieces. I just cannot seem to get them small enough. I could just smash a banana with a spoon , but I just cannot get anything else small enough! hehe

My mom made the egg, seeing as I would probably burn the house down. I think I could figure that out, though.

Thanks - I need all the luck I can get!

[The Outlaw]

Blake:

I would not add vitamins to any bird's water. If you are feeding a good diet, they aren't necessary.

As for fresh foods, try running them through a food processor until they are coarse grated. You might want to try a bit of apple, carrot and broccoli together. You may try spreading some baby food (Nature's Harvest? on some whole grained bread, too.

Lily is so tiny that you'll really have to keep things on the small side. In fact, since I have no small birds, I'm not the one to really ask. My smallest bird is a quaker and she eats the same thing my other parrots eat, only in small sizes and smaller amounts.


Do you make any birdie breads? They can really be wonderful to have on hand. YOu can sneak all kinds of healthy foods in them including eggs, veggies, tofu, etc. I usually make up a basic cornbread recipe (omit the salt) and just start adding stuff. I can add fresh corn, chopped peppers, cilantro, eggs and shells, and a bit of honey. Its the only time I offer honey to my fids, because its baked and whatever bacteria may reside in honey is killed then.

[basketbagley]

Blake, the sprout people also have seeds and supplies that you can grow your own grasses for them to eat! these are suppose to be soo healthy that people actually extract the juice from them and drink it! I've just bought the supplies so I can leave fresh grass in their cages at all time!

I'll let you know ho it goes!

Yes, a mini food processor(if you don't have one) is a wonderful time saver! it took Nancy to clue me in too! I make what I call birdie salsa with all the veggies and fruit! I make enough to last a few days.

and with the small birds, it seems like you throw most away! but they do eat some!

Good Luck!