No luck with Kitchen Sink recipe!

[svolk]

I was so sure they would go for this, it's so colorful and bite-size. I've spent more time cooking this than I do most of OUR dinners! It came out great, looks just like Lissa's pictures that she posted. Do ya think they liked or even TRIED it?! NOPE. Jerry was slightly interested at first and touched his tongue to it but no real bites. Lulu doesn't want anything to do with it, I put it in one of her dishes, I spread it out on a flat surface - she walked right over it with no notice of it. I let them watch me eat it - and it is good! - still nothing.

Geez, I'm running out of ideas with these fids of mine..

[felisdomesticus]

keep trying! give it to them for several days. Sometimes they just need some time to look at it, check it out, and eventually try it.

[jimpierce7]

I felt the same disappoinment when I gave my fids a berry mix. Zoey squacked and ran from it and Sophie ignored it completely.......I guess they don't warm up to new foods too well.

[svolk]

I have a lot of it so I will keep trying it. I have gotten them to eat birdie bread, peanuts, and Cheerios, but no veggies yet. Oh and Lulu ate some scrambled eggs the other day.

Try try again.

[greyburd]

I'm sure they'll come around. They just need to realize how tasty it is. Once that happens, you'll probably need to make more!! When I start feeding something new to Spencer, it usually takes a couple of days before he actually tries it. Give it time!

[The Outlaw]

Here's the problem with introducing any new foods to birds: nothing we feed from our environment is natural in their native environment. The closest we get is probably seed and nuts, but that's not enough to keep birds healthy over time.

So, we try to adapt their diet using fruits and veggies that most closely resemble native plants. I doubt, for example, that parrots routinely dig up sweet potatoes. However, they are one of the most nutritious and tasty of the readily available veggies we have.

Just like teaching human children what is actually food, we have to do the same thing with our birds. And, just like toddlers, we have to be sneaky and creative about how we do it.

If I had tiny birds like tiels and budgies, I'd run all of their veggies and fruits, etc, through a food processor and just coarsely grind them up. The smaller the pieces the more likely they are to pick them up. And, by using REAL natural foods, you don't have to worry about food dyes. The foods are colorful enough.

Just keep offering the good stuff and hold off on seed until bedtime. Then, offer only enough for a snack. They won't starve to death, but they'll be more hungry in the morning. My quaker loves his sink recipe probably more than any other bird here. He gets very excited. I boarded another little quaker for the last two weeks, and my Tilde is much larger and much brighter in color. And, he doesn't have anything overgrown. The boarding quaker has pretty much been fed cockatiel seed mix, millet sprays and pumpkin seeds. He happily chowed down on the same stuff I fed my birds and seemed very happy to see his crock arrive with the goodies. In fact, I sent the bird home with a few days supply.

You will have fewer fatty tumors, the feathers will be brighter and less dry and you'll have happy birds once they understand that its food.

[Jackie C]

Outlaw - you seem to know a lot about feeding birds and I have a big problem with my new baby sun conure, Peety. All of the birds I've had up to now eat mostly KayTee fortidiet. I also have zupreem available for them most of the time and they nibble at it but don't eat a lot of it. Peety is just the opposite. He/she eats primarily zupreem and just picks at the seeds now and then.

The problem is the poop. I clean up after the other birds with a baby wipe and I've never had a stain I couldn't take care of, but the conure poop sometimes leaves big redish-amber stains that won't come out. To let him out of the cage I have to cover my upholstered furniture with old blankets and shut all the bedroom doors, and I have to wear an old shirt. Do you think it's the zupreem? I read the back of the bag and it seems to contain mostly food and vitamins but it does say 'natural and artificial colors'. I guess they are safe or they wouldn't use them, but I wish they would tell me what it is.

Anyway, I'm concerned that maybe he isn't digesting his food well. Does anyone else have this problem with zupreem?

He's active and healthy, and has been weaned for about 10 days.

[Monica]

If the food has any dyes in it, and a bird eats a lot of a certain color, then that's going to be the color of the poops.

[puffinp]

Just a wings up from Puff too get your day off ! My mother-in -law took my camera so I can't post pic for a while. Bite , bite, ... What's one to do?

[The Outlaw]

We know that many species of parrot are sensitive to food colorings. If you must feed a pellet (I'm not a fan) then its probably better to feed a natural one. However, many birds simply won't eat natural pellets. They LIKE the colors. Birds have more cones in their eyes and see many more colors than we can with ours. Consequently, they are naturally attracted to colors. Think about it: the colored pellets don't TASTE any different. They are simply colored differently. This isn't Fruit Loops where the orange taste like oranges, the green like limes. Its the same pellet with different dyes, that's all.

Most parrots do very well on a totally fresh, carefully balanced diet. That having been said, I know the majority of bird owners panic at the thought of missing something essential. So, I give up (LOL). Just keep it in perspective. Feed 25% pellets and the rest fresh foods and seed mixes.

Sometimes you have to be very creative about presentation. I suggest that you invest in a heavy hobby needle (for pulling yarn, metal please) and try stringing some cut veggies on dental floss across the cage like a clothesline. Try offering small chunks of carrots, broccoli, baby spinach, peppers, whatever you have handy. You can add a little apple, pear, a section of orange, a grape. Give the bird some options. You can also take a simple spring clip clothespin and clip fresh parsley, cilantro or other fresh herbs to the sides of the cage. Tracy has a parakeet that routinely "showers" in freshly rinsed parsley. Its really cute. Make feeding fun. Let the bird "work" for its dinner. That's what they do for a living in the wild.