Am I feeding them correctly?

[kristy29]

I spend a great deal of time making sure my birds are eating right, so I want to ask all your opinions on how I'm doing.

Firs thing in the morning, I feed them a veggie/bean/brown rice mash. The latest one has a 16 bean mix, brown rice, broccoli, mustard greens, some hot pepper, a bell pepper, carrots, and yellow squash, and sometimes I add in other foods such as this morning they got some mango and sweet potato. I also give them fresh water at this time.

About 4 hours after I put the mash in the cage, I take it out (they don't eat it right away so I need to leave it in for them to eat some). I then give them their bowl of goldenfeast (a mixture of Gardenflora II, treat petite, and a dry fruit one I don't remember the name of) that has no seed, and I mix in a scoop of zupreem cockatiel pellets. Sometimes at this time I will also give them birdie bread or different treats such as avicakes, toast, egg biscuit, etc.

At around 6 pm, I give them each one small scoop of a seed mix that also has some dried fruits and veggies mixed in. When they go to bed, I take the seeds out, because I have found this encourages them to eat the mash in the morning. Sometimes I leave the goldenfeast in the cage overnight, sometimes I don't.

So mostly, they are getting nutritious food, with the fresh food and the goldenfeast, and only a very small amount of seeds for dinner. I see this as a treat, and not as their food. But I know that parakeets eat a lot of seeds, so am I depriving them by not giving them more seeds? I also almost never give them millet, except if I am leaving them overnight, or as in the case of Paulie, when I am trying to tame him. I also give the keets a cuttlebone about once a month since Meadow seems to like it (Skye doesn't bother with it).

Am I doing it right?

[catschair]

Wow! My birs want to come live with you.......

[stepht25]

Sounds good! The only thing I might worry about is leaving the mash in their cage for 4 hours. I've always heard it's best to only leave things like that in a cage for 2 hours - maybe 3 hours max. Hopefully someone who knows for sure will come along and tell us!

[jimpierce7]

as for how long to leave the mash in the cage will depend a lot on the climate. I leave the mash in most the day with no problems. With Cricket it only lasts a couple hours before its eaten or tossed to the floor. Benji picks threw it. I keep it separate from the rest of the food though. It sounds to me like you are doing a great job feeding them!!!

[Valo's Moirana]

Originally Posted by jimpierce7

as for how long to leave the mash in the cage will depend a lot on the climate. I leave the mash in most the day with no problems. With Cricket it only lasts a couple hours before its eaten or tossed to the floor. Benji picks threw it. I keep it separate from the rest of the food though. It sounds to me like you are doing a great job feeding them!!!

agreed to 100%... the air is so dry here, that all that happens to beans and such, is that they dry out

think your feeding strategy is great - only thing you could try is to feed them some fresh veggies seperately at some point in the day... i found that with my guys, they pick out the peas and corn from the mix and leave a good part of the veggies untouched - if i give them almost exclusively fresh veggies when they are hungry, they are more likely to eat them

[kristy29]

Yeah, right now it is cold and dry here, so I think the mash is fine. When I take it out, sometimes I smell it, and it never smells bad. A couple of times I have even forgotten to take it out before going to school, and when I came back, it still didn't smell bad. But I do try to keep it in for a max of 4 hours.

Thanks for the responses. I am glad I am doing good. :)

[jimpierce7]

quite often my two bigger fids won't even eat the mash until late in the afternoon, early evening.

[2horse]

You are doing well. I think you could add fresh veggie or fruit stuck in the bars. It gives them something to do. Small birds don't use feet to pick up stuff. I make mash with only peas and corn and give fresh separately but that is just my choice, your mix is good.

[kristy29]

Sometimes I do give them some whole stuff stuck in a clothespin. Paulie likes organic strawberries, and the budgies like veggies. They do eat a lot of their mash though, especially when I limit their seeds.

[ROYJOY]

Your birds should live a long time on such a variety.